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how many people there are in New York, there will definitely be hiccups along the way, and I'm certainly not looking forward to fighting for bandwidth with everyone else in the city.Sting will work just one WWE match, with the idea of it being against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31, reports the Wrestling Observer. Sting is in fact already studying Undertaker tapes in oder to prepare himself for the match, which could be set up at this years WrestleMania or the next night on Raw. The plans could be even held off until closer to the time, although with Sting in the WrestleMania area for the WrestleCon event next weekend, there's certainly a suspicion he might also be in town to make his WWE debut. The concrete confirmation of Sting signing isn't even set in stone yet, but internally it has been accepted for months as guaranteed. Given Sting's private nature and WWE's efforts, they could easily be managing to keep a fair bit of information under wraps right now. The idea that he only works one WWE match would make his involvement feel even more special. Sting Vs Undertaker is certainly an exciting proposition for WrestleMania 31 in Santa Clara next year, although in reality it faces several dilemmas. Firstly, what kind of shape will the then 56 year old Sting be in he doesn't work a match between now and next Spring? Secondly, the outcome of a Sting vs Undertaker match is painfully predictable, hence the drama is significantly reduced. We all know Undertaker wins that match. There's no way a part time former WCW star comes in for one match and ends Undertaker's 22 year legacy. Still, whatever WWE decides to do with Sting, it'll be great to see this icon of the industry finally on the big stage he deserves.Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Schools assess pupils regularly during their time there
As teachers file away SPAG practice papers in a box labelled "waste of time", there will be a sense of frustration and schadenfreude in primary schools.
The introduction of compulsory national spelling, grammar and punctuation tests for six and seven-year-olds was met with cries of "really?" from many Key Stage 1 teachers.
Many complained, through their unions, that it was not the best idea to introduce the technical language of grammar to children who were still learning to read.
Others may have spent time explaining to parents why they were being pestered with questions about adverbs.
And if teaching unions are to be believed, many teachers have simply felt unable to cope with the amount of change going on simultaneously in primary schools.
Too much, too soon, too quickly, they chorused to deaf ears.
'Trickling out'
This has been the war cry of teaching union leaders since the early days of the administration of Michael Gove - a man who prided himself on being in a hurry.
Following the introduction of a new primary national curriculum in 2014-15, Year 2 and Year 6 children are to be tested on their knowledge of it this May.
A new set of Sats (standard assessment tests) was devised to measure progress and hold schools to account, but many of the materials associated with them have not been readily available to schools.
For example, it was not until February that writing materials were published for primary school reading assessments, sparking concerns that civil servants were struggling to keep up.
Teachers were clamouring for information just to find out at what standard they should be trying to achieve.
James Bowen, former head teacher at Mill Rythe Junior School in Hampshire, said: "We didn't start the year knowing what we were aiming for.
"In previous years we have had past papers to go on. We have known what the criteria is and how it is going to be used to assess the children.
"This year it's all been trickling out gradually.
"Then when it did come in, the standard was a lot higher than what was actually promised."
Breathing space
Then in early March, the dynamics began to shift.
A dialogue between Schools Minister Nick Gibb and head teachers, through the NAHT union, led to some changes in the way Sats were to be administered and used this year.
Image copyright PA Image caption Nicky Morgan has continued her predecessor Michael Gove's fast rate of reforms
The DfE issued a clarification document giving teachers more breathing space to file their writing assessments and an assurance that this year's Sats results would not be used as a cause for intervention in schools deemed not to be doing so well.
And when it was published, Mr Gibb praised the approach of the union, saying: "Throughout this important reform process we have worked closely with teachers and head teachers and continue to listen to the concerns of the profession as the details of the new arrangements are finalised.
"We are working constructively with the teaching profession and their representatives to find solutions to some of the remaining issues."
Since then, however, that document has been reclarified five times - yet more evidence of a department under pressure.
Then in early April, ministers were forced to abandon their plans for new so-called baselines tests for Reception pupils.
'We told you so'
Teachers had been grappling to get to grips with the new assessments and associated systems for assessing their young pupils.
An official comparability study of three approved for use in schools were found incomparable, and the DfE had no choice but to kick these assessments into the long grass.
Heads and teachers mumbled "we told you so!" under their breaths yet again.
As Mary Bousted, head of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, put it this week: "The DfE's chaotic reform of assessment in primary schools has been plagued by an unacceptable string of errors, miscommunications and delays.
"Time and time again the concerns of experienced and knowledgeable educational professionals have been sidelined in the pursuit of introducing reforms before they are ready."
And with a swathe of staff cuts at the Department for Education and budget reductions of their own, perhaps the bureaucracy itself is feeling the pressure of Mr Gove's, and his successor Nicky Morgan's, heady ambitions for schools.Stage.1 - Rough sketches
Stage.2 - Finalised sketch
Stage.3 - The Black and White image
Stage.4 - Background colour
Stage.5 - Colour blocking
Stage.6 - The Final Stage
Black dithering
Thick Lines
Shadows
Shuffling things around!
Closely matching colours
Grid display
Conclusion
Over the last couple of years I`ve worked on several Spectrum loading screens and I`ve wanted to share with you the techniques I`ve learnt along the way.To do this I`ve broken it down into six key stages which I`ll go into now.Before venturing onto the computer a series of rough sketches are produced.At this stage I find drawing on paper is much quicker and fluid than drawing on the computer.Below are a few rough sketches drawn for the Gloop Troops 2 loading screen.Anything went at this stage. Putting any ideas down on paper, good or bad, seemed to spark new ideas so I kept drawing until I hit upon an image I was happy with.Once a sketch has been decided upon the next stage is to produce a detailled version of it.The colour restrictions of the Spectrum make it hard to finally colour small details so try and keep the shapes and forms on your drawing as large as possible.As a guide, a good tip is to print out a grid that contains the screen tile grid size.Tracing paper, which the final image will be drawn on, can now be sat on top of this grid and act as a useful guide.The final drawing is then scanned into the computer.The scanned image now needs to be converted into a black and white image.To do this we first reduce the scale of your image to the correct Spectrum screen resolution which is 256 X 192 pixels.The image is now converted to black and white. In Photoshop,or one of the many free alternatives, the brightness and contrast settings dialog is opened.The contrast setting is put to the maximum value. This will convert all the pixels to either black or white and remove any gray shades.Sliding the brightness bar now changes the line thicknesses. The bar is slid until a desired line thickness is reached.Below is the converted sketch produced for Gloop Troops 2.Next stage is to fill any background areas with black.I personally tend to use black over any other colour as it is easier to avoid any later colour clash.The black and white image is now filled with colour.We're not concerned about any colour clashing at this stage. Adding the colour is a good way of figuring out the overall look of the final loading screen. Removing any colour clashing can be done during the next astage.This stage is the longest. Expect to spend a good few hours from here on bringing your loading screen up to the final version.I personally find this stage the most enjoyable. Seeing the rough sketch slowly transform into a final realised loading screen is very rewarding.For the remainder of this stage I will run through a few techniques, that I use.I usually have the paper colour black for most of the tiles on my loading screens. This may sound limiting but it is surprisingly versatile when it comes to smoothing over ugly colour clashing.The below image demonstrates this in action. The one on the left shows a typical situation where we have two shapes that have a nasty case of unavoidable colour clashing. We can't fix this but we can hide it!The image on the right demonstrates using black dithering to hide the colour clash.Another technique is to make the outlines around the shapes quite thick.The thicker lines allow the black paper colour to form a boundary between two different colours.The below image demonstrates this in action.An alternative to the thick outlines are shadows.Shadows are great as they can be the same colour as the background and act as a good 'buffer' between the different features of your loading screen.If you're after a loading screen with a background colour other than black then this is a good technique to use.The below image demonstrates this.Sometimes there are occasions where no techniques seem to hide colour clashing.In these cases the only real option is to redesign this area.Most of the time it'll just be a matter of moving a piece of the image around until it better fits the grid.The key here is to not take your original drawing too literally and be prepared to redesign areas to work better with the Spectrums limitations.When applying colour to smaller details on your image try and paint them with colours that don't clash badly. As an example, yellow and cyan work well with white.This shouldn't dictate the palette you wish to use on your image but it might be something you wish to use in certain cases.When rendering the final stage it helps to have a grid (set to 8X8 pixels) over your image to act as a guid. It's a very useful tool when checking for any tile blocks that may contain more than two colours.Below is an animation showing different stages of the Gloop Troops 2 loading screen from the initial sketch through to the final image.Hopefully there are some useful tips that you can take from this post.In my next post I`ll go into greater detail the initial design stage of a cutscreen.Finally, as a bit of inspiration, here is a link to a collection of fantastic Spectrum images http://zxspectrum48.i-demo.pl/zxgallery.htmlAndy OakleyATHENS (Reuters) - Thousands of immigrants marched in Athens on Friday to protest police sweeps and a rash of racist attacks in Greece as the country struggles to pull itself out of a huge debt crisis.
Immigrants living in Greece shout slogans during a rally against racism attacks in central Athens August 24, 2012. REUTERS/John Kolesidis
Greece is a major gateway for mostly Asian and African migrants trying to enter the European Union. They face increased hostility as the country struggles through its deepest post- World War Two recession and record unemployment, propelling the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party to parliament for the first time since the fall of a military junta in 1974.
About 5,000 protesters marched to parliament holding banners reading “No Islamophobia” and “Neo Nazis out!” in one of the biggest anti-racism marches in Athens in recent years.
Tensions between immigrants and Greeks have risen sharply in recent months and the demonstration was held a day after police detained hundreds of undocumented immigrants in the western city of Corinth as part of a nationwide sweep and held them in a former army camp.
The move enraged local authorities and residents who rallied outside the army camp to protest against its conversion into an immigrant detention center.
“We will do everything possible to prevent such a disaster,” Corinth’s mayor Alexandros Pnevmatikos told Skai TV. “We don’t want the camp, which is in the centre of the city, close to densely populated neighborhoods, to become a holding center”.
Far-right protesters and supporters of Golden Dawn clashed with police at the entrance of the camp on Thursday and hundreds of protesters, including small groups of ultra-nationalists, returned to protest on Friday. Some hurled bottles of water at a conservative deputy visiting the camp.
Police this month launched a sweep operation called “Xenios Zeus” after the ancient Greek god of guests and travelers. They have so far arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants.
Racist attacks against immigrants have increased in Greece since the economic crisis flared in 2009, according to pro-immigrant groups which accuse the police of turning a blind eye.
Human Rights Watch said in a report last month that it had interviewed 59 people who suffered or escaped a racist incident between August 2009 and May this year. But the advocacy group added that the true extent of xenophobic violence in Greece was not clear given many victims do not report the crimes.Facebook's vague rulebook helps only the creeps
Ryan McGinley's India (Coyote), 2010
Comic artist (and BB contributor) Wendy Pini was issued a second ban by Facebook today after posting a widely-shared photo to her wall. She was told that she faces permanent expulsion if it happens again—despite the social network's recent assurances that it only intends to block pornographic content, not legitimate artwork.
The suspension comes just days after Facebook temporarily banned The New Yorker over a cartoon depicting the biblical Eve's dot-nipples. Last month saw Pini's own first warning for posting a painting of Bunchh, an androgynous character whose ambigiously-gendered blue cartoon boobs ran afoul of the social network's ambigiously-defined porn policy.
Her latest troubles, however, come over something to be found widely at Facebook: the popular photography of Ryan McGinley, whose artwork may be seen from San Francisco galleries to New York art blogs.
"I know my own work is sexy, but this wasn't something I'd made. It's shared everywhere," Pini said. "What this is is someone out there targeting me, and Facebook helping them."
The latest warning message received by Pini.
The New Yorker's Robert Mankoff reported last week on how the magazine was temporarily banned from Facebook after posting Mick Stevens' Garden of Eden 'toon.
The two female dots, they were informed, were the problem: Adam's dots were just fine.
"Now, we could have fought the ruling on technical grounds, because, let’s face it, these female nips, by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how prurient, are just not bulging," Mankoff wrote, referring to Facebook's suggestion that the dots' 'bulging' quality made them unacceptably pornographic. "But rather than fight the battle of the bulge, let’s point out, that while female nipple bulging, or F.N.B. for short, is a potentially serious problem, with as yet no known cure, it also has no known victims. That is, unless you count freedom of expression, common sense, and humor."
The Daily Beast recently ran a gallery of Facebook-banned cartoons, including those from Pini and Stevens.
Earlier this year, Gawker's Adrian Chen reported on these and other absurd rules at Facebook, which permits images of crushed human heads while clamping down on suggestive depictions of female sexuality.
"
Facebook's zealousness in scrubbing users' content has led to a series of uproars. Last April, they deleted an innocent gay kiss and were accused of homophobia; a few months before that, the removal of a nude drawing sparked the art world's ire. Most recently, angry "lactivists" have been staging protests over Facebook's deletion of breast-feeding photos. These censorship scandals haven't been helped by Facebook's opacity regarding its content moderation process. Whenever Facebook deletes an image it deems objectionable, it refers the offending user to its rambling Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. That policy is vague when it comes to content moderation, and probably intentionally so. If users knew exactly what criteria was being used to judge their content, they could hold Facebook to them. It would be clear what Facebook was choosing to censor according to its policies, and what amounted to arbitrary censorship." — Adrian Chen
Also banned, perhaps, at Facebook: anything depicting a sexual fetish, breastfeeding mothers, or cameltoe.
The most disturbing thing, Pini says, is that the photo for which she was warned Wednesday was merely shared from another person's own wall, where it still remains.
The problem with the guidelines is not only that they are evasively defined, but that they present an opportunity for malicious users to target their Internet enemies anonymously.
Enforced by Facebook's zero-tolerant bureaucracy at any troll's behest, discriminatory "standards" such as "bulging female nipples" become a speech-chilling limitation on what may be said and shared at Facebook.
Trying to figure out the specifics of Facebook's enforcement policies has even become something of a game, with The Guardian's Rowan Davies crowdsourcing a test of exactly what kind of breastfeeding photos it considers too smutty to stay up.
When challenged, Facebook only doubles down on vagueness: its current nudity policy is now completely devoid of any specifics that artists such as Pini and Stevens could work with—but ample opportunity for troublemakers to steer Facebook's outsourced moderation machine against them.
"Facebook has a strict policy against the sharing of pornographic content and imposes limitations on the display of nudity. At the same time, we aspire to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo's David or family photos of a child breastfeeding." — Facebook
"There's no right to face my accuser," Pini said. "I know there are people out there who don't like me. But I don't think they should be able to use Facebook like this to get at me. And this story isn't just about me. It's
about everyone who uses Facebook to promote themselves and their work. If anonymous complaints can shut you down, that's interference with your livelihood."
• Wendy Pini is co-creator of Elfquest, the latest chapter of which is published weekly here at Boing BoingAs the software ecosystem grows, developers are starting to find a balance that allows them to create solid multiplayer experiences on VR platforms. The community is welcoming massive amounts of VR players, but the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) genre hasn’t really found a solid foothold just yet. Enter OrbusVR, the Kickstarter project looking to bring room scale combat, exploration, and crafting in VR MMO format.
You can see the trailer for it below, featuring a simple visual style and action-packed gameplay.
At the time this article was written, OrbusVR has accrued a funding amount of $23,997 on a goal of $10,000. Though this may seem meager by the standards set by other well known successful games funded on the crowd-funding platform, OrbusVR is no less ambitious with its plans. The gameplay teaser shows huge groups of players fighting in fields utilizing medieval fantasy weapons, exploring caves, teaming up against large boss characters, and even some fishing— the minigame that absolutely no MMO should ever go without.
“The support of this game by the growing community of VR enthusiasts continues to surpass our expectations at every turn,” says lead programmer Riley Dutton in a press release for the project. Dutton is also the Founder of Ad Alternum, the dev team making the game.
The game is adopting a low poly style that could be endearing to fans or a turn-off but, considering it was fully funded plus some, there are clearly fans interested in the project. The game is also not just in conceptual stages. The footage in the trailer is collected from 3 play tests in which 1500 players have played and things look to be quite functional from what we see.
“Our Stretch Goals represent things that we want to do in the game eventually, but didn’t have the resources to commit to doing before launch,” said Robert Dutton, Level Designer. “We’ve intentionally kept the scope of the project reasonable so we can meet our deadlines, but with the extra help from the community, we can do more than we originally planned, which is great.”
OrbusVR is slated to be released on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The Kickstarter is ongoing until March 13th and, while early bird funding bundles are taken, there are still many contributor awards available such as closed Beta and closed Alpha access.
Tagged with: mmoOn a recent Saturday night, Savannah Stern earned $300 to hang out for seven hours at a party in Santa Monica wearing nothing but a feather boa.
The veteran of more than 350 hard-core pornography productions took the job to earn extra cash and to network. But the word at the 35th anniversary party for Hustler magazine was not heartening, especially among the roughly 75 other women working there.
"At least five girls I haven't seen in a while came up to me and said, 'Savannah, are you working?' " said Stern, who started in the industry four years ago and, like most adult performers, uses a stage name. "I had to say, 'No, not really,' and they all said, 'Yeah, I'm not either.' "
The adult entertainment business, centered in the San Fernando Valley, has weathered several recessions since it took off with the advent of home video in the 1980s. But this time the industry is not dealing with just a weakened economy. A growing abundance of free content on the Internet is undercutting consumers' willingness to pay for porn, and with it the ability of many workers to earn a living in the business.
For Stern, 23, the rapid decline of job opportunities in the porn business over the last year has been dramatic. She has gone from working four or five days a week to one and now has employers pressuring her to do male-female sex scenes for $700, a 30% discount from the $1,000 fee that used to be the industry standard.
Less than two years ago, Stern earned close to $150,000 annually, sometimes turned down work and drove a Mercedes-Benz CLK 350. Now she's aggressively reaching out for jobs and making closer to $50,000 a year.
As for that Mercedes? She's replacing it with a used Chevy Trailblazer -- from her parents.
"The opportunities in this industry really are disappearing," Stern said. "It's extremely stressful."
Industry insiders estimate that since 2007, revenue for most adult production and distribution companies has declined 30% to 50% and the number of new films made has fallen sharply.
"We've gone through recessions before, but we've never been hit from every side like this," said Mark Spiegler, head of the Spiegler Girls talent agency, who has worked in porn since 1995.
"It's the free stuff that's killing us, and that's not going away," said Dion Jurasso, owner of porn production company Combat Zone, which has seen its business fall about 50% in the last three years.
Porn is hardly the only segment of the media industry struggling with these issues. But its problems appear to be more severe. Whereas online piracy has forced big changes in the music industry and is starting to affect movies and television, it has upended adult entertainment.
At least five of the 100 top websites in the U.S. are portals for free pornography, referred to in the industry as "tube sites," according to Internet traffic ranking service Alexa.com. Some of their content is amateur work uploaded by users and some is acquired from cheap back catalogs, but much of it is pirated.
Sites like Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube attract more users than TMZ and the Huffington Post. The porn sites are even bigger than Pirate Bay, the top portal for illegal downloads of movies, TV shows and music.
Frustratingly for porn producers and distributors in the Valley, none of these sites appears to be making much money. Suzann Knudsen, a marketing director for PornoTube, said the site's parent, Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network, uses it to attract customers for paid video on demand.
"PornoTube isn't a piggy bank," she said. "Its true value is in traffic."
The adult entertainment business, which was previously in the vanguard of home video, satellite and cable television and digital distribution, now finds itself leading the rest of the entertainment industry in losses from them.
"The death of the DVD business has been more accelerated in the adult business than mainstream," said Bill Asher, co-chairman of adult industry giant Vivid Entertainment, who estimates that his company's revenue is down more than 20% this year.
"We always said that once the Internet took off, we'd be OK," he added. "It never crossed our minds that we'd be competing with people who just give it away for free."
There are plenty of other signs of the porn industry's pain. Attendance at the Adult Entertainment Expo, an annual trade show in Las Vegas that's open some days to the public, was down 20% this year. Pay-per-view programming, a key revenue source for the industry, has fallen about 50% from its peak three or four years ago, according to a person familiar with the cable and satellite TV business.
Reliable revenue and employment figures for the adult industry don't exist, since no analysts or economists track it. Adult Video News estimated in 2006 that it was worth $13 billion, but Paul Fishbein, editor of the trade publication, said the number was "an educated guess."
"Almost all of the companies in our industry are privately held, and they keep the cards close to their chests," said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an industry trade group.
The effects of the downturn have been felt most severely by the thousands of people who work in the adult entertainment business.
Kelly Labanco doesn't need industry estimates to know what's happening. The makeup artist, who has worked in porn for five years, is landing half as many jobs as she did a year ago and has seen her pay drop from a high of $250 an hour to less than $100.
"A lot of companies say they don't even need makeup artists now and the girls can do it themselves," said Labanco, who has returned to her previous job doing freelance music publicity to pay the bills.
Even the industry's biggest events aren't worth what they used to be for working people like Labanco. Last year, she and a friend did makeup for a week at the Adult Entertainment Expo and earned $8,000. This year: $1,200.
Caroline Pierce, an adult film performer who lives in Las Vegas but flies to Los Angeles for work, said many companies have pressured her to do more scenes for less money.
"Instead of paying you $800 to do one, they'll pay you $1,200 for both," she explained.
As economic pressures increase, many performers have also changed their minds about what they are willing do on-screen. Previously, women earned hefty bonuses for unusual sex scenes. That's often no longer the case.
"A few years ago the girls we got were OK, but not stellar models, and we were sometimes paying $2,500," said porn director Matt Morningwood, referring to a website he shoots for that features one woman and multiple male partners.
"Nowadays some of the top-tier models will do that scene for us and you're looking at maybe $1,800. I'm happy for the production, but I feel bad for exploiting the girls' situation."
The only growth market most executives see is mobile devices, since they let consumers watch porn anywhere and in relative privacy.
Major companies that serve as a gateway to content on cellphones in the U.S. such as Verizon don't allow explicit adult content. But like cable and satellite companies in the 1990s, they may change their minds when they see the potential profit.
"Anyone betting against porn being a meaningful driver of traffic and revenue on mobile networks would be making a bad choice based on history," said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research.
Adult performers with big followings probably will continue to prosper, since they often work under a guaranteed contract and have loyal fans who buy all their work. Business managers for Belladonna and Tera Patrick, two of the industry's biggest stars, said their clients were using their celebrity to make money in other ways, like dancing in exotic clubs and licensing their name to sex toys and lingerie.
"The economy has forced us to look in other directions such as tangible goods," said Evan Seinfeld, who co-manages Patrick, his wife, and runs her production company, Teravision.
But for the "middle class" of the industry, those opportunities don't exist.
"It seems at this point that if you haven't established a well-known name, it's really hard to keep working," performer Alexa Jordan said.
Savannah Stern is adjusting to that reality. She's shooting scenes for her own subscription website and planning a tour of exotic dance clubs to earn money from her name while she can. After that, she hopes to go to college for an interior design degree and work in her family's real estate development and contracting business.
"I wish I would have never gotten into it," Stern said of her career in porn. "When you get used to a certain lifestyle, it's really hard to cut back and realize this may not be forever."Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nick Bryant: Australian politics like "a soap opera directed by Tarantino"
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the man she ousted, Kevin Rudd, are contesting a party leadership vote.
Ms Gillard called the vote after Mr Rudd's supporters sought to force a party meeting to hold a ballot.
The vote was due to begin at 19:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Wednesday. Both contenders have committed to stepping down if they lose.
The move comes ahead of a 14 September election, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.
Ms Gillard toppled Mr Rudd in a leadership challenge in 2010, but he remains more popular with voters.
The Labor party has been divided by bitter in-fighting between supporters of Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd, and there has been sustained speculation over the leadership in recent weeks.
If Mr Rudd replaces Ms Gillard as prime minister, he could be forced to call an early election.
'This is it'
Julia Gillard's call came hours after news surfaced that Kevin Rudd's supporters were circulating a petition calling for a caucus meeting to vote on the party leadership.
Ms Gillard said that this was the final opportunity for the issue to be resolved.
"I have been in a contest with the leader of the opposition, but I've also been in a political contest with people from my own political party," she said.
"We cannot have the government or the Labor Party go to the next election with a person leading the Labor Party and a person floating around as the potential alternate leader."
Timeline: Julia Gillard Dec 2006 : Appointed deputy leader of Labor Party
: Appointed deputy leader of Labor Party Dec 2007 : Sworn in as deputy prime minister to PM Kevin Rudd
: Sworn in as deputy prime minister to PM Kevin Rudd Jun 2010 : Successfully challenges Mr Rudd for the leadership, becomes 27th prime minister of Australia
: Successfully challenges Mr Rudd for the leadership, becomes 27th prime minister of Australia Aug 2010 : General election results in hung parliament; forms minority government with independents
: General election results in hung parliament; forms minority government with independents Feb 2012 : Survives a leadership challenge by Mr Rudd
: Survives a leadership challenge by Mr Rudd Jan 2013 : Sets general election date of 14 September 2013
: Sets general election date of 14 September 2013 Mar 2013 : Leadership ballot called but Mr Rudd does not contest
: Leadership ballot called but Mr Rudd does not contest June 2013: Calls another leadership ballot after Mr Rudd's supporters attempt to force a vote Profile: Julia Gillard Profile: Kevin Rudd
"Anybody who enters the ballot tonight should do it on the following conditions: that if you win you're Labor leader, that if you lose you retire from politics."
"This is it, tonight is the night," she said. "I wouldn't be putting myself forward unless I had a degree of confidence."
Shortly afterwards, Mr Rudd told reporters that he intended to run. "For the nation's sake I believe it's time for this matter to be resolved," he said.
"I believe with all my heart that I owe it to the Australian people to offer them a viable alternative."
He added that he believed the Labor party was "on course for a catastrophic defeat unless there is change".
"If I lose, of course I would announce that I would not contest the next election and I thank Julia for making the same commitment."
Mr Rudd would need the support of at least 52 of Labor's 102 MPs in order to oust Ms Gillard.
In March Mr Rudd declined to contest a leadership vote and said afterwards that there were "no circumstances" under which he would seek the top job.
Nonetheless speculation that he could return had persisted amid polling showing he could deliver a better outcome for Labor in the election.
A poll published earlier this month suggested that three cabinet ministers would lose their seats under Ms Gillard, but would retain their seats if Mr Rudd was leading the party.
Tony Abbott leads the opposition coalition, which polls suggest is currently on course for a convincing win.
Earlier on Wednesday, Tony Abbott challenged Ms Gillard to bring forward the election date to 3 August, and said that "paralysis" was gripping the government.Devices that plug into smartphones to augment the built-in sensors with additional smarts are continuing to make their way to market, many fueled by crowdfunding. Here’s another contender aiming to extend the capability of Android smartphones: a teeny breathalyzer called DrinkMate, currently seeking $40,000 on Kickstarter to make it to market by December.
The 1.8-inch long device is designed to plug into a powered Micro-USB port and, when used in conjunction with its companion app, displays a blood alcohol content (BAC) rating after the user has breathed over its semiconductor-based sensor. DrinkMate does not require a mouthpiece, the user just blows into an air inlet, which helps keep the design compact and the device hygienic.
We’ve seen smartphone breathalyzers before, such as the hefty Alcohoot for iPhones, which we covered last year. But the DrinkMate is a lot smaller and a lot cheaper, following a Moore’s Law trajectory.
It also claims to be able to deliver on the accuracy front — which is obviously the key aspect here, and a claim that remains to be tested given this is still a prototype — claiming BAC measurement levels at an accuracy of +/- 0.01% BAC at a BAC of 0.02%. DrinkMate’s sensor maxes out at 0.20% BAC but if you’re that drunk you’re unlikely to be compos mentis enough to use this gadget, let alone find your car keys.
In addition to accuracy levels, it remains to be seen how DrinkMate’s performance holds up in rugged, real world environments when the drinks are flowing and users may not be following best practice testing procedure. A savvy companion app that steps users around potential pitfalls, such as by ensuring they wait long enough after their last drink to avoid an inaccurate rating (based on alcohol in the mouth), is going to be required to avoid misleading readings.
DrinkMate’s Washington, DC based makers say the basic idea behind the device is to generate a visible, shareable BAC rating as a way to pile more peer pressure on groups of drinkers so they keep each other safe. That’s a laudable aim, but there is of course a risk of encouraging opposing behavior — so again the tone of the app is important. The current app designs are pretty basic but the makers say they are adding more features weekly.
While ever more mainstream interest sensors, from location sensors and motion/health focused hardware, are being embedded into phones, more specialist and/or targeted sensor hardware — such as the DrinkMate’s BAC analyzer — is something that makes sense as a smartphone supplement.
Bottom line: not everyone is going to want or need this type of sensor embedded in their phone but there will be people who see value in having various specialized gizmos hanging off their keyring which, after being plugged in, extend the utility of their mobile device. (Or indeed which they wear on their person and connect to their mobile via Bluetooth.)
Price wise the DrinkMate is currently being offered to Kickstarter backers starting at $25.
The hardware is guaranteed compatible (tested) with the following Android devices:
Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, and S5
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
HTC One
Motorola Moto X
Asus Transformer Prime, Infinity
The makers’ say they are planning an iPhone version but only if their Kickstarter campaign for the Android version is successful.
At the time of writing they have raised just over half of their $40,000 target with another 25 days left to run.After every election, the winners and losers naturally reflect on what happened, and what is ahead. Given the worst losses for the Democrats in Congress in the last 50 years, some serious rethinking seems called for.
President Obama is being blamed, but it seems clear that the Democratic Party, especially the Blue Dog faction, is at fault. Fortunately, that faction lost half its members. But many observers from a rather wide range of political viewpoints are emphasizing the lack of engagement, a failure to meet the needs of the people.
How did this come about? It’s complicated, but surely a significant development goes back to the 1980s and the era of the so-called Reagan revolution, which was actually a counter-revolution. Prior to that time, the language of “rights” still had currency.
However, twell-funded and pervasive think tanks of the reactionaries launched a campaign to eliminate the language of “rights”, relabeling it as “entitlements.”
As a consequence the people were thrown on the defensive, politically, educationally, and in the courts.
Unfortunately, this campaign largely succeeded as few nowadays use the language of rights. It is time, as the late poet Thomas McGrath said, to “take back the language,” to expropriate it.
The centerpiece of such a campaign might be a proposal for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to employment.
This is not merely an abstract utopian idea. It is deeply rooted in the American experience. Notably, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for it in his Message to Congress, January 11, 1944, in a Second Bill of Rights. Point number one was: “The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or |
video highlighting how the Obama Presidency has failed when evaluated by the measures of progress established by Obama. Four years ago at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, then-candidate Barack Obama said that Democrats measure progress by whether people can find a job and provide for themselves and their families. In North Carolina, it is not easy for people to find a job and provide for themselves and their families:You can watch the “President Obama’s Measure of Progress” video here.It all comes back to Ronald Reagan’s famous question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” And even Obama admits that we are not better off than we were four years ago. A question which the Obama Campaign is having a tough time answering, even though last October, Obama admitted that Americans are not better off than they were four years ago. You can watch Obama’s admission here.Obama’s concession invites a constant comparison to President Carter’s failed presidency using the devastating, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” question posed by then presidential candidate Ronald Reagan at the end of his debate with Jimmy Carter on October 28, 1980:
“Next Tuesday is Election Day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.”
You can watch a video Reagan’s devastating question here. The more people are exposed to Reagan’s “are you better off” question to Carter, the more the belief that Obama will also be a one-term president is reinforced.I love Battlefield 2. It's definitely one of the more entertaining games I've played this year, offering a tremendous mix of teamwork and impressve graphics. However, the game comes with a steep learning curve, requiring many hours of experience and playtime to adeptly master. Most people simply can't afford to dedicate a lot of their life to such a project, so I have created this tremendously helpful online guide to help new players, or "newbies" as us grizzled Internet veterens call them. If you see me playing on your server, under the name "Lowtaxico," feel free to let me know what an intelligent and helpful person I am!
Always Punish Team Kills! - This is the primary goal of Battlefield 2; to punish your teammates as much as possible and as frequently as possible! Unleash your unbridled nerd rage to lash out upon all that surround you, taking out years of aggression on digital representations of those who beat you up in junior high school and forced you to drink roofing tar. Did a teammate somehow kill you after your character ran directly in front of his jeep, giving him absolutely no chance to stop or avoid you? Punish them! Did you decide to hold a breakdancing jamboree on top of a minefield, one where you're the guest of honor? Make them pay! You're untouchable online, and every punishment for a team kill gets you one step closer to defeating the ghosts of Billy Reynolds, the football player who caught and made fun of you in the locker room for masturbating to an erotic drawing of Garfield. Be sure to always punish for team kills if you play on the American side, as our country is known far and wide for its citizens blaming others for their own unbridled idiocy.
Mine Entire Areas! - As an engineer, it's your primary job to make sure every human being on the planet steps on your land mines. The best and easiest way to accomplish this is by placing them all over every entrance and exit surrounding your flag. The professional BF2 engineer will be so adept at laying mines that not a single molecule of digital oxygen will be able to escape from your base. Watch in sheer joy and satisfaction as your teammates curse at you in jealousy, damning your incredible skill at laying so many mines that nobody can leave your base! Place mines on friendly vehicles, preferably as they're driven! Dump mines all over spawn points! Unload them on helicopter landing pads and jet runways! Shove them up your ass and shit them all over the faces of those who have wronged you! A well placed land mine could tip the scales of electronic warfare in your favor, making you a digital hero to all your teammates afraid to move any direction at all. This is the ultimate form of defense and security.
Revive Fallen Teammates In the Middle of Firefights! - Medics are equipped with the awesome power of revival, resuscitating teammates from the dead. As many BF2 games have proven, the primary cause of death is by being killed, so hang out in an area where a bunch of people are being shot by opposing troops. Then, while gunfire constantly erupts around you from the surrounding enemy team, sweep in like an angel of mercy and revive as many comrades as possible! It doesn't matter if there's absolutely no chance of anybody escaping the firefight alive once you awaken them to the land of the living, the whole goal is to simply revive them! After that, they're on their own; it's not like it's your job to keep them from dying! If you're feeling particularly generous, maybe you can scatter some medikits all over the ground so when they instantly die, their corpses can kind of pose with them and it will look cute.
Always Play As a Sniper! - The sniper is singlehandedly the most awesome and useful class in the universe. I mean, they have sniper rifles, for crying out loud! SNIPER RIFLES! Some of the most successful BF2 teams were composed entirely of snipers, sharpshooting enemies from hundreds of meters away and snuffing out souls like a rogue Twinkie lobbed into your damp, subterranean computer lair. Many squad leaders will often request large amounts of snipers to join their team since the core of any useful squad is a sniper ready and willing to sit in one single location for 30 minutes, shooting at tanks and calling for supplies while refusing to move for any reason short of an air strike directly on their head. Never underestimate the monumental contributions a sniper can lend to any squad that really likes crouching in one location for days and missing virtually everything they aim for.
Pilot Transport Helicopters Without Any Passengers! - As everybody knows, flying is a dangerous job, one which only the most trained sniper can accomplish! Do not risk other teammates to the perils of being shot down in a fiery explosion; get in transport choppers and leave your base without anybody on board! The weight of additional passengers will simply slow you down and make you an easier target for anti-aircraft stations and enemy jets, so do your team a favor and fly everywhere solo. After all, transport helicopters weren't created to actually transport anything. They were originally designed as very large and inefficient paperweights.
Don't Bother to Practice Flying! - Piloting helicopters and jets are one of those things that are best learned during online games with other players. Don't worry if you've never flown one before, and you lost your BF2 instruction manual, and you have no computer monitor, and instead of hands you have bulbous, sweaty claws that flail out uncontrollably at random objects surrounding you. Just hop on in and hope for the best! If you're really unsure how to fly, like you experience extreme difficulty when attempting to determine which direction is "up" and which direction is "the bathroom," request other teammates to hop in and fly with you. They'll offer tomes of useful advice and will gladly take over the controls after you've flown so badly that you've somehow ended up in a completely different game altogether.
Place Hundreds of Exciting Clan Letters In Your Name! - Clans are awesome, they're like online gangs of tough guys and the token 40-year old suspicious man with a wife and kids who plays solely to escape the harsh and bitter reality of his own failed life. All the good players are in clans! You ain't shit until you've joined a clan and put their magical initials both before and after your name, right after attending a two hour IRC clan meeting regarding the best positions for a sniper on the "Strike at Karkand" map. Ideally, you can put their letters in the middle of your name as well, so if you joined clan "Bad Azz Killaz," and your online name is "Flapjacks," your BF2 name would appear as "-=BaK=- Flap{[BaK]}Jacks //BaK." If only there was some way to insert animated gifs of spinning skulls and tiny explosions into your name... life would be perfect!
Put Screenshots of BF2 Into Your Server Graphic! - If you're lucky enough to run a dedicated BF2 server on your mom's cable modem, you should take advantage of the feature that allows you to place custom images in the server graphic. You can put anything in the slot, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should put anything there. No, this space is dedicated for pictures of BF2 screenshots with floating Photoshopped letters hovering above them like fruit flies over a diseased orchard. Look in your BF2 screenshot directory, which should be hundreds of thousands of megabytes, and select the coolest, most awesome image of guys walking forward with guns. Cut it out, add the name of your server above (something equally awesome like "THE FRAG DOME" or "MEGAKILL 2000 ULTRA DEATH"), and then maybe throw in a few hundred bevels and lens flares. If you're feeling particularly saucy, add a server message explaining how you'll kick anybody if they're not a member of your clan or if they use bad language or if they team kill or if they spawn camp or move without permission or have at least one vowel in their name. Ideally the server graphic image should have a tank in the background, although an attack helicopter is acceptible as well. After all, how would people know they're playing Battlefield 2 if you didn't show them pictures of the game on the server screen?
Play Aggressively As Commander! - The only difference between a commander and non-commander is that big-ass honking star that shows up to represent you on the minimap. If you're lucky enough to be elected as a commander, play as you normally would. After all, this promotion to such a high rank doesn't mean you should act any differently than the 500 other snipers on your team. Get in jeeps and try to capture enemy flags! Rush into firefights and be the hero! Fly jets and bomb enemy camps! Nobody likes or respects a commander who hides and issues orders while organizing squads and devising battle strategies. If somebody votes to kick you from your commanding position, keep in mind the only reason they're doing so is because they've been driven insane with jealousy thanks to your ace leadership and ability to throw hand grenades at passing planes. Punish them for being such sadsack spoilsports by tracking them down and surrounding them with land mines. Not in the game, in real life.Artists taking part in the second edition of the Crystal Ship Festival include
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The coastal town of Oostende in Belgium has been making preparations for some of the worlds leading International and National street artists and muralist who have descend upon the city for the second edition of the Contemporary Art Festival The Crystal Ship.Earlier this year we shared a a post on the blog featuring the picturesque coastal town of Oostende in Belgium. Having attended the first edition of the Crystal Ship Festival in 2016 our post highlighted the street art in Oostende and where you could find the murals and street art. The post also featured tips on how to get there and some other must see sights in the city. The post proved popular with the Oostende Tourist Board sharing it across their social channels. If you missed the feature you can check out the post here — ‘ Ostend Street Art And Where To Find It’. Hookedblog will be attending the festival again this year, we really enjoyed our 2016 visit to the city and we are excitied to discover the new additions to the cities walls as well as see some of the finished murals we missed last year as some of the artists (Jaz, Crycle ) were still working on their wall when we left! Most of the artists have already landed in Ostend with many of their works already in progress.The first edition of the Crystal Ship festival in Ostend has proved hugely popular with the cities Mayor Johan Vande Lanotte saying,One of the many stencil pieces by Belgian street artist Jaune on the streets of Ostend from the 2016 edition of the festival. Alexis Diaz (PR)(Previously on Hookedblog) – Axel Void (US) – Bosoletti (AR) – Buck (BE) – C215 (FR)(Previously on Hookedblog) – Hell’O Collective (BE) – Hyuro (ES) – Jaune (BE)(Previously on Hookedblog) – Johannes Mundinger (DE) – Levalet (FR) – Nelio (FR) – Nuart presents Henrik Uldalen (NO) – Outings Project (FR) – Pastel (AR) – Phlegm (UK)(Previously on Hookedblog) – Ricky Lee Gordon (SA) – Schellekens & Peleman (BE) – Sebas Velasco (ES) – SpY (ES) – Strook (BE)The 2017 edition of The Crystal Ship will be based at Achturenplein Ostend, where you can pick up a copy of the free map that will guide you through the cities open-air exhibition.Hookedblog will be in Ostend for a few days and we will be bringing you coverage from The Crystal Ship Festival across our social channels so be sure to join us on Hookedblog Twitter and follow our daily adventures via our Hookedblog #InstagramStories on Instagram. We will also be sharing images on the blog from our trip for those of you not using Instagram, so stayed tuned. And if any of our readers are planning to visit the festival please let us know and we can catch up for a Belgian beer or two!Hookedblog on Instagram — @Hookedblog Related Stories:Rosemary Aquino arrested by sheriff's deputies in Martin County, Florida on Feb. 1, 2015 [YouTube]
For the last few days, President Obama has been touring the country, talking about the desperate need for criminal justice reform. This past Thursday, he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, a corrections facility in El Reno, Oklahoma. Two days prior, he spoke at the NAACP’s annual conference in Philadelphia.
Much of his speech was dedicated to discussing inequities in our country’s dispensation of criminal justice — he cited several statistics pointing to the disproportionate jailing of Latinos and African Americans — and the failings of a system that now houses nearly twice as many people as it did two decades ago. “[O]ur criminal justice system isn’t as smart as it should be,” the president said. “It’s not keeping us as safe as it should be. It is not as fair as it should be. Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and we need to do something about it.”
A national conversation around criminal justice in the United States, a country that jails more of its population than any other country in the world, by percentage and in number, is long overdue. In his new book, Unfair: The New Science Of Criminal Injustice, Drexel University associate professor of law Adam Benforado looks closely at the science at work in our justice system. His research reveals that not only do race and class have a tremendous impact on access to justice, issues such as juror life experience and the fatigue level of parole boards can mean the literal difference between freedom and incarceration — and sometimes, life and death — for those who find themselves caught up in the system.
In an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, Benforado discussed the heavy emphasis placed on confessions in convictions, despite the fact that they aren’t always reliable evidence of guilt. “[O]ne of the things we know from psychology is that juries place great, great weight in confessions,” says Benforado. “What we also know is that confessions can be a very bad way to convict a person. Sometimes we get it wrong.”
The Innocence Project, which is responsible for more than 330 exonerations, notes that “more than 1 out of 4 people wrongfully convicted but later exonerated by DNA evidence made a false confession or incriminating statement.” Saul Kassin, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who has dedicated much of his career to researching false confessions, told Time magazine in a 2013 interview that often, “[o]nce the confession is taken, it trumps everything else…its effects cannot be reversed.”
A significant part of the problem is the way in which confessions are obtained. Benforado says the interrogation process is essentially divided into two parts. In the initial stage, police tend to focus on behaviors that might indicate a suspect is lying. However, the methods for determining deception are rooted in false ideas about body language and the use of leading lines of questioning.
“[Police] bring in the suspect, usually into a small, windowless room, and they ask them some provocative questions meant to reveal deceit,” Benforado explains. “And the problem here is the things that detectives tend to focus on or are told to focus on, which are demeanor elements like jittery limbs or averted gaze, tend to actually be terrible ways to determine whether someone is lying. So quite frequently someone who’s committed a horrible crime will look you straight in the eye and tell you that they’re innocent.”
With this incredibly fallible means of establishing that a person is lying already in place, law enforcement officers move on to what Benforado considers the second stage of the interrogation. “And the focus there is simply on gaining an admission of guilt,” he says. “It’s not primarily about collecting more information, revisiting that possibility that maybe this person didn’t do it. It’s all about getting to that admission that we need. And the techniques that are used here can be roughly summarized as sort of the classic good-cop, bad-cop routine, what’s referred to as maximization and minimization. And we know from laboratory experiments that this can be highly coercive. And the people who are particularly vulnerable tend to be people with low IQs, people who are young, teenagers, people with a history of mental health problems.”
The ACLU points out why mental disability often leads to false confessions. As I wrote in a previous article about death row exonerations, mentally disabled people “are more likely to confess to crimes they didn’t commit in order to appease interrogators. Their limited mental competence makes them less capable of fully comprehending the law and their legal rights…[a]nd they are more easily coerced and bullied.” In a 2004 study of 125 false confessions — the most expansive published research on the issue to date — researchers found that “when suspects falsely confessed and then pled ‘not guilty’ and proceeded to trial, the conviction rate was 81 percent.”
The clear takeaway here is that false confessions of guilt, while not terribly difficult to obtain, can be nearly impossible to undo or erase. The same study found that the overwhelming majority, 89 percent, of false confessions were observed in cases involving rape and/or murder. The prevalence of these sorts of false confessions was attributed to the “strong pressure on police to solve cases involving violent crime.”
As the proliferation of cellphones and other recording devices have helped prove the rates of police violence and brutality that communities of color have long contended existed, the push to visually document all interrogations has grown. Though the idea sounds like an ideal way to ensure that proper procedures and protocols are followed during questioning, Benforado points out that point-of-view — that is, whether we are seeing the interview through the eyes of the interrogator or the suspect — can create bias among those who view those recordings.
“When people watched the footage shot from the perspective of the interrogator, they tended to say, well, this looks like a completely fine, voluntary confession,” says the legal expert. “But when they watch the videotape from another perspective, through the eyes essentially of the suspect, suddenly they notice all of these coercive factors. And they tended to think, well no, actually that confession cannot come into court because it is so badly influenced by the actions of the interrogator.”
Another disturbing revelation from Benforado’s research is how little the facts of the case, and the law itself, play in verdicts rendered by juries. It’s long been established, for example, that black men are sentenced to longer prison terms than white men for similar crimes, and that skin tone and facial features that are more “stereotypically black” correlate with a higher incidence of death sentences. But Benforado also found that the “backgrounds and experiences of the jurors” — what he calls “cultural cognition” — weigh far more heavily in determinations of a suspect’s guilt or innocence than the legalities of the case being tried. In particular, Benforado cited the example of trials involving date rape, the study of which yielded unexpected insights.
“It wasn’t that men were far more likely to let the man off in a date rape scenario,” said Benforado. “It was actually within women that the most interesting break occurred. Women who were older, who were more conservative, who adhere to more traditional gender norms, were far more likely to let the man off in this particular case than women who were liberal and younger.”
If all of the above factors might be described as deeply troubling, the findings of Benforado’s research into parole boards and the issues that affect their decisions might be the most alarming of all. Most of us might assume that, along with a review of the intricacies of the case, things like exhibited reform and behavior during imprisonment would most influence parole board determinations. But researchers found a far more mundane factor held sway: time of day. That’s right: prisoners might be released or returned to jail based, in large part, on when they happen to appear before the deciding board.
As Benforado states, “First thing in the morning was the best time to appear before the panel. The worst time? Right before the first break in the day….One theory is that basically to deviate from the status quo requires, essentially, mental energy and that over the course of a day, people become depleted. And the more depleted they are, the more likely they’re just to stick with the status quo. And the status quo, when it comes to the parole board, is just leaving someone in prison to finish out their sentence.”
While eyewitness misidentification also plays a key role in sending the innocent to jail (the Innocence Project identifies it as “the greatest contributing factor to wrongful convictions proven by DNA testing, playing a role in more than 70% of convictions overturned through DNA testing nationwide”), Benforado also points to issues around judicial bias. Not just the fact that implicit racial bias exists, but also the particular way that the homogeneity of those tasked with deciding the fates of the accused manifests itself in criminal justice outcomes.
“The worst possible thing is when everyone is biased and everyone is biased in the same way. If you look at the makeup of our judiciary, it is primarily white, wealthy, Ivy League-educated older men,” he says. “That’s a problem because all of their biases are going to tend to a line. And that’s going to be exacerbated by the fact that our legal system and all of our laws under our common law system have been developed by older, white, highly educated men. I think to the extent that we can focus on term limits efforts to ensure a diverse set of judges, that’s another way to get at this problem of bias.”
While the situation may sound hopeless, Benforado believes that new studies and practices being implemented around the United States could slowly help create a justice system that is fairer. He is also looking to Europe, where police departments have instituted a practice termed “cognitive review.” He explains it thusly:
“[T]he cognitive interview is all about collecting information. It’s not about pressuring someone into admitting guilt. It’s about extracting as much information, as much data from the person you’re talking with as possible. Now, what that does is, it avoids any of the problems that we know happen when we use psychological coercion. We don’t really run a risk of a false confession. What we do know though is we collect all of this data which then can be compared to all of the data we have elsewhere and in which we can catch people in lies very effectively.”
In the end, our system of criminal justice is a reflection of who we are, and it is marred by the same issues that are inherent in being human. With that recognition, we can finally put in place stopgaps that compensate and even override the problems our biases and flaws in thinking create.
Says Adam Benforado, “I am asking that we rely much less on hunches, but it’s not just cops that I care about. I want judges and jurors and eyewitnesses to all give up this notion that they’re infallible, that their memories work the way they think their memories work, that they make good calls based on objective factors. I think we need to control for our human limitations.”Asia-Pacific
China-Japan scholars' report likely in January By Cheng Guangjin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-28 08:17
Those who are keen to read the complete results of three years of joint research into the long-disputed issues in the history of China and Japan have to wait for another month, Chinese scholars who joined the research announced over the weekend.
Twenty-six research papers, half composed by Chinese scholars and half by their Japanese counterparts, will be published as early as next month. The first phase of the joint research concluded on Dec 24 after 10 Chinese and 10 Japanese scholars met for the fourth time in Tokyo.
Five Chinese scholars were present at a press conference held in Beijing on Saturday, headed by Bu Ping, Chinese chief commissioner of the joint research and director of the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
The scholars said the two sides postponed the release of details for fear of arousing nationalistic sentiments by simplifying the research conclusions without the full contents, which reflect the complexity of historical disputes in China-Japan relations. By next month the translation and compiling will be finished, they said.
But they highlighted the statements made by the Japanese scholars in their papers regarding the nature of the Sino-Japanese War of 1931-45, which they admitted to be Japan's invasion into China, according to Bu.
"They admitted the illegal acts committed by the Japanese army in the war had caused the huge sacrifice of Chinese civilians, which hampered the building of new relationship between the two countries after the war," Bu said.
Bu said the Japanese scholars also admitted in the papers that "the lawsuits in recent years over germ warfare, chemical weapons left in China, forced labor and violence on women all reflected the deep scar left by the war on the Chinese people."
However, "China is not seeking revenge but the aim of studying history is eyeing for the future", stressed Tao Wenzhao, one of the Chinese researchers on the project and a US studies expert at CASS.
"We both want to turn to a new page in our relationship, but the Japanese leaders should keep a consistent stance in respecting the history," said Tao.
When anti-Japan sentiments inside China reached a climax in 2005, the Japanese government proposed the joint research project to China and the two governments sponsored 20 scholars to start the project in December 2006, with a goal to improve bilateral ties, said Bu.
With current Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's pro-China policy and the reiterated appeal to create an East Asia Community (EAC), "China and Japan should solve their historical disputes or the EAC would only be a fantasy," said Bu.
On an earlier occasion, Feng Zhaokui, former deputy head of the institute of Japan Studies at CASS, compared the EAC with the European Union (EU), whose progress has owed much to the solving of historical conflicts between France and Germany left by World War II.
"China and Japan have much to learn from the example set by France and Germany," Bu agreed.
Whether to admit the Nanking Massacre in Japanese history text books has been a concern to Japan's right-wing forces, who seek to deny the historical fact and the number of casualties in the massacre, the scholars said.
The Nanking Trial in 1947 confirmed the death toll at over 300,000 and the Tokyo Trial in 1948 set it at over 200,000, said Bu. The mainstream Japanese people have already recognized this, the Chinese scholars said.
The scholars said it is a "comfort" that in the past three years the Chinese and Japanese scholars have been able to sit down together and discuss these historical issues calmly and rationally.BattleBots: S7 – What Got Cut
With the Rio Olympics in full swing, and with the new season of BattleBots getting ready to enter the quarterfinals, ABC has made the admittedly smart move to hold off on broadcasting the rest of the show because we as a country apparently have to know if Michael Phelps is actually a dolphin in a human costume or if Usain Bolt is a real life Sonic the Hedgehog. In other news, water is wet. Whether you’re excited or apathetic toward the Olympics I think I can speak for all of us however when I say there’s a part of us that’s still bummed that we’re having to deal with yet another broadcast delay for this show. Hell, I know I am; every time BattleBots runs a new episode and I write a new article that refers to someone’s weapon as “the Chipotle shits” I make $3 from Google Adsense. I’m losing money here.
Throughout this season I’ve been running a recurring gag segment called “What Got Cut” where I go into a bit more detail on fights that were not broadcast in their entirety. I started this segment early on under the assumption that these fights would not end up being posted online, and because I attended the taping of the current season I’d somehow be doing a disservice by not telling you just how bad Bucktooth Burl actually sucked. These are fuck ups that need quantification, and that’s the hard hitting journalism readers of BattleBots Update expect from this site. I have an image to live up to and that image is stale jokes about Abbatoir that wouldn’t have been funny if I were personally screaming them in Ray Scully’s ear at the 1999 Pay-Per-View event. That said, this week’s article is dedicated to giving proper coverage to a smattering of the “better” unaired fights as a nice tide-me-over until the show picks up again proper.
SAWBLAZE vs. RAZORBACK
(QUALIFICATION ROUND)
SAWBLAZE LiMITless Robotics Weapon: Articulated vertical saw
RAZORBACK Team Contraption Lab Weapon: Vertical spinning drum
[This match is available on BattleBots’ official YouTube channel.]
The main problem of this article is now readily apparent: you already know SawBlaze isn’t going to win this match. That said, try to act excited. SawBlaze is one of the four resulting MIT robots that came about from the split of last year’s Overhaul team. Charles kept his anime robot and painted it blue, Adam fucked off to play Call of Duty with Brutus, Jamison put together SawBlaze, and Dane — the guy who built Road Rash — ended up getting the “Ringo Starr” treatment and nobody apparently gives a shit about him, his team, or his robot. Jamison’s SawBlaze is a lot like Skorpios in design and function with the important differences being that SawBlaze A) didn’t have to win a “qualification rumble” to get here and B) hasn’t knocked themselves out by driving into the screws in the first 15 seconds of a fight. Yet. Out of the two similar heavyweights, SawBlaze wins my heart if only for the goofy dragon head. There’s also a bonus pun in the SawBlaze team name; when you see it, you’ll groan.
Let’s pretend we haven’t already seen Razorback show up and suplex the shit out of Ghost Raptor before getting The People’s Elbow from Bronco immediately afterward, meaning we know the robot already wins this fight. This is some high-grade anxiety-laden proto Razorback we’re dealing with here. When Zach Bieber (whose name I’ve misspelled literally on the first try every time) was at this exact point in last year’s tournament he was seconds away from getting his robot’s butthole blown open by Icewave; Razorback has never made it beyond the qualifying rounds so this was a big deal for Zach and his team. Rather than enter this battle with the robot’s fancy trademark grappling jaws we’re instead seeing Razorback enter the field touting the same weapon that it tried to use on Bronco and failed miserably while doing so. At least it’s something.
Right away SawBlaze has the upper hand in this match with its “dustpan” attachment allowing it to slide right underneath its opponent since Razorback has ground clearance for days. Razorback’s drum starts throwing some superficial aluminum sparks off of the dustpan and holy shit this is loud as hell without the magic of TV to dampen the sounds of destruction and replace them with Chris Rose burping the alphabet or whatever. SawBlaze maneuvers Razorback into the corner of the arena and since now is as good of a time as any the robot finally makes use of its weapon and brings its saw blade down onto Razorback and inadvertently connects with its drum, ripping the entire set of teeth off of SawBlaze’s fucking disc in the process. Since this puts SawBlaze’s weapon firmly in the range of “garbage tier” Jamison makes the executive decision to rely solely on the dustpan to keep Razorback at bay which thus far has proven to be a delicious snack for Razorback’s drum and absolute hell on Earth for people with headphones watching this match.
For a robot whose battle strategy has been forced to become purely defensive — and who absolutely cannot stop popping wheelies all over the goddamned place — SawBlaze is hanging in there; its massive wheel base allows it to whip around quickly and keep its dustpan facing Razorback, which of course Razorback wants none of since it only gives SawBlaze an opportunity to push it around. Razorback continuously tries to drift around to its opponent’s wheels but isn’t able to get any purchase and once again ends up getting funneled into the dragon’s dustpan and gets delivered to the Pulverizer… which swings like its pneumatics just fucking exploded. Listen closely and you’ll hear a fucking squeak. With the Pulverizer dead and stuck firmly in what I can only assume is Razorback’s equivalent of a butt crack SawBlaze once again takes its opponent for a ride, presumably to a hazard that isn’t a joke.
Unable to achieve this, SawBlaze just puts Razorback into the wall a few more times until the buzzer sounds. Assuming that they have this match easily in the bag, SawBlaze does a victory spin before trying to show off with a giant flame from its flamethrower which they apparently have and did fuck with all for the past three minutes. Since this weapon is also a piece of crap, SawBlaze manages to articulate itself in the air and rip a juicy fart instead. For all of you who had their jimmies obliterated by the “damage with primary weapon” stipulation of the Chomp versus Disk O’Inferno fight, you’re about to have a fucking stroke over this one. Razorback takes a victory by a split decision which the audience absolutely did not agree with.
#RazorGate
WINNER: Razorback, Judges’ Decision
NIGHTMARE vs. STINGER
(QUALIFICATION ROUND)
NIGHTMARE Team Nightmare Weapon: Vertical spinning disc
STINGER Team Plumb Crazy Weapon: Lifting wedge w/ flamethrower
[This match is available on BattleBots’ official YouTube channel.]
Let’s talk about salt. Good ol’ NaCl. Nightmare is a fucking badass robot. Fact. It still hasn’t been featured on TV this season. Jim Smentowski’s iconic heavyweight has consistently instilled a sense of fear in the event’s safety crew throughout the entirety of the sport; in 1999 before the Battlebox had a ceiling on it officials told Jim he couldn’t spin his weapon upward because it would pose a safety threat, and in 2003 during the final Comedy Central season — when there had been a ceiling on the arena for years now — Nightmare got all of the rumbles shitcanned because its disc lost a tooth and threw it straight through the ceiling. Research has proven that every time Nightmare enters the ring, someone dies. Somewhere. The robot has not aged well, but Jim’s done a damn fine job keeping his robot up with the times; new this season is a special self-righting mechanism that essentially operates by pivoting Nightmare’s entire drive system upside down plus the ability for Nightmare’s disc to spin the other way when inverted.
People have been playing up Bombshell as a “Swiss Army bot”, but Stinger is a robot that was modular before it was “cool”. While it might not be a mobile base with weapon slots, Matt Maxham has refined this machine over the years and is able to outfit it with different lifting arrays, weapon orientations, and wheel layouts depending upon who it’s fighting. Last season saw the rise of Stinger’s “random ass piece of steel the team found behind a Wendy’s”. This season they’ve gone a step further and cut it into a neat little wedge to hopefully deflect blows from Nightmare’s killer wheel. Speaking of wheels, Stinger normally has six of them (as seen in its battle with Mega Tento), but only has four this time around both to make up for the added weight of its wedge as well as not needing them in general since Nightmare isn’t really a robot who’s able to, you know, push back.
Something makes a screeching sound right as this match starts and I can’t figure out if it’s Stinger burning rubber across the floor or Nightmare channeling the souls of the damned to power up its doomsday device of a weapon |
of a business, the same principles apply. The plan can allow the owner and key executives to put away large sums for retirement. This works again as long as the owner(s) are willing and the business is able to support ongoing contributions to the rank and file workers.
Cash balance plans offer a degree of portability when employees leave the company as long as they are vested in the benefit. Like a regular pension plan, in the event that the employer has financial difficulty, the benefits of the participants are insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. up to their maximum monthly benefit limits.
The Bottom LineKeenum guides No. 11 UH past rival SMU
• Statistics
It wasn't the prettiest day, with overcast skies hovering over Robertson Stadium. It wasn't the most picturesque performance by Houston, with its high-powered offense not quite lighting up the scoreboard like it has for most of the season.
Aesthetics aside, the Cougars remained perfect in the end.
Aided by a stout defensive performance, No. 11 UH worked its way to a 37-7 win over SMU before a record crowd of 32,207 on senior day Saturday at Robertson Stadium to remain undefeated.
The Cougars (11-0, 7-0 Conference USA) will take their unblemished mark on the road for their regular-season finale, a showdown at Tulsa for the C-USA West Division title and a berth in the conference championship game.
On Saturday, UH was unable to score at the breakneck pace to which it is accustomed. But the Cougars put together one of their best defensive performances of the season to make up for it, holding the Mustangs (6-5, 4-3) to just one touchdown, 24 rushing yards and 263 total yards — all well below SMU's season averages.
"We had a great effort defensively," UH coach Kevin Sumlin said. "To hold them to seven points — and our third-down percentages were great — it was great for our team."
Houston quarterback Case Keenum (7) celebrates after scoring on a 16-yard touchdown run during the fourth quarter in an NCAA football game against SMU at Robertson Stadium, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Houston. Houston quarterback Case Keenum (7) celebrates after scoring on a 16-yard touchdown run during the fourth quarter in an NCAA football game against SMU at Robertson Stadium, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Houston. Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 50 Caption Close Keenum guides No. 11 UH past rival SMU 1 / 50 Back to Gallery
Saturday was the deepest the Cougars have gone into a game this season before scoring a touchdown. Senior running back Michael Hayes (15 carries, 68 yards) broke the ice with a 36-yard scoring run on a draw play with 46 seconds left in the first half, giving UH a 13-0 lead.
Clamping down
And while it didn't hurt that SMU came into the game without C-USA's leading rusher, Zach Line, who is done for the year with a toe injury, UH made sure not to let quarterback J.J. McDermott (23-of-40, 239 yards), or Line's backup, Jared Williams (10 carries, 11 yards), do any significant damage.
The Cougars were able to generate pressure on McDermott, racking up four sacks, three of which came courtesy of senior linebacker Sammy Brown.
Brown came into the game nursing an ankle injury he suffered on Nov. 10 against Tulane, but he was able to fight through it and lead the team with 10 tackles and six tackles for loss.
"We knew they had a good passing game," Brown said. "We just wanted to go out and stop them from making big plays."
The defense also came up with two key turnovers. One came on a Phillip Steward interception of McDermott in the end zone, killing an 11-play, 74-yard SMU drive to open the second half. The next came on the Mustangs' following possession when cornerback D.J. Hayden and defensive end Kelvin King combined to hit McDermott, forcing a fumble that UH recovered at its own 45. The Cougars turned the pair of turnovers into 10 points.
Marked man
Senior quarterback Case Keenum also made some more history. Keenum (30-of-45 passing, 318 yards) became the NCAA's all-time completions leader and the second player in NCAA history to throw for at least 4,000 yards in three separate seasons. He also tied the career record for 300-yard passing games.
The UH offense did come up with big plays at key moments, including a play-action rollout pass from Keenum to Justin Johnson for a 12-yard touchdown on fourth-and-1 that gave UH a 23-0 lead with 30 seconds left in the third quarter. But the Cougars' overall red-zone struggles on Saturday give them a focal point heading into next week.
"We were moving the ball and converting on some good third downs," Keenum said. "It was just little things. When it comes down to it in close games, we're going to need to make those plays."
sam.khan@chron.com
twitter.com/skhanjrFor other uses, see Qanun
The Kanun is a set of traditional Albanian laws. The Kanun was primarily oral and only in the 20th century was it published in writing.[1] The Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini (Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit) was codified in the 15th century. Six later variations eventually evolved:
The Old Kanun (Albanian: Kanun i vjetër );
); The Kanun of Mirdita (Albanian: Kanuni i Mirditës );
); The Kanun of Pukë (Albanian: Kanuni i Pukës );
); The Kanun of Çermenikë (Albanian: Kanuni i Çermenikës );
); The Kanun of Pope Julius (Albanian: Kanuni i Papa Zhulit );
); The Kanun of Labëria (Albanian: Kanuni i Labërisë ); [2]
); The Kanun of Skanderbeg (Albanian: Kanuni i Skënderbeut)[3][4] also known as The Kanun of Arbëria (Albanian: Kanuni i Arbërisë).
The Kanun of Skanderbeg is the closest in similarity with the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, and the latter is usually the most known and is also regarded as a synonym of the word kanun. The Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini was developed by Lekë Dukagjini, who codified the existing customary laws.[5] It has been used mostly in northern and central Albania and surrounding areas formerly in Yugoslavia where there is a large ethnic Albanian population; Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia. It was first codified in the 15th century but the use of it has been outspread much earlier in time. It was used under that form until the 20th century, and revived recently after the fall of the communist regime in the early 1990s.
Etymology [ edit ]
The term kanun comes from the Greek "κανών" ("canon"), meaning amongst others "pole" or "rule"[6] and was transported from Greek to Arabic and then into early Turkish.[7] Kanun was also known by the word of Doke.
Origin [ edit ]
The practice of the oral laws that Lekë Dukagjini codified in the Kanun was suggested by Edith Durham as dating back to the Bronze Age.[8] Some authors have conjectured that the Kanun may derive from ancient Illyrian tribal laws.[9] Other authors have suggested that the Kanun has retained elements from Indo-European prehistoric eras.[10]
However several stratifications can be easily observed in the code, beginning with pre-Indo-European, Indo-European, Ancient Greek, Roman, general Balkan and Osmanli.[11]
According to Serbian authors T. O. Oraovac[12] and S. S. Djuric, it is largely based on Dušan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire (enacted 1349), which at the time held the whole of Albania.[13] Noel Malcolm speculates that an article in Dušan's Code was an early attempt to clamp down on the self-administered customary law of the mountains, as later codified in the Kanun of Lek Dukagjin, and if so, this would be the earliest evidence that such customary laws were in effect.[14] Despite the similarities the majority of scientists agree that the Code of Leke Dukagjini is not the same as Dusans Code and that such conclusions are "far-fetched". When the Turkish invaders conquered the medieval Serbian state many customary laws of social life amongst the Balkan peoples were brought back to use, this included the Albanians.[15] The town of Shkodra had for example, before Dušan's Code, its own customary laws and rules.[16]
Development and usage [ edit ]
The Law of Lek Dukagjini (kanun) was named after a medieval prince Lekë Dukagjini of the fifteenth century who ruled in northern Albania and codified the customary laws of the highlands.[5] The code was written down only in the 19th century by Shtjefën Gjeçovi and partially published in the Hylli i Drites periodical in 1913.[1] The full version appeared only in 1933 after Gjeçovi's death in 1926.[1] In 1989 a dual English-Albanian version was published.[1][17] and then replicated in a 1992 version.[18]
Although the laws are attributed to Lekë Dukagjini, the laws evolved over time as a way to bring law and rule to these lands. The Kanun is divided into 12 sections,[19] and Gjeçovi's version has 1,262 articles which regulate all aspects of the mountainous life: economic organisation of the household, hospitality, brotherhood, clan, boundaries, work, marriage, land, and so on.[1] The Besa (personal honour, compare with Lat. fides) and nderi (family honour, Lat. honor) are of prime importance throughout the code as the cornerstone of personal and social conduct.[1][20] The Kanun applies to both Christian and Muslim Albanians.[1]
Some of the most controversial rules of the Kanun (in particular book 10 section 3) specify how murder is supposed to be handled, which often in the past and sometimes still now led to blood feuds that last until all the men of the two involved families are killed.[21] In situations of murder tribal law stipulates the principle of koka për kokë (head for a head) where the relatives of the victim are obliged to seek gjakmarje (blood vengeance).[5] Women are only seen as producers of offspring and are referred to in a discriminatory manner and so are not considered worthy targets.[21] The Albanian name for blood feud is Gjakmarrja. In some parts of the country, the Kanun resembles the Italian vendetta.[22] These rules have resurfaced during the 1990s in Northern Albania, since people had no faith in the powerless local government and police. There are organizations that try to mediate between feuding families and try to get them to "pardon the blood" (Albanian: Falja e Gjakut), but often the only resort is for men of age to stay in their homes, which are considered a safe refuge by the Kanuni, or flee the country. Tribal also held that thieves would need to pay fines to the relative amount that was stolen.[5]
Albanian tribes from the Dibra region (known as the "Tigers of Dibra") governed themselves according to the Law of Skanderbeg, named after a fifteenth century warrior who fought the Ottomans.[23]
Former communist leader of Albania Enver Hoxha effectively stopped the practice of Kanun with hard repression and a very strong state police. However, after the fall of communism, some communities have tried to rediscover the old traditions, but some of their parts have been lost, leading to fears of misinterpretation.
Notably, the current Albanian Penal Code does not contain any provisions from the Kanun that deal with blood feuds, and no acknowledgment of this code is made in the contemporary Albanian legal system.[citation needed] In 2014 about 3,000 Albanian families were estimated to be involved in blood feuds and this since the fall of Communism has led to the deaths of 10,000 people.[21]
Pillars of the Kanun [ edit ]
The Kanun is based on four pillars:
Honour (Albanian: Nderi )
) Hospitality (Albanian: Mikpritja )
) Right Conduct (Albanian: Sjellja )
) Kin Loyalty (Albanian: Fis)
Content [ edit ]
The Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini is composed of 12 books and 1,262 articles. The books and their subdivisions are the following:
Church; The Church Cemeteries Property of the Church The Priest Church workers Family; The family make-up Marriage; Engagement Wedding The Kanun of the groom In-laws Separation Inheritance House, Livestock and Property; The house and its surroundings Livestock Property The boundary Work; Work Hunting Commerce Transfer of Property; Borrowing Gifts Spoken Word; Honor; Individual honor Social honor 'Blood' and gender; brotherhood and godparents Damages; Law Regarding Crimes Criminals Stealing Murder (discussion of sanctioning of blood feuds) The kanun of the elderly Exemptions and Exceptions Types of exceptions Death
Kanun in literature and film [ edit ]
Albanian writer Ismail Kadare evokes the Kanun several times in his books and has it as the main theme in his novel Broken April.[24] He also evoques the kanun in his novel Komisioni i festës[25] (English: The Celebration Commission), where Kadare literally describes the Monastir massacre of 1830 as the struggle between two empires: the Albanian Kanun with its code of besa and the Ottoman Empire itself.[26] According to Kadare in his literary critique book Eskili, ky humbës i madh (English: Aeschylus, this big loser),[27] where loser refers to the great number of tragedies that were lost from Aeschylus, there are evident similarities between the kanun and the vendetta[22] customs in all the Mediterranean countries.
Barbara Nadel's Deep Waters[28] refers to Kanun and Gjakmarrja.
Joshua Marston's 2011 film The Forgiveness of Blood, a drama set in modern-day Albania, deals with the Kanun. The film relates a blood feud between two families in Northern Albania, focusing primarily on how the feud affects the children of one family.
The Kanun is referred to in season 6, episode 9 of Law & Order: Criminal Intent ("Blasters") as the explanation for the sudden retreat of a group of Albanian assassins.
The Kanun plays a major role in the Belgian movie Dossier K.
Elvira Dones's Sworn Virgin[29] refers to Kanun and women's practice of swearing celibacy in return to being accepted as men by all local villagers.
Belgian TV maker Tom Waes visited Albania during one of the shows in his series Reizen Waes. He was served spit roasted goat and was offered the head of the goat. According to Kanun rules, this is how they honor a guest during dinner.[30]
The Kanun is referred to in "The Closer" Season 6 | Episode 14 "The investigation into the Albanian blood feud" [31]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The Minnesota high school hockey season gets started fairly soon. Tryouts are under way and games start in a couple of weeks. That means it's time to start up the high school hockey coverage again.
We'll start things off with my annual Mr. Hockey Watch List. It's my annual list of 10--or in this year's case 11, since I decided to add a name late, and didn't want to take anyone off--players who are candidates for the Minnesota Mr. Hockey award, given annually to the state's top senior hockey player. The award is voted on by college coaches and scouts, so it's often more about who has the most talent, as opposed to who has the best stats.
The favorite coming into this year is Blaine's Nick Bjugstad, who should technically be a junior, but is accelerating his schooling to finish high school this year, and thanks to the precedent set by Roseau's Aaron Ness, he is eligible for the award. But there are a lot of really strong players this year. It should be an excellent year for high school hockey.
The whole list is after the jump.
Nick Bjugstad-Blaine High School-Committed to Minnesota
It's tough to really call Nick Bjugstad a late-bloomer. Not when he was scoring goals for his team in the state tournament sectional finals as a 9th grader. And not when he's finishing high school a year early to play for the University of Minnesota next season. But last fall, Bjugstad was 5'10" 155 lbs. and while he may have been on the radar of some pro teams, he certainly wasn't considered a can't-miss-prospect. Now, Bjugstad is 6'4" 185 lbs and has drawn the attention of every NHL team as a potential first round draft pick.
He's always been gifted with a world-class shot, but his newfound size has turned him into a stronger skater and a physical force. He should be the top pro prospect in the state of Minnesota, and he should be the leader of a talented Blaine team that is likely to make another trip to the state tournament.
Caleb Herbert-Bloomington Jefferson-Committed to Minnesota-Duluth
Bloomington Jefferson returns a lot of key players from an excellent squad last season, and should once again be among the top handful of teams in the state. Caleb Herbert may not be the most prized NHL prospect in the state, but he should score a ton of goals and be a leader on a top-notch team, which is sure to draw him a lot of attention for Mr. Hockey.
Herbert's best assets are his offensive instincts and lightning quick release on his shot. He led the Upper Midwest Elite League in scoring this fall, and finish among the top scorers in the state during the high school season could give him a shot at winning the award.
Brock Nelson-Warroad High School-Committed to North Dakota
At the end of last season, Brock Nelson may have been lower on this list, despite helping lead his Warroad Warriors to the state tournament. But Nelson had an exceptional fall Elite League, which helped him earn a commitment to North Dakota, and catch the attention of many scouts to becoming a rising prospect for the NHL Draft.
There are a couple things working against Nelson. First, his power forward style of play works more effectively with a playmaker helping set him up. Nelson isn't the type of player to skate end-to-end around five guys and score a goal. Second, fair or not, he's not going to get nearly the attention of a Bjugstad or Herbert playing in the northwest corner of the state. But while the average hockey fan or media member may not follow him much up there, there will definitely be a lot of scouts that make the trip up to Warroad and they'll recognize what a quality hockey player he is.
Joey Benik-St. Francis HS-Committed to St. Cloud
Much like Ben Hanowski last season, there's yet another St. Cloud recruit that is bound to put up amazing numbers against questionable competition, and be a source of discussion and debate all season long. But Benik doesn't have nearly the pedigree outside of high school hockey that Hanowski did, that helped proved Hanowski was one of the state's best.
Benik definitely has talent, but his style of play with his high school team-long shifts, rarely treading into his own defensive zone-are bound to put up huge numbers that will impress people who read about him in newspapers(or online, nobody reads newspapers anymore), but it will also probably leave those that actually get out to watch him play unimpressed.
Anyone from Minnetonka High School
More specifically, Max Gardiner(Minnesota), Troy Hesketh(Wisconsin), Andrew Prochno(St. Cloud), and Justin Holl(Minnesota). All four are future WCHA players, and three are potential NHL draft picks, while Hesketh was already drafted in the third round of last year's draft. The problem is: how do you separate them? With that many good players, especially on the blueline, it's probably going to be hard for one player to stand out that much above the others to be considered for the Mr. Hockey. Too many good players is a nice problem to have, and I'm sure all four would much rather earn a trip to the state tournament together than win an individual award.
Mark Alt-Cretin-Derham Hall-Committed to Minnesota
Mark Alt might be the best athlete playing high school hockey in the state. The big, smooth-skating defenseman was also a star quarterback for his high school, and a marginal Division I college football prospect. But there are also some question marks about his hockey sense.
Players his size that skate like he does don't come around very often, which is sure to have scouts intrigued, and if he plays well, he might have an outside shot at even winning the award, but odds are, he's not quite polished enough yet to be seriously considered.
Max Gaede-Woodbury HS-Committed to Minnesota State
Gaede is a unique player in that his two strongest skills are grinding along the boards, and making excellent passes to teammates. He's not guaranteed to be an NHL draft pick this summer, but he's at least played well enough to pique the interest of scouts, while his Woodbury team is starting to become a powerhouse in the eastern suburbs.
Adam Knochenmus-Roseau-Uncommitted
One of my favorite players to watch, Adam Knochenmus has just about everything you could want in a hockey player except ideal size. He is always the hardest working player on the ice, and despite his size, is absolutely fearless. He's extremely unselfish and is really good at getting his teammates the puck in great position.
Knochenmus really isn't on the NHL radar right now, which probably kills any chance of him having a shot at the award, but he definitely deserves recognition as one of the state's best.
Cal Decowski-Andover High School-Uncommitted
Decowski is one of the best kept secrets in the state of Minnesota. Like Knochenmus, he's a small player that is off the NHL's radar, and the school he plays for isn't a powerhouse in high school hockey, so that probably eliminates him from much consideration, but he's as talented and exciting a player to watch as nearly anyone in the state. He's a shifty offensive player that can stickhandle around any defender and create great scoring chances from next to nothing.
Christian Isackson-St. Thomas Academy-Committed to Minnesota
Isackson never got big enough, or fast enough to become the top-notch player some thought he might be when he was younger, but he's still exceptionally smart with the puck and should put up a ton of points on a very good St. Thomas team this year. Linemate Justin Crandall may also end up being considered for the award.
Chris Casto-Hill-Murray-Uncommitted
Casto is like a slightly smaller, more polished version of Mark Alt. He's very effective in all three zones of the ice. It's tough to pick out one area where he's great, but he does everything pretty well. Casto should be the leader of a Hill-Murray team that is always strong, but probably still a year away from making a more serious run at things.Hurricane Irma has reached Florida's west coast and it's path to get there was pretty much the worst possible in terms of reducing it's power.
After initial forecasts showed the storm would probably miss major land mass entirely, Irma changed course and now has a runway of conditions perfect for sustaining itself right up Florida's west coast.
Florida is set to receive the full force of the record-breaking hurricane, with residents told to evacuate from the state's southern tip.
View more!
Why is Irma's current path so bad for Florida?
Aside from the obvious observation that Irma set to batter Florida with wind, rain and sea surges, the path it took to get there bodes particularly poorly for America's sunshine state.
The key to why this is lies in the science behind how hurricanes form and sustain themselves.
Hurricanes feed off warm seas, with the moisture evaporating from their paths, causing pockets of low pressure and driving up wind speeds.
They will lose power if there is enough wind shear to knock them off course or if they hit land.
Credit: NASA
Irma is enjoying all the conditions necessary to sustain itself and little of the ones needed to slow it down, becoming the first storm to sustain winds of 185mph for a period longer than a day.
While it has brought devastation to smaller Caribbean islands such as Barbuda and St Martin, it hasn't, as yet, hit any land masses large enough to slow it down.
Cuba's gain is very much Florida's loss in this regard. Had Irma's centre traveled directly over Cuba - as it had been forecast to do a few days ago - instead of grazing the coast, this would likely have taken a lot of the sting out of the storm.
Instead, Irma's path has shifted to the north with the latest estimates showing the centre of the storm will slide up Florida's warm water coastline. This water will help Irma maintain its ferocity and act as trail of fuel guiding the hurricane all the way up to northern Florida.
Among the places forecast to be hit hardest by the storm is the city of Tampa, which is now directly in Irma's path.
View more!
Storms this powerful are getting more common
Irma is breaking records for its power, but there are signs that hurricanes of this intensity will only become more frequent as time goes by.
In the fifty years between 1900 and 1949 an average of 0.8 category four and five storms were recorded in the Atlantic every year according to the US' National Hurricane Centre.
The following fifty years saw 1.2 storms of this ferocity per year while since the turn of the millennium there have been an average of two a year.
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So far in 2017, we've had two storms of this magnitude with Hurricane Jose following hot on the heels of Irma after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston earlier in the season.
While it is difficult to pin the causes of any one storm on climate change, the increase in global sea surface temperature will undoubtedly encourage tropical cyclones to become more powerful, if not more frequent.
If the trend so far this century is to continue, Irma's records may well be broken sooner than many will hope.The language barrier and the large influx of Koreans is something I’ve danced around in this column. Problems with language barriers in rosters tend to be over-emphasized, and there are also aspects that are under-emphasized. But regardless of the impact of the problem, LPL teams in the offseason have become more serious about teaching their South Korean players to speak Mandarin Chinese.
While some in the West have called this the largest League of Legends offseason in the history of the competitive scene, Chinese moves pale in comparison to last year’s acquisition of nearly two South Koreans per team. Many Koreans who have migrated to China have chosen to remain with their original teams, regardless of results. The question becomes why and whether this is a positive decision.
Weekly Hurdle: Korean retention
Prominent Korean players remaining in China have largely decided to continue playing for their original LPL teams. The primary exceptions are the transfers of Cho “Mata” Sehyoung and Jang “looper” Hyeongseok to Royal Never Give Up.
Motivations for Korean player retention are three-fold:
Korean player buyouts in Chinese team contracts tend to contain a clause that requires a higher transfer price for Koreans to transfer to other Chinese teams. If a Korean player should choose to return to South Korea or to transfer to a European or North American team, this higher price may not apply — or the teams may not require a transfer price at all. This allows for a South Korean player to remain part of a Chinese team’s brand while they play in Chinese leagues. Fans may associate Heo “pawN” Wonseok with Samsung or MiG, but pawN in China is part of EDward Gaming. The acclimation period of Korean players to a new environment can be a stressful experience. Once a foreign player settles into his new Chinese team, he has familiar faces with whom he communicates on a regular basis. They develop unique communication systems with their teammates and staff. Once they transfer to a new Chinese team, they may have to reforge these systems and start again at a language barrier or with a large sense of unfamiliarity. The pressure on Chinese teams to acquire new South Korean players is smaller this year, as there are fewer celebrity names that can compete with the previous year’s stars. Go “Score” Dongbin doesn’t have the gravitas to compete with the personality of Lee “KaKAO” Byungkwon. As a result, streaming platforms supplementing or completely paying player salaries are less interested in 2015 League of Legends Champions Korea players. Teams with more renowned players are incentivized to retain them.
This has lead to far less migration of Korean players between teams. Players like KaKAO, Jang “MaRin” Gyeonghwan, and EDward Gaming’s Koreans have expressed increased interest in learning Mandarin Chinese, and teams are now posting ads for full time Mandarin Chinese teachers for their Korean players. EDward Gaming recently posted photos of their ongoing Mandarin Chinese courses.
After the Chinese teams collapsed at the 2015 World Championship, commentators, redditors and pro players in the west tunneled on the problem of the mixed language roster. In a previous Rebuilding China, I confessed that I think that infrastructural issues and practice ethic are far more to blame. Though Chinese teams seemed uncoordinated, other mixed language rosters have found ways to set up communication systems and still find success.
I've hit upon out-of-game communication snafus and inconsistency in game flow with the inclusion of South Korean junglers more than other issues, since I believe they're the biggest problems plaguing mixed-language teams. If I built an ideal dual-language roster, I would import carries in mid and AD carry, then have the communication-based top, jungle and support structure in charge of Teleports, directing targets in fights and stacking crowd control for setups. EDward Gaming have managed to execute this framework well for the most part, until other issues with player rotation due to injury, meta adaptation and out-of-game communication plagued them at the World Championship.
That’s not to say that teaching South Korean players Mandarin Chinese won’t have its benefits. As South Korean players remain with the same teams, they can develop more complex communication systems, and the comfort of the same environment that feels increasingly like “home." More comfortable players tend to perform and practice better. There are fewer chances to make mistakes when players can communicate easily with their staff and teammates.
Unfortunately, the threat of malaise also looms, and a roster change can help rejuvenate lagging motivation. If teams remain the same and don’t perform to their expectations, it becomes easier to slack on practice and just accept mid-tier or low-tier in both the LPL and on the international stage.
Teams like EDward Gaming where players are allegedly quite motivated will improve as their Korean players remain with the team and continue to learn more Mandarin Chinese. Teams like Invictus Gaming, known for personalities and entertaining game play, but not necessarily results, might worsen and become more complacent without a change.
This is uncharted territory. At the end of the year, many Korean players will naturalize as Chinese players, and we could see another wave of Korean players migrate as a result. In the meantime, just because a mixed-language roster remains the same doesn’t mean they’ll give the same performance this year. It’s almost assured, however, that learning Chinese will not make or break this year’s teams.
Roster Rumblings
The Chinese offseason extension ends on Dec. 26. Quite a few LPL rosters are finalized or presumed finalized, with only about four expecting transfers before Boxing Day.
Confirmations
LGD Gaming, QG Reapers and Masters3 have all-but-confirmed their rosters for the 2016 LPL Spring season. Several other rosters are practically confirmed, but these will almost assuredly go unchanged.
Position LGD QG M3 Top MaRin/Acorn V XY Jungle Eimy Swift Yolo Mid GODV Doinb Raphael ADC imp TnT PentaQ Support Pyl TcT Savoki
Masters3 finalized their roster this week with a jungle and mid lane acquisition from Hyper Youth Gaming in Jang "Yolo" Hyeonsu and Ko "Raphael" Jaehyun. The pair worked together this summer and have a competitive history in other regions. Though this isn't an upgrade to Masters3's roster, it was one of the better low-cost options available.
Their top laner comes from TOT1, and their new support, Jin "Savoki" Hao has worked with AD carry Xu "PentaQ" Mingshu in the LSPL on WE Future. Masters3 are taking duos from other teams to try to build from existing synergy, which could pay off better than expected.
Ye "Milky" Jiaben played for Hyper Youth Gaming in the World Cyber Arena games this weekend, making the roster change first reported by word-of-mouth official.
As for players migrating from the LPL and the LSPL, Lee "Spirit" Dayoon officially joined Fnatic. Li "Kane" Zhihong left Energy Pacemaker and appeared on the LMS team Assassin Snipers during the LMS preseason tournament.
Likely
The following teams did not come out and state that their rosters have been completely finalized, but the players at least have been signed and are likely to start for the team in 2016 with very minimal changes.
Position EDG VG EPA HYG WE Top Koro1 Loong GimGoon ss17GOD 957 Jungle Clearlove DanDy Soist Milky Condi Mid pawN Easyhoon Republic JOJO xiye ADC deft Endless Romant1c XQ Mystic Support meiko Duan Jiezou X1u Conan
Tong "Koro1" Yang and pawN have allegedly recovered from their health problems, and they seem very likely to play for the team next year. deft still poses the biggest question mark, as some expected him to return to Korea after expressing regret in joining a Chinese team, and it's known that EDward Gaming has looked into other options. Ming "Clearlove" Kai has said the AD carry will remain with the team. The only possibility, then, is whether EDG have signed an additional ADC to rotate on the roster with deft. I doubt this is the case.
Vici Gaming's only possible change would also come in their AD carry position. Xu "Endless" Hao may take the bench for another amateur ADC, but so far it seems he will remain part of the starting lineup. This is disappointing for anyone who watched his Miss Fortune this weekend.
Energy Pacemaker All's lineup appears finalized. Perhaps I just don't want He "Soist" Zhihong, the Lee Sin one trick, to replace promising rookie Huang "crisis" Zhen, but I'm still holding out hope the latter will be the team's starting jungler.
Hyper Youth Gaming transferred their South Korean players to Masters3. They still have time to acquire new ones, but as they have only recently signed Milky, it seems they are sticking with an all Chinese lineup for now.
Kan "JOJO" Yiutou has gone from the bench to the starting HYG team. JOJO is an LPL champion from Positive Energy who had strong synergy with Rao "Jing" Jing, but since he and Zhu "NaMei" Jiawen departed, JOJO has failed to impress — except for a strange game in which he carried PE to one of their only wins of 2014 LPL Spring with some daring Lulu play.
Huang "FireFox" Tinghsiang may join a new team in China as an analyst, as he is allegedly accepting offers. Perhaps he wants to prove himself after LGD Gaming's disastrous Group Stage.
Four teams remain that are still either likely to see changes, or are surrounded by rumors regarding their rosters. One of the most prominent rumors is that Zhu "TBQ" Yongquan has joined OMG. Yu "cool" Jiajun and TBQ have duo'd together recently, and one of TBQ's stream viewers noticed he's been streaming inside OMG's base.
Several sources have told me that TBQ may indeed be joining OMG. I have to wonder, since TBQ said he'd take a break, if he'll simply stream for OMG. Current jungler juejue has shown some promise, so it will be somewhat frustrating to see him replaced by TBQ.
Rumor Roundup
Disclaimer: It should be noted that this section merely contains a collection of pure rumors from Chinese forums without additional confirmation. This is for the sake of building context with western fans of the LPL.
Another rumored addition to OMG, with which I have just as many concerns, is Han "Smlz" Jin. Smlz is my pick for the worst AD carry in the LPL this year. While he once looked impressive, his laning phase was deplorably passive, and he hardly accomplished anything outside the lane to compensate.
Smlz will allegedly only join if Jian "Uzi" Zihao manages to sign to another team or retire. Yan "North" Hong is even more promising than juejue, and I'd much rather see him develop. So far, however, this rumor is only gossip.
Yan "letme" Junze quietly improved throughout the LPL this year and has had an outstanding offseason performance with Royal Never Give Up winning yet another tournament. Rumors say OMG has also looked to pick him up. He'd be the only smart signing on paper of the three rumors I mentioned and would open up significantly more drafting possibilities for the team than retaining Hu "xiyang" Bin.
OMG will definitely see changes, but Royal Never Give Up, Invictus Gaming and Snake may remain as they are. Royal Never Give Up fans still hold on to the hopes that U |
you’re not going to cause any / much damage before someone notices you may be doing something wrong or bad in some way.
Again this is probably different on smaller wikis and I imagine a new user coming along with a bot could probably stir up the whole site before anyone noticed.
The researchers who wrote the Oxford paper called for a supervising body to manage bot activities (like WP:BAG) and a set of policies to govern their behavior (like WP:Bot_policy) — both of which exist. As Adam says, cases of true bot-bot conflict have been short lived and have caused little damage because these governance mechanisms have been largely effective despite their voluntary, distributed nature.
I don’t mean to paint a picture of perfection in Wikipedia. After all, bot fights do happen (see a list maintained by Wikipedians), but they are rare and short-lived due to the effectiveness of Wikipedia’s bot governance mechanisms. For example:
In November of 2010, SmackBot and Yobot had a slow-motion edit war (a few edits over the course of week) disagreeing about some white-space on the article about Human hair growth.
In September 2009, RFC bot edit-warred with itself for 6 hours about whether or not to include a “moveheader” template on the discussion pages for the articles about White-bellied Parrot and Nanday Parakeet.
The researchers who published the Oxford paper didn’t tell this story because they categorized reverts across Wikipedia as conflict. But the more interesting story is this: Wikipedia is a key example of how to manage bot activities effectively. A few, short-lived bot edit wars and effective governance mechanisms may not be as exciting as the idea that robots are duking it out in Wikipedia. However, from my perspective as a researcher of socio-technical systems like Wikipedia, the real nature of bot fights involves a fascinating discussion of generally effective, distributed governance in a relevant field site and such discussions push the science of socio-technical systems forward. It’s hard to make headlines with “Bot fights in Wikipedia found to be rare and short-lived”.
Aaron Halfaker, Principal Research Scientist
Wikimedia Foundation
Infographic by Aaron Halfaker, CC BY-SA 4.0. This blog post has been updated with a link to Geiger and Halfaker’s paper, “Operationalizing conflict and cooperation between automated software agents in Wikipedia: A replication and expansion of ‘Even Good Bots Fight’.”Apple’s Tim Cook Says Hello: The Full D10 Interview (Video)
As promised, we will begin the posting of all the videos from the 10th D: All Things Digital conference today, starting out with the opening night speaker: Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Aside from a few short interviews and an investor conference, Cook’s session with Walt Mossberg and me was his first extended public talk as the newish leader of perhaps the most important and definitely most influential company in tech.
So, getting to see Cook in action is probably the most important part of this interview. While clearly playing it close to the vest, he ranged over a wide number of topics, from secrecy at Apple (it’s now apparently been doubled!) to the iPhone to controversies in China to a possibly more social partnership with Facebook to more television efforts to, of course, the legacy of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last year.
Cook will be onstage again later today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco — which the crack AllThingsD team will be covering — where he will be unveiling product updates and perhaps more in a keynote speech at 10 am PT.
And here’s a very good primer for that:
(Over the next two to three weeks, we’ll be posting the full videos of D10 interviews in the order that they were presented at the conference.)Dorothy (Dot) Ruth Hathaway
02/13/1921 – 08/13/2017
Dot was born in St. Helens Oregon on February 13, 1921. She passed away Sunday August 13th, 2017. She is preceded in death by her husband Wayne of 79 years, her parents Charlie and Dora Smith, her siblings Bernice and her husband Gene, Carl and his wife Stella, Evert and his wife Elsie, Verna and her husband Elmer, Barbara and her husband Fred. She is survived by her two daughters, Connie Carnagey, Jeannette Harrop and her husband Ron. Two grandsons, Joseph Carnagey and his wife Annitta, Philip Carnagey and his wife Angie. Also, many nieces and nephews.
Dot was a devoted wife, mother, aunt and many other titles. She fully supported her husband Wayne in his many endeavors over the years. She camped with him and cooked while he was logging. She operated a laundromat while Wayne worked operating heavy equipment. When Wayne was invited to volunteer at the headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York, she went along and volunteered too. She worked in the laundry and had many stories to share about the experience. Wayne was invited to be the caretaker of the Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Woodburn Oregon and Dot was happy to do her part. While there, they not only cared for the facility, they both provided hospitality for many traveling overseers and their wives, also many representatives from Headquarters in New York.
Dot was an excellent cook and she loved to prepare meals for her friends and family. She was well known for her peanut butter cookies, her whole-wheat gems that she baked in a cast iron gem iron and many other dishes.
Dot will be greatly missed, but we look forward to seeing her again in the resurrection recorded at John 5: 28, 29. “Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” She loved to share this hope with others whenever she could. Over the years she was very active as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She studied the Bible with many people and encouraged her family to do the same. Many in her family are or have been full time evangelizers because of her and Wayne’s excellent example.
There will be a memorial for Dot on September 9th at 2 PM at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Baker City located at 975 S Bridge St. For those who would like to make a memorial donation in memory of Dot may do so to www.jw.org. On line condolences may be shared at www.tamispinevalleyfuneralhome.com
Service InformationIt’s not that Kevin McCarthy is woefully unprepared to lead the House. Yes, he would be the least experienced speaker in nearly 125 years, but he has served in the senior party leadership for nearly six out of his nine years in Congress. McCarthy became the Republican whip—the third-ranking post—after playing a critical role in the GOP majority-winning wave in 2010, and he was easily elevated to majority leader last year after Eric Cantor’s stunning primary defeat. (He was a fast-climber in California, too, having become minority leader of the state assembly just a year after his election.)
“At the end of the day, Kevin’s really the only one eligible to be speaker,” said Representative Devin Nunes, a fellow California Republican who has known McCarthy for 25 years. Nunes meant that not in the technical sense but in the political sense: With Boehner and Cantor gone, McCarthy is the only House Republican left who has done the spade work of traveling around the country, recruiting candidates, and raising money for the party that really defines the role of a modern-day party leader. McCarthy would never be mistaken for a policy guy, like his good friend and fellow “Young Gun,” Paul Ryan. But the speakership is not really a policy job. “If you’re going to be in any one of those top three jobs, you have to be political,” Nunes told me on Wednesday. “I mean, that’s the number one requirement. It’s most of the job.”
Boehner and McCarthy both share a well-earned reputation for affability. They’re back-slapping types, each quick to rib fellow lawmakers, aides, and often reporters. But while Boehner joked around with everybody, for important decisions he turned most frequently to his oldest congressional buddies—most of whom were House veterans who rose to power with him long before McCarthy first arrived in Congress. “It’s a generational difference,” said Representative Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican elected in 2010.
McCarthy has always been much closer to the younger, more aggressive Republicans who have given the leadership so much trouble. But those relationships didn’t help much when he was responsible for wrangling votes as the party whip, and it’s not yet clear whether they’ll be any more useful for him as speaker. (Unlike Boehner, McCarthy has virtually no relationship with top Democrats, be it Obama or congressional leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.) Depending on how much Boehner can “clean the barn up” before he leaves, McCarthy could begin his tenure facing politically-difficult decisions over the budget, the debt limit, and highway funding. “It’s going to be a tricky minefield,” Nunes said.
Huizenga said he understood what McCarthy meant when he talked about having “a strategy” and a plan to “fight to win”—as vague as it sounded. Conservatives have faulted both Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in recent years for appearing to surrender fights before they’ve even begun, first dismissing the chances of winning on, say, Obamacare or Planned Parenthood, and then jamming legislation through without much input from the rank-and-file. McCarthy has told Republicans he wants a more inclusive process and to begin strategizing these battles earlier, which would allow GOP leaders more time to make their case to the public. McCarthy has also indicated he’s willing to embrace the role of party spokesman in a way that Boehner did not. “He needed to be out there more often explaining where we were coming from and what the plan was and why we were acting in the way that we were acting,” Huizenga said. “Boehner is not that kind of guy. He didn’t want to be the defacto party leader.” To that end, McCarthy has been all over cable news the last few days, even pledging to do a monthly interview with Hannity, who told him he could never get Boehner to return his calls.They also find evidence for two further waves of migration, one among Na-Dene speakers and the other among Eskimo-Aleut, again as Dr. Greenberg predicted. But whereas Dr. Greenberg’s proposal suggested that three discrete groups of people were packed into the Americas, the new genome study finds that the second and third waves mixed in with the first. Eskimos inherit about half of their DNA from the people of the first migration and half from a second migration. The Chipewyans of Canada, who speak a Na-Dene language, have 90 percent of their genes from the first migration and some 10 percent from a third.
It is not clear why the Chipewyans and others speak a Na-Dene language if most of their DNA is from Amerind speakers. Dr. Ruiz-Linares said a minority language could often dominate others in the case of conquest; an example of this is the ubiquity of Spanish in Latin America.
If the genetics of the early migrations to the Americas can be defined well enough, it should in principle be possible to match them with their source populations in Asia. Dr. Greenberg had argued on linguistic grounds that the Na-Dene language family was derived from Ket, spoken by the Ket people in the Yenisei valley of Siberia. But Dr. Reich said there was not yet enough genomic data from Asia or the Americas to make these links. His samples of Na-Dene and Ket DNA did not match, but the few Ket samples he had may have become mixed with DNA from people of other ethnicities, so the test, in his view, was inconclusive.
Photo
The team’s samples of Native American genomes were drawn mostly from South America, with a handful from Canada. Samples from tribes in the United States could not be used because the existing ones had been collected for medical reasons and the donors had not given consent for population genetics studies, Dr. Ruiz-Linares said. Native Americans in the United States have been reluctant to participate in inquiries into their origins. The Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society wrote recently to all federally recognized tribes in the United States asking for samples, but only two agreed to give them, said Spencer Wells, the project director.
Interracial marriage — or admixture, as geneticists call it — may have distorted earlier efforts to trace ancestry because subjects assumed to be American may have had European or other DNA admixed in their genomes. Dr. Reich and his colleagues have developed a method to define the racial origin of each segment of DNA and have found that on average 8.5 percent of Native American DNA belongs to other races. They then screened these admixed sections out of their analysis.
Archaeologists who study Native American history are glad to have the genetic data but also have reservations, given that several of the geneticists’ conclusions have changed over time. “This is a really important step forward but not the last word,” said David Meltzer of Southern Methodist University, noting that many migrations may not yet have shown up in the genetic samples. Michael H. Crawford, an anthropologist at the University of Kansas, said the paucity of samples from North America and from coastal regions made it hard to claim a complete picture of early migrations has been attained.
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“Sometimes the statisticians make wonderful interpretations, but you have to be very guarded,” he said.
The geneticists’ finding of a single main migration of people who presumably spoke a single language at the time confirms Dr. Greenberg’s central idea that most American languages are descended from a single root, even though the genetic data cannot confirm the specific language relationships he described.
“Many linguists put down Greenberg as rubbish and don’t believe his publications,” Dr. Ruiz-Linares said. But he considers his study a substantial vindication of Dr. Greenberg. “It’s striking that we have this correspondence between the genetics and the linguistics,” he said.Orcas, Under Pressure, Adopt Killer Survival Strategy
New research by Reed bio major shows that killer whales are using novel forms of social organization to form hunting parties. Photo by Monika Wieland ’07
In the wine-dark waters of the San Juan Islands, a band of killer whales is fighting for survival.
Loss of habitat, human meddling, and intense competition for chinook salmon, its main source of food, have put severe pressure on these creatures. This band, known as the Southern Residents, is now smaller than any other group of resident killer whales, which live in communities scattered along the cold coastal waters of the North Pacific.
Bio major Michael Weiss ’16 used sophisticated statistical techniques to analyze whale calls.
There are, in fact, just 81 whales left.
But the Southern Residents aren’t giving up without a struggle, according to bio major Michael Weiss ’16. On the contrary, they have responded by rewiring their complex social structure to hunt for chinook more aggressively by working together.
“This is a new dimension of killer whale society that people hadn’t known about before,” says Michael, who won the prestigious Class of ’21 Award for his senior thesis on the social organization of the Southern Residents. “Outside humans, we don’t often see groups of animals co-operating like this.”
Scientists believe that the Southern Residents have roamed this area, known as the Salish Sea, for several hundreds of thousands of years, maintaining a genetically distinct population. In the late sixties and early seventies, however, the band was targeted by marine parks, whose agents captured (and sometimes accidentally killed) as many as 58 whales. In addition, dams and agriculture have depleted runs of chinook salmon, their primary source of food, pushing the band perilously close to extinction.
That the whales have held out so long may be due to their intricate social organization, one of the most sophisticated in the animal world. Their fundamental social unit is the matriline, which revolves around a grandmother and her offspring; it is the cetacean equivalent of the nuclear family. Members of the matriline spend most of their lives in each other’s company, communicating through a complex system of squeaks, clicks, and groans that include at least 25 discrete calls. Together they travel, forage, sleep, and—crucially—hunt.
Matrilines roam their territory in larger kinship groups known as pods. Each pod communicates through a distinct acoustical “dialect” which help members identify each other as belonging to the same pod and reinforces their clannish tendencies. The three pods that comprise the Southern Residents, known as J, K, and L, communicate in dialects that sound radically different.
Until now, scientists believed that almost all the whales’ social interaction, with the exception of mating, took place within their pod. But Michael has discovered that the Southern Residents are breaking down this barrier and cooperating across pods in order to overcome the logistical challenges posed by their scanty population.
When they’re hunting for salmon, matrilines cooperate in a remarkable division of labor. The grandmothers lead the group to territory where fish are likely to be found—they are responsible for locating the prey. But it is the adult males who are responsible for diving deep into the water and flushing the fish to the surface, so that the whole family may feast. Matrilines that include both grandmothers and adult males can therefore assemble the most efficient hunting parties. Unfortunately, several matrilines among the Southern Residents have lost one or more of these key members, which limits their ability to hunt.
Michael spent most of last summer recording the whales with a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) on board a 17-foot speedboat. Once ashore, he analyzed the calls on a spectrogram and then applied a statistical concept known as social network analysis to search for patterns. After intensive study, he realized that understaffed matrilines were co-operating with each other to fill the gaps in their hunting parties. A matriline that lacks an adult male will “borrow” one from another matriline, even if it means crossing pods.
“It’s like sharing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle so that both groups can succeed,” says Michael. “They fill each other’s missing social roles.”
Many animals cooperate while hunting, but almost always in family groups. This degree of cooperation outside the family, known as mutualism, is virtually unknown in the animal kingdom—except, of course, among humans.
“I don’t think killer whales are the only animals that have this multidimensional social structure,” Michael says. “But they’re just the first one we’ve found.”
Michael’s professors say his thesis breaks new ground in our understanding of altruism and cooperation among animals. “Michael’s thesis should be of great interest to marine mammal researchers around the world who study the complex social interactions of these animals,” says his advisor, Prof. Suzy Renn [bio]. “They are also likely to be useful for conservation efforts for these whales and similar populations. Beyond the research world of marine mammals, the tendency to form non-kinship bonds while maintaining close association and information transfer with kin is a cornerstone of complex societies such as humans, and is extremely rare in other species.”
“The type and quality of research that resulted from his dedication is something one would expected from a seasoned field biologist with a Master’s or PhD,” says Prof. Derek Applewhite [bio]. “Michael drew heavily from statistics, computational biology, and animal behavior, successfully integrating these fields into an outstanding senior thesis.”
In fact, Michael worked with a new type of statistical technique, the exponential random graph model, which had never been used to study animal networks before. Fortunately, Prof. Andrew Bray [math] happens to be a former oceanographer who used his insight into the underwater world to figure out how best to apply this statistical tool.
The Class of ’21 Award is bestowed upon a couple of seniors whose theses demonstrate "creative work of notable character, involving an unusual degree of initiative and spontaneity." Religion major Pema McLaughlin ’16 also won the award.
Michael’s fascination with killer whales began with a trip to SeaWorld in Florida when he was six years old. He spent a couple summers as a tour guide on whalewatching boats in the San Juans and last year co-founded the non-profit Orca Behavior Institute with Monika Wieland ’07, who also wrote her thesis on killer whales, and who now works as a scientist and photographer.
After graduation, Michael will return to the San Juans to obtain more data on the Southern Residents. “They’re like this alien intelligence that we know nothing about,” he says. “They’re huge. They’re smart. Realizing how much we don’t know is what inspired me.”
Tags: awards, bio, brilliant students, statisticsComics already Customed <back
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Rollercoaster -Nick
Union: Laser Dog -Amanda
The Saddest Hot Dog -Doug
Ernest Shackleton - Amanda
Punching Literally Everything - Stephen
BBGBfield - Pieter
High 5 Plane - George
Poker or Die - Ryan
High Flyin' Robot - Kasey
Haiku Rd.(shirt for band) - Richard
Drunk Giraffe - Matthew
Elephant Got No Luck - Theo
Slimebo - Ben
Such Trash - Crun
Happy B-Day Mike - Shane
Sailor Moon - Jeffrey
Tank of Shark - Blueshat
TF2 - Theo
Zombie Noah's Ark - Kasey
BFF - Chris
Disgusting Man and Monotinous Lad - Reiley
THE GAY BOMB - R. Vizcarra
Japanese Sports Car - Anman
Awesome Milkshakes - Kyle
Nukeland Cinema guest strip - Lord Nuke
Forgot Something - Owen
Lincoln's Secret Hat - TJ
Metal Gear Solid - Warren
Prettiest Girl - Kevin
The Last Romans - Matthew
Shiva Rock Off - Travis
Heroes for Hire - Eric
Anman Discovers the Source - Anman
S.A.T. - Zeke
Freek Out And Eet Out - Tim
Economics 101 - Alex
Team Fortress 2: The Scout - BBGB
Worst Game Idea - Joe
Lard Pirates FAQ Thing - Shawn
The Decoder - Nik
Quit Mah Blog - Bob
Old Man Suicide - Theo
Son of a Bitch - Theo
Anger Pauly - Named
Final Fantasy - Kyle
Night of D 'n D - Thomas
The King of All Cosmos - RavenWorks
Astronauts in Space - Thomas
Cool Frog and a Dolphin - Owen
Penny and Conan - Dave
Sailboatin' - Chris
Theme Park Mascots -Zeke
Sim City - Paul
The ButtBot Life - Theo
Dinosaurs Explosion and DickButt - Ray
John Muir - Ian
Loch Ness Monster - Benjamin
Philly House - Chris
Pokemon - Joe
Steve - Sarah
Steve Hates Robots - Justin
The Shark - Anman
The Red Spy - Lomz
Cool Frog and Dolphin 2 - Nicolai
Tiny Hulk - Bob
Sell Out - Theo
Thpider-Man - Erik
Giant Pandas - David
Andys 16 Now - Bobby
Friends Forever - Rebecca
Life is Cruel - Anman
Office Puppet Parrot - Josh
The Terrible Son - Amy
The Saddest Man - Ben
"Can't Find a Bottle Opener" - Nick
WE ARE HUGE NERDS - Stephen
Dad Winter - Theo
Desert Search For Techno Allah - K Spinn
God Damn This Job - Selina
Bryan Vs. Brian - Brian
Matt the DM - Spike
Master Blaster's Ladies Club - Taera
Dad Wasps Oh No - Thom
Engineer420 - Brandon
The Nerdly Jellyfish - Chris
Beer Snobbery - Benjamin
Go Fall in a Well - Samuel
Cool Frog and Dolphin vs. Joseph Mengle - Nicolai
Cool Frog and Dolphin vs. TF2 - Lemon Sawdust
Cool Frog and Dolphin vs. DIX - Nicolai
Origin of Cool Frog and Dolphin - Nicolai
Fun in Retail - Daniel
Tree of Doubt - Lindsey
Drum Practice - Jeremy
The Old Prospector - Jeremy
Lil Bro Michael - Daniel
Volcano Max & Viridian Kong - Michael
No Larping - Rik
Mountain 1, 2,3 - Ryan
SKITA - Tim, based on this video.
Creepo Damacy - Sam
AI - Daan
Banjo-Kazooie - Tom
Feed the Cat - Tito
House and Wilson - Jane
Kayak - Lemon
Old Dog - Alex
Robo-Dog - Jase
Sucks to be in the Army - Joseph
Tired of Cats - Kristina
Terminator Xmas - Ian
Ugly Sweater Party - Thomas
Gogol Bordello - Tom
All of What - Ana
Scrape a Knee - A DUDEMichel Therrien will work for the Montreal Canadiens once again this season, but this time as a scout.
Speaking to TSN Radio 690 Montreal on Friday, Therrien said he would not be joining the media and instead would be scouting for the Canadiens.
Therrien on 2017-18 #Habs: "Yes, they're going to make the playoffs" — Joey Alfieri (@joeyalfieri) September 8, 2017
Therrien was fired as head coach of the Canadiens on Feb. 14 and replaced by Claude Julien, who had been fired by the Boston Bruins one week earlier.
The Canadiens led the Atlantic Division at the time of Therrien's firing, but had posted an 18-18-7 record since opening the season 13-1-1.
Therrien described his conversation with Marc Bergevin as he was let go as "very emotional" but said he holds no ill will towards the general manager.
While speaking on Friday, Therrien reflected on multiple moments during his tenure with the Canadiens. He said he regrets calling out P.K. Subban for an "individualistic mistake" after a loss to the Colorado Avalanche in 2015-16 and said he was always trying to challenge Subban to be one of the league's best defencemen, which he believes Subban now is.
"With P.K. Subban, it was a challenge to coach him, it was a challenge to make sure he was going to be one of the best defencemen in the NHL and he did. He won a Norris with us. And I believe he played his best hockey in his career as a Montreal Canadien," Therrien said.
Therrien called last season's 10-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets the toughest night of his life as a coach and said he apologized to Al Montoya, who was left in net for all 10 goals, Carey Price, who was left on the bench, and the entire team for how he handled his goaltenders in the loss.
"It was a tough night and we all were shocked," Therrien said. "I appologized. I made the wrong decision."
Therrien said he has "tons of respect" for winger Max Pacioretty, who he was accused of calling "the worst captain in Canadiens history" last September. "He cares about the team," Therrien added of Pacioretty.As you may already know from visiting www.tourdefresh.com/texas, Tour de Fresh’s mission is, first and foremost, to increase access to fresh produce for as many kids as possible. While planning for the upcoming event on Oct. 1, we discovered an opportunity that will allow us to make a much bigger impact in the Fort Worth area. As a result, we’ve decided to replace the October 1 ride with an event presented by the city of Fort Worth – the Mayor’s Rolling Town HallSpooky Bike Ride party on October 27 from 5:30 – 10:00p. This event will host 350+ families in the Fort Worth area and will include a 7 mile bike ride, which we would still love to see you at!
All registration fees for the previous event will be donated 100% to provide salad bars in school in Fort Worth, unless you would like a full refund. We understand if that is the case, but appreciate your support in providing fresh produce to kids in Fort Worth schools.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, especially for those who were traveling from out of town. Please email Kelsey Byrnes at Kbyrnes@dma-solutions.com if you would like a full refund of your registration fee and if you have any questions.
Event details and scheduleGoing through my Twitter feed this morning, I noticed that someone had retweeted this from Steven Moffat:
http://bit.ly/bftzr Douglas Adams: ten years gone, still ahead of us. You can’t read this without starting a score sheet for the insights.
It’s a brilliant piece that Adams wrote for his website, a testament to the brand new world that we live in and proof that Douglas Adams was a man years ahead of his own time.
But all I remember about him is how he made me laugh.
I was around ten or eleven when I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the first time. My dad noticed how much I was getting into science fiction and pulled his own copy off of the bookshelf before we went on vacation. “Here,” he said. “You’ll probably like this one.”
I didn’t come up for air until I finished it. Afterwards, I giggled my way through the rest of the series, and then my dad bought a computer game called Starship Titanic, which looked like a whole lot of fun. If you dawdled too long on the opening screen of the game and turned on the TV, you would get a message from the man himself: “Well?” he began, so emphatic that you nearly believed he might pop out of the screen and shake you by the shoulders, “What are you waiting for? Go on!”
I spent hours at the computer after that, putting questions to the robot staff of the starship in hopes of getting amusing answers from them. If you typed in Douglas Adams, the bellhop robot would stop you. “Don’t mention him,” he would say, “he’s got a lot to answer for around here.” Oh, I’m sure he did.
I rarely mention Douglas Adams when listing the authors I enjoy, and I wonder if it’s because the back of my brain thinks that should be so obvious. He’s Douglas Adams, the one and only, of course I adore him. In some ways, I still have a hard time believing that he has been gone so long, that there’s not another book coming out next year. In a world where heavy drama reigns supreme in so many mediums, I always aspired to be more like Adams, whether I was writing a school essay, playing a part in a show, or sitting with a group of friends in a sandwich shop.
Because he made me laugh. And I think that’s a greater gift than a profound cry any day.
Emily Asher-Perrin wants you to know that the plans for this post were stuck in the bottom of a locked file cabinet, inside a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying, “Beware of the Leopard.” You can bug her on Twitter and read more of her work here and elsewhere.Ranjan Daimary, Chairmen of anti-talk faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) has stated that his outfit is not willing to extend the cease fire which the outfit had declared with the Government of India. Accusing the centre of not willing to indulge in a lateral dialogue with the outfit, NDFB (Anti-talk) sent a press release few days that they would call off the cease fire.
The blame game as again is on the centre and some Bodo organizations are complaining of bias. According to them, there is a clear bias showed towards ULFA in their coming lateral talks, while NDFB has been neglected. NDFB’s call to withdraw their one sided ceasefire is therefore considered as justified. But is it really justified?
Who was NDFB actually fighting and against whom was the ceasefire
From the day NDFB came into existence, the outfit has fought hardly ten battles or notable gun fights against the Indian Army. Its main fight was always seen to be innocent civilians, including Bodos and the Assamese. Before the Gobinda Basumatary led NDFB (pro-talk) faction declared ceasefire, NDFB had carried large scale bombing and killing innocent civilians in spree. With the Ranjan Daimary faction, the terror just continued as ever for the civilians. The black 30th October blasts at Ganeshguri, Guwahati or the several railway line blasts that took lives of innocent children and people were war for the NDFB. Now it threatens to call off the ceasefire and go to war again! This only means the outfit intends to carry out some more bomb blasts and kill innocents.
NDFB – Biggest enemy of Bodos and Assam
There are still many in the Bodo areas of Assam who considers NDFB as a savior or a fighter of their clan. Unfortunately the same people have given a blind eye to the fact that NDFB always acted against their own people whom they claim to fight for.
The Influence of the Christian Missionaries and the Western countries
NDFB, being strongly backed by Christian missionaries of the west carried out large scale religious conversion of the Bodos, to the extent that the rich culture of the Bodos was threatened. The Hindu Bodos were isolated and some even forcefully converted under the influence of the Missionary backed NDFB. Due to such activity, NDFB was able to attract so many sources of funds from the west and pleased missionaries that they had M-16 guns with them. Even the ULFA who raised much more funds from Assam never had M-16 guns till very recent days.
The dog-fight and fake pride of leadership in NDFB
As per sources, there had taken place an important meeting of the leadership of NDFB and ULFA in 2001, In this meeting held at an unknown location in Bangladesh, the ULFA general council had proposed for unification of both the outfits – NDFB and ULFA. Chairman of ULFA, Arabinda Rajkhowa had offered to step down from his own post and offered Ranjan Daimary to become the chairman of this united outfit. This was being proposed as a mean to unite against the Indian Government and fight for a common cause of Assam. However, Ranjan Daimary and the NDFB had rejected this offer as they enjoyed far more inflow of funds and support from the west (Due to them backing religious conversions). It is also understood that Ranjan Daimary and other leaders did not have any interest for the proposed common cause as it would have meant losing some of their own powers of leadership.
The internal conflicts amongst the NDFB are now an open secret. Gobina Basumatary and Ranjan Daimary are rivals now.
Another example of the fact that the NDFB leaders never cared for anything else other than their own personal powers is their attitude towards fellow leaders lost or lead. One of the most intelligent and popular leaders within NDFB was their Information and Publicity Secretary B Irakdao. However when he went missing during the Bhutan Operations of 2003, the rest of leadership showed a completely uncaring attitude. Unlike the ULFA – the leadership never showed any interest in finding out the whereabouts of their old comrades.
Bodo vs rest of Assam – The cost of Emotional Illiteracy
The chauvinism of the Assam Agitation and later uncaring attitude by the subsequent Government in Assam had led an entire generation of Bodos revolting against the system. For this, it cannot be denied that some of the politicians of Assam as well as the section of the middle class Assamese are to be blamed. It is true that the Bodos of Assam, son of the soil have been neglected for long. But is it not true for every common man of the North East? Be it be the mainstream Assamese, a Meitei, a Hmar or a Mising, every one of the region can claim of injustice. But if the way out of it is hatred towards others, where is the future of the region?
The way NDFB has led their campaign is completely illogical and shameful to their own kiln. Their campaign is only a campaign of hatred. Hate towards the Assamese and other tribes and communities of Assam is manifested in their actions and words. This has led the young generation of Bodos growing up to hate the fellow people, even each other from their own community.
Never in the history of the region was any state or kingdom called Bodoland. The tribes and communities of the region have been living in harmony with each other for thousands of years. Yet the NDFB and their supports want to break off this harmony and create their own acre of land, completely selfishly. More importantly they want to get this done by killing innocent people in bomb blasts, gun shots and train blasts, which they call as war unfortunately. The state of Bodoland has become the demand, though it is completely illogical and will only harm the Bodos as well as rest of Assam. The Bodoland Territorial Council in fact enjoys the same status of a state and the Bodos are completely autonomous, enjoys more facility and rights than many other people of the region.
The truth is Bodoland by NDFB is a demand not for the Bodos, but for the leaders of the outfit where they can become powerful personalities (crossing the likes of Hagrama Mohilary and Pramila Rani Brahma). The understanding has not dawned for the NDFB and their blind supports that a state or nation carved out of hatred towards people living in and around them will only lead to more violence.
The time now calls for the Bodos, Rabhas, Misings, Tiwas, Deoris, Ahoms, Kalitas, Koch Rajbangshis, Brahmins, Sonowal Kacharis and all indigenous people of the state to unite together and fight for common cause. Division amongst all of us is the biggest strength to the enemies. The Government of India would not mind ruling all of us separately at all and this leaves us with little chance to revolt, protest or to stand up for ourselves. The call |
the diminished role of the organ as the Dodgers moved more to pre-recorded music, it was the right time to leave. In the 28 years she was the Dodger’s organist, she said she sometimes would play about 40 songs per game during the years the O’Malley family ran the team. Through ownership changes — Fox, Frank McCourt and now Guggenheim Baseball Management — the organ’s presence had lessened to the point where Hefley said she would sometimes only play about two songs, including “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
When she announced her retirement, she said she had to stop taking her usual walks around the box level because she would get stopped by so many people who wanted to talk with her before she left.
“I often wondered if I would be able to accept it when it was time to make the change because it’s been a part of our life for so long,” she said. “But it just feels right.”
RETIREMENT PERKS
There will be some upsides to her retirement, however.
In addition to bobblehead honors and an invitation by the Dodgers to come back for a guest appearance — or an open invitation to whenever she wants to visit — she said she’d finally be able to see the games on television.
While the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable have not been able to get other television carriers like DirecTV and Dish Network to carry the team’s games, Hefley had to follow her team’s progress on the Major League Baseball mobile app.
She also found it hard to get to other stadiums since she was working for the Dodgers during the season. She said she’d like to travel and visit a few of the ballparks that she couldn’t get to during the regular season.
And she said she’s already thought about what it will be like not having to work Opening Day in 2016.
“I already miss the people and I’m sure I will be nostalgic,” she said. “But I’ll be thankful I’m not in that grind.”Coins depicting architecture of ancient Rome have long been among the most sought after, not only because their designs are often attractive, but also because they are usually valuable in reconstructing the appearance of buildings, temples, and monuments that no longer exist.
Even more coveted are coins that depict ancient structures that survive, the population of which is far smaller than the category of vanished structures.
A highlight from the Ernst Ploil Collection of Roman Coins, Part II, to be sold by Numismatica Ars Classica on Oct. 6, depicts the Triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, which still stands today in Rome.
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The reverse of the circa 203 to 210 silver denarius shows the arch, four columns surmounted by chariot of six horses, with horsemen on either side.
The arch can still be seen at the north entrance of the Roman Forum; it is almost intact, though the statues that once decorated on the roof are gone.
The statues may have been removed in late antiquity or in the intervening centuries.
During those centuries, the Forum was filled with debris that covered the 68-foot-tall monument, which remained buried until shortly after Carlo Fea began excavations in 1803.
Subsequent efforts by the Napoleonic administration helped reveal the long-hidden arch.
The arch, dedicated in A.D. 203, commemorated the Parthian victories of Emperor Septimius Severus and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, in two campaigns against the Parthians, in 194 and 195 and from 197 to 199.
Coins showing the arch, or the Acropolis in Athens, the Colosseum in Rome, or the Circus Maximus, also in Rome (though its modern remains largely consist of an open field), are considered among the “great prizes” in terms of rarity and importance, according to the auction catalog.
In addition to this denarius showing the arch, the arch made its second and final appearance on denarii of 206 issued in the name of Severus in celebration of his 15th anniversary.
This example in the Ars Classica auction is “Extremely rare,” and is struck on a very large complete planchet, with old cabinet toning and a grade of Good Very Fine, the firm said.
The same coin sold previously in Ars Classica’s auction No. 18, in 2000, realizing a hammer price of 2,400 Swiss francs (then about $1,450 U.S.). More recently, it sold in Fritz Rudolph Künker’s auction No. 124 in 2007, realizing a hammer price of €2,000 (then about $2,659 U.S.).
In this 2016 auction, the coin’s pre-sale estimate is 2,500 Swiss francs, or about $2,562 in U.S. funds.On Pudding Lane, on 2 September 1666, the King's baker went to bed unaware that his oven was still alight. Soon London was ablaze. Dramatised from Pepys' diary by Hattie Naylor.
London in 1666 was a health and safety nightmare. It was illegal to build with wood and thatch but people did it anyway. Foundries were forbidden in the city but that didn't stop them operating. Charles II had banned dangerous overhanging windows but this was ignored by local government who carried on building them regardless. Many homes still contained muskets and gunpowder left over from Cromwell's time. Six hundred tons of highly potent gunpowder were stored in the Tower of London itself. Riverfront warehouses were full of oil and tallow. There was no fire service.
In Pudding Lane, on 2 September, after a day of slaving over a hot oven, Thomas Farrinor, baker to King Charles II, went to bed unaware that his oven was still alight. The smouldering embers ignited some nearby firewood and by 1 o'clock in the morning his house was ablaze. A strong wind on that September morning ensured that sparks flew everywhere...
Samuel Pepys' diary of the following days, dramatised by Hattie Naylor, reveals the unfolding drama of 350 years ago.
Theme music: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, words by Robert Herrick and music by William Lawes, sung by Bethany Hughes. Lute, baroque guitar and theorbo played by David Miller. Violin and viol by Annika Gray, and recorders by Alice Baxter.
Historical consultant: Liza Picard
Sound by Nigel Lewis
A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.For other people named Douglas Adams, see Douglas Adams (disambiguation)
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, scriptwriter, essayist, humorist, satirist and dramatist.
Adams was author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime and generated a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.[1]
Adams also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990), Last Chance to See (1990), and three stories for the television series Doctor Who; he also served as script editor for the show's seventeenth season in 1979. A posthumous collection of his works, including an unfinished novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002.
Adams was an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, a lover of fast cars,[2] technological innovation and the Apple Macintosh, and a self-proclaimed radical atheist.
Early life [ edit ]
Adams was born on 11 March 1952 to Janet (née Donovan; 1927–2016) and Christopher Douglas Adams (1927–1985) in Cambridge.[3] The family moved to the East End of London a few months after his birth, where his sister, Susan, was born three years later.[4] His parents divorced in 1957; Douglas, Susan, and their mother moved to an RSPCA animal shelter in Brentwood, Essex, run by his maternal grandparents.[5]
Education [ edit ]
Adams attended Primrose Hill Primary School in Brentwood. At nine, he passed the entrance exam for Brentwood School. He attended the prep school from 1959 to 1964, then the main school until December 1970. Adams was 6 feet (1.8 m) by age 12 and stopped growing at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m). His form master, Frank Halford, said Adams's height had made him stand out and that he had been self-conscious about it.[6][7] His ability to write stories made him well known in the school.[8] He became the only student ever to be awarded a ten out of ten by Halford for creative writing, something he remembered for the rest of his life, particularly when facing writer's block.[4]
Some of his earliest writing was published at the school, such as a report on its photography club in The Brentwoodian in 1962, or spoof reviews in the school magazine Broadsheet, edited by Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, who later became a character in The Hitchhiker's Guide. He also designed the cover of one issue of the Broadsheet, and had a letter and short story published in The Eagle, the boys' comic, in 1965. A poem entitled "A Dissertation on the task of writing a poem on a candle and an account of some of the difficulties thereto pertaining" written by Adams in January 1970, at the age of 17, was discovered in a cupboard at the school in early 2014.[9]
On the strength of an essay on religious poetry that discussed the Beatles and William Blake, he was awarded an Exhibition in English at St John's College, Cambridge, going up in 1971. He wanted to join the Footlights, an invitation-only student comedy club that has acted as a hothouse for comic talent. He was not elected immediately as he had hoped, and started to write and perform in revues with Will Adams (no relation) and Martin Smith, forming a group called "Adams-Smith-Adams", and became a member of the Footlights by 1973.[10] Despite doing very little work—he recalled having completed three essays in three years—he graduated in 1974 with a B.A. in English literature.[3]
Career [ edit ]
Writing [ edit ]
After leaving university Adams moved back to London, determined to break into TV and radio as a writer. An edited version of the Footlights Revue appeared on BBC2 television in 1974. A version of the Revue performed live in London's West End led to Adams being discovered by Monty Python's Graham Chapman. The two formed a brief writing partnership, earning Adams a writing credit in episode 45 of Monty Python for a sketch called "Patient Abuse". The pair also co-wrote the "Marilyn Monroe" sketch which appeared on the soundtrack album of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Adams is one of only two people other than the original Python members to get a writing credit (the other being Neil Innes).[11]
Monty Python appearance, in full surgeon's garb Adams in his firstappearance, in full surgeon's garb
Adams had two brief appearances in the fourth series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. At the beginning of episode 42, "The Light Entertainment War", Adams is in a surgeon's mask (as Dr. Emile Koning, according to on-screen captions), pulling on gloves, while Michael Palin narrates a sketch that introduces one person after another but never gets started. At the beginning of episode 44, "Mr. Neutron", Adams is dressed in a pepper-pot outfit and loads a missile onto a cart driven by Terry Jones, who is calling for scrap metal ("Any old iron..."). The two episodes were broadcast in November 1974. Adams and Chapman also attempted non-Python projects, including Out of the Trees.[12]
At this point Adams's career stalled; his writing style was unsuited to the then-current style of radio and TV comedy.[3] To make ends meet he took a series of odd jobs, including as a hospital porter, barn builder, and chicken shed cleaner. He was employed as a bodyguard by a Qatari family, who had made their fortune in oil.[13]
During this time Adams continued to write and submit sketches, though few were accepted. In 1976 his career had a brief improvement when he wrote and performed Unpleasantness at Brodie's Close at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. By Christmas, work had dried up again, and a depressed Adams moved to live with his mother.[3] The lack of writing work hit him hard and low confidence became a feature of Adams's life; "I have terrible periods of lack of confidence [..] I briefly did therapy, but after a while I realised it was like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can't fix the weather – you just have to get on with it".[14]
Some of Adams's early radio work included sketches for The Burkiss Way in 1977 and The News Huddlines.[15] He also wrote, again with Chapman, 20 February 1977 episode of Doctor on the Go, a sequel to the Doctor in the House television comedy series. After the first radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide became successful, Adams was made a BBC radio producer, working on Week Ending and a pantomime called Black Cinderella Two Goes East.[16] He left after six months to become the script editor for Doctor Who.
In 1979, Adams and John Lloyd wrote scripts for two half-hour episodes of Doctor Snuggles: "The Remarkable Fidgety River" and "The Great Disappearing Mystery" (episodes eight and twelve).[17] John Lloyd was also co-author of two episodes from the original Hitchhiker radio series ("Fit the Fifth" and "Fit the Sixth", also known as "Episode Five" and "Episode Six"), as well as The Meaning of Liff and The Deeper Meaning of Liff.
Doctor Who [ edit ]
Adams sent the script for the HHGG pilot radio programme to the Doctor Who production office in 1978, and was commissioned to write The Pirate Planet. He had also previously attempted to submit a potential movie script, called "Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen", which later became his novel Life, the Universe and Everything (which in turn became the third Hitchhiker's Guide radio series). Adams then went on to serve as script editor on the show for its seventeenth season in 1979. Altogether, he wrote three Doctor Who serials starring Tom Baker as the Doctor:
The episodes authored by Adams are some of the few that were not novelised as Adams would not allow anyone else to write them, and asked for a higher price than the publishers were willing to pay.[21] "Shada" was later adapted as a novel by Gareth Roberts in 2012 and "City of Death" and "The Pirate Planet" by James Goss in 2015 and 2017 respectively.
Elements of Shada and City of Death were reused in Adams's later novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, in particular the character of Professor Chronotis. Big Finish Productions eventually remade Shada as an audio play starring Paul McGann as the Doctor. Accompanied by partially animated illustrations, it was webcast on the BBC website in 2003, and subsequently released as a two-CD set later that year. An omnibus edition of this version was broadcast on the digital radio station BBC7 on 10 December 2005.
In the Doctor Who 2012 Christmas episode The Snowmen, writer Steven Moffat was inspired by a storyline that Adams pitched called The Doctor Retires.[22]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [ edit ]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a concept for a science-fiction comedy radio series pitched by Adams and radio producer Simon Brett to BBC Radio 4 in 1977. Adams came up with an outline for a pilot episode, as well as a few other stories (reprinted in Neil Gaiman's book Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion) that could be used in the series.
The Hitchhiker's Guide. In the novels a towel is the most useful thing a space traveller can have. The annual Towel Day (25 May) was first celebrated in 2001, two weeks after Adams's death. Towel Day 2005 in Innsbruck, Austria, where Adams first had the idea of. In the novels a towel is the most useful thing a space traveller can have. The annual Towel Day (25 May) was first celebrated in 2001, two weeks after Adams's death.
According to Adams, the idea for the title occurred to him while he lay drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, gazing at the stars. He was carrying a copy of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe, and it occurred to him that "somebody ought to write a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".[23]
Despite the original outline, Adams was said to make up the stories as he wrote. He turned to John Lloyd for help with the final two episodes of the first series. Lloyd contributed bits from an unpublished science fiction book of his own, called GiGax.[24] Very little of Lloyd's material survived in later adaptations of Hitchhiker's, such as the novels and the TV series. The TV series was based on the first six radio episodes, and sections contributed by Lloyd were largely re-written.
BBC Radio 4 broadcast the first radio series weekly in the UK in March and April 1978. The series was distributed in the United States by National Public Radio. Following the success of the first series, another episode was recorded and broadcast, which was commonly known as the Christmas Episode. A second series of five episodes was broadcast one per night, during the week of 21–25 January 1980.
While working on the radio series (and with simultaneous projects such as The Pirate Planet) Adams developed problems keeping to writing deadlines that got worse as he published novels. Adams was never a prolific writer and usually had to be forced by others to do any writing. This included being locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks to ensure that So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was completed.[25] He was quoted as saying, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."[26] Despite the difficulty with deadlines, Adams wrote five novels in the series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992.
The books formed the basis for other adaptations, such as three-part comic book adaptations for each of the first three books, an interactive text-adventure computer game, and a photo-illustrated edition, published in 1994. This latter edition featured a 42 Puzzle designed by Adams, which was later incorporated into paperback covers of the first four Hitchhiker's novels (the paperback for the fifth re-used the artwork from the hardback edition).[27]
In 1980, Adams began attempts to turn the first Hitchhiker's novel into a film, making several trips to Los Angeles, and working with Hollywood studios and potential producers. The next year, the radio series became the basis for a BBC television mini-series[28] broadcast in six parts. When he died in 2001 in California, he had been trying again to get the movie project started with Disney, which had bought the rights in 1998. The screenplay got a posthumous re-write by Karey Kirkpatrick, and the resulting film was released in 2005.
Radio producer Dirk Maggs had consulted with Adams, first in 1993, and later in 1997 and 2000 about creating a third radio series, based on the third novel in the Hitchhiker's series.[29] They also discussed the possibilities of radio adaptations of the final two novels in the five-book "trilogy". As with the movie, this project was realised only after Adams's death. The third series, The Tertiary Phase, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2004 and was subsequently released on audio CD. With the aid of a recording of his reading of Life, the Universe and Everything and editing, Adams can be heard playing the part of Agrajag posthumously. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless made up the fourth and fifth radio series, respectively (on radio they were titled The Quandary Phase and The Quintessential Phase) and these were broadcast in May and June 2005, and also subsequently released on Audio CD. The last episode in the last series (with a new, "more upbeat" ending) concluded with, "The very final episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is affectionately dedicated to its author."[30]
Dirk Gently series [ edit ]
Adams in March 2000
Between Adams's first trip to Madagascar with Mark Carwardine in 1985, and their series of travels that formed the basis for the radio series and non-fiction book Last Chance to See, Adams wrote two other novels with a new cast of characters. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was published in 1987, and was described by its author as "a kind of ghost-horror-detective-time-travel-romantic-comedy-epic, mainly concerned with mud, music and quantum mechanics".[31] It was derived from two Doctor Who serials Adams had written.
A sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, was published a year later. This was an entirely original work, Adams's first since So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. After the book tour, Adams set off on his round-the-world excursion which supplied him with the material for Last Chance to See.
Music [ edit ]
Adams played the guitar left-handed and had a collection of twenty-four left-handed guitars when he died (having received his first guitar in 1964). He also studied piano in the 1960s.[32] Pink Floyd and Procol Harum had important influence on Adams' work.
Pink Floyd [ edit ]
Adams's official biography shares its name with the song "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. Adams was friends with Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and, on Adams's 42nd birthday, he was invited to make a guest appearance at Pink Floyd's concert of 28 October 1994 at Earls Court in London, playing guitar on the songs "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse".[33] Adams chose the name for Pink Floyd's 1994 album, The Division Bell, by picking the words from the lyrics to one of its tracks, "High Hopes".[33] Gilmour also performed at Adams's memorial service in 2001, and what would have been Adams's 60th birthday party in 2012.
Computer games and projects [ edit ]
Douglas Adams created an interactive fiction version of HHGG with Steve Meretzky from Infocom in 1984. In 1986 he participated in a week-long brainstorming session with the Lucasfilm Games team for the game Labyrinth. Later he was also involved in creating Bureaucracy as a parody of events in his own life.
Adams was a founder-director and Chief Fantasist of The Digital Village, a digital media and Internet company with which he created Starship Titanic, a Codie award-winning and BAFTA-nominated adventure game, which was published in 1998 by Simon & Schuster.[34][35] Terry Jones wrote the accompanying book, entitled Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic, since Adams was too busy with the computer game to do both. In April 1999, Adams initiated the h2g2 collaborative writing project, an experimental attempt at making The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a reality, and at harnessing the collective brainpower of the internet community. It was hosted by BBC Online from 2001 to 2011.[34]
In 1990, Adams wrote and presented a television documentary programme Hyperland[36] which featured Tom Baker as a "software agent" (similar to the assistant pictured in Apple's Knowledge Navigator video of future concepts from 1987), and interviews with Ted Nelson, the co-inventor of hypertext and the person who coined the term. Adams was an early adopter and advocate of hypertext.
Personal beliefs and activism [ edit ]
Atheism and views on religion [ edit ]
Adams described himself as a "radical atheist", adding "radical" for emphasis so he would not be asked if he meant agnostic. He told American Atheists that this conveyed the fact that he really meant it. He imagined a sentient puddle who wakes up one morning and thinks, "This is an interesting world I find myself in – an interesting hole I find myself in – fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!" to demonstrate his view that the fine-tuned Universe argument for God was a fallacy.[37]
He remained fascinated by religion because of its effect on human affairs. "I love to keep poking and prodding at it. I've thought about it so much over the years that that fascination is bound to spill over into my writing."[38]
The evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins uses Adams's influence to exemplify arguments for non-belief in his 2006 book The God Delusion. Dawkins dedicated the book to Adams, whom he jokingly called "possibly [my] only convert" to atheism[39] and wrote on his death that "Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender."[40]
Environmental activism [ edit ]
Adams was also an environmental activist who campaigned on behalf of endangered species. This activism included the production of the non-fiction radio series Last Chance to See, in which he and naturalist Mark Carwardine visited rare species such as the kakapo and baiji, and the publication of a tie-in book of the same name. In 1992 this was made into a CD-ROM combination of audiobook, e-book and picture slide show.
Adams and Mark Carwardine contributed the 'Meeting a Gorilla' passage from Last Chance to See to the book The Great Ape Project.[41] This book, edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer, launched a wider-scale project in 1993, which calls for the extension of moral equality to include all great apes, human and non-human.
In 1994, he participated in a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro while wearing a rhino suit for the British charity organisation Save the Rhino International. Puppeteer William Todd-Jones, who had originally worn the suit in the London Marathon to raise money and bring awareness to the group, also participated in the climb wearing a rhino suit; Adams wore the suit while travelling to the mountain before the climb began. About £100,000 was raised through that event, benefiting schools in Kenya and a black rhinoceros preservation programme in Tanzania. Adams was also an active supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
Since 2003, Save the Rhino has held an annual Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture around the time of his birthday to raise money for environmental campaigns.[42]
Technology and innovation [ edit ]
Adams bought his first word processor in 1982, having considered one as early as 1979. His first purchase was a Nexu. In 1983, when he and Jane Belson went to Los Angeles, he bought a DEC Rainbow. Upon their return to England, Adams bought an Apricot, then a BBC Micro and a Tandy 1000.[43] In Last Chance to See Adams mentions his Cambridge Z88, which he had taken to Zaire on a quest to find the northern white rhinoceros.[44]
Adams's posthumously published work, The Salmon of Doubt, features several articles by him on the subject of technology, including reprints of articles that originally ran in MacUser magazine, and in The Independent on Sunday newspaper. In these Adams claims that one of the first computers he ever saw was a Commodore PET, and that he had "adored" his Apple Macintosh ("or rather my family of however many Macintoshes it is that I've recklessly accumulated over the years") since he first saw one at Infocom's offices in Boston in 1984.[45]
Adams was a Macintosh user from the time they first came out in 1984 until his death in 2001. He was the first person to buy a Mac in Europe, the second being Stephen Fry.[46]). Adams was also an "Apple Master", celebrities whom Apple made into spokespeople for its products (others included John Cleese and Gregory Hines). Adams's contributions included a rock video that he created using the first version of iMovie with footage featuring his daughter Polly. The video was available on Adams's.Mac homepage. Adams installed and started using the first release of Mac OS X in the weeks leading up to his death. His very last post to his own forum was in praise of Mac OS X and the possibilities of its Cocoa programming framework. He said it was "awesome...", which was also the last word he wrote on his site.[47]
Adams used email to correspond with Steve Meretzky in the early 1980s, during their collaboration on Infocom's version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.[43] While living in New Mexico in 1993 he set up another e-mail address and began posting to his own USENET newsgroup, alt.fan.douglas-adams, and occasionally, when his computer was acting up, to the comp.sys.mac hierarchy.[48] Challenges to the authenticity of his messages later led Adams to set up a message forum on his own website to avoid the issue. In 1996, Adams was a keynote speaker at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) where he described the personal computer as being a modelling device. The video of his keynote speech is archived on Channel 9.[49] Adams was also a keynote speaker for the April 2001 Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, one of the major technical conferences on embedded system engineering.[50]
Personal life [ edit ]
Adams moved to Upper Street, Islington, in 1981[51] and to Duncan Terrace, a few minutes' walk away, in the late 1980s.[51]
In the early 1980s Adams had an affair with novelist Sally Emerson, who was separated from her husband at that time. Adams later dedicated his book Life, the Universe and Everything to Emerson. In 1981 Emerson returned to her husband, Peter Stothard, a contemporary of Adams's at Brentwood School, and later editor of The Times. Adams was soon introduced by friends to Jane Belson, with whom he later became romantically involved. Belson was the "lady barrister" mentioned in the jacket-flap biography printed in his books during the mid-1980s ("He [Adams] lives in Islington with a lady barrister and an Apple Macintosh"). The two lived in Los Angeles together during 1983 while Adams worked on an early screenplay adaptation of Hitchhiker's. When the deal fell through, they moved back to London, and after several separations ("He is currently not certain where he lives, or with whom")[52] and a broken engagement, they married on 25 November 1991.
Adams and Belson had one daughter together, Polly Jane Rocket Adams, born on 22 June 1994, shortly after Adams turned 42. In 1999 the family moved from London to Santa Barbara, California, where they lived until his death. Following the funeral, Jane Belson and Polly Adams returned to London.[53] Belson died on 7 September 2011 of cancer, aged 59.[54]
Death and legacy [ edit ]
Adams died of a heart attack on 11 May 2001, aged 49, after resting from his regular workout at a private gym in Montecito, California.[55] His funeral was held on 16 May in Santa Barbara. His ashes were placed in Highgate Cemetery in north London in June 2002.[56] A memorial service was held on 17 September 2001 at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, Trafalgar Square, London. This became the first church service broadcast live on the web by the BBC.[57]
Two days before Adams died, the Minor Planet Center announced the naming of asteroid 18610 Arthurdent.[58] In 2005, the asteroid 25924 Douglasadams was named in his memory.[59]
In May 2002, The Salmon of Doubt was published, containing many short stories, essays, and letters, as well as eulogies from Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry (in the UK edition), Christopher Cerf (in the US edition), and Terry Jones (in the US paperback edition). It also includes eleven chapters of his unfinished novel, The Salmon of Doubt, which was originally intended to become a new Dirk Gently novel, but might have later become the sixth Hitchhiker novel.[60][61]
Other events after Adams's death included a webcast production of Shada, allowing the complete story to be told, radio dramatisations of the final three books in the Hitchhiker's series, and the completion of the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The film, released in 2005, posthumously credits Adams as a producer, and several design elements – including a head-shaped planet seen near the end of the film – incorporated Adams's features.
A 12-part radio series based on the Dirk Gently novels was announced in 2007.[62]
BBC Radio 4 also commissioned a third Dirk Gently radio series based on the incomplete chapters of The Salmon of Doubt, and written by Kim Fuller;[63] but this was dropped in favour of a BBC TV series based on the two completed novels.[64] A sixth Hitchhiker novel, And Another Thing..., by Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer, was released on 12 October 2009 (the 30th anniversary of the first book), published with the support of Adams's estate. A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime adaptation and an audio book soon followed.
On 25 May 2001, two weeks after Adams's death, his fans organised a tribute known as Towel Day, which has been observed every year since then.[65]
In 2018, John Lloyd presented an hour-long episode of the BBC Radio Four documentary Archive on 4, discussing Adams' private papers, which are held at St John's College, Cambridge.[66] The episode is available online.[66]
A street[67] in São José, Santa Catarina, Brazil is named in Adams' honour.[68]
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
Works [ edit ]
TV writing credits [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Articles [ edit ]
Herbert, R. (1980). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Book Review). Library Journal, 105(16), 1982.
Adams, J., & Brown, R. (1981). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Book Review). School Library Journal, 27(5), 74.
Nickerson, S. L. (1982). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Book). Library Journal, 107(4), 476.
Nickerson, S. L. (1982). Life, the Universe, and Everything (Book). Library Journal, 107(18), 2007.
Morner, C. (1982). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Book Review). School Library Journal, 28(8), 87.
Morner, C. (1983). Life, the Universe and Everything (Book Review). School Library Journal, 29(6), 93.
Shorb, B. (1985). So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Book). School Library Journal, 31(6), 90.
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Book). (1989). Atlantic (02769077), 263(4), 99.
Hoffert, B., & Quinn, J. (1990). Last Chance To See (Book). Library Journal, 115(16), 77.
Reed, S. S., & Cook, I. I. (1991). Dances with kakapos. People, 35(19), 79.
Last Chance to See (Book). (1991). Science News, 139(8), 126.
Field, M. M., & Steinberg, S. S. (1991). Douglas Adams. Publishers Weekly, 238(6), 62.
Dieter, W. (1991). Last Chance to See (Book). Smithsonian, 22(3), 140.
Dykhuis, R. (1991). Last Chance To See (Book). Library Journal, 116(1), 140.
Beatty, J. (1991). Good Show (Book). Atlantic (02769077), 267(3), 131.
A guide to the future. (1992). Maclean's, 106(44), 51.
Zinsser, J. (1993). Audio reviews: Fiction. Publishers Weekly, 240(9), 24.
Taylor, B., & Annichiarico, M. (1993). Audio reviews. Library Journal, 118(2), 132.
Good reads. (1995). NetGuide, 2(4), 109.
Stone, B. (1998). The unsinkable starship. Newsweek, 131(15), 78.
Gaslin, G. (2001). Galaxy Quest. Entertainment Weekly, (599), 79.
So long, and thanks for all the fish. (2001). Economist, 359(8222), 79.
Geier, T., & Raftery, B. M. (2001). Legacy. Entertainment Weekly, (597), 11.
Passages. (2001). Maclean's, 114(21), 13.
Don't panic! Douglas Adams to keynote Embedded show. (2001). Embedded Systems Programming, 14(3), 10.
Ehrenman, |
— Toomey, Collins and Mark Kirk (Ill.) — have said they plan to vote for the Manchin-Toomey agreement. Democratic aides say the bill will need the backing of at least six Republican senators to pass. The measure still has a long and tortuous path, with dozens of amendments expected. The Senate is scheduled to begin formal debate Tuesday by first considering the plan to expand the gun background-check program.
Sixteen GOP senators voted late last week to proceed to debate, but several of them and some moderate Democratic senators said they are unlikely to support the bill’s proposed compromise amendments. It is not known how many amendments will be considered by the Senate over the next two weeks.
A decade ago, the NRA backed expanded background-check legislation, but it now stands firmly opposed. An NRA spokesman reiterated the group’s opposition Sunday evening and again promised to score the Senate vote on the compromise in making future election endorsement decisions.
The group that backed the bill, the Citizens Committee, has far fewer members than the 4 million claimed by the NRA. It was founded in 1972 and functions as a kind of sister organization to the Second Amendment Foundation, a legal think tank and law firm based in Bellevue, Wash., that, along with the NRA, has been a leader in filing major court challenges to halt restrictions on gun rights.
“We decided to back it because we believe it is the right thing to do,” said Julianne Versnel, director of operations for the group.
The chairman of the Citizens Committee, Alan Gottlieb, told supporters in an e-mail Sunday that the group would embrace the Manchin-Toomey compromise. He urged members to read the senators’ proposal to understand why the gun rights group would back it.
Gottlieb made clear in his e-mail that he enthusiastically backs the bill the NRA opposes.
“If you read the Manchin-Toomey substitute amendment, you can see all the advances for our cause that it contains,” Gottlieb wrote. He then listed the gun rights advantages in the bill: “interstate sales of handguns, veteran gun rights restoration, travel with firearms protection, civil and criminal immunity lawsuit protection, and most important of all, the guarantee that people, including federal officers, will go to federal prison for up to 15 years if they attempt to use any gun sales records to set up a gun registry.”
These “advances” cannot be achieved, Gottlieb wrote, “unless we win the Senate vote on Tuesday to substitute Senators Manchin and Toomey’s balanced approach” to background checks. Gottlieb, like other gun group leaders, opposes a more far-reaching background-check bill proposed by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
The organization has already been in touch with individual Senate offices. Some have already rejected its argument.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who voted to proceed with debate, labeled the Manchin-Toomey agreement “unworkable and unfair to gun owners” in a message sent to constituents late last week. Because the plan would require gun purchasers to pay for a background check, “visitors to... gun shows across America will face a new tax of $30 to $50, and sometimes more, as they exercise their constitutional right to buy a gun,” Coburn said, adding that gun owners “will ignore and reject these changes.”
Other Republican senators who voted for debating the gun bill but plan to vote no on the amendment are Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), John Hoeven (N.D.) and Johnny Isakson (Ga.), their spokesmen said Sunday.
Among Democratic senators, moderates Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mark Pryor (Ark.), who face difficult reelection fights in 2014, voted against proceeding with debate and are expected to oppose the overall gun bill. Max Baucus (Mont.), Kay Hagan (N.C.) and Mary Landrieu (La.), who are also facing difficult reelection prospects, voted for debate but have signaled they may vote against the Manchin-Toomey deal.
A Baucus spokesman said Sunday that the senator is reviewing the Manchin-Toomey proposal “and listening to feedback from Montanans to make sure they have a chance to weigh in.” A Landrieu spokeswoman noted that the senator voted to proceed to debate on the gun bill but hasn’t made up her mind on other amendments. Aides to Hagan did not respond Sunday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to hold an up-or-down vote on the Manchin-Toomey plan by midweek and then proceed to vote on other amendments, according to senior Senate aides familiar with the plans.
Reid also is expected to call for a roll call on Democratic-backed amendments including the plan to ban military-style assault weapons, the aides said. A vote on the proposed ban, which is sponsored by 22 Senate Democrats, is expected to fall far short of the 60 votes needed to ensure final passage. Regardless, aides said Reid wants to hold a vote on the proposal early in the gun debate to fulfill his promise to Obama; the plan’s lead sponsor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.); and gun-control groups that supported the ban.
Reid also hopes to hold a vote on a Democratic plan to limit the size of ammunition magazines, another proposal expected to fail, aides said. From there, he could proceed to a host of proposed amendments, including a bipartisan plan to provide more federal funding for mental health programs that assist military veterans, a Coburn proposal to establish an online portal for gun buyers to conduct their own background checks, a Republican plan to change the legal definition of mentally ill people when it comes to gun crimes, and an overarching GOP alternative to the underlying gun bill.
Gun-control advocates are worried about some of the expected amendments authored or backed by the NRA, including one that would provide a “national reciprocity” arrangement in which a gun owner who receives a permit to carry a concealed weapon in any one state would then be allowed to do that anywhere in the country.
Reps. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) plan to introduce on Monday a House version of the Manchin-Toomey agreement that mirrors the bipartisan Senate deal. King, who represents a suburban Long Island district, said he hoped the Senate deal would extend background checks to include most private firearms transactions but that “there’s no sense of making the perfect the enemy of the good these days.”
“Rather than reinventing the wheel, we adopted Manchin’s plan because we thought that any bill that passes the Senate could pass the House,” King said in an interview Sunday.
Expanding the background-check program “is absolutely essential” to curbing gun-related violence in New York, King said, noting that most gun crimes in his state are committed with firearms illegally obtained in other states.
Only King and Thompson are sponsoring the bill, but other House Republicans who represent suburban districts in the Northeast and Midwest are expected to sign on if it advances in the Senate, King said. Separately, Republican House members from Pennsylvania with past NRA endorsements indicated support for the Toomey-Manchin approach, including Reps. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, Patrick Meehan and Charlie Dent.
In a sign of the wait-and-see attitude in the House, King said he has had no formal discussions with House GOP leadership or the House Judiciary Committee about his bill or when gun legislation will begin to move in the chamber.
Late Sunday, a second gun rights group, the Independent Firearm Owners Association, joined the Citizens Committee in endorsing the Manchin-Toomey proposal. The group is led by a former NRA regional political director, Richard Feldman, but has far fewer members than either of the more established gun rights groups.
Toomey said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he expects a close vote this week on the measure. “I think it’s an open question as to whether or not we have the votes,” Toomey said. “I think it’s going to be close.”
Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.
Discuss this topic and other political issues in the politics discussion forums.Venezuelan Envoy Compares Trump's UN Speech to Reagan, Thinks It's an Insult
'They Should Be Walking With Blindfolds': Schumer Blasts GOP for 'TrumpCare II' Bill
Tucker Carlson spoke with Amanda Yates Garcia, the "Oracle of Los Angeles," who participates in a monthly sorcery session to cast a "binding" spell on President Trump.
Garcia said the spell is not intended to hurt the president, but instead to prevent him from hurting others.
"Binding spells are symbolic actions used to harness the powers of the imagination and achieve an intangible result," she said.
"I desire that Trump stop harming people that I care about and instituting policies that also harm me," she said.
Garcia said she and other witches are concerned about a possible "nuclear extravaganza" with North Korea, and said Trump is being "mean" to her immigrant neighbors.
Carlson asked if such actions were legal, and Garcia said her actions are no less "symbolic" than standing for the "Star-Spangled Banner" or saluting the flag.
Garcia said she hopes her spells will help "galvanize" a resistance toward Trump's perceptively dangerous policies.
"Most people just go ahead and vote or buy a t-shirt," Carlson said.
Watch more above.
'You Don't Have a Right to Demand Anything': Tucker Blasts DACA Activists Shouting Down Pelosi
Chaffetz: Those Preaching Tolerance Are 'Least Tolerant of Anybody'NEW GLB Beer Alert – Octopus Wants to Fight IPA
You might have seen the Twitter postings from some of our accounts about the cask tapping of a brand new IPA that we’ve brewed – Octopus Wants to Fight!
Well, now we’re releasing it just in time for the long weekend, in both can (in store Thursday) and keg format.
The 6.2% unfiltered American style IPA, featuring a wicked amount of Mosaic hops is brimming with flavour and is very much in line with the distinct GLB IPA beers we’ve released over the years. It’s the first NEW IPA from Great Lakes since THRUST! an IPA was launched as a one-0ff in 2014.
It pours a beautiful burnt gold edging into a dull orange, like a orange creamsicle complete with a tight white head. As you can imagine, lots of tropical fruits abound from the glass with the first whiffs, followed by a walk in the woods as pine, evergreen and some herbaceous notes are picked up. The first sip provides some sweetness, some dank grass combined with pine needles and then onto “juicy fruit”. Soft body with some middle mouthfeel bitterness that tastes like another.
Bad Blake says to pair this with calamari.
The Story
“Our pet octopus is a bit of a jerk. He’s that guy who has a couple then either tells you how much he loves you or threatens to fight you. So we brewed this IPA, with 8 varieties of hops and 8 types of malt. We targeted 88 IBU and 8.8% to appease him. Sadly, when he found out that we’d fabricated all of the above info, it only made him more volatile. We are starting to realize that Octopus was a poor choice for a pet.”
The Stats
6.2%
88 IBU
Glassware: Pub pint
Serving Temp: 5-8 degrees C
#OctopusWantsToFightMiami crooner Sean Kingston took action against an unruly fan in Australia this week.
Although it’s unclear what exactly went down during Kingston’s performance at SinCity Nightclub in Gold Coast, Australia, TMZ reports that the rowdy concertgoer went through a trio of party fouls: throwing ice, flipping off, and spitting at Kingston.
In footage obtained from the concert, the singer can be seen swinging the mic into the crowd several times. Due to the angle of the video, it’s unclear if Kingston’s mic ever made contact with the heckler but TMZ reports that Sean claimed they were just warning shots.
The show reportedly went on as scheduled after the fan was kicked out by security.
Lucky #seankingston #sincity A video posted by Yuka Miura (@yuka.xxm) on Oct 13, 2016 at 9:17am PDT
News of the musician’s ordeal comes days after fellow artist Chance The Rapper dealt with an unruly fan of his own.
While Chance was performing at a show in Miami, Florida, a fan somehow hustled his way onto the stage and ran at the rapper.
He then reacted with the swiftness, maneuvering his way out of the fan’s grip, and semi-tackling the man to the ground.BIGBANG continues to hype fans for their pending comeback as they post commemorative group photos on their respective accounts on Instagram.
On January 18th, BIGBANG celebrated their last tour date in Japan by posting commemorative photos as a group, which was posted by G-Dragon and Taeyang on Instagram. Both members posted similar shots on their respective acocunts which features them linked with fellow members Seungri, Daesung and T.O.P as they walk through a dark alley, their backs turned from the camera.
G-Dragon further added more hype to their reunion by putting the text, “They call us BIGBANG,” as his caption.
All five members have just finished their Dome tour in Japan which ended at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka on the same day.
As fans look forward for a possible comeback this year, BIGBANG have been easy on the teasing through their recent interviews. G-Dragon previously hinted on their big album and concert plans for this year during their performance in Singapore, while Taeyang hinted on a surprise comeback from the group, when fans least expect it.
A post shared by 권지용 (@xxxibgdrgn) on Jan 17, 2015 at 9:35am PST
A post shared by TAEYANG (@__youngbae__) on Jan 17, 2015 at 7:54am PSTYou may have trouble getting your Hearthstone on.
Blizzard acknowledges it is dealing with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that is preventing some people from getting online with the publisher’s Battle.net services. The company took to social media to confirm the issues, and it says it is monitoring the assault. Earlier today, the notorious cyberattack group Lizard Squad began spreading alleged personal information for key Blizzard personnel including chief executive officer Mike Morhaime.
We’ve reached out to Blizzard and Lizard Squad for comment.
We are currently monitoring a DDOS attack against network providers which is affecting connections to our games. https://t.co/YsDZ0CYdFX — BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) April 14, 2016
Lizard Squad posted the message “Get ready” before any Battle.net issues started, and then it began tweeting messages like the following.
This comes after the Lizard Squad account retweeted a post that includes images showing a person breaking into the personal email of select Blizzard employees. You can see one of those images below — although others are still online and feature what looks like phone numbers and other sensitive information.
Image Credit: Twitter
Lizard Squad has attacked Blizzard in the past. In 2014, the company slammed both the World of Warcraft company and Sony Online Entertainment, publisher of Everquest, with a DDoS. The group then went on to attack both Microsoft’s and Sony’s online gaming networks during the 2014 Christmas holidays. That barrage took Xbox Live offline for 24 hours, and it knocked PlayStation Network off the Internet for five days.
These attacks eventually forced law enforcement to take notice. Cyberattacks turn into felonies if they cause more than $5,000 in damages. Considering that Xbox Live, PSN, and Battle.net likely make at least that much every hour from digital sales, Lizard Squad could face serious charges.
“The FBI is investigating the matter” a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Investigation told GamesBeat in December 2014. “Given the pending nature of the case, we cannot comment further.”
It seems like that case might’ve resulted in some arrests recently.
A global raid on lizard squad members took place today, 36 arrests. I'm the only one left. Goodbye. — Lizard Squad (@LizardLands) April 1, 2016
We’ve reached out to the FBI to ask whether it has made any arrests recently. We’ll update this story with any new information.
As for Blizzard and Battle.net, the attack is primarily causing connection troubles and a serious amount of lag. The publisher is warning players about it in its game launcher, on Twitter, and in its forums.
Past attacks from Lizard Squad, which uses a sophisticated set of tools, have lasted for days.
https://twitter.com/LizardLands/status/720436657175048192Right-wing media figures have criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for carrying a gavel while walking to the Capitol to vote on health care reform, claiming she sought to incite Tea Party members protesting the legislation. Glenn Beck said Pelosi was "inciting" the tea partiers and "slapping them across the face," and Rush Limbaugh said Pelosi tried to "provoke" tea partiers by "carrying that big gavel" with an "excrement-eating grin on her face."
Conservatives criticize Pelosi's "big hammer"/"big gavel"/"big mallet" and "excrement-eating grin"
Beck asks if Nancy Pelosi was "inciting" tea partiers with House gavel -- "a big hammer." On his Fox News show, Beck asked, "If [Pelosi] was really worried about violence and she thought these people were violent, why would you grab a big hammer and walk into a sea of these people?" He later asked, "Did anyone say to Nancy Pelosi, 'You're inciting these people. You're slapping them across the face'?" [Glenn Beck, 3/25/10]
Limbaugh: Pelosi tried to "provoke" tea partiers by "carrying that big gavel" with "excrement-eating grin on her face." On his April 2 radio show, Limbaugh stated that Democrats had "faked an incident" to make "false claims of racism at the tea party people." He further stated:
LIMBAUGH: They faked an incident. They faked -- they were trying to provoke an incident. There's no reason to walk above ground to get to the Capitol building from their offices. There's tunnels underneath with trains, subways, and so forth. They were purpose -- send the Congressional Black Caucus to walk over, send Pelosi over there with a big gavel trying to provoke an incident. When an incident didn't happen, they made it up.
Later in the show, Limbaugh discussed the issue with a caller:
LIMBAUGH: Those of you in the Tea Party who go to these rallies, I'm sure you're aware of the effort to besmirch you by accusing you of shouting the N-word at John Lewis. CALLER: That was -- that did not happen. LIMBAUGH: I know it didn't happen. There's no evidence it happened. If they had videotape evidence that it had happened, they would have shown it. They don't have it. They were trying to create it. They were being provocative. They were being contentious. There's no reason that that group of people from Congress had to walk through the crowd. They never go to the Capitol that way. They get there in the underground tunnels. They want -- and Pelosi carrying that big gavel with that, you know, excrement-eating grin on her face. They were trying to provoke everybody into an incident. And when it didn't happen, they said it did anyway. [Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/2/10]
Michael Graham: Pelosi was "asking for" response by carrying gavel. Appearing on Glenn Beck, radio host Michael Graham stated, "I think Nancy Pelosi marching through the protesters on the eve of the health care battle with that big mallet in her hand, she was asking for -- she was saying yet again, 'Just try -- don't even look at me. I'm in charge here. You people sit down and shut up.' " [Glenn Beck, 3/25/10].
Tea Party blogger: "It would have been more symbolic had she had a whip." On Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Kevin Jackson of the blog TheBlackSphere.net, who was described by host Bill O'Reilly as a "Tea Party member," complained about the "symbology" of Pelosi's gavel:Here’s some good news for the exploding SVOD arena – a greater number of consumers are paying for multiple OTT products.
RELATED: SVOD Surge (subscription required)
Some 19% of streaming subs were paying for three or more OTT services by the end of 2016, up four points from the previous year, according to a new survey from 451 Research.
The firm’s latest Voice of the Connected User Landscape study, based on a survey of 1,270 people in North America, said that increased adoption speaks to the rise of consumer self-bundling, led by Netflix and Amazon Video, with additions of services like Hulu and HBO Now.
Of those who pay for a streaming service, 79% said they subscribe to Netflix, and 53% get Amazon Video, which is up 5 points in the past year, 451 Research found.
Access to movies (50%) was tops among consumer drivers, followed by access to complete seasons of TV shows (45%), a figure that has jumped 6 points in a six-month period.
About 33% said they picked a streaming service based on original content, up 8 points year-over-year, with the importance of that element rising 9 points (to 36%) for Netflix subs, and up 14 points (36%) among Amazon Video users, the research firm found.
Per the survey, 31% of Amazon Video users said original fare is the most watched type of content on that service (up from just 7% two years ago), and 32% among Netflix subs (up from 20% two years ago).
“Netflix and Amazon have spent billions creating exclusive original content to differentiate themselves within a competitive streaming TV market, and our latest surveys show that it’s resonating with customers,” Andy Golub, managing director of 451 Research's Voice of the Connected User Landscape surveys and research, said in a statement. “Original content has become a much more important factor over the past year in choosing streaming services, and the data shows consumers are simply watching more of it.
The study found that 41% of those who own an OTT device have a Roku streaming player or streaming stick, followed by an Apple TV device (35%), a Google Chromecast adapter (26%), Amazon Fire TV Stick (13%) or an Amazon Fire TV box (10%).Nearly every week, the TSA makes news by strip-searching an elderly woman, or suffering an inexplicable breach in security, or detaining a U.S. Senator (Rand Paul), accusing him of being hostile when a security camera clearly indicates that "passive" better describes his demeanor.
Many frequent business travelers, also known as "road warriors," can recount, on demand, their own unflattering anecdotal stories involving the TSA. (One of my favorites is how a TSA screener angrily jerked a rag doll out of the hand of a one-armed girl, about seven years old, who was reluctant to give up her doll to a stranger to put on the x-ray conveyer belt. Another is how a screener demanded that my now-deceased, then elderly mother-in-law get up out of her wheelchair and walk through the metal detector. The screener couldn't understand that Ola couldn't walk a step.)
Hamilton's intent in Federalist Paper No. 8 was to make the case that a strong Union among the states would help ward off hostilities between and among them.
In the context of making a somewhat tangential point, he wrote this:
"Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free."
Does "they" sound like us?“Broad City” is sick of hearing President Trump’s name and wants everyone else to censor him out, too.
Comedy Central announced on Wednesday that it's releasing a new browser extension that will allow users to censor anything with the word "Trump" on the internet.
WHAT TWITTER'S 280-CHARACTER LIMIT COULD MEAN FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP AND US POLITICS
"Tired of hearing the president's name or even reading it online? Broad City definitely is," the network said in a statement. "Just like this season of Broad City, we will censor Tr**p's name, but this time across the internet."
In a video announcement posted on the network’s Twitter page, it added, “Tired of seeing ‘Trump’? Us too. Let’s change that.”
Fans can download the “Trump-No-More” tool with their Google Chrome browser by going to the “Broad City” website. The tool will then show “Trump” as “Tr**p” in every text that mentions the president’s name on the internet. It doesn’t completely remove all “Trump” content from browsers.
The tool follows the current "Broad City" season’s pledge to bleep out Trump’s name in every episode. The season is currently airing on Comedy Central.As a young woman, Charlotte Guy Jeffries worked at a Halifax clothing store by day and entertained tens of thousands of Second World War servicemen on piano and accordion by night.
More than 70 years later, she and thousands of other women were recognized for their volunteer work during the Second World War when a bronze monument was unveiled Thursday morning on the Halifax waterfront.
"We'd be out every night. I don't know how we did it now when I think back, but we didn't think at the time. It just needed to be done," said Jeffries, 96. "The men needed to be entertained."
Charlotte Guy Jeffries, 96, entertained servicemen during the Second World War. She still plays the piano. (Bruce Bottomley)
She said Halifax had little to offer the servicemen.
"There were very few restaurants … nothing to entertain these men, so hostels were opened up. And people went and served sandwiches and cakes to try to make it a little bit happier for all these service people that had nothing to do in the city," said Jeffries.
When the servicemen were waiting to go home at the end of the war, Jeffries went to the United Kingdom, France and Germany as part of a performing group to entertain the troops.
The Halifax Women's History Society, which spearheaded the monument project, says the work of these women was never recognized until now.
The monument on the Halifax waterfront honours the work of thousands of women who volunteered. (CBC)
Society chair Janet Guildford said the volunteers played a crucial role in meeting the food and recreational needs of serving personnel.
The monument includes three figures: a young girl pulling a wagon full of salvage metal materials, a black woman working one of the many canteens that fed servicemen around the city and an older woman sitting in a chair knitting with a Mi'kmaq basket.
"[The monument] represents the thousands... of women who knitted socks and hats and scarves and absolutely all of the nice, warm, cozy things that our military personnel needed in Europe," said Guildford.
Artist Marlene Hilton Moore made the bronze statues. (Colleen Jones/CBC)
Jeffries was one of three wartime volunteers who unveiled the monument on the boardwalk outside of the Halifax Seaport Farmers' Market on Thursday. She was joined by Margaret Gordon and Joyce Purchase.
Purchase was just 17 when she and two friends stood behind a counter of the North End Servicemen's Canteen on Russell Street to serve a roast beef dinner to as many as 375 servicemen in one sitting. Purchase also helped salvage items from her Rockingham home to contribute to the war effort.
The monument features three figures, including a young girl pulling a wagon full of salvage metal materials. (CBC)
Gordon, now 96, sang on radio, in canteens and during concerts for the black servicemen waiting to be shipped out from Halifax. She even met her husband, Arthur, at a Halifax canteen.
Jeffries called the monument an honour.
"I didn't expect to get any special recognition, so it's quite an honour," she said.The former communications director for 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’s presidential campaign said Sunday that the Trump administration is igniting passion in the opposition never before seen in the United States.
“They are igniting an opposition and passion in the opposition that literally we have never seen in this country,” Jen Palmieri said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Palmieri called the beginning of President 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’s administration “just chaos” and argued officials are poorly implementing bad policy.
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“I understand that they’re doing what their base wanted,” she said.
Trump has faced criticism over the executive order he signed last month that calls for a 90-day ban on travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The administration has also faced criticism for the rollout of the travel ban, which caused confusion in airports as border patrol officials sought to comply with it.
Protests erupted at airports throughout the country following the order, as travelers who already obtained U.S. visas, but hail from the countries listed in the order, were detained.
A federal judge on Friday issued a restraining order that halted Trump’s travel ban nationwide. The Trump administration unsuccessfully filed for a stay of the judge's ruling.There are a lot of ways the last week of the season can play out. Here are the ways it can happen that lead to the Boston Bruins making the playoffs:
Bruins beat Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. This would put the Bruins at 94 points, and they have more regulation or overtime wins than anyone who can catch them. On Tuesday, it’s win and we’re in!
But after that, it gets a little complicated.
Any 4 points: If the Bruins lose Tuesday, but win their games against Ottawa and Washington to finish out the season or go 1-0-2, they’re guaranteed in. Any 2 wins guarantees a spot.
If the Bruins lose Tuesday, but win their games against Ottawa and Washington to finish out the season or go 1-0-2, they’re guaranteed in. Any 2 wins guarantees a spot. 3 points and Tampa loses one: If the Bruins can go 1-1-1, they’ll get in IF Tampa Bay loses a game down the stretch. That can even be an overtime loss. Tampa Bay plays us, Toronto, Buffalo, and Montreal.
If the Bruins can go 1-1-1, they’ll get in IF Tampa Bay loses a game down the stretch. That can even be an overtime loss. Tampa Bay plays us, Toronto, Buffalo, and Montreal. 2 points and Tampa loses one in regulation: If the Bruins can go 1-2-0 or 0-1-2, they’ll need Tampa Bay to lose one game in regulation, or two in overtime. Tampa going 3-1-0 or 2-0-2 would do it.
If the Bruins can go 1-2-0 or 0-1-2, they’ll need Tampa Bay to lose one game in regulation, or two in overtime. Tampa going 3-1-0 or 2-0-2 would do it. 1 point and Tampa Bay and Islanders lose: This is where it starts to get dicey. The Bruins are still ahead, so they could theoretically back into the playoffs, just like they theoretically could have the last 2 years. The Bruins getting a single point could get passed by the New York Islanders winning out against the Nashville Predators, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and the Ottawa Senators.
This is where it starts to get dicey. The Bruins are still ahead, so they could theoretically back into the playoffs, just like they theoretically could have the last 2 years. The Bruins getting a single point could get passed by the New York Islanders winning out against the Nashville Predators, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and the Ottawa Senators. 0 points and Tampa Bay and Carolina lose: This is much like the last bullet point, but Tampa Bay and New York each get an extra point of breathing room. As the Bruins have clinched the ROW tiebreaker against both teams, they’re sitting pretty in that respect.
It’ll be interesting down the stretch. Here’s a table of magic numbers and schedule down the stretch:Even more surprisingly, the affable drummer who hid behind his long hair became believable as a frontman. (“I feel more comfortable being Keith Moon than being Freddie Mercury,” he said, “but my favorite lead singers all act like drummers, and my favorite drummers play like singers.”) Few pop musicians have pulled off a comparable transformation; it’s as if one of the biggest bands of the ’70s had actually been Ringo Starr and Wings.
And now Mr. Grohl has recently formed another group, Them Crooked Vultures, which puts him back behind the drums alongside the guitarist and singer Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and the former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. “People’s perception of Dave is that he’s the nice guy of rock ’n’ roll,” said Mr. Homme, “and that’s accurate. He’s generous, comfortable in his own skin, but he’s also ambitious. He’s never really satisfied with what he’s done.”
This month offers the opportunity to consider the sweep of Mr. Grohl’s history. Within a two-week period a Foo Fighters’ “Greatest Hits” album (RCA), a DVD and CD of Nirvana’s breathtaking performance at the 1992 Reading Festival (UME) and Them Crooked Vultures’ self-titled debut album (DGC/Interscope) are all being released. “November is like ‘This Is Your Life’ for me,” Mr. Grohl said on the phone from Los Angeles. “It’s very nostalgic, but at the same time I’m in this brand new band, and a husband and a father. My life is pretty out of control right now, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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Nirvana was a struggling young band on the independent label Sub Pop in September 1990, when Mr. Grohl, a veteran of the Washington hard-core punk scene, became the sixth drummer to try working with Cobain and Mr. Novoselic. (A 20th-anniversary edition of the band’s debut album, “Bleach,” recorded with the drummer Chad Channing, was also released this month.) He moved to Seattle and became Cobain’s roommate; the troubled singer hardly said a word to him for weeks. In the spring of 1991 the band completed the sessions for “Nevermind.”
The “Live at Reading” performance shows the group at the peak of its power. It blasts through 25 songs in 90 minutes for an audience of 50,000, with Cobain’s impassioned yelp and guitar splatter powered by Mr. Grohl’s ferocious pounding. His memory of the show, however, focuses more on the chaos leading up to the festival.
“That was a pretty strange experience,” he said. “Kurt had been in and out of rehab, communication in the band was beginning to be strained. Kurt was living in L.A., Krist and I were in Seattle. People weren’t even sure if we were going to show up.” (Cobain was delivered to the stage in a wheelchair, dressed in a hospital gown, and collapsed on his back before getting up and starting the show.)
“We rehearsed once, the night before, and it wasn’t good,” Mr. Grohl continued. “I really thought, ‘This will be a disaster, this will be the end of our career for sure.’ And then it turned out to be a wonderful show, and it healed us for a little while.”
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Mr. Grohl said that over time Cobain’s tortured personality and violent end have determined too much of Nirvana’s image. “For obvious reasons it’s hard for people to understand that we actually enjoyed making music,” he said. “It’s easy to imagine that we were followed by a black cloud. But it wasn’t all misery and doom. People know the biography, they’ve seen the ‘Behind the Music,’ but it’s a little more complicated than that.”
Mr. Grohl had been writing songs during his years with Nirvana, and in the months following Cobain’s death he began to record them, playing all of the instruments himself. He planned to release 12 songs anonymously, under the name Foo Fighters (taken from a World War II term for unidentified flying objects), but record companies got wind of the project and began to pursue him.
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“Had I considered it as a career, I would have spent more than five days on that tape,” he said, “and I probably would have called it something other than Foo Fighters.” The album was a moderate hit and lost the Grammy Award in 1996 for best alternative music to Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged in New York.” Mr. Grohl added musicians, so that the group could tour. (It went through a few lineup changes over the course of its six albums.)
With its steady stream of muscular, melodic singles — including 17 Top 10 hits on the Billboard modern rock charts — Foo Fighters became one of the dominant bands on rock radio. “From a programming standpoint I’m grateful for a band as consistent as the Foo Fighters,” said Matt Pinfield, morning host on WXRP in New York City and a host of MTV’s “120 Minutes |
getting into rivers and streams.
Michigan has a voluntary program to help farmers reduce pollution that goes into waterways and is in the process of closing a loophole in how farm manure is handled, said Dan Wyant, the state’s environmental quality director.
“There’s not a silver bullet to solve this problem,” he said. “More has to be done.”
That includes improving wastewater treatment plants that send raw sewage into rivers during heaving rains and controlling invasive mussels that are thought to help algae thrive, he said.
Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management wants to make sure the efforts are efficient and has asked Ohio officials for more information about how they see the states working together, said spokesman Barry Sneed.
Some work to fight the algae already is underway in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.
The states will begin sharing $17.5m to reduce farm field runoff by planting strips of grass or cover crops that help soil absorb and filter phosphorus. The federal money came about last fall after toxins from algae contaminated the drinking water for 400,000 people in Toledo and southeastern Michigan.
The algae blooms also have been linked to oxygen-depleted dead zones where fish can’t survive.
The Nature Conservancy also is working with farmers in the three states, focusing on educating them about methods to reduce phosphorus. “What happened in Toledo was sort of like the shock heard around the world,” said Carrie Vollmer-Sanders, who is leading the group’s work.
Greg Lake, a farmer near Fort Wayne, Indiana, who also heads up the Allen County Soil and Water conservation District, thinks stricter regulations could be coming if the algae continue to thrive.
He has taken busloads of farmers and agribusiness retailers to Lake Erie to show them firsthand how the algae affect the water and those who depend on it. “It helps solidify why this is a fairly significant issue that shouldn’t be ignored by other states,” he said.
Blaine Baker, who operates a large dairy in Clayton, Michigan, went on a similar outing with farmers from Michigan the past two summers.
“Until you really see how green the water is, it’s really hard to believe,” he said. “That was the big eye-opener to me.”'It has always been a dream of mine to win it'.
'It has always been a dream of mine to win it'.
LIVING WITH RHEUMATOID arthritis, studying full time in University College Dublin while competing at the highest level in her sport; it’s been a whirlwind year for Monaghan’s Ciara McDermott.
McDermott, who was pivotal throughout UCD’s O’Connor Cup campaign, has suffered with her arthritis over the past few years but won’t let it get in the way of her successful football career.
“It’s definitely my biggest obstacle when it comes to both football and my studies. I’m on two injections a week which keeps it under control and allows me to do what I do.
“When it’s active and bad I’m just not able to play. It’s frustrating because you don’t know long you’ll be out for. But then when it’s under control most of the time it’s like I don’t have it, I know my limits”
Despite this difficulty and often having to take a break from football, McDermott has performed admirably for her club, college and county, and was rewarded this year mainly through her involvement with UCD.
She lined out at full-back for the South Dublin college, who won the O’Connor Cup and reached the Division 1 League Final. The Social Science student also deservedly picked up a HEC All Star.
“I’ve been watching the O’Connor Cup since I was 16 or 17. It has always been a dream of mine to win it and to do that in my final year of college is very special and something I’ll never forget.
“When I started playing football for UCD in 2013, ladies football in the college was in a bad way. If you told me then that I would win the O’Connor Cup three years later I don’t think I would believe you.”
McDermott plays her club football with Magheracloone Mitchells and won Ulster Young Player of the Year in 2011. She doesn’t let her achievements phase her however.
“Obviously winning individual awards are something very special and to get it for full back knowing the quality of footballers there was at the weekend is a huge honour. I honestly wasn’t expecting it so I am looking forward to the awards night. I feel that our whole team deserves an All Star each.”
The 21-year-old, who’s in the final year of her degree, finds it challenging to balance her studies, football, social life and spending time with family and friends.
“It is difficult to balance everything at this level but once you get into a routine it all becomes the norm. I travel home to Monaghan very weekend to see my family and friends from home.
“During the week, we always train on Mondays and Wednesdays and usually have a game Thursday so it’s important to get my college work done during the day. After most games was when I got to go out and this was always with the girls on the team which only made us closer.
“Definitely there were times where balancing both college work and training and games was tough but it just had to be done. I found once I was organised for both college and football was when I could manage the workload. It was important to stay on top of things and not let the college work build up which is easy to do at times.”
The future? McDermott is confident. She was once told she might never play football competitively again. She has obviously overcome this barrier before but the rising star will take everything in her stride.
“Hopefully this won’t be my last year in the UCD jersey. I hope to come back next year or the year after and do a Masters in Social Work.
“I really don’t know what the future holds when it comes to football. At the moment my arthritis is under control and I am able to play at a high level. Unfortunately I could wake up tomorrow and not be able to play, so I take one day at a time.
“I’d love to come off my injections so if that means taking time out for a while I might have to do that. At the moment though I feel great and I’m thankful that I can play football and not be any different from the other girls I play with.”LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge called a New Hampshire man a “bully vigilante” and sentenced him to more than seven years in prison for organizing armed backers of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy following a standoff with U.S. agents in 2014.
Gerald “Jerry” DeLemus (de-LAY’-mus) on Wednesday became the first person sentenced to prison for his ties to the confrontation.
He’s been jailed for almost 16 months, so he’ll spend about six more years behind bars. The 62-year-old had been expected to receive about six years.
But Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro faulted him for trying to withdraw the guilty pleas he entered last August to conspiracy and interstate travel in aid of extortion.
She says she doesn’t think DeLemus accepted responsibility for his actions.
DeLemus said he came to Nevada to protect the Bundy family from armed agents.Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers performs during 2016 Lollapalooza Day Three at Grant Park on July 30, 2016 in Chicago.
Red Hot Chili Peppers are welcoming home the Los Angeles Rams.
The L.A.-based Chili Peppers will perform at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before the Rams take on the Seattle Seahawks. The game will be the first NFL game in Los Angeles in 22 years.
Ballin' Out Podcast: ScHoolboy Q & Rams' Akeem Ayers Talk Bringing NFL Back to L.A.
The Rams moved back to Los Angeles this season after moving to St. Louis in 1994.
Chili Peppers bassist Flea said in a statement "since I was a little boy, I've taken joy in the beauty of the Rams. When I moved to Los Angeles in 1972, I was getting uprooted from my home and I thought, 'Well, where I'm going they've got the Rams. It's going to be all right.'"
Kendrick Lamar & ScHoolboy Q Hit the Field at Los Angeles Rams Training Camp
The band also includes singer Anthony Kiedis, drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.Goals from Conor McAleny and Ross Barkley helped Everton make it two wins from two as they defeated Dundee.
Having already beaten Hearts 3-1 on Sunday, the Blues headed for Dens Park intent on leaving Scotland with consecutive victories.
And they made the perfect start – McAleny slotting home inside two minutes. Barkley then added a second after the break, converting a penalty after he was tripped in the box.
The only worry for the visitors was the sight of Romelu Lukaku making an early exit with what looked like a hamstring injury.
Toffees boss Roberto Martinez made wholesale changes to his squad, with six new faces from the side that defeated Hearts including starts for Joel Robles, Tom Cleverley and Tyias Browning.
No sooner had everyone settled in their seats at Dens Park, Everton opened the scoring. McAleny expertly tucked a loose ball across the edge of the box into the corner to hand the Toffees an early lead.
An excellent pass from Barkley then gave the Blues a chance to extend the lead but, when Steven Naismith was felled latching onto the pass, Barkley’s free-kick was well saved Scott Bain.
Lukaku then neatly guided the resultant corner into the path of Cleverley but the midfielder’s shot was deflected over.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic though –Robles had to tip a Nick Ross curler around the post and in their next attack Dundee went even closer. Robles could only watch as Luka Tankulic lashed a loose ball onto the crossbar.
Lukaku limped off on 31 minutes to be replaced by Kieran Dowell.
The youngster was immediately in the thick of things, drawing a save from Bain with a curling effort.
Everton were finding it tough to break through the rearguard of their Scottish opponents. However, after the break, Dowell combined well with Cleverley to present the summer signing with a chance of adding a second. The youngster’s pass was carefully weighted, Cleverley used the pace on the ball to beat a man, but could then only steer the ball across goal and wide.
On 59 minutes, the Blues were presented with a far more straightforward opportunity. Barkley was sent tumbling as he burst into the box and he stepped up to send sub keeper David Mitchell the wrong way.
Credit to Paul Hartley’s men, they continued to press forward searching for a way back into the contest. A neat flowing moved after Tankulic broke at pace saw Kevin Holt arrow a shot the wrong side of Robles’s right-hand post.
On came Kevin Mirallas and Brendan Galloway to add fresh legs to both the attack and defence, with John Stones and McAleny applauded by the travelling support as they warmed down.
Both substitutes were involved as Everton broke quickly from a corner but Galloway’s eventual pass was a little over-eager and a Dundee defender could clear.
Mitchell then saved excellently from Mirallas late on to keep the score at 2-0. And that is the way it finished, meaning the Blues head for home with two positive results – and further minutes - under their belts.Kid Cudi is getting back into TV with a new role on the forthcoming season of Fox's popular show "Empire." The rapper previously portrayed roles on "Entourage" and "How to Make It In America" so he's no stranger to the acting game.
The news of Cudder's acting gig was revealed today by Entertainment Weekly. According to EW, Cudi will play a rapper named Gram who is in competition with Hakeem Lyon, the rivalry extending to their love lives-- Gram is also dating Hakeem's ex, Tiana. Cudi isn't the only rapper appearing in the new season, French Montana is expected to make a cameo as well.
The new season premieres on September 21st at 9 PM EST on Fox. Kid Cudi is also prepping a new album, Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’, for later this year.Marco Verratti’s future at Paris Saint-Germain has been thrown into doubt after he reportedly asked to leave the French champions on Thursday.
Marco Verratti joined PSG from Pescara in 2012
The Italian midfielder, 20, has a contract that runs until 2017 but Napoli and Fiorentina are both keen on him after an impressive first season in Ligue 1.
PSG want to keep Verratti but the two parties have so far been unable to reach an agreement on a significant pay rise.
Potential suitors will be on high alert after an apparently unsuccessful meeting on Thursday between Verratti’s agent, Donato Di Campli, and PSG managing director Jean-Claude Blanc.
“We’re not happy,” Di Campli told L’Equipe. "The situation is starting to become difficult.
"We even asked the club to allow him to leave but this permission was not granted."
L’Equipe says PSG have offered to double Verratti’s salary but that the former Pescara player is holding out for between €3-4 million per year.
Another meeting between Di Campli and Blanc is scheduled for next week, while Napoli were told on Thursday that the Italian international - thought to be valued at between €20-25 million - was not for sale.
Verratti is the latest in a line of PSG players who have sought to renegotiate their contracts since leading the club to its first French league title in 19 years.
Brazilian defender Thiago Silva, who returned to training on Thursday, recently received a pay rise to see off interest from Barcelona, while 30-goal striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will meet the club president next week.
Midfielder Blaise Matuidi, who had an excellent season, is also set for contract negotiations.Commonly people get tattoos to make a personal statement; in many ways they are an extension of their personalities. Those who are passionate about the statement or aesthetic value of their tattoos also have the same passion about other aspects of their life. When those with passions for tattoos and comic books mix, there can be some pretty cool results.
Here is a collection of some of the better comic book related tattoos that I’ve seen.
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A Hellboy partial sleeve concept.
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Taken from an illustration by Tim Bradstreet.
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The Dark Phoenix from Uncanny X-Men #135 (1980) by John Byrne & Terry Austin.
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Superman symbol depicting the Death of Superman.
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Impressive reproduction of the cover to Incredible Hulk #181 (1974) by Herb Trimpe – the first appearance of Wolverine!
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The Joker from Batman: Arkham Asylum (1990) by Dave McKean.
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Superman and Batman from Kingdom Come (1996) by Alex Ross.
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– The Comic Book CriticThis article is over 7 years old
French president says post-Fukushima abandonment of nuclear'makes no sense' as he announces push for new technology
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has bucked the anti-nuclear trend following Japan's Fukushima disaster by pledging €1bn of investment in atomic power.
Despite growing worldwide concern about the safety of nuclear plants, Sarkozy said the moratorium on new nuclear reactors adopted by certain countries since the Japanese nuclear crisis in March "makes no sense".
"There is no alternative to nuclear energy today," he told journalists on Monday.
"We are going to devote €1bn to the nuclear programme of the future, particularly fourth-generation technology," Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy also promised "substantial resources" to strengthen research into nuclear safety and a further €1.3bn (£1.2bn) investment in renewable energy.
The announcement confirming France's commitment to atomic power came as neighbouring Germany drew up plans to shut all its nuclear stations by 2022.
It also came 24 hours after thousands of anti-nuclear protesters formed a human chain outside France's oldest nuclear power station to demand its closure.
The plant at Fessenheim in Alsace, on France's border with Germany, has become the focus of a fierce debate over nuclear safety.
At the weekend, demonstrators from France, Germany and Switzerland surrounded the plant calling for its number one reactor, in operation since 1977, to be taken out of service, claiming it was vulnerable to flooding and earthquakes. The plant is operated by French power group EDF.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced in May that Germany would phase out its 17 nuclear reactors, which provide up to 23% of the country's energy, by 2022 at a cost of €40bn. She said Germany would concentrate on renewable energy sources.
"We want to end the use of nuclear energy and reach the age of renewable energy as fast as possible," Merkel said.
Switzerland has also decided not to replace its five existing nuclear reactors, which supply around 40% of its energy, when they reach the end of their working life. The last of the nuclear stations is expected to end production by 2034, leaving time for Switzerland to develop alternative power sources.
Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, sought to restart his country's nuclear programme, abandoned in the 1980s. But 94% of Italian voters rejected the idea in a referendum earlier this month.
France has 58 nuclear reactors, which supply 74% of its electricity, and is the world's largest net exporter of electricity from nuclear sources.
Sarkozy said France was known to be "considerably ahead" of other countries in terms of atomic power technology and safety.
"Our power stations are more expensive because they are safer," he said.
Following the Fukushima nuclear accidents, caused by a combination of earthquake and tsunami, the French prime minister, François Fillon, asked the nuclear safety authority to carry out an "open and transparent" audit of the country's nuclear installations, examining the risks of flood and earthquake damage, loss of power and cooling, and emergency accident procedure, to examine if any improvements could be made. Its conclusions are expected in September.
All 143 working nuclear power plants in the EU's 27 member states are facing new safety tests in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
French ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said no decision on the future of Fessenheim would be made before the nuclear safety watchdog submitted its report.
• This article was amended on 29 June 2011. The original said that the 17 nuclear reactors in Germany provide up to 40% of the country's energy. This has been corrected.Attempts to shut us up in walled gardens and curb our online freedoms are impossible to implement and police. The nature of the internet sees to it that they are doomed to fail.
John Gilmore, an internet activist who was also one of the co-founders of both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the first free software company, Cygnus Solutions, once wrote that "the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it".
The internet was designed to enable military communications to find their way around points of failure in the event of a nuclear war. If one node fails or "drops certain messages because it doesn't like their subject the messages find their way past that node anyway by some other route", according to Gilmore.
Censorship is practised for all kinds of political, social and commercial reasons, and all societies have limits on acceptable behaviour, but the point of the web is that there are no walled gardens and no limits to what we can access. If information wants to get out there, it will.
Regardless of frontiers
The idea that the internet is a universal resource that should be accessible to all is enshrined in the Declaration of Principles of the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) of December 2003, which says, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; that this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Such declarations were relatively meaningless before the emergence of the world wide web, which has transformed the possibilities for information exchange and the dissemination of ideas, and how we respond to them.
Beyond the possibilities of static media, the internet can be seen as a democratising force. It has allowed us to interact with our peers across the cultural, racial, political and religious boundaries of the physical world, precisely because there are few barriers to what we say and how we say it, other than the approval or approbation of our peers.
What makes the internet different is that, unlike newspapers or television, it is interactive. We can determine what we read and how we read it. We are the editors and the filters. We can speak and share our vision with our fellow citizens on the opposite side of the globe without the interference of spokesmen or intermediaries.
And unlike newspapers or television, everything we find on the net can be translated into a file, and edited and copied and stored on an anonymous computer a thousand miles or more from its source.
The quandary for governments is that because the web is ubiquitous and transparent it is hard to police and harder to censor. Governments want to control the content 'for our own good' or to inhibit law-breaking, dissent or civil disobedience. The users and the technology want to route around it.
In the UK the effectiveness of a block on access to the Pirate Bay file-sharing website was shortlived, and was bypassed by the use of proxy servers, virtual private networks and other means.
Inside the walled garden
During the Arab Spring of last year an Egyptian activist is said to have tweeted, "We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world." The response of the Egyptian government was to shut down access to the internet.
Consideration of such responses is not restricted to totalitarian regimes. During the riots in England in the summer of 2011, Tory MPs called for social networking sites to be shut down, and such measures have apparently been discussed at the top levels of government.
It's worth noting that a UK police source tweeted in response to such arguments that "active online engagement has helped reduce calls and the spread of untrue rumours". The effectiveness of internet engagement and chatter is not restricted to one point of view.
For a company, a walled garden or a closed platform has different imperatives, especially when it comes to controlling the content we can access from a mobile device.
At first glance the issues are simple. The films, songs, software, texts and images that we download from the internet belong to somebody, "and should be paid for".
The greater difficulty is that the content industries are being redefined by the technology. The newspaper industry is in trouble. The music industry is no longer exclusively defined by the sale of records or CDs.
At the same time there has been a steady movement by corporate bodies to use copyright law, and its kin, patent law, which is a very different animal, as tools to lock down the ownership of ideas.
Intellectual property law may have been conceived to protect the rights of the little man, the individual creator, against the appropriation of ideas and inventions by corporate interests. But in the real world, this is no longer the case. Intellectual property is big business.
A walled garden ties users and developers into a limited subset of outlets and technologies. Some mobile providers, notably Apple, are the sole gatekeepers of their content, and are able to control the technologies, accessories and content available to their users, and to control the fees and policies they impose on their content creators.
Punishing the users
The attempt by content creators to lock down content has other consequences. Unable to stop the distribution of digital copies of copyrighted work on the internet, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Record Industry Association of America have sought to criminalise users, to encourage the others, through a series of highly publicised court cases.
One such case is that of Richard O'Dwyer, a 24-year-old student at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, who is facing extradition to the US where he is charged with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal infringement of copyright. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.
O'Dwyer's alleged crime is that he created a website, TVShack.net, through which users provided hyperlinks to copyrighted content. The site did not host the copyrighted content.
In January this year Westminster Magistrates' Court ruled that the extradition should go ahead. On 13 March, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, approved the decision. The case is currently under appeal.
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, who has campaigned on O'Dwyer's behalf, pointed out that although he is wanted in the US, "O'Dwyer is not a US citizen, he's lived in the UK all his life, his site was not hosted there, and most of his users were not from the US. America is trying to prosecute a UK citizen for an alleged crime which took place on UK soil."
Ironically, much of the content linked to by TVShack users was hosted on US websites, such as YouTube and Google Video. As Wales says, "O'Dwyer always did his best to play by the rules: on the few occasions he received requests to remove content from copyright holders, he complied. His site hosted links, not copyrighted content, and these were submitted by users."
The motive for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the MPAA is to inhibit users from putting links on websites that point to videos that have been uploaded elsewhere without the copyright owners' consent. The hosting sites, the so-called pirates that make this possible, are beyond the reach of the law, and innocuous intermediaries pay the price.
The harmonious society
In Europe even more arbitrary and authoritarian restrictions on basic internet usage have been proposed. A European working group, CleanIT, comprising internet user organisations, internet companies, non-governmental organisations, law-enforcement agencies and governments, and funded by the European Commission has produced a leaked working document for policing a Europe-wide, terrorist-free internet that includes recommendations such as:
Knowingly providing hyperlinks on websites to terrorist content must be defined by law as illegal just like the terrorist content itself.
On voice-over-IP services, it must be possible to flag users for terrorist activity.
Internet companies must allow only real, common names.
Social-media companies must allow only real pictures of users.
At the European level, a browser or operating system-based reporting button must be developed.
Governments will start drafting legislation that will make offering a system to monitor internet activity to internet users obligatory for browser or operating systems as a condition of selling their products in this country or the EU.
These proposals would not only restrict our freedoms, but are impossible to implement and police, and would not work for the purpose they are intended because "the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."
Censorship and its intended effect of pushing us into walled gardens do not lead to a harmonious society, as some would wish, but encroach on the web's potential to be an unparalleled repository and resource for information, accurate and inaccurate, about everything and anything, that can be accessed instantaneously. Censorship affects us all.Tinder Reduces Spam Traffic 90 Percent with TeleSign
TeleSign, the Mobile Identity company, today unveiled how it is utilizing its innovative products to help Tinder combat its evolving bot problem—decreasing spam on the social app by 90 percent. Through a combination of real-time risk analysis of phone numbers attached to user accounts and SMS-based verification techniques, TeleSign has helped Tinder protect its user accounts and strengthen its global brand.
In order to preserve the authenticity of its ecosystem, Tinder knew it had to upgrade its security measures. The rapidly growing app chose to work with TeleSign, which delivered a new security process to help Tinder recognize and combat fraudulent accounts. Implementing its PhoneID and SMS Verification products, TeleSign was able to provide the expertise and scale needed to meet the challenges of the erosive bot atmosphere.
“The network that TeleSign has is an enormous advantage and it is exactly what we needed. It is a huge feat to categorize the billions of phone numbers out there and that’s something we could never do. It’s really impressive and has been a great pairing for us,” says Tinder CTO Ryan Ogle.
TeleSign analyzes massive volumes of real-time and historical data and usage patterns on phone numbers to provide a risk assessment score for new accounts being created on the app. These scores are then used by Tinder to determine which new accounts should be challenged via TeleSign’s SMS Verification product. TeleSign then sends a time-based one-time passcode (TOTP) over SMS that the user confirms within the app. This ensures the phone number registered to the account is legitimate, prevents bulk registrations and greatly reduces the incidents of fraudsters attempting to create fake accounts.
“Once we had TeleSign in place, we were able to block fraudulent accounts in a much more sophisticated way. It’s been 100 percent accurate and we’ve seen about a 90 percent reduction in spam traffic as a result,” Ogle explains further.
All of these capabilities are delivered via a TeleSign REST API and easily integrated into Tinder’s mobile app, processes and workflows. Across the 196 countries and territories where Tinder verifies and authenticates users, the company has experienced a 20% higher completion rate over their prior vendors. This ensures that not only are fraudsters kept out, but legitimate users are able to seamlessly and effectively verify themselves and create new accounts.
“Tinder is known for its impressive growth and almost ubiquitous brand presence. A robust security force is critical in limiting spam and protecting its reputation. With our expertise and global scale we were able to come in quickly and wipe out a large percentage of Tinder’s spam traffic,” said TeleSign CEO Steve Jillings.× Indy man sentenced to 80 years after shooting ex-girlfriend and her brother while dressed as elderly woman
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.– An Indianapolis man was sentenced for two counts of attempted murder after shooting his ex-girlfriend and her brother while dressed as an elderly woman.
Michael Love was found guilty on Nov. 1 and sentenced Friday to 80 years in the Indiana Department of Correction.
IMPD arrested Love in July of 2015 after he ambushed the man, identified as Zach Guyton, and woman, identified as Sultanna Reed, in 300 block of Eastern Ave. near New York St.
The shooting victims were loading some children into an SUV to go to daycare when the shooting happened.
Love approached the vehicle, pulled a handgun out of a plastic grocery bag and fired multiple shots at his ex-girlfriend, striking her three times. As her brother tried to come to her aid, Love shot him once in the face.
Multiple witnesses reported seeing Love dressed in a brown dress and stockings knotted at the knee, wearing a wig and mask as he ran towards the vehicle.
“We are grateful that the two victims survived this dangerous attack and that the children who were present were not injured,” said Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry. “We commend the work of the investigators, cooperation of witnesses, and most importantly the courage of the victims who were essential in securing a significant sentence for this violent offender.”
At the time of the offense, there was a protective order against Love to stay away from his ex-girlfriend.78 Pages Posted: 17 Apr 2006
Date Written: March 2006
Abstract
This Article is as simple and provocative as its title suggests: it explores the legal implications of the word fuck. The intersection of the word fuck and the law is examined in four major areas: First Amendment, broadcast regulation, sexual harassment, and education. The legal implications from the use of fuck vary greatly with the context. To fully understand the legal power of fuck, the nonlegal sources of its power are tapped. Drawing upon the research of etymologists, linguists, lexicographers, psychoanalysts, and other social scientists, the visceral reaction to fuck can be explained by cultural taboo. Fuck is a taboo word. The taboo is so strong that it compels many to engage in self-censorship. This process of silence then enables small segments of the population to manipulate our rights under the guise of reflecting a greater community. Taboo is then institutionalized through law, yet at the same time is in tension with other identifiable legal rights. Understanding this relationship between law and taboo ultimately yields fuck jurisprudence.We expect the Steam Machines to come on the market in 2015. For many Linux supporters, this sounds like “the year of the Linux (gaming) desktop” all over again, however there are a number of hurdles to adoption that Valve and their partners will have to tackle. And seriously, it is not going to be easy, no matter how you look at it.
First, the idea of a console using a standard and a common OS, manufactured by different companies, is not really something THAT new. That’s actually very much what Trip Hawkins, founder of EA and subsequent founder of 3DO, tried to achieve with the 3DO standard. 3DO acted as a independent company responsible for designing the OS and hardware specifications, leaving the manufacturing, pricing and marketing to other companies licensing its technology. The situation is a little different nowadays, but overall there are many learnings from the 3DO failure to win on the market that remain very relevant.
3DO’s first support came from Panasonic, which was looking to make a dent in the lucrative consoles market as the 32 bits market was expected to take over the aging 16 bits consoles in a matter of years. However, the 3DO was not so much positioned as a console in the first place. It was the age of everything multimedia, and the Panasonic model was released as a kind of VCR that could also do gaming… and it was priced accordingly… at like 700 USD at the time – which is more than 1000 USD in current dollars. This did not help to secure a strong position at launch, even though the Panasonic 3DO was early on the market before other 32 bits consoles. Positioning is probably not going to be main issue with Steam Machines, as we expect them to be marketed more or less as consoles (wait, Alienware is saying their Alpha can also be used as a Windows PC… “More than A Gaming Console: Alpha takes you where other consoles can’t; plug in a keyboard and mouse and transform your Alpha into a fully functional Windows 8 PC”), but pricing may be a real concern if Valve expects some penetration to larger, non-PC gaming audiences.
Pricing
Pricing is a key element in the value proposition. Hardware wise, it’s likely that most Steam Machines out there supporting AAA games will need serious hardware, and therefore be reasonably pricey (because of the limited production volumes). On top of that, just like for the 3DO model (or the Android model for that matter), manufacturers do not make money on the Steam platform itself (that’s Valve’s territory). Their business model is all about doing margins on the hardware and their potential specific services. Modern console manufacturers like Sony or Microsoft, on the other hand, sell consoles at a reasonable price and recoup the costs on years of software sales where they secure licensing fees to generate profits. For the end user, this means that current-gen consoles will most probably stay the cheaper ways to play modern games, while Steam Machines (at least the ones with decent hardware) will remain more premium options. Back in the 90s, 3DO consoles remained quite expensive, despite Trip Hawkins’ will to have them decrease their price point. 3DO was unable to convince manufacturers to do so, and instead decided to finance more advertising budget by increasing the licenses costs for games developed on 3DO. Ouch. That did not work too well with third party developers. Valve is not in the same situation here, since their customers are already on PC and Mac and they do not need an extra hardware platform to survive. However if they expect some added business and growth from the Steam Machines, fair pricing for the end user will matter anyway.
Brand dilution
This was a major problem with 3DO. Who represents the brand? Which manufacturer stands for it? When you have 10 different Steam Machines out there, what is the meaning of a Steam Machine? What is it supposed to be like? Unlike phones which pretty much all look the same, some of the Steam Machines presented in early 2014 had virtually no common look and adopted radically different designs. This is very much like the PC Desktop Market, but very different from what people expect from a console standard. The 3DO had the same issue, the lack of consistency in the design and especially brand recognition. Valve is at least bringing SOME consistency here, by building a controller from scratch and letting manufacturers use it. That may be only common component between all options out there, while everyone else can recognize what a Xbox, WiiU or PS4 should look like.
Communication, Advertising
There is a key issue with the “everyone can make it” model: even if all manufacturers benefit from the shared platform, they have to nevertheless sell their own and the marketing costs are not shared at all, and this will lead to a fragmentation of advertising and communication. Sometimes this is detrimental, especially if major players are unable to effectively communicate the benefits or advantages of Steam Machines versus other systems. And since most companies set to produce Steam Machines are in the business of assembling hardware, their forte is certainly not marketing. I wonder if Valve plans to do something around that issue, and if they intend to lead the way to avoid replication of efforts and ensure some consistency. I don’t think they will, as they clearly want to distance themselves from that role.
Classification of Hardware
While not related to the 3DO case per se, another major issue that Steam Machines will face on the market is the lack of user-friendly way to tell what games each of them can play. On regular consoles, there is a single hardware base and games run in the same way everywhere. A Steam Machine could however run on Intel HD graphics or nVidia GTX970 hardware. Or anything in the middle. How to tell users that to play Metro2033 your Intel HD base will not be sufficient, even though the game is available for the platform? Current PC Gamers will have no issue to “get” that aspect right, but thinking beyond obvious users, your regular “know nothing about PCs” person will have no clue as to what they should get. So, either manufacturers will implement their own guidelines to help consumers (if they do it’s very likely to suck balls), or else Valve could step up and provide some kind of benchmarking solution to ensure gamers are clearly aware of what they purchase and what it can play. There’s many ways such a benchmarking system could work: assign target performance for a number of games and if the system meets them, it gets a grade A. If not, it ends up anywhere between grade B to F. Add the year number to that benchmark, and you end up with A2014, |
press bio explains, “so they decided to give themselves a name and start playing some shows. And then a few more shows, and then a crapload of shows. In fact, 2007 saw Mink Mussel Creek play over 100 shows, even smashing through 10 in one week. During this time, members had come and gone, but the end result was a ripper one with Nick Allbrook on vocals, Shiny Joe Ryan on guitar, Steve Summerlin on bass, Richard Ingham on synths and Kevin Parker on drums.”
Long story short: after failed attempts to record an album in the following years, the band morphed into Pond and the Mink Mussel material was scrapped for a couple of years until they regrouped for two weeks in January 2011 at the Norfolk Basement Fremantle. Although the results of these sessions were issued on a USB wristband, they never got a proper release – until now. Mink Mussel Manticore is finally coming to double vinyl in June (and was also released yesterday on Australian iTunes). Coolest of all is watching Kevin Parker drum in the promo live video below (followed by the tracklist):
Free download: 'They Dated Steadily' by Mink Mussel Creek – http://t.co/sH0un9t74e http://t.co/b9oPBPRNHn — Tame Impala (@tameimpala) May 11, 2014
1 They Dated Steadily 13:34
2 Meeting Waterboy 6:14
3 Cat Love Power 6:47
4 Promising Quintet Rise To Power (Macho Peachu) 4:04
5 Makeout Party Girls 4:57
6 Hands Off the Mannequin, Charlie 6:31
7 Doesn’t the Moon Look Good Tonight 7:30
GUM’s long-awaited Delorean Highway and Shiny Joe Ryan’s The Cosmic Microwave Background – both previewed here, with streams of their lead singles – are also set to be released on vinyl in June on Spinning Top Records (and May 30th digitally). GUM is the side project of Tame Impala and Pond’s Jay Watson, “better known to friends and loved ones as Gumby or Gum.” Download GUM’s cover of 1980’s Genesis hit “Misunderstanding” for free here, and check the tracklist below:
1 Delorean Highway (stream)
2 Growin’ Up (stream)
3 The Sky Opened Up
4 Misunderstanding (free download)
5 Summer Rain
6 21st Century Radiation
7 Pink Skies
8 Living And Dying
9 Day Of The Triffids
10 Can’t See Past My Eyes
Mink Mussel Creek and Pond’s Joe Ryan (also Tame Impala’s guitar tech) recorded a “10 track debut album alone in his grotty Berlin apartment. Later, he enlisted the help of some friends to fill it out a little,” according to the press release. Titled The Cosmic Microwave Background, the resulting album was mastered by Kevin Parker. Download “‘What Ever Happened To The Space Race?’ – featuring Nick Allbrook (Pond, Tame Impala) on drums – for free here.
1 Always Wanting More
2 Whatever Happened To The Space Race? (free download)
3 The Cosmic Microwave Background Pt1 (stream)
4 The Old Man And The Sea
5 Devonvare $amson
6 Feelings Returning
7 The Cosmic Microwave Background Pt2
8 Hold On For The Ride
9 The God Particle
10 Can We Ever Make It?
As for Pond’s Man, It Feels Like Space Again, since The Future Heart’s preview in January, Nick confirmed the band was “currently in the last throes of mixing and mastering” to Xpressmag and Jay added to The West Australian it will be released mid-2014: “It’s like Beard in that it’s like a mixtape. There’s a funk song; there’s Joe’s country song; me and Joe have these heartfelt power ballads; and then there’s space rock. It’s definitely the most pop thing we’ve done, by far.”
Pond’s latest release is “Colouring The Streets,” a track on the Spirit Of Askasha soundtrack streaming below:UPDATE: In addition, Activision has announced that Nightmares mode, Dead Ops Arcade II, and Black Market are not available on last-gen platforms.
Original Story:
Activision has announced new details about the last-gen versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 in a new FAQ on the Call of Duty site.
Black Ops 3 on PS3 and Xbox 360 will run between 30 and 60FPS in multiplayer and will run at 30FPS in the Shadows of Evil Zombies mode.
The multiplayer mode on PS3 and Xbox 360 will scale between 30- 60 FPS, while the frame rate in Zombies mode is 30 FPS.
In addition, features like Theater Mode, Weapon Paintshop, and eSports features will not be available on PS3 or Xbox 360.
For example, features built to leverage the next generation hardware like the new Weapon Paint Shop and the new suite of eSports tools, including CODCasting and Theater will only be available on Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Storage requirements for Black Ops 3 on PS3 and Xbox 360 have also been announced.
PS3: 16GB of space needed to download Black Ops 3 update; once installation is complete, the game will require 8GB of storage.
Xbox 360: 8GB of space required
Finally, as revealed earlier, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Season Pass will not be available on last-gen, but Activision says individual DLC packs may be available on PS3 and Xbox 360. More details about what DLC offerings may be available on last-gen versions will be announced at a later date.
Season Pass will be available only on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC platforms. Availability of individual DLC packs for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms may vary. More information will be announced at a later date.
As announced earlier, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on last-gen platforms will not have a campaign mode. Black Ops 3 on PS3 and Xbox 360 is developed by Beenox and Mercenary Technology and will be available for a suggested retail price of $49.99. PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will also include a download code for Call of Duty: Black Ops 1, the game that started this series.
SOURCE: ActivisionWelcome to the official beginning of the Freshmen Legacy! Last time we learned a little bit about our Founder, Marley. Thrown into the timestream with the requirements to buy the most expensive piece of land he can find he was well equipped with the perfect personality to start off small and grow his Legacy.
So, Marley Freshmen is out on his own…except out on his own really just means homeless! With only $1,300 it will be a long while before Marley can afford much more than the simplest of lives.
Welcome to our humble abode! With $200 left to spare, our new casa fits in perfectly with the neighbors! With just a grill, a mini-fridge and a cheap motel bed, Marley will have to put his good skills to use and be plenty resourceful! And that is just what he does! After his first night sleeping in the shadow of the Alto and Landgraab Manors he decides to go explore town and make the most out of the opportunities around!
While at the park, Marley decided to meet some of the locals, always with that idea of finding the perfect Mate in mind. When he found out one was married and the other was a vampire, however, he decided maybe the park wasn’t the best place to meet his future wife and Co-Founder of his legacy. But then there was Ayesha.
Ayesha and Marley instantly got along, they had compatible signs and she was even confident enough to tell him that they should get to know each other better! So get to know each other better they did…
As the sun set Ayesha decided to share some of Marley’s Special Park Hotdogs with her new dashing friend, and it didn’t take long for Marley to decided to go in for the kiss. Right there, in front of the grill where they first shared a meal. And as they say, the rest was history.
AdvertisementsWe knew pro-abortion activists would be upset by Donald Trump's win, but we didn't quite know how low the rhetoric would go. One unfortunate case in point was stand-up comedian Jena Friedman's guest appearance on Stephen Colbert's live election special on Comedy Central. As the election results came in and it was clear Trump was going to be elected our next president, she made a disgusting suggestion. (Warning: graphic language.)
“It feels like an asteroid has just smacked into our democracy,” she began. “It is so scary and sad and heartbreaking. And I just wish I could be funny. Get your abortions now because we're going to be f**ked and we’re going to have to live with it.”
The audience did not laugh - they gasped.
Presumably, Friedman is terrified, in part, because Trump has pledged to appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court. He will also be cooperating with the Republican-led Congress as they continue to try and defund Planned Parenthood. It's not just because they feel like it - it's because Planned Parenthood has been caught treating unborn babies inhumanely. Yet, pro-abortion activists like Friedman like to define any kind right to life legislation as counterproductive and probably thinks a Trump presidency will end women's rights once and for all.
Liberals everywhere have been shouting their end-of-the-world prophecies after Trump's historic win on Tuesday. How can the free world survive with him at the helm, they wonder? Instead of acknowledging the political outsider's impressive accomplishment - winning states Republicans haven't won in decades - Hollywood and the liberal media is continuing to depict Trump as a racist and a bigot who will likely start World War Three.
Thankfully, we live in a democracy, and, despite what frightened liberals may think, the nation will go on.
The handshake seen around the world on Thursday confirms it.The build-up of magma six kilometres below El Salvador's Ilopango caldera means the capital city of San Salvador may be at risk from future eruptions, University of Bristol researchers have found.
A caldera is a large cauldron-like volcanic depression or crater, formed by the collapse of an emptied magma chamber. The depression often originates from very big explosive eruptions. In Guatemala and El Salvador, caldera volcanoes straddle tectonic fault zones along the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA). The CAVA is 1,500 kilometres long, stretching from Guatemala to Panama.
The team, from the Volcanology research group at Bristol's School of Earth Sciences and the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources in El Salvador, studied the density distribution beneath the Ilopango caldera and the role tectonic stresses – caused by the movement of tectonic plates along fault lines – have on the build-up of magma at depth. Their study is published today in the journal Nature Communications.
The Ilopango caldera is an eight km by 11 kilometre volcanic collapse structure of the El Salvador Fault Zone. The collapsed caldera was the result of at least five large eruptions over the past 80,000 years.
The last of these occurred about 1,500 years ago and produced enough volcanic ash to form a 15 centimetre thick layer across the entire UK. This catastrophic eruption destroyed practically everything within a 100 kilometre radius, including a well-developed native Mayan population, and significantly disturbed the Mayan populations as far as 200 kilometres away.
The most recent eruptions occurred in 1879–1880 and were on a much smaller scale than the previous one.
Project leader and co-author Dr Joachim Gottsmann said: "Most earthquakes take place along the edges of tectonic plates, where many volcanoes are also located. There is therefore a link between the breaking of rocks, which causes faults and earthquakes and the movement of magma from depth to the surface, to feed a volcanic eruption. The link between large tectonic fault zones and volcanism is, however, not very well understood."
Existing studies show that magma accumulation before a large caldera-forming eruption, as well as the caldera collapse itself, may be controlled by fault structures.
"However, it is unclear to what extent regional tectonic stresses influence magma accumulation between large caldera-forming eruptions.", co-author Professor Katharine Cashman said.
Lead author Jennifer Saxby, whose research towards a MSc in Volcanology contributed to the study, said: "Addressing this question is important not only for understanding controls on the development of magmatic systems, but also for forecasting probable locations of future eruptive activity from caldera-forming volcanoes."
The team discovered that the current tectonic stress field promotes the accumulation of magma and hydrothermal fluids at shallow (< 6km) depth beneath Ilopango. The magma contains a considerable amount of gas, which indicates the system is charged to possibly feed the next eruption.
Dr Gottsmann said: "Our results indicate that localised extension along the fault zone controls the accumulation, ascent and eruption of magma at Ilopango. This fault-controlled magma accumulation and movement limits potential vent locations for future eruptions at the caldera in its central, western and northern part – an area that now forms part of the metropolitan area of San Salvador, which is home to 2 million people. As a consequence, there is a significant level of risk to San Salvador from future eruptions of Ilopango."
Paper:
'Magma storage in a strike-slip collapse caldera' by J Saxby, J Gottsmann, KV Cashman and E Gutierrez in Nature Communications 7:12295Today's announcement that Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in economics, although not earth shattering, indicates that outright political partisanship is not a deterrent to winning. This is not as tragic a moment in western civilization as the sacking of Constantinople in 1453 or the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, but it suffices as one of those sad moments we will regret over time.
The committee that chose Krugman cited his "trade" theories that once made him famous for actually doing economics. (Krugman contends that nations can create comparative advantages by subsidizing certain industries, something the ancients once called Mercantilism.) However, Krugman has become a well-known public intellectual not because of his work on trade, but because of his twice-weekly op-ed column in The New York Times, where outright partisanship is substituted for economic analysis.
Paul Krugman is an unabashed liberal, and there is no crime in an economist having such persuasions. For that matter, many economists have a bit of that streak, too. Furthermore, many of us are in agreement that some of the economic policies of the Bush administration have been bad, if not downright disastrous.
However, the agreements end where Krugman begins to view U.S. economic history from a distorted lens, one in which all administrations run by Democrats are Good and Virtuous, and all Republican administrations are governed by Beelzebub himself. For example, Krugman has laid literally all of the recent financial meltdowns on free markets and deregulation, which he claims were the products of right-wing ideology and compliant Republican administrations.
This is a curious view of history. Until reading Krugman, I had no idea that Jimmy Carter and his economic guru, Alfred Kahn, were conservative Republicans. Carter and Kahn allegedly thought of themselves as liberal Democrats, and I even remember seeing Carter running for president on the Democratic ticket.
Yes, many of the major deregulation efforts came through the Carter administration, although Krugman apparently denies all of that. Carter's administration deregulated airlines and pushed through huge banking reforms as the highly regulated New Deal financial cartel imploded amidst inflation and the inability of that system to be able to finance many of the upcoming high-tech industries.
The Carter administration also began the deregulation of the price control system for oil and gasoline and set into motion the deregulation apparatus for trucking, railroads and telecommunications. In fact, Ronald Reagan received the endorsement of the Teamsters Union only after he promised to delay trucking deregulation. I also remember hearing Lester Thurow at a lecture in 1984 calling for massive deregulation of financial services and the end to anti-trust law and an end to the Glass-Steagall Act. Thurow, Kahn and Carter were not ideological conservatives, and they certainly were not Republicans, but Krugman simply airbrushes that fact to give us his own wonderland.
In Krugman's world, ideological right-wingers took a meat axe to the carefully planned, stable New Deal economic structures of finance, telecommunications, transportation and manufacturing and created an unstable mess in which greed overruled good sense. Going even farther, Krugman has called for a reinstatement of the New Deal or at least another set of legislative initiatives like the New Deal.
Given that the first New Deal ensured double-digit unemployment until the end of 1941, one would think competent economists would not support laws that restrict output, criminalize entrepreneurship, and keep unemployment levels in the stratosphere. It would seem that an economic recovery would require increasing output and employment, but who are we economists on the outside of the Nobel circle to question the wisdom of a Nobel laureate?
As for the current economic turmoil in financial markets, Krugman offers outright socialism as the cure but also continues to peddle the snake oil that the Bush administration is beholden to free-market ideology. Praising the near-nationalization of British banks by the government, Krugman writes:
"It's hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Paulson's initial response was distorted by ideology. Remember, he works for an administration whose philosophy of government can be summed up as 'private good, public bad,' which must have made it hard to face up to the need for partial government ownership of the financial sector."
Remember, Krugman is describing a government that is looking to take equity positions in banks and businesses, and whose central bank, the Federal Reserve System, pretty much owns AIG. And there is that little $700 billion bond issue to buy worthless securities (something Krugman endorsed).
Thus, Krugman believes the problem is that the Bush administration is not socialist enough, which makes it ideologically "free market." If Obama is elected and Krugman receives a high position in his administration, we shall see if Krugman becomes the first commissar who makes socialism work. I'll be betting against him.
William L. Anderson is associate professor in the Department of Economics at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Md.One of the most bizarre concepts ever taken up by a girl group will be making its debut this month in the form of a 'D-cup' group named Swing Girls. On August 19th, a five-member girl group averaging 170 cm in height and all owning D-cup breasts will be making their debut, ready to set ablaze the hearts of men. The girls revealed, "We joined our company after we saw a notice saying they're looking for tall singers.�Once all of the members came together, we all averaged 170 cm in height, and all had D-cup breasts as well. We'll be using that as our differentiating factor, and thus debut with our sexiness." With'sexiness' as their main weapon of choice, the girls boasted a variety of experiences, such as taking part in modeling competitions and even�competing�for a Miss Korea pageant. Their point choreography will be one they named themselves called the 'heartache dance'.�The ladies are also playing up to the romantic fantasies of men with a'stewardess look' to capture their hearts. Swing Girls said, "We were afraid we might look like we're cosplaying, but we like the outfits. They're both mature and sexy and leave us a lot of room to express ourselves on stage." Source + Photos: Ilgan Sports via NaverPhoto by Ebru Yildiz
Last night, the Adult Swim show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" came to an end. To mark its passing, Patti Smith collaborated with her son Jackson and daughter Jesse on "Aqua Teen Dream", an elegiac ballad that appeared during the series finale. Because we're very happy to live in a world where we get to hear Patti Smith sing the word "Meatwad," we asked her a few questions over e-mail about the collaboration.
Pitchfork: What do you remember about the first time you watched "Aqua Teen Hunger Force"? What drew you to it?
Patti Smith: My son Jackson and I have watched cartoons together since he was born. We still discuss and reminisce about various shows we’ve loved. Several years ago he called me from Detroit and said there was a new cartoon show I had to watch. I wasted no time and was instantly swept into the world of ATHF ("Aqua Teen Hunger Force"). First of all, I was raised in South Jersey not far where they live. I was excited about that. But within minutes I knew I was facing creations of true warped genius. I think what struck me most is that it’s completely unpredictable, you can’t break down the logic. Even Wittgenstein couldn’t break it down.
Pitchfork: Why did you decide to write the song?
PS: Adult Swim sent me a message, asking if I would like to write the goodbye song, while I was on tour. I was already mourning that it was coming to an end, so writing a little song would provide some sense of closure. I wasn’t sure how it could be accomplished in a hotel room in Italy, but went about it in the Aqua Teen spirit. That is to say that nothing is too absurd in the world of ATHF.
Pitchfork: We know you worked on the song with your children. What did they bring to the process?
PS: I called Jackson in Detroit. My daughter, Jesse, was visiting him. They went into a studio and recorded a track with Jesse on piano and Jackson on guitar. They sent it to my bass player Tony Shanahan and we recorded my vocal on Pro Tools in room 412 in the Grand Hotel Portovenere, situated on the Bay of Poets. So it’s a true international track. Jackson, Jesse and I all love Aqua Teen, so it was moving to perform this small but precious task with them from afar.
Pitchfork: Are you a Meatwad, Master Shake, or Frylock?
PS: I guess I’m more like Frylock. Head in the clouds with a touch of the designated driver.
Pitchfork: Have you ever had a dream where you're one of the Aqua Teens?
PS: I am an Aqua Teen! Writing the song was a dream come true.
Listen to "Aqua Teen Dream":Anxiety is rising in Washington about the big cuts to military spending slated to go into effect in January unless Congress takes action.
Republicans, defense industry executives, and some Democrats are arguing hard against the automatic cuts, which were the result of last summer’s deal to raise the debt ceiling and would also cut nondefense spending equally. Multiple members of Congress have warned that slashing defense spending by $600 billion would devastate the military, with Sen. Lindsey Graham this month predicting the cuts would deal “a death blow to our ability to defend ourselves.”
There’s just one problem: The number they cite is wrong.
The law triggering the cuts does not slash the military budget by $600 billion. That figure — which has also been widely cited in the media — overstates the amount of military cuts by more than $100 billion.
Signed by President Obama last August after the debt ceiling drama, the law actually requires $492 billion in military budget cuts. (The cuts are slated to take place over nine years.)
The oft-repeated higher figure of $600 billion is actually the total in projected deficit reduction that the government would get by cutting $492 billion from the military. The extra $108 billion in projected savings would come via interest payments the government wouldn't have to make. Since the government would be spending less, it could borrow less and thus save on interest.
“It is downright misleading to say that sequestration will cut defense by $600 billion,” said David Berteau, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Defense Department official. (Sequestration is the term often used in Washington to refer to the cuts.)
“This entire exercise against sequestration is tainted by the intense desire of several parties — from the members of Congress who voted for the bill to the Pentagon that wants to avoid the cuts — to make sequestration seem untenable,” Berteau added.
Both a Congressional Budget Office report and the head of the Office of Management and Budget concur that the proper figure for the cuts is $492 billion, or about $55 billion annually over nine years.
In arguing against the cuts, the $600 billion figure has been cited recently by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., House Aerospace Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney cited the figure last year, and it is also included in a July press release on his website.
Asked about the figure, spokespeople for the politicians offered a range of responses, none offering backing for the higher number.
A spokesperson for Rep. Olson, Melissa Kelly, said that the congressman “just misspoke” and that he was not trying to inflate the figure. “It was an honest mistake,” she said.
The Romney campaign declined to comment. Sen. Graham didn't respond. A spokesperson for Rep. Gingrey said the figure includes other cuts but declined to offer details.
As for Gov. McDonnell, a close ally of Romney, a spokesperson said “the governor is using widely quoted numbers” from the media and legislators.
Indeed, the inflated figure has been cited as fact in the New York Times, Washington Post, National Journal, Politico, Roll Call, and on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, among others.
Sometimes outlets have also offered conflicting numbers. For example, a June 3 article in the Times reported that if Congress fails to act to prevent the triggered cuts, a “$600 billion, across-the-board spending cut is to hit the Pentagon.” On June 22, another Times article got it right, referring to “the roughly $492 billion in planned Pentagon cuts” that will start next year, barring congressional action.
To understand the law requiring the cuts and how much money it really cuts from the military budget, let's turn to the text of the bill, called the Budget Control Act of 2011. Here is the section that governs the cuts — half from defense and half from non-defense — that will start in 2013 barring action by Congress:
(OMB stands for Office of Management and Budget.)
The law requires deficit reduction of $984 billion – half from defense and half from nondefense.
Here’s the formula in the bill that gets to that number. It starts with a baseline of $1.2 trillion. That's the minimum amount in deficit reduction that last year's so-called congressional supercommittee had to achieve to avoid the triggered cuts. (They did not achieve any deficit reduction.) This is the figure that the incorrect references seem to be based on. But the formula doesn't end there.
The formula then reduces the $1.2 trillion by 18 percent to account for projected savings because of interest payments the government would avoid. $1.2 trillion minus 18 percent is $984 billion. Half of $984 billion — the military portion of the cuts — is $492 billion.
As it turns out, the inflated $600 billion figure may not be correct even as the amount that the government would save. That's because those projected savings on interest payments from the defense cut could be a bit smaller than originally estimated.
The Congressional Budget Office released a report in January, several months after the Budget Control Act passed, projecting that the savings from debt service would be just $142 billion. Add that to the $984 billion in required cuts, and the law would save the government $1.13 trillion, not the much-touted $1.2 trillion figure. Since half of the cuts come from the military, the total savings attributed to defense cuts would be about $560 billion. None of this would affect the amount of required military budget cuts.
There's one other wrinkle here. (Sorry.) House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., a fierce opponent of the impending cuts, has referred to “$500 billion to $600 billion” in cuts. When we asked committee spokesman Claude Chafin where McKeon's figures came from, Chafin offered an argument separate from the debt service issue.
“[T]o achieve that [$492 billon in] savings, cuts will need to be much deeper to accommodate a variety of additional costs,” Chafin said in an email. “These include, but certainly are not limited to the costs of contract renegotiation, contract cancellation penalties, terminating civilian positions and involuntarily separating members of the military.”
In other words, this argument goes, by cutting the military budget the government will incur extra costs that will require still further cuts to achieve the required $492 billion in deficit reduction. Another House Armed Services Committee aide said that there are no specific calculations that led to McKeon's claim of “$500 billion to $600 billion” in cuts because it's not yet clear which programs will be cut.
Several military budget experts interviewed by ProPublica were skeptical that any “additional costs” -- such as a contract termination fee-- could push the total figure up to $600 billion.
Russell Rumbaugh, director of the Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense program at the Stimson Center and a former defense analyst on the Senate Budget Committee, says that cuts will likely be structured to avoid penalties or other costs.
“The armed services committee argument is straight spurious,” Rumbaugh said. “It assumes dumb decisions throughout.”
McKeon's own committee also cites the correct $492 billion figure in a fact sheet on its own website.The Clan Of The Cave Bear, from Imagine TV, Allison Shearmur Prods., Fox 21 TV Studios and Lionsgate TV, was written by Maleficent scribe Linda Woolverton based on Jean M. Auel’s series of bestselling novels. Clan Of The Cave Bear draws from the first book.
The drama takes place at a time in prehistory more than 25,000 years ago when Neanderthals shared the planet with the first early modern humans and a band of cave dwellers adopts blond and blue-eyed Ayla (Millie Brady), a child of the “Others.” As Ayla matures into a young woman of spirit and courage, she must fight for survival against the jealous bigotry of Broud (Johnny Ward), who one day will be clan leader. Charlene McKenna and Hal Ozsan co-star in what has been Lifetime’s only outstanding pilot.
Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Allison Shearmur, Francie Calfo, Woolverton and Auel executive produce the pilot, which was directed by Pierre Morel.The DSiWare store was home to some gems, and one example was Inchworm Animation, an impressive app on the portable. It had surprisingly broad tools for creating animations, and now a successor is imminent on the 3DS eShop - Butterfly: Inchworm Animation II.
A 3DS eShop exclusive from Flat Black Films, this new entry supports more complex tools and stereoscopic 3D. Whether animating drawings, stop-motion or a mixture of both, it looks to have smart features; you can even record sound effects. Perhaps most impressively it's going to have online sharing linked to butterflyanimation.com; the following is from the press release.
The original Inchworm was designed for sharing work online, but it just wasn't possible then. Thankfully times have changed, and it's super easy to upload Butterfly animations to the gallery. In addition to featuring user-generated artwork, the website has video tutorials explaining how to get the most out of the program. Like Inchworm, Butterfly is easy to use but not dumbed-down. It's not really a game, and it's not for kids. It's for people who like to be creative in coffee shops.
The trailer below also does a nice job showing this off.
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This app is coming out on 27th October in North America and will only be $5; the developer tells us a European release is planned - "hopefully by end of year" - and a publisher will also be bringing it to Japan.
Are any of you creatives planning to give this a try?Play Facebook
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WILLIAMSON, W.Va.— Hillary Clinton, in a rare candid moment on the trail, apologized to a man who confronted her over comments made earlier this year about putting coal miners "out of business."
Bo Copley, a West Virginian who recently lost his job at a coal company, teared up as he told the former secretary of state that he didn’t know how to explain his situation or her comments to his young children. Seated beside his wife, Copley slid over a photo of his kids to Clinton, who was sitting a just few feet from him at the community round-table discussion.
He questioned how she could say what she said at a CNN forum in March — "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" — and then "come in here and tell us how you’re going to be our friend."
He also told her he was representative of the angry crowd who had assembled outside hours before.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to Bo Copley about a photograph of his children during a campaign event in Williamson, West Virginia, United States, May 2, 2016. JIM YOUNG / Reuters
"Those people out there don’t see you as a friend," he said, referring to the dozens of protesters within earshot.
Clinton then engaged in a very frank conversation about her comments, apologizing repeatedly and calling her prior remarks a "misstatement."
"What I said was totally out of context from what I meant because I have been talking about helping coal country for a very long time,” she said. “What I was saying is that the way things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs. That’s what I meant to say."
She later admitted that her comments on coal miners meant her chances in the upcoming West Virginia primary are "pretty difficult."
Aides said they knew coming to the region could produce tough conversations like this one, but felt it was important to address this issue head-on. The confrontation came in the midst of a two-day bus swing through Appalachia, featuring mostly small events focused on the economy and jobs.
After the event, Copley told reporters he "would have liked to have heard more of what her plan is" for coal country.
When asked if she won him over, he said no.
Copley, 39, is a registered Republican and explained that he hasn’t made up his mind about which candidate he’s going to vote for in the primary.
"I’m not into political games. I’m not worried about the primary," he said. "I want to hear the plans you have in store for us if you do get elected."
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Though he appreciated Clinton’s apology, he said he wished it had been made in public sooner than Monday’s event.
Outside the event, protesters could be heard yelling "Go home, Hillary!" Several were carrying Trump signs and alternated between chants of "Benghazi! Benghazi!" and “We want Trump!”
Clinton meanwhile made indirect reference to the protests by saying: "I will do whatever I can regardless of whether people are yelling at me and whether people are misrepresenting me or whether people are not looking at everything I say and taking something out of context. That’s part of it, I understand that. But I’m gonna get up every single day trying to figure out what to do to help you provide the kind of future for your children that they deserve to have."1. Overview
When creating a REST API, good documentation is instrumental.
Moreover, every change in the API should be simultaneously described in the reference documentation. Accomplishing this manually is a tedious exercise, so automation of the process was inevitable.
In this tutorial, we will look at Swagger 2 for a Spring REST web service. For this article, we will use the Springfox implementation of the Swagger 2 specification.
If you are not familiar with Swagger, you should visit its web page to learn more before continuing with this article.
2. Target Project
The creation of the REST service we will use in our examples is not within the scope of this article. If you already have a suitable project, use it. If not, the following links are a good place to start:
3. Adding the Maven Dependency
As mentioned above, we will use the Springfox implementation of the Swagger specification. The latest version can be found on Maven Central.
To add it to our Maven project, we need a dependency in the pom.xml file.
<dependency> <groupId>io.springfox</groupId> <artifactId>springfox-swagger2</artifactId> <version>2.9.2</version> </dependency>
4. Integrating Swagger 2 into the Project
4.1. Java Configuration
The configuration of Swagger mainly centers around the Docket bean.
@Configuration @EnableSwagger2 public class SwaggerConfig { @Bean public Docket api() { return new Docket(DocumentationType.SWAGGER_2).select().apis(RequestHandlerSelectors.any()).paths(PathSelectors.any()).build(); } }
Swagger 2 is enabled through the @EnableSwagger2 annotation.
After the Docket bean is defined, its select() method returns an instance of ApiSelectorBuilder, which provides a way to control the endpoints exposed by Swagger.
Predicates for selection of RequestHandlers can be configured with the help of RequestHandlerSelectors and PathSelectors. Using any() for both will make documentation for your entire API available through Swagger.
This configuration is enough to integrate Swagger 2 into an existing Spring Boot project. For other Spring projects, some additional tuning is required.
4.2. Configuration Without Spring Boot
Without Spring Boot, you don’t have the luxury of auto-configuration of your resource handlers. Swagger UI adds a set of resources which you must configure as part of a class that extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter, and is annotated with @EnableWebMvc.
@Override public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) { registry.addResourceHandler("swagger-ui.html").addResourceLocations("classpath:/META-INF/resources/"); registry.addResourceHandler("/webjars/**").addResourceLocations("classpath:/META-INF/resources/webjars/"); }
4.3. Verification
To verify |
original flagship report from 2010, with leading academic research and analysis by the AUB.
Commissioned by UNRWA, this survey was conducted in April 2015 across nearly 3,000 households of Palestine Refugees from Lebanon (PRL) and more than 1,000 households of Palestine Refugees from Syria in Lebanon (PRS).
This publication gives an in depth analysis of the living conditions and socio-economic status of all Palestine refugees living in Lebanon, with a special focus on the Palestine refugees from Syria who sought refuge in Lebanon in the past five years. It highlights the challenges they face particularly with respect to their poverty levels and access to employment.
Five years after the 2010 AUB socioeconomic survey, 65 per cent of Palestine refugees from Lebanon and some 90 percent of PRS live in poverty, including 9 per cent of the PRS living in extreme poverty and unable to meet even their most essential food requirements. Unemployment is comparatively of concern at 23.2 per cent for PRL and 52.5 per cent for PRS.
The launch of this groundbreaking study took place at the Maammari Auditorium of the Suliman Olayan School of Business on AUB campus and was attended by UN officials, representatives of the host country Lebanon, representatives of the Palestinian community in Lebanon, the donor community, international and local NGOs, members of academia and the media. The event included keynote presentations by Interim Associate Provost at AUB, Dr. Hala Muhtasib representing AUB President Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri; the United Nations Special Representative for Lebanon, Ms Sigrid Kaag; Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Mr. Matthias Schmale; the Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mr. Ashraf Dabbour; and the AUB lead author of the report Dr. Jad Chaaban.
This study would not have been possible without the generous funding provided from the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan/UNRWA Syria Emergency Appeal, the European Union, and UNICEF.
Read the complete report.Calling a Dalit person publicly by the name of his or her caste, stopping a Dalit or a tribal person from entering a temple or even forcing them to vote in favour of a particular candidate will soon land the perpetrator behind bars.
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014 became one of the few pieces of legislation to buck the deadlock in Parliament when the Rajya Sabha passed it on Monday.
The bill, earlier passed by the Lok Sabha, is touted as a major step to curb crime against Dalits and tribals in a country where atrocities against these the vulnerable sections frequently hit the headlines.
Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government ordered a CBI probe into the murder of two Dalit sisters in Badaun. Last month, a video clip went viral showing how a Dalit family was stripped and beaten by villagers in front of the UP police.
The bill identifies a wide list of illegal activities that would be no longer permissible, especially against Dalits and tribals, toughens the penal provisions, and provides for the setting up of special courts to fast-track cases under the proposed law.
It also makes wrongfully occupying land belonging to SCs/STs or garlanding them with footwear strictly punishable. SCs and STs can’t be compelled to dispose or carry human or animal carcasses or do manual scavenging either.
The proposed amendments to the law come at a time when there is a rise in crimes against Dalits. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics, recorded cases of crimes committed against Dalits are have spiked since 2009. But the existing law to prevent atrocities against SC/STs had been of limited help with 84.1% of cases under the act pending till two years ago.
The proposed law tries to plug these loopholes. The new bill says, “the court shall presume that the accused was aware of the caste or tribal identity of the victim if the accused had personal knowledge of the victim or his family,” said a note on the bill prepared by PRS Legislative Research.
The bill also aims to provide more protection to the SC/ST women. Intentionally touching an SC or ST woman, dedicating them as a devadasi and using words, acts or gestures of a sexual nature are proposed to be punishable.
The UPA government too, had brought a similar law through an ordinance in March 2014, weeks before the Lok Sabha polls kick started. But, the UPA lost and the ordinance lapsed.
The NDA’s law is almost the same version as of the UPA, was introduced in parliament by social justice and empowerment minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot on July 16, 2014.
While the bill has been widely welcomed by all parties, observers also feel there should be enough safeguards to prevent misuse of the stringent law.
First Published: Dec 22, 2015 12:50 ISTNicole Moss
Back in the midwest there is a restaurant chain called Culver's, a fast food/diner-type place that is known for its freshly made hamburgers and creamy custard. They are also known, to me and my husband, as the restaurant with the funniest letterboard notices. They use the boards to announce the sandwich/burger and custard flavor of the week, but never bother to put any more explanation than what the flavors are. Sometimes you drive by and they are advertising a "Mushroom and Swiss Peppermint Patty" or the next week it might be a "Grilled Reuben Strawberry Cheesecake" Mmmm. Sure makes me hungry.
In case you are thinking the same thing about this Peanut Butter and Jelly Tiramisu, let me ease your mind a bit. It is not a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on top of a creamy Italian dessert with coffee-soaked cookies. Instead, think fluffy peanut butter cream layers sandwiched between raspberries and ladyfingers brushed with raspberry jam. It's about as elegant as peanut butter and jelly gets. If you like the sweet/salty combination of peanut butter and jelly, you will like this dessert. It doesn't take long to make, but you do have to plan ahead if you want to serve it because it needs about 8 hours in the fridge for the ladyfingers to soak up the raspberry jam and become soft. With the heavy cream, cream cheese and peanut butter this is definitely a rich dessert, so despite the small pan it makes, plan on serving 8-10 people with it.
You can go ahead and quiz them on their favorite childhood sandwiches before you decide to invite them over.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Tiramisu1/2 cup creamy peanut butter8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting1 tsp vanilla extract1 cup heavy cream1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam14 Italian-style crisp ladyfingers4 cups raspberriesshaved chocolate, for topping1. Beat the peanut butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and 1/2 cup heavy cream until smooth and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the remaining 1/2 cup cream and beat until creamy, about 2 more minutes. (Do not overbeat)2. Whisk the jam and 1/3 cup water in a small bowl until smooth. Spoon about 3 T of the jam mixture into a 9x5 loaf pan. Cover with half the ladyfingers, arranging them lengthwise. Brush with half the remaining jam mixture. (Don't worry if it looks like a lot of liquid; the ladyfingers will absorb it as the tiramisu sits.)3. Spread half the peanut butter cream over the ladyfingers. Top with 2 cups of raspberries and the rest of the ladyfingers. Brush the ladyfingers with the remaining jam mixture and apread the remaining peanut butter cream on top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours.4. Uncover the tiramisu and top with the remaining 2 cups raspberries and shaved chocolate. Dust with confectioners' sugar.Serves: 8-10Trophy Scars have been on a bit of a hiatus since 2015, and singer Jerry Jones has been using the time off to focus on his band Super Snake, who released their great debut album Leap of Love this year. Today, Trophy Scars return with their first new song since 2014’s Holy Vacants, “Panic Machine.” It’ll officially be out everywhere on Friday (6/30), but a stream is premiering in this post.
Like a lot of late-period Trophy Scars, it’s a psychedelic, progressive, bluesy epic with Jerry’s gravelly, Tom Waits-y voice leading the way. It’s fleshed out by strings, horns, organs, and more. Jerry tells us, “The feel was really inspired by Ennio Morricone and his spaghetti western pieces. John wrote the music to reflect something both beautiful and subtly violent. I wrote the lyrics about getting something naive being torn away from you… something that you thought you needed but wasn’t truly there to begin with. This is a tribute to that kind of Western, I suppose.” Listen:1 of 8 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The life of Wisdom, world’s oldest wild bird who will lay an egg at mind-boggling 64 View Photos The oldest known bird to lay an egg and raise a chick is apparently ready to do it all again. Caption The oldest known bird to lay an egg and raise a chick is apparently ready to do it all again. Wisdom returned to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on Nov. 19 and was observed with her mate on Nov. 21. Kiah Walker/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
She's back.
The oldest known bird to lay an egg and raise a chick landed over Thanksgiving weekend at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean, apparently to do it again, at age 64.
Her name is Wisdom, but it should probably be Ancient Wisdom, because she apparently knows things that scientists don't. "It continues to just blow our minds," said Bruce G. Peterjohn, chief of the Bird Banding Laboratory at the U.S. Geological Services Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md.
[Albatross named Wisdom astounds scientists by producing a chick at age 62]
Here's why Wisdom's accomplishments are mind-boggling, and why she's a celebrity among bird scientists and bird watchers.
First, albatrosses are expected to live a little more than half as long as Wisdom. They are certainly not expected to lay eggs and raise chicks at an age when most Americans are starting to collect Social Security payments.
Wisdom, a 63-year-old albatross, produces yet another egg to the amazement of scientists. She was captured on video laying an egg at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on Nov. 29, exactly a year and a day after laying the last one. (Video courtesy of Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Region)
The oldest albatross other than Wisdom to lay an egg was Grandma of the Northern Royal species at age 61. Grandma hasn’t been seen at her nesting ground at Taiaroa Head, New Zealand, in five years and is presumed dead.
[New study asks why birds fall in love]
On top of all that, albatrosses face threats from pollution that kill them each year by the hundreds. Parents are known to frequently feed human-produced plastics to chicks by mistake, blocking their wind pipes and filling their little bellies with deadly junk.
Nineteen of 21 albatross species are threatened with extinction, and their demise might be linked directly to humans.
Wisdom has soared above these problems, taking new mates as old ones succumb to age or a death more grisly. "We’re learning what these birds are capable of doing at what we consider to be an advanced age," Peterjohn said. "She lays her eggs and raises her chicks. Common sense says at some point she would become too old for this."
Her backstory is incredible. Wisdom has raised chicks six times since 2006, and as many as 35 in her life, according to the USGS. Since the day she was first tagged in 1956 at Midway Atoll, the end of the Hawaiian Island chain, she has likely flown up to 3 million miles. Do the math, the USGS said. That’s “4 to 6 trips from the Earth to the Moon and back again with plenty of miles to spare.”
“It is very humbling to think that she has been visiting Midway for at least 64 years," Deputy Refuge Manager Bret Wolfe noted when Wisdom laid an egg last year. "Navy sailors and their families likely walked by her not knowing she could possibly be rearing a chick over 50 years later. She represents a connection to Midway’s past as well as embodying our hope for the future.”
[Biologists worried by migratory birds' starvation, seen as tied to climate change]
As if laying eggs and raising chicks when many Americans are starting to collect Social Security payments isn't enough, there's another twist to Wisdom's story.
Wisdom and a mate at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. (Kiah Walker/USFWS)
The man who first held her and placed a band over her webbed foot was Chandler Robbins, then in his 40s. Still working at the atoll nearly 40 years later, he picked up a bird among the quarter million that nest there and found a signature on its tag that he recognized — his own. He was 81.
Now 97, Robbins continues to work as a volunteer, appearing at the lab in Laurel about three times a week, Peterjohn said.
[The heartbreaking story of a whimbrel that flew through a hurricane -- and survived]
Because of her celebrity status -- bird watchers "keep an eye out for her and know when she comes back" -- a single metal band that all albatrosses get isn't good enough for Wisdom. She's banded with a second plastic tag that's easier to spot so she'll stand out in the crowd.
Get a good look, Peterjohn said. As with premium athletes, the great ones are rare and must one day exit the stage. "She’s the only one to live this long and avoid avoid all the problems that confront [an] albatross," he said. "Something could happen and they could find her dead on Midway. Some day she’s going to fly off the island some spring and never come back."
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A ‘supergene’ turns these male birds into female impersonators or sneaky mate thieves — for lifeMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Ed Thomas reports on the details of the case
The mummified body of a four-year-old boy was found in a cot in his mother's bedroom almost two years after he starved to death, a jury has heard.
Hamzah Khan was still dressed in baby clothes when police made the "dreadful discovery" at his house in Bradford in September 2011, the court was told.
The boy's mother, Amanda Hutton, 43, who denies manslaughter, has gone on trial at Bradford Crown Court.
The jury heard conditions in the house had "disturbed even hardened officers".
'Conditions of squalor'
Opening the case for the prosecution, Paul Greaney QC told the jury Hamzah died on 15 December 2009 when he was four-and-a-half years old.
How had a child starved to death in 21st Century England? Paul Greaney QC
But the barrister said the boy's remains were found 21 months later in clothing intended for a baby aged six to nine months.
These clothes still fitted him because his growth had been stunted, Mr Greaney said.
"It had been stunted because he was malnourished over a lengthy period and that state of affairs resulted in his death. In short, he starved to death.
"How had a child starved to death in 21st Century England?"
Ms Hutton had failed to provide her son with the nourishment he needed to survive and, by failing to do so, she had killed him, said Mr Greaney.
He said the "dreadful discovery" of Hamzah's body was made after a police community support officer spoke to Ms Hutton and became concerned.
Police who went into the property were faced with "conditions of squalor," he said.
Rotting matter
"What they discovered disturbed even hardened officers."
Mr Greaney said a consultant paediatrician went to the house after Ms Hutton's arrest and found it "overwhelming to visit".
He said: "She discovered that there was a huge amount of rubbish, rotting matter, faeces and empty bottles.
Image caption Hamzah Khan's body was found in a cot in his mother's bedroom, the court heard
"She described the smell of the property as offensive almost beyond description."
Ms Hutton was an abuser of alcohol and cannabis, the court was told.
The jury would have to consider whether Hamzah was "a secondary and less important consideration than those addictions," Mr Greaney said.
He told the jury he expected Ms Hutton's defence lawyers to claim that her son's malnutrition could have arisen through "some naturally occurring condition".
However, he said the prosecution would argue that she was guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence on two counts after having failed to feed her son adequately and failing to seek medical help for him.
The jury heard Hamzah's father, Aftab Khan, was separated from Ms Hutton and lived elsewhere.
Mr Greaney said there was evidence Mr Khan was violent towards the defendant.
'Called for pizza'
In police interviews, Ms Hutton said Hamzah had become particularly unwell on 14 December 2009, the jury heard.
She said the next day she went to a supermarket to consult a pharmacist but got a phone call to come home.
"She explained when she returned Hamzah was near to death. She sought to revive him but to no effect," said Mr Greaney.
"She described placing Hamzah into his cot, making plain she had treated his body with dignity."
The child's body was found with a teddy bear, said Mr Greaney.
The jury was told Ms Hutton had ordered pizza within hours of her son's death and continued to claim child benefit for him.
The prosecutor told the jury: "She made no call for assistance - for a doctor or an ambulance.
"What did she do? Within hours she was ordering a pizza. So, no call for assistance but a call, or even calls, for pizza."
The jury would have to consider whether these matters "demonstrate anything about her attitude towards Hamzah," Mr Greaney told the jury.
The trial continues.Nuclear war, whether intentional or unintentional, has already been waged
(NaturalNews) It has been more than a year now since the massive 9.0-plus magnitude earthquake and corresponding tsunami devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the eastern coast of Japan, sending untold amounts of nuclear radiation into the environment. And to this day, the threat of nuclear fallout is ever-present all around the world in what some have described as a "nuclear war without a war."Though governments and many media outlets have downplayed the disaster, its aftermath continues to threaten the health and wellbeing of plants, animals and humans not only in Japan, but all around the world., the Fukushima catastrophe truly is a nuclear holocaust event with gradual, long-term consequences that we are only just now beginning to recognize and grasp.Though the devastation was not delivered in one fell swoop via an atomic bomb, radioactive elements from Fukushima continue to be quietly delivered through air and ocean currents to soils, drinking water supplies, farms, lawns, children's playgrounds, airplanes and countless other sources. Products made with elements and materials that have been contaminated with radiation, particularly in Japan, are also exposing untold thousands, if not millions, of people to dangerous levels of nuclear radiation."Hazardous radioactive elements being released in the sea and air around Fukushima accumulate at each step of various food chains (for example, into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow's meat and milk, then humans)," writes Helen Caldicott in her piece,, in The Age."Entering the body, these elements -- called internal emitters -- migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, continuously irradiating small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years often induce cancer."Regardless of whether or not the Fukushima disaster was a natural event or a man-made terrorist conspiracy ( https://www.naturalnews.com/032692_Fukushima_earthquake.html ), the trigger has been pulled, and the quiet nuclear war has been set in motion. Fukushima's thousands of exposed fuel rods continue to remain in a precarious plight. Reactor 4 is on the verge of collapse, and radiation from existing leaks and damage continues to spread.Politically, the entire nation of Japan is the biggest casualty of this nuclear war so far, as the country's economy is in dire straits, and on the verge of collapse. Tokyo is reportedly now suffering its first trade deficit since the 1980s, and the rest of the country's manufacturing base is quickly dwindling as the world grows increasingly leery of importing goods from Japan that may be contaminated with Fukushima radiation.Because no efforts are being made to contain Fukushima, as was done with Chernobyl, the facility itself is essentially a grounded nuclear weapon that every second of every day is waging war against Planet Earth. And as far as the human race is concerned, thousands have already died as a result, with millions more to follow in the years and decades to come as the unrelenting spew of radiation settles in every crevice of the global ecology, spurring rapid increases in cancer and other deadly conditions.How we find common ground and settle our differences.
To look at Ethereum social media today you might think that we had somehow been invaded by some obscure political subreddit. Words like ‘principles’, ‘ideologies’, and ‘zealotry’ are being thrown around. It has been somewhat different from the collegial atmosphere that we have enjoyed in the past six months; but it is an inevitable result of the situation we find ourselves in.
There is a debate going on and it is an important one.
Unlike other posts you will read today this post is not to argue the case for one side or another but rather to re-assure everyone involved that this will be resolved and that the process for resolving this is happening right now. Here I will talk about how the Ethereum developers will build the tools for the community to resolve a situation like this - and how this process should unfold.
Let us distill the issues at hand:
*** There are a large number of Ethereum users who would like to change the social consensus that currently exists on the state of the Ethereum blockchain.
In particular they wish to ‘transfer’ Ether from one location into the hands of another group of individuals.
It is mooted that the only way to achieve this outcome effectively is for a new version of the client software to be built and adopted by users of the network.**
Note that I am only concerned here with these three very generic sounding items; this is not about the arguments for and against - only the way it has played out so far and the way we see it continue to play out over the coming weeks.
What has happened so far:
Signalling a problem: On Friday morning it was discovered that someone had found an exploit in theDAO’s code which allowed them to drain Ether that did not belong to them. The immediate response was visceral - Ether and DAO Tokens dropped in value dramatically and social media was inundated with anxious requests for news on what was going on. Users started spamming the network with transactions to stop the attacker from drawing any more Ether out. Exchanges and other endpoints requested advice on how they should proceed. This was the first signal that a normally immutable change had been made to the blockchain which was considered undesirable/unacceptable to a (potential) majority of the people who use the network.
Response: The core developers who maintain the clients used on the public chain looked at the code that was being exploited and determined quite quickly that the attacker would not be able to seize full control of the ether for another 27 days. This meant that there was sufficient time to properly analyse the problem and see how it could be addressed. In order to buy further time to examine the issue a modification of the Parity and Geth clients was quickly coded up. This soft fork would stop Ether from leaving the attacking DAO indefinitely if the change is adopted by sufficient number of miners. This is a decision made by the network (not the developers).
This is a decision made by the network (not the developers). Discussion begins: It becomes clear that there are options to change the state of consensus in the manner that a large faction might feel would be desirable. Positions were put forward and arguments made. Pro or anti-groups debated the merits and pitfalls. A soft fork proposal and implementation were created and debated for both Parity and Geth. A ‘Hard Fork’ proposal is made, then discussed and debated. (A group of “vigilante” DAO curators, unilaterally, launched a white hat attack, apparently in an attempt to secure the remaining funds and cripple the attacker DAO.)
What will happen next:
The first decision: With clients incorporating the soft fork amendments having been made available, the miners are in a position to make a decision on whether or not to adopt this fork. Their economic incentive is to act in the interests of the community in order to maintain the value of their mining rewards, and to herd with the largest group of miners since they are only incentivised to mine on the longest chain. It is possible that if insufficient miners choose to implement the soft fork, the stolen Ether will not be frozen. In this case the Ether will go to the attacker 27 days after his attack.
Debate continues: The parties involved will make their arguments to one another during this period. The parties and their incentives are diverse - a miner might have completely different view of the situation to, say, an exchange owner; likewise a ‘holder’ will see things very differently from, say, a dapp developer. Those who are not members of the Ethereum or DAO community per se, but perhaps fans of other crypto projects introduce additional entropy. Individuals will make decisions on what they will want to see happen.
Second signal: This debate will give the developers a clear idea of where the boundaries of the issues lie and what options users of the network would like to have available to them. Once they know the options that need to be available, they will code up a modification of Parity and Geth to give those options to users. This will likely necessitate a ‘deadline’ for the network for either changing the blockchain state or keeping it as it is. Forking or not forking.
Countdown: All types of users will be faced with a choice - no one group of users can dictate to another that the alteration should happen or not. Miners, users, exchanges and developers can ‘vote with their feet’ if necessary. A hard fork’s success is measured in the level of acceptance it garners with users.
Resolution: Exchanges, Miners and Users all pick their choice of software. A majority is formed on one side of the hard fork or the other. Users who stay on the minority version of Parity or Geth will find themselves out of consensus with the majority.
Social consensus is reached: At this point either the fork will have gone ahead or not and the network will be on one state or the other - dependent on the decisions made by the users. The network continues.
It is important to note that throughout this process the developers are not expected to remain agnostic or indifferent. They are important players in the ecosystem and will likely voice their opinions on how best to evolve the network. However, assuming they wish to protect their own existence and relevance, they will inevitably provide support to as much of the userbase as possible, even those who do not share their opinion. They will create clients that are capable of switching to a new fork if the users desire it - pretty much the greatest contribution to the common good they can make.
You can expect them to be vocal in their recommendations and professional in the work they do for you, as a member of the Ethereum community. And once this decision is made, to continue to build the best technology for you to use - regardless of the outcome.
This will be up to you and we are listening.Thousands of women are drinking too much during pregnancy, it has emerged.
A significant number of women have admitted drinking more than the government recommended limit of four units a week – equivalent to two large glasses of wine.
Hospital figures suggest that more than 2,000 babies a year are born to mothers who have breached alcohol guidelines, according to an investigation by Sky News.
The figures – obtained following a Freedom of Information request – show that in the last three years 2,496 mothers-to-be told hospital staff in England they were drinking more than four units of alcohol a week.
Babies born to mothers who drink heavily during pregnancy are at risk of developing foetal alcohol syndrome – a lifelong condition that can leave children physically and mentally disabled.
One woman whose son was born with condition said she was given little information about the consequences of drinking during pregnancy despite telling the midwife about her years of alcoholism.
Samantha Marchant, 40, from Slough, said: "When I was five months pregnant, I told the midwife that I was an alcoholic and that I couldn't control my drinking.
"They referred me to a drug and alcohol team which put me on a drinks diary... I'd have liked them to say 'you can have a place in rehab, but it wasn't offered.
"I didn't know about the biology of what happens if you drink in pregnancy," Marchant added. "I didn't know that my baby would be swimming in alcohol. I would have sought help if I'd have known."
Dr. Raja Mukherjee, lead clinician for the national foetal alcohol spectrum disorder clinic at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said Ms Marchant is not alone in continuing to drink during pregnancy.
"All the research has shown that high level alcohol exposure causes significant damage to a developing foetus,” she said.
"We know that women are drinking more... 90% of women in this country drink and they don't all suddenly stop when they are pregnant."A GROUP of knife-wielding assailants, apparently Muslims from western China, caused mayhem and murder on March 1st in the south-western Chinese city of Kunming, stabbing 29 people to death at the railway station and injuring 140 others. The attack has shocked China. The crime against innocents is monstrous and unjustifiable, and has been rightly condemned by the Chinese government and by America. But as well as rounding up the culprits, the Communist Party must face up to an uncomfortable truth. Its policy for integrating the country’s restless western regions—a policy that mixes repression, development and Han-Chinese migration—is failing to persuade non-Han groups of the merits of Chinese rule.
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The party says the attackers were “Xinjiang extremists”, by implication ethnic Uighurs, a Turkic people with ties to Central Asia who once formed the majority in the region of Xinjiang. The killers may have been radicalised abroad with notions of global jihad. Whatever the truth, there is no doubt that Uighurs are committing ever more desperate acts. Scarcely a week passes in Xinjiang without anti-government violence.
The party claims that Xinjiang has been part of China for 2,000 years. Yet for most of that time, the region has been on the fringe of China’s empire, or outside it altogether. An attempt to incorporate these lands began only with the Qing dynasty’s conquests in the mid-18th century. (The name Xinjiang, “new frontier”, was bestowed only in the 1880s.) During the chaos of the 1940s, Uighurs declared a short-lived independent state of East Turkestan. But from 1949 the Communists began integrating Xinjiang into China by force. Demobbed Chinese soldiers were sent to colonise arid lands, the state repression of Uighurs drawing heavily on the Soviet tactics for handling “nationalities”. Uighur resentment of the Han runs deep. The feeling is mutual. Many Chinese are openly racist towards Uighurs, and the government thinks them ungrateful. In 2009 hundreds of people were killed during street fighting between Uighurs and Han, who now make up two-fifths of Xinjiang’s population and control a disproportionate share of its wealth.
Identity crisis
The Kunming killers’ motives may never be known. But fears of militant Islamism arriving at the heart of China must not obscure the broader problem of Chinese oppression in Xinjiang. Recent crackdowns hit at the heart of Uighur identity: students are banned from fasting during Ramadan, religious teaching for children is restricted, and Uighur-language education is limited. Many Uighurs, like their neighbours in Tibet, fear that their culture will be extinguished. Xinjiang and Tibet (and Inner Mongolia) are still China’s colonies, their pacification under the Communist Party a continued imperial project. Were it not for the Dalai Lama’s restraining influence, violence in Tibet might be as bad as it is in Xinjiang. As it is, over 100 Tibetans have burned themselves to death in protest at Chinese rule.
There is a large military presence in China’s west. The government seems to believe that unless Uighurs and Tibetans are held in check by force, the western regions could break away. That is always a danger. But suppression, which leads to explosions of anger, may increase the risk, not mitigate it.
The only way forward is to show Uighurs (and Tibetans) how they can live peacefully and prosperously together within China. The first step is for the party to lift the bans on religious and cultural practices, give Uighurs and Tibetans more space to be themselves, and strive against prejudice in Chinese society. Economic development needs to be aimed at Uighur and Tibetan communities. Otherwise, there will be more violence and instability.Toro Rosso's Russian driver Daniil Kvyat made a statement of intent as he became the youngest points scorer in F1 history by chalking up a top ten finish at the Australian Grand Prix.
Rookie Russian driver Daniil Kvyat, driving for the Toro Rosso team in his first ever Formula 1 race, finished ninth at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16, in doing so becoming the youngest F1 driver to score points.
Kvyat's successful debut
In a remarkably confident performance, Kvyat finished the race in 10th place, before subsequently being upgraded to ninth following the disqualification of Red Bull’s Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo.
At the age of 19 years, 10 months and 18 days, Kvyat became the youngest points scorer in F1 history, snatching the title that had previously belonged to current world champion Sebastian Vettel, who scored his first points in a U.S. Grand Prix in 2007 at the age of 19 years, 11 months and 14 days.
Kvyat can feel justifiably proud of making his mark on the race in Melbourne. Toro Rosso, which in effect is a Red Bull feeder team, is light years away from the top teams in terms of its ability to compete.
"Of course, I did not expect to score points in my very first race, so I am very happy. It was a very tense race. In the closing laps I could have improved my position but I had to go into fuel-conservation mode and give up the fight. Until next time," Kvyat told F1News.ru.
"Previously, I have never had a race longer than 35 minutes, while this one lasted an hour and a half. I ran out of water early, so the closing laps were quite hard. It was a very intense afternoon and finishing my first race with a point is a great feeling. Everyone worked really hard and scoring points was a great way to end it," Autosport website quoted Kvyat as saying.
Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost was delighted by Kvyat’s performance. "I am very happy for Daniil, who has become the youngest F1 driver to score points in his first race. It is very promising and I am confident that this is the first result in a long series. Now we need to concentrate on the next race in Malaysia, where we hope to build on this result and score points again," said Tost.
Leaders retire
The race was won, as was expected, by a Mercedes driver, though not by pre-race favorite Lewis Hamilton, but by Germany's Nico Rosberg, whose car was the epitome of reliability in Melbourne. Hamilton, who started the race in pole position, withdrew after two laps.
"It felt as if only five of the six engine cylinders were engaged," Hamilton said later.
Meanwhile, Red Bull's four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, like Hamilton, was forced to retire from the race with engine problems after the first several laps.
His fellow team member Daniel Ricciardo took second place, but did not remain in a podium position for long, as soon after the race he was disqualified for a fuel-flow rate infringement. In the end, second place went to Denmark's Kevin Magnussen, 21, racing for McLaren in his very first F1 race.
Petrov believes in Kvyat
Russian driver Vitaly Petrov, who raced in F1 from 2010 to 2012, said that Daniil Kvyat had excellent chances of succeeding in Formula 1.
"Kvyat has an excellent chance of succeeding with Toro Rosso. He had many excellent races before F1, and he had good test runs during the race weekend,” Petrov was quoted by Russian daily Izvestia as saying.
“He is already far more familiar with F1 than I was when I started my first test runs. I had very little time to adapt. The main thing for Kvyat is to get used to everything quickly, including the growing interest in him personally. There is constant contact with the media, pressure from the team and other drivers. I think that if he learns how to handle all that, he will cope with everything," Petrov said.
Based on materials published by Kommersant, Izvestia, and championat.com.
All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.As pressure from global investors builds against Spain, the lame duck government there is desperate to calm global markets. Spain's problem isn't so much over-borrowing as high |
)
The Associated Press - MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - The jury in the murder trial of a southern Oregon woman has listened to a recording of her interview with police, in which she admits shooting two men and acknowledges that her pigs fed on the bodies.
Susan Monica went on trial Tuesday in Medford on charges she killed two handymen living on her pig ranch in a small Jackson County community and dismembered the bodies. The men died in separate years.
In opening statements, defense lawyer Garren Pedemonte said Monica shot the first victim in self-defense, and the second as a kind of mercy killing.
Police searched her pig ranch after Monica was discovered using a food stamps card belonging to one of the victims, and found remains of the two men.Sabotage and desperation on the North Shore
Vernon Felton
February 3, 2015
Photography by Sterling Lorence
I am trying to remember the last time I tried to kill or, on a less ambitious day, simply maim a hiker. Maybe it was when I placed the Burmese Tiger trap beneath the overlook where so many hikers like to picnic. Or perhaps it was the time I strung fishhooks at eye-level across that popular hiking–only trail.
Or, wait, maybe it was none of those times. Maybe I’ve never done any of those things because doing those sorts of things would be…What’s the politically-correct term in this case…? Oh, yes, here it is: insane. I think that’s the term one employs to describe an individual who booby-traps trails or physically assaults mountain bikers.
For anyone out there who is currently fuzzy on this point, let’s break this down-hurting other people because they choose to enjoy the outdoors in a manner that you don’t appreciate is both legally and morally a no-no.
Thou shalt not maim: It’s a pretty basic rule. In fact, it’s one of the first things we teach children when they trundle off on their first day of school. I know this because there was a spate of biting and hair pulling surrounding the proper usage of the monkey bars in my kid’s kindergarten class. Of course, you kind of expect that sort of thing from children, but adults resorting to this kind of behavior? It’s disturbing. However, if you spend enough time scanning headlines, you’ll soon see that acts of sabotage aimed at hurting mountain bikers are more common that most of us would guess.
WHO IS THE VICTIM HERE?
The internet has been buzzing of late with news of Tineke Kraal’s recent arrest. The 64-year- old North Vancouver resident was arrested on Jan. 4 by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as she was booby-trapping a trail on the lower reaches of Mount Fromme. The RCMP were alerted to Kraal’s actions by two mountain bikers who had used security cameras to allegedly capture Kraal on film, obstructing trails on numerous occasions during the month of December. Kraal is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday to face charges of setting a trap and mischief to property.
You can imagine why Kraal’s arrest has been big news. The idea of an elderly vigilante wreaking havoc under the cover of darkness in the forests of the famed North Shore makes for interesting reading. Perhaps more interesting still, however, has been the spin that Kraal’s husband, Ronald, has given the situation. His wife, suggests Ronald Kraal, is the real victim in this case. Tineke, he claims, is too nervous now to appear outside the couples’ home. She might not even show up at the hearing (her legal counsel representing her instead) because this event has been so trying. Moreover, the situation, Ronald Kraal contends, has been blown entirely out of proportion.
“They’re making a mountain out of a molehill,” Kraal said in an interview with The Province newspaper reporter, John Colebourn. “When she goes for a hike, she has to jump for safety…. Some of the mountain bikers come down the hill like gangbusters and she is super afraid of the dogs and herself getting hit. She put some branches down to slow them down. But mischief and setting a trap — that is nonsense…. All she did was try to protect herself and her dogs and hopefully get these mountain bikers to slow down.”
Kraal’s contention that his wife’s acts of sabotage somehow constitute a form of self-defense strains credibility. For starters, these were trails designated as “mountain bike primary” by local authorities. Kraal had no legal or ethical right to stop riders from using a trail the local land manager had approved for mountain bike use. What’s more, footage from wildlife cameras show that Kraal consistently sabotaged trails in the early hours of the morning when there was little risk of encountering mountain bikers and, more precisely, even less risk of being observed and apprehended.
Just as the crazy level in this case was starting to wind down, word began spreading this past weekend of an unidentified elderly woman physically assaulting a mountain biker on another of Mount Fromme’s trails, on two separate occasions. The details of that case are still unfolding and it’s become apparent that there are two sides to that particular story. But the very idea of an elderly woman grappling with a mountain biker? It really doesn’t get stranger than that…except when you consider that of all places, this is happening on the North Shore.
WEIRDNESS IN PARADISE
When it comes to relationships between hikers and mountain bikers, the North Shore has, for the past decade, been a case study in successful conflict resolution. It’s been more than 10 years since the infamous ‘Chainsaw Massacre,’ when numerous trails on the North Shore were destroyed by authorities and trail access for mountain bikers was jeopardized. It was a bleak time, but Vancouver mountain bikers rallied to the cause, made their case and went on to work with land managers to create one of the most extensive, government-sanctioned trail systems anywhere in the world. More to the point, day-to-day relations between hikers and bikers on the Shore has, by and large, been positive since then.
So, what the hell is going on?
“I think the 10-year window you mentioned is important,” says NSMB.com founder and North Vancouver resident/rider, Cam McRae. “Because the conflict in these two cases seems to be coming from people who were living here before there were mountain bikes; people who are holding onto an idea of how trails should be used and who should use them. These are people who have obviously come to the conclusion that mountain bikers shouldn’t belong on these trails.”
But what about Ronald Kraal’s assertion that we are making a mountain out of a mole hill—that his wife was merely moving around a few small branches on the trails?
“In some cases, it was just a 2-inch branch being moved across a trail,” says McRae, who personally rode into some of the Kraal’s handiwork on Skull, a Fromme trail designated as mountain bike primary. “But there were other cases when it was truly dangerous. The one time I actually fell, for instance, there was a log placed on a shallow angle from the top left-hand corner of a steep chute to the bottom right-hand corner. You couldn’t see the log before you rolled down the chute and there was no way you could lift your wheel over it. I managed to ride off into the woods and, fortunately, I was fine, but it could have been otherwise for sure. I saw that kind of sabotage a few times. And that particular action seems very calculated. It’s not minor at all. Here’s another example: There’s another spot above that chute on Skull where you ride up onto a rock—and once you’re there, you’re committed to rolling off it. Well, there were logs scattered in the landing at the bottom. I landed in the middle of all that and fortunately I didn’t crash, but, again, there was no way to see these things until it was too late.”
So it seems like this Kraal’s efforts were less about slowing mountain bikers down or deterring them from riding a trail and more about punishing them for riding a trail.
“I think that is more accurate,” says McRae. “And the claim that she has trouble with mountain bikers in that area is so hard to imagine as to be ludicrous. You never see anybody—hikers or riders—in that area. The trails in question are really steep and really challenging, and that’s why they get so little traffic. There are so few riders on them to begin with that to suggest that her motivation is to slow anyone down is specious. The motivation here is really something more sinister than that.”
AN UNSETTLING TREND
Despite the recent events in Vancouver, it’s important to note that we are not undergoing a sudden tidal wave of violence against mountain bikers. You will, in all likelihood, head out for your next ride and experience nothing more than a smile from the first hiker you meet. Having said that, it is also clear that acts of sabotage aimed at hurting mountain bikers are not quite as rare as you might guess.
This past spring, mountain bikers outside of Carbondale, Colorado, found several booby traps (wooden planks embedded with nails) buried in the singletrack in the Prince Creek trail network. In 2013, riders in Frederick, Maryland, ran into similar booby traps on Department of Natural Resources lands. In 2012, psychiatrist Jackson Tyler Dempsey was arrested after planting several booby traps on singletrack around Ashland, Oregon, that injured three riders and destroyed at least one bike. In 2007, Marin County Open Space District employees strung barbed wire over a trail and buried metal fence posts at a 45-degree angle, leaving 1-to-3 feet sections projecting from the trail. After mountain bikers protested that death-by-impalement was a less than prudent means of governing public lands, the county removed the posts and admitted that, “It was not the most well-thought-out solution.” In 2004, Michael Delongchamp of Placitas, New Mexico, a 54-year-old management consultant and former elementary school principal and Peace Corps worker was arrested after booby-trapping trails in Cibola National Forest. Delongchamp strung metal cables across high-speed sections of trail and buried wooden boards embedded with nails in the trail. At least one mountain biker was injured by Delongchamp’s traps.
And I’m just skimming the surface here. Similar incidents are being reported in Canada and Europe. And these are merely the cases that make headlines. I’ve personally run into a handful of booby traps while living and riding in Northern California. I never thought to report them—I simply disposed of them and continued on with my ride. I was out to enjoy the outdoors—I wasn’t aiming to re-enact an episode of “Colombo.” I know other riders who’ve done the same. Have we unwittingly covered the tracks of people who harbor a potentially dangerous grudge against mountain bikers?
I’m not trying to make a bigger issue out of this than is warranted. Fear mongering serves no purpose. And there’s no denying this fact: Trail access, on the whole, is improving for mountain bikers. More of the land that was formerly off-limits to us is now becoming part of our daily rides. These are good times for mountain bikers. And yet, our very success may be at the root of some of these acts of sabotage.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
There is a changing of the guard in outdoor recreation. Beginning in the early `80s, groups around the country effectively persuaded land managers that mountain bikes did not belong on public trails. Part of their success lay in the fact that we mountain bikers were a young, disorganized lot. Our opponents (and I hate to frame it that way, but the label fit at the time), on the other hand, were more established, experienced and, frankly, older than us. But the tide has changed. We mountain bikers have grown wiser and more experienced. We’ve formed our own groups, we’ve attended our fair share of forums and, most importantly, we’ve proven ourselves countless times by working with local governments to build legally-sanctioned trails. Mountain biking, to borrow and tamper with a slogan, is no longer a crime.
So what happens then to the individuals who once advocated successfully for our banishment from trails? They become frustrated. They sense their loss of control. They are forced, at this point, to share trails with a group of people who they don’t feel appreciate the outdoors so much as trample it.
What do frustrated people do when they feel they no longer have the ear and support of land managers? Some of them, unfortunately, act out. Just as some mountain bikers resort to building illegal trails when they feel no one will ever grant them legal access, some hikers resort to lashing out at mountain bikers.
Consider the cases in Ashland, Oregon, and Placitas, New Mexico. These were not acts of vandalism perpetrated by young thugs. A psychiatrist? A former elementary school principal? In both cases the convicted saboteurs were aging hikers who felt that they had no choice but to take matters into their own hands.
This most recent case involving Tineke Kraal fits the same pattern. Writers at NSMB.com recently unearthed a 2005 email from Ronald Kraal to the District of North Vancouver Mayor and Council in which Kraal notes his frustration with the city’s actions and admits that he and his wife have responded by actively sabotaging trails on their daily walks. Kraal, in his own words, has “been at war” with mountain bikers.
Tineke Kraal. Photo: Facebook
“Every morning,” Kraal wrote, “we walk on the once beautiful trails and try to destroy the structures raised by people who have a total disregard and appreciation of nature… I even wonder,” Kraal later admits, “why I am wasting my time to write to you as inevitably the decision seems to come closer to make it even more attractive to mountain bikers by creating special parking places, etc. Does anyone in council believe one moment that bikers will stay on created biking trails???”
That’s a sentence from a man who’s clearly at the end of his tether. For people operating under this level of frustration, striking out at riders by sabotaging the trails they ride might seem the only way they can have impact in a world where they are clearly losing control. Sabotage might appear the only way they can be heard. I’m not excusing these actions—booby traps are horrific and nothing shy of criminal—but it’s hard not to see a clear pattern emerging whenever trail saboteurs are convicted.
I suggested this premise to Cam McRae. “I think that’s true,” says McRae after considering for a moment. “This is one problem in the Kraals’ lives that they could lash out at. It might have been the only way they felt they could deal with something that clearly frustrated them.”
In short, it’s a good news, bad news situation. As mountain bikers prove themselves responsible stewards of the outdoors, as governments grant us access to the trails formerly off limits to everyone without a walking stick, we’re likely to see more acts of sabotage. Let’s be clear: We are not experiencing a pandemic of sabotage—there’s no need to blow things out of proportion—but these events are part of a larger trend.
WHAT DOES JUSTICE LOOK LIKE?
The North Shore is famous for its difficulty. It’s an easy place to get injured on the best of days when someone isn’t planting things on a trail designed to make you crash. Could someone have conceivably died as a result of Kraal’s actions? McRae doesn’t think it likely: “The sorts of vandalism I saw on those trails wouldn’t have likely led to death, but at the same time, I have seen spots on other trails where I saw stunts sabotaged in a way that definitely could have.”
What does justice in this case actually look like to McRae? As one of the riders who was actually affected by Kraal’s tampering with trails, you might expect him to harbor a grudge against the Kraals. That, however, is not the case.
“I’m a little bit torn, really,” says McRae. “I think this is one of those rare cases where some kind of stern message could actually increase safety for riders. So, from that perspective, I’d like to see a message be sent. But I don’t want to see this woman banned from the trails. I don’t want to see her suffer. I don’t want her to go to jail. I want her to understand the impact she has had on people and the potential danger she has caused and the kind of people she was doing this to. I’d like her to have a genuine sense of remorse. I think that would be the victory. Sadly, I can’t, based on their comments to the media so far, see that happening. Remorse on her part seems pretty unlikely given what we are hearing from their camp. It’s disappointing.”
That’s the thing about crime. You can’t force someone to feel remorse for his or her actions—repentance is always in the hands of the individual who perpetrated the crime. We can’t control how Tineke Kraal deals with this issue, but we can control how we react to these cases of sabotage. We can take the higher ground on message forums and out on the trail. McRae and other rider advocates on the Shore, such as Lee Lau, have been publicly advocating that very position from the moment of Kraal’s arrest.
“I think this is an opportunity to show that we are human beings,” says McRae. “We can show that we mountain bikers are reasonable, that we aren’t the adrenaline-addled idiots that some people would like to portray us as. ”If something is special to you, you want to be able to experience it in the purest way possible, momentarily free from everyday concerns and responsibilities, and most of all from the constant, uninterrupted din of the internet. But there’s getting to experience a game fresh and then there’s what Mario fans have been doing ever since Super Mario Odyssey released.
Sensitivity over “spoilers” has been growing and mutating for decades now, though in recent years it’s ascended to an entirely new level, with fans crying “spoiler” at even the most mundane things. In part that’s because of how news travels through systems like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. It’s also no doubt resulted from the proliferation of fandoms. People don’t just like Star Wars, or watch a hit show like The Walking Dead, or play a big video game like Odyssey. Many of them are now also fans. They’ve steeped in the micro-cultures of our preferred subject matter as hype, controversies, and memes permeate their various newsfeeds on a daily basis.
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Just as this spoiler culture has become a part of every entertainment community, it’s also been warped through the lenses of those groups, and the spoiler culture around Odyssey is particularly bewildering.
Nobody will complain if you tell them that Mario jumps in the new game, but if you mention that he fights Bowser, some people start to get nervous. “I know Bowser is in the game and I’m sure you will fight him, but again, surprise is part of the fun,” said one person on the Nintendo Switch subreddit. People debated just how much of a Bowser boss fight could be revealed before it counted as a spoiler—what he looks like? How you battle him?—but many decided it was important to err on being overly cautious, hence the spoiler warning in the thread’s title.
That thinking led to several zero-tolerance rules across different Mario subreddits about posting spoilers, or anything that might be construed as such. The result was spoiler warnings over lots of bizarre things. Take this tree, for instance. When have you ever seen someone put a spoiler warning over a tree?
Fans have also been careful about spoiling what’s not in the game. The apparent absence of Boos and Bob-ombs was also considered top-secret. Not to mention general complaints about the descriptions that preceded spoiler warnings like “You won’t BELIEVE what is under this rock at X Kingdom” and “Behind this painting.”
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OK, it’s time for a real spoiler. You’ve been warned.
Before I’m accused of not thinking that spoilers for Super Mario Odyssey matter, let me put one on the table: when Mario possesses Bowser. It’s a cool moment that comes as a genuinely thrilling surprise, not just within the context of Mario lore but as a culmination of the Cappy possession mechanic. Definitely don’t go shouting from the rooftops about that part.
People have been taking that infraction extremely seriously. Near release a video surfaced on YouTube about the final boss fight whose thumbnail showed Bowser with Mario’s mustache. “JFC WHY WOULD YOU SPOIL THIS WITH YOUR CLICKBAITY THUMBNAILS!! YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK!” read one of the comments, with lots of similar ones beneath it.
It feels like a fundamentally different kind of spoiler than, say, the fact that the inside of the Odyssey case contains the lyrics for its main theme song. That was information at least one person wished they’d been able to discover for themselves. “You spoiled the lyrics being inside the Odyssey case,” wrote the commenter. “And didn’t put the pic after the break! I understand it’s minor and Odyssey’s hype is past but it was just a few days before the game came out, why not let people discover that on their own?”
In another extreme case, one person even called out the game itself because of the painting warps that connect players to Kingdoms they haven’t visited yet. “I really wish the game itself hadn’t spoiled the Mushroom Kingdom for me,” the person said. “I found a painting in the food kingdom that took me there early.” They had decided to go on media blackout and were foiled anyway. “The game spoiled itself. :(“
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In Super Mario World on the SNES, you could access a hidden area called the Star Road early in the game to unlock different warps, including one to the final level, Bowser’s Castle. The first time I did that it felt like wonderful little serendipitous surprise, a feeling Nintendo has proven itself able to recreate even decades later with Odyssey. The thought of the game spoiling itself never crossed my mind. It was more of a tease of things to come.
I didn’t blame Nintendo for advertising the fact that Mario could ride Yoshi on the cover either. It’s the difference between every charming detail in a game and the specific secrets it’s waiting on you to reveal. As the sequel to one of the biggest gaming series’ of all time, on a brand new Nintendo console, featuring the company’s most iconic character, of course people are going to be amped. But some Odyssey fans have taken things to an absurd new level.By Sally O’Boyle
Activist Post
Re: SPLC list of “Active Patriot Groups” and DOJ’s “Criminal Extremist List”
I am wondering if you will start a Patriot Persons list to go along with your Patriot Groups list? If so, I’d like to apply. If your criteria* is the same for People as for Groups, I might be a pretty good fit!
I am definitely against any “New World Order” or “One World Government” scheme. The U.S. must remain a sovereign nation as outlined in our Constitution. (Besides, and I don’t mean to be catty here, but the idea doesn’t seem to be working out so bloody well for the EU.) Do you know if there is an active attempt by the U.S. government to join into a world government? If so, please let me know! I’d like to sign and circulate a petition against that.
I don’t engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing; all the conspiracies about which I theorize have grounds. Do you think you could make an exception? And which conspiracies are the groundless ones? A list somewhere on your site would be helpful.
Also, how do you define “extreme anti-government doctrines”, please? Can you give any examples? I am personally extremely pro-Constitutional governance, something which has been in short supply during the last few administrations, including the current one. I would only be anti-government about a government that was extremely anti-U.S. Constitution. Will this count for or against me?
I am glad to see Oath-Keepers made the list of Patriot Groups! I am a member of Oath-Keepers. They are educating military and law-enforcement personnel about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, encouraging them to keep their oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Thank goodness! Since the Constitution is no longer adequately taught in our schools (having just educated two teenagers, I can attest to that fact), I am thrilled to see that someone has taken on this monumental task!
Could you let me know if I make the list? You can find me at Campaign for Liberty or at Liberty-Candidates.org.
I hope I’m not asking too much, but maybe you could give a plaque or something? Or how about a pin that we could wear all the time identifying us as Patriots who made your list? Then we could easily spot each other. That would be way cool. Thanks!
God bless,
Sally O’Boyle
P.S. Thanks for printing that list of Patriot Groups broken out by state. Now I can find friends no matter where I am. Kind of like an A.A. meeting list! Now, I’m thinking I should join a militia. Don’t mean to be greedy, but would I get extra points for that?
*Criteria: “Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines.” (http://tinyurl.com/patriotgroups)
AdvertisementsThe Constitution conferred three special powers on state legislatures to make sure that the federal government was held in check: enacting constitutional amendments, choosing members of the Senate, and choosing the method of selecting presidential electors.
The familiar whining about the popular vote in presidential elections and the implicit anachronism of the Electoral College ought to be turned on its head by constitutional conservatives. The greatest problem of politics and government in our country today is Washington, and the only answer to that problem is the restoration of true federalism, making state governments a vital player in national elections.
Until 1824, in every state of the union, it was the state legislatures who directly chose all presidential electors, which is the reason electoral histories show no "popular vote" at all until 1824, and even then, some states had voters choose electors, and some state legislatures chose the electors directly. Gradually state legislatures changed the method of choosing electors so that these individuals were directly elected by voters. As with the "reform" of having senators elected directly, the "reform" of having voters choose electors has removed the vital check states had on an overbearing federal government.
Any state can change its laws and return to the state legislature the power to choose the state's presidential electors. Republicans next year could make that change in 26 of the 50 states, which collectively have 249 electoral votes, and that is a minimal level. Alaska has an independent governor who would probably support that change, and if Republicans ultimately win the North Carolina gubernatorial race, those two states would raise the total electoral votes chosen by state legislatures to 267, or three fewer than needed to decide the election.
Depending upon how midterm elections go, even more states – Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Colorado, and New Mexico – could be added to that list, which would mean that 33 states would have the legislatures pick the electors, and those states would have 326 electoral votes.
What would be the impact of placing back in the hands of state legislatures the power to elect the president? Consider the problems that plague presidential elections today: rampant voter fraud, hyper-partisanship, wildly expensive presidential campaigns, pernicious influence of the corruption of the establishment national media, and the need for presidential candidates to propose a single solution for the problems of the myriad states.
If state legislatures reclaimed and exercised their power to choose presidential electors and used that power, then these problems would be solved by the structural change in politics.
The pox of voter fraud in presidential elections is cured if electors are chosen in public votes by state legislatures.
True nonpartisan candidates could effectively campaign for president by going to the legislatures of each state in public testimony before bipartisan legislative committees and persuading legislators by the intelligence and coherence of their answers.
This sort of campaigning would also require a great deal of time but almost no money at all. The need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to run for president would be unnecessary.
State and local media would suddenly become important in persuading legislators to support a particular candidate, while the corrupt establishment media of the Beltway would have almost no influence in presidential elections at all.
Perhaps most importantly, diverse states with different ideological inclinations might find in the genuine restoration of the sort of federalism the Founders intended a common cause in rallying behind a presidential candidate willing to allow Hawaii to be Hawaii, Mississippi to be Mississippi, Vermont to be Vermont, Alaska to be Alaska…and so on.
The natural complement to this reform would to convene a constitutional convention, which would require resolutions by 34 of the legislatures of the several states. Republicans will control at the beginning of 2017 both houses of the legislature in 33 states, and if 2018 is a Republican year, then Republicans could easily capture control of Maine, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Washington – enough to convene and also to ratify amendments.
The state legislature was intended to be the primary check on rogue national government. If state legislators have the gumption to use their residual powers they can regain that vital check. The best place to start, while dumb leftists are groaning about that nonexistent thing, the "popular vote" in presidential elections, is to strip that silly term of any meaning at all by having states again choose presidents.About this Map
Facilities on this map have been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as power plants likely covered by the Mercury & Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for Power Plants.
Facilities lacking latitude and longitude coordinates are included in the state summary totals, but are not placed as data points on this map.
Data points of very closely neighboring facilities may partially or completely overlap each other.
Facilities in Guam and Puerto Rico have not been included in this map.
Looking for the complete list of facilities? Download source data from EPA website.
EPA's complete description of the data:
This file contains facilities that are included in the NEEDS [National Electric Energy Data System] 4.10 MATS data base and that contain at least one oil-fired steam generating unit or one coal-fired steam generating unit that generates more than 25 megawatts of power. This includes coal-fired units that burn petroleum coke and that turn coal into gas before burning (using integrated gasification combined cycle or IGCC).
NEEDS reflects available capacity on-line by the end of 2011; this includes committed new builds and committed retirements of old units.
Only coal and oil-fired units are covered by this rule. Some of the oil units contained in this file are capable of burning oil and/or gas. If a unit burns only gas, it will not be covered in the rule.In your mind's eye, what would a group of vegans look like?
There's no right answer, but I bet that your mental depiction of veganism is predominantly (if not exclusively) white.
Veganism has been seen as a "white thing" for quite some time, and it's not completely off. The vegan community is predominantly white. Organizations try their best to stay mindful of diversity, but despite their attempts, veganism is still seen as something for the white and privileged.
So what's my point? Why would race have anything to do with animal liberation?
In 2012, an analysis of meat consumption by race showed African Americans as the leading consumers of meat in the US.
When a very white movement needs to "sway the black vote" away from meat consumption, it will take some understanding of black culture--something the mainstream vegan movement doesn't always have.
So what can you do to make veganism more appealing to African Americans, Caribbean Americans, and other communities of color? Here are some factors to keep in mind and how to address them with cultural awareness.
Meat is a huge part of black culture
Centuries of enslavement and poverty means making do with what you have.
Black culture was built on eating everything from common staples--like chicken and fish--to chitlins, pigs' feet, and other discarded animal parts our ancestors ate in desperation. These recipes have been passed down for generations and both cooking and eating are central parts of the black family.
When meat is seen as a cultural connection and a means of survival, it'll take time for the black community to see "normal" meals in a negative light.
Turning away food is also teetering on disrespect. It may take three Thanksgivings to build up the courage to deny our grandmothers' cooking.
So how can vegans support pre-vegans of color? Applaud small wins.
You don't go from turkey gizzards to garden burgers overnight. Aspiring vegans may not transition at a pace you'd prefer, but since most black omnivores spent a lifetime with meat in every meal, small gains for you are big deals for them.
Celebrate and give continuous support (not judgment) during their period of transition.
Black people are dealing with other issues
Newsflash: veganism is for the privileged. But privilege isn't always financial. If you're living such a safe, supported life that you can put the needs of animals before the needs of your community, that's a privilege.
How can we ask a black teen to fight for animal rights when she's still getting followed trough department stores? And isn't it reasonable for someone to care more about systematic imprisonment of males in their community that the welfare of circus animals?
Racism is exhausting. When black people don't have a basic sense of wellbeing, they can't care for the wellbeing of others. Until we live in a post-racial society, encouraging African Americans to fight for animal rights when our own welfare is questionable is a strange order of operations.
My suggestion: don't promote veganism to communities of color from an animal rights perspective alone. Encouraging black people to go vegan "for the animals" might show just how disconnected you are from the black experience.
Lead with health benefits instead. Every African American has an uncle with high blood pressure or a diabetic grandmother, so highlighting veganism as a panacea will be better received.
We don't know any vegans
In general, the black community doesn't understand what veganism is all about.
We may have limited interactions with the message through a sexualized PETA ad or Russell Simmons sound bite, but the annual mention of veganism isn't enough to create lasting change.
And since we're less likely to support something if we see no black representation, it helps to have a few black celebrities in mind who recognize the benefits of veganism.
Rapper Waka Flocka, NBA champion John Salley, Black-ish actor Anthony Anderson, and the legendary Williams sisters are a few public figures who follow plant-based diets.
Poor access to vegan options
Food deserts are real, and communities of color are more likely to live in areas where affordable produce is limited.
We can't expect people to live off instant rice and ramen noodles for the sake of animal welfare. If families can't find or afford nutritious options in their area, it's obvious they'd feed their families animal products.
One of the most effective ways of promoting veganism in communities of color is by fighting for more access to plant-based options.
Reach out to organizations that work on food security and see how you can help. (Respectfully) ask store clerks in inner-city grocery stores why their produce selection is so limited.
Instead of expecting low-income communities to live off affordable, nutrient-void vegan options, work to get more fresh fruits and vegetables into these areas.
Watch and learn
There are lots of organizations that promote both plant-based eating in black communities and racial diversity in veganism; turn to them for inspiration.
Black Vegans Rock showcases vegans of color every day of the year to bring more brown faces to the forefront of veganism. The 10th Element of Hip Hop mixes urban culture and health to influence veganism within communities of color. Ron Finley saw a need for more plant-based options and started sidewalk farms in South LA.
Commentary from black vegan thinkers like Dr. Breeze Harper and Bryant Terry will give you new insights into veganism from a brown perspective. Use their writings as a learning experience and see how their perspective can influence your activism.
How do ad agencies get us hooked? They invest lots of time and money into making their audience feel understood. Advertisers know that in order to get a consumer on their side, they need to speak their language.
Try taking a page from their manual and speak with your audience in mind. By adjusting your message and appealing to African Americans, you'll draw the leading consumers of animal products to the benefits of veganism.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Although researchers have discovered ways to make powerful stem cells without the use of human embryos, the controversial use of embryonic stem cells is still necessary, a panel of experts said on Friday.
Doctors perform an experimental stem cell procedure at Bangkok Heart Hospital in a file photo. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
But some regulation is needed of these new sources of stem cells, especially if they are spliced into animals for experiments, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences panel said.
The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee, appointed by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, revised a 2005 report on stem cells because of the recent advances.
Stem cells are the body’s master cells. Scientists are studying them for the emerging field of regenerative medicine, in the hope of creating tailor-made repair kits for the human body.
They also want to use them to study disease and to seek better treatments for cancer, diabetes and other conditions.
Those found in days-old embryos are called human embryonic stem cells and can produce any cell type found in the body. So-called adult stem cells are found in the blood and in all tissues and are less flexible.
Opponents of embryo research include some members of Congress and President George W. Bush, and they have restricted federal funding of work involving human embryonic stem cells, although researchers may use private funds.
In the past year, teams of scientists have discovered ways to transform ordinary cells into what look like stem cells. These are called induced pluripotent stem cells.
Just last week a team at Harvard Medical School reported they had transformed cells in a living mouse from one type into another. Both advances could bypass the need for embryonic stem cells.
But not yet, the report concludes.
SOME UTILITY
“It is far from clear at this point which cell types |
uncertainty on health care, with unresolved questions about the path forward.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was briefed on the details of Trump’s order only Thursday, according to a GOP aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private talks.
Alexander said in a statement late Friday that Trump was “right to make the urgent work of rescuing Americans trapped in a collapsing Obamacare system a top priority on his first day in office.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaking on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace,” focused primarily on what Trump could do through executive action.
“President Obama implemented a lot of Obamacare himself, so President Trump will be able to undo a lot of it himself,” McConnell said. Asked if he knows what the new president’s replacement plan is, McConnell said Senate Republicans are working with the administration “to have an orderly process.”
The GOP-led House and Senate have passed a budget measure that was designed to serve as a vehicle for repealing key parts of the law. But they have yet to rally around a consensus idea for when and what to do to replace it. They were placed under further pressure to act quickly after Trump vowed “insurance for everybody” in a recent interview with The Washington Post.
A key Trump ally said Sunday that the president’s decision to sign the order on his first day in office, coupled with his recent comments about moving swiftly on repealing and replacing the law, has applied pressure on GOP lawmakers to act more quickly than they might have initially planned.
“I think Trump has consistently moved that needle with the mindset of our conference,” Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., said.
Democratic leaders, however, are casting the executive order as evidence that Republicans are in a state of disarray on health-care.
“They don’t know what to do. They can repeal but they don’t have an plan for replace,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, N.Y., said in an interview that aired Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The president’s executive order just mirrored that.”
At least publicly, the insurance industry’s reaction has been muted. America’s Health Insurance Plans spokeswoman Kristine Grow, whose group represents nearly 1,300 insurers, said in an email Saturday that it is “too soon to tell” what the executive order will mean for the industry.
“There is no question the individual health-care market has been challenged from the start,” Grow said. “The president said he would take swift action to move our country to improve it, and he has.”
A key question following Trump’s order is what actions Republican-led states might take to withdraw from key provisions of the law. Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) office said Saturday he was reviewing his options.
Jackie Schutz, a Scott spokeswoman, said the governor “appreciates” that the new administration is “swiftly taking action.” But asked about how and when Scott would seek to take advantage of it, Schutz said, “we’re still look into it to see what it specifically means to Florida.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who met with Senate Finance Committee Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and nearly a dozen other GOP governors on Thursday to discuss the future of Medicaid, said afterwards that there are “some fundamental things that we can do that can settle people down so they are not worried they are going to lose their coverage, but that at the same time bring significant changes to the Obamacare package.”
Kasich, who expanded Medicaid in his state under the ACA, said one option he favors is paring Medicaid coverage to people with incomes up to 100 percent of the poverty level, rather than the current 138 percent, and then letting those above 100 percent go on the marketplace to get coverage.
Asked if he could guarantee than none of his constituents would lose health-care coverage, Kasich responded, “I can’t guarantee anything.”
Even if the new administration is eager to grant waivers to states, it does not yet have the political appointees in place at the Health and Human Services and Treasury departments to do so.
But timing is key. Insurers must finalize the rates they will charge for 2018 plans on the federal exchange in May, which means they will start crunching those numbers in March. And their projections will be far less certain if the president’s executive order prompts changes that in turn prompt healthier people to either drop their ACA plans or purchase short-term plans outside of the exchanges.
Chris Jennings, who served as a senior White House adviser on health care in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, said that in the health-care arena, “more than any other domestic policy, details matter. Plans, they live off a comma, or an incentive, or a disincentive, or a penalty, or an enforcement mechanism.”
Ceci Connolly, president and CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, said her members are in a particularly difficult position because they are unlike large national companies that can “pick and choose” which markets they operate in under the federal exchange.
“Local nonprofit plans are in their communities, so they can’t look around for certain markets and pull out of ones that they don’t like,” noted Connolly, who added that her group’s “biggest concern” is that some consumers might just stop paying their premiums if they believe they won’t be penalized for lacking coverage. That could lead to hospital and doctor visits that won’t be reimbursed, which then would impose costs on providers and insurers more broadly.
With less than 10 days to go in the current enrollment period, Mila Kofman, executive director of the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority, said that “all of this discussion of whether or not people will have access to affordable quality health insurance is very unsettling.”
Some residents have asked Kofman whether she can assure them they will get the same health benefits if Congress and the administration overhaul the system in the coming months. “I tell them, ‘Sign up. We will certainly do everything we can to ensure that you’ll have access to quality health insurance.'”
Yet Mona Mangat, a solo practitioner in allergy and immunology in St. Petersburg, Florida, is not sure what to say when patients ask her whether they will be able to afford the kind of prescriptions and services they’ve taken advantage of under the ACA.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for them,” Mangat said. “I say, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what’s going to happen.'”
John Wagner and Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.Tampa Bay Rowdies Owner Bill Edwards has made it clear in the past that he wanted to expand Al Lang Stadium.
For the past two years, the Rowdies have regularly brought in some near-capacity crowds at the waterfront venue in St. Petersburg, Fla., and heading into its first campaign in the USL, they are expected to be one of the league’s top draws.
In early December, Edwards and the team unveiled an elaborate expansion and renovation of Al Lang that would up the capacity to 18,000 while maintaining the aura of the venue being adjacent to the waterfront. Should the plans come to fruition, it would be not only an impressive soccer-specific gem, but also one that stays true to the downtown St. Pete area – a much different approach than what Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays had wanted to build over at one stage.
“It was too imposing, running across the street and into the water,” Edwards said in reference to the Rays’ plans. “We’re doing it in a footprint that’s there, and we’re taking our neighbors into consideration, which was our first and most important goal.”When Marc-Andre Fleury allows a goal, he skates to the corner to blow off steam. He scrapes his stick blade across the crease to clear off snow. He watches the replay on the scoreboard screen to see what happened, to see if he could have done something differently, and then he moves on.
“I try,” he said.
He said he has always followed this routine. But there are a couple of key differences now: One, he’s 30. He’s older and wiser. He said he knows how to “relax at the right time.” Two, he’s in his second season working with Pittsburgh Penguins goaltending coach Mike Bales, who has taught him not only about stopping the puck, but about letting it in.
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“Goals are going to go in,” Bales said. “It doesn’t matter how good you are. You’re going to let goals in in practice, you’re going to let goals go in in the game, and you need to have a plan how you deal with that. It doesn’t mean you have to be happy that they go in, but you have to have a way to reset. Marc’s worked on that, and he’s very good at that.”
Bales said Fleury was “becoming almost more Zen-like in his approach to how he deals with goals.” He wouldn’t give more detail. Fleury smiled. He wouldn’t give more detail, either.
Fleury's goals-against average and save percentage are on track to be career bests. (USA Today)
Zen?
“I don’t think I’ve broken any sticks lately,” Fleury said. “So I guess that’s good.”
Fleury has been better than good this season. His 2.16 goals-against average and.926 save percentage rank among the NHL leaders. Both are better than his career bests (2.32,.921) and much better than his career averages (2.59,.911). His six shutouts lead the league and already are a career-high.
Some would say this is just a hot streak and Fleury will regress. Maybe it is, and he will eventually, at least to some extent. No one sustains.926 goaltending over a long enough period.
Story continues
But the Penguins, who signed him to a four-year contract extension in November, think he’s improving with age, experience and coaching, not to mention a new system in front of him. The word they keep using is “calm” – or “calmer.” He’s calmer in mind and body, and it has had a tangible effect on the ice.
“He’s more composed,” said Penguins defenseman Kris Letang. “Maybe he doesn’t have all the spectacular saves he was doing, but he’s always in position.”
Fleury’s talent, work ethic, durability and attitude have never been in question. He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NHL draft. He has kept himself in incredible shape. He has rarely been unavailable because of injury. He’s always smiling and remains one of the most popular guys in the dressing room.
The knock on Fleury has been that he has racked up regular-season wins because he has played for a good team – he’s already at 309 and counting – and he has been prone to playoff meltdowns. After winning the Stanley Cup in 2009, he had four straight playoffs with a save percentage under.900. He got pulled. He got benched. He got replaced.
Ray Shero, then the general manager, finally convinced Fleury to see a sports psychologist after the 2012-13 season. He also reassigned goaltending coach Gilles Meloche and promoted Bales before the 2013-14 season.
It wasn’t necessarily easy. Fleury was close to Meloche, and now here came Bales trying to change some things he had done for years. “It was a bit of a process where we had to get to know each other first, learn how to communicate and learn what one person sees and how the other person sees it,” Bales said. “We had to be able to come to common ground on how we’re going to talk about things.”
Fleury had another solid regular season in 2013-14, and he had his best playoff run since 2008, posting a 2.40 goals-against average and.915 save percentage. He was not the reason the Penguins lost in the second round. He was not the reason Shero and coach Dan Bylsma were fired. He went into the off-season with a plan from Bales. “Bigger technical things are most often best worked on in the summer,” Bales said.
Fleury has taken a more technical approach, which complements his natural athleticism. (USA Today)
When he returned, Fleury had a new GM who supported him in Jim Rutherford. He had a new coach who preached puck possession in Mike Johnston. And he still had Bales.
The overall idea has been to add more technique to Fleury’s talent, work ethic, durability and attitude. Fleury used to drift physically and mentally. He would be aggressive and use his athleticism to make saves, but leave himself out of position on specific plays and end up unmoored in general. He would dwell on goals and lose confidence. Things would snowball.
Bales and Fleury have worked on Fleury’s depth – when to be aggressive, when not to be – and his post play. Fleury stays deeper in his net. He travels less distance. He squares to the puck more. He handles the same situations the same way repeatedly. “It’s not as flashy, but it can be more consistent,” Fleury said. “I think it’s been helping.”
“When there’s stressful situations or when maybe the pressure’s up a little bit, you have that structure to fall back on,” Bales said. “It helps you be more confident and more calm in net.”
Now combine that with the fact that Fleury is in his 11th season and has faced more than 15,700 shots – more than 18,400 if you include the playoffs. Some would say that amount of time and data reveal Fleury for what he is. Bales would say that goalies evolve over time and all that data should help Fleury read the play better.
“There’s certain patterns that happen in games,” Bales said. “As you get older, you’ve seen those patterns many times, and so it becomes automatic. … When you talk about goaltenders being in a zone or something like that, I mean, that’s sort of where they’re at. They’re seeing the patterns unfold before they actually happen, so they’re one step ahead of the play.”
Now consider the Penguins’ new system. Johnston has eliminated the stretch passes that Bylsma used, so another forward is helping in the defensive zone. He has his men play the body after rebounds, not the puck like Bylsma did. The Penguins don’t feel they have perfected their possession game yet, because so many guys have been in and out of the lineup with injuries, but Fleury said they allow fewer scoring chances. “It just seems if there’s a breakdown there’s always somebody around to get a guy and help out,” Fleury said.
And if the puck goes in, well, it goes in. Fleury skates to the corner. He scrapes the crease. He watches the replay. He resets for the next shot.
Zen.
“Insofar as maturity, the emotional approach to the game, Marc’s much calmer now in the net,” Bales said. “He’s much calmer when things don’t go his way. It all helps keep him more even-keeled, which helps lead to more consistent play.”
MORE NHL COVERAGE ON YAHOO SPORTS:LOS ANGELES -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban would be willing to give Baylor women's star Brittney Griner the opportunity to prove she could play in the NBA.
Cuban said he would consider selecting Griner, a 6-foot-8 three-time All-American and Big 12 player of the year, in the second round of the NBA draft. If the Mavs don't draft her, Cuban said he would have "no problem whatsoever" inviting Griner to try out for a spot on Dallas' summer league team.
"If she is the best on the board, I will take her," Cuban said before the Mavs' Tuesday night game against the Los Angeles Lakers. "I've thought about it. I've thought about it already. Would I do it? Right now, I'd lean toward yes, just to see if she can do it. You never know unless you give somebody a chance, and it's not like the likelihood of any late-50s draft pick has a good chance of making it."
Griner dominated women's college basketball with her size and athleticism, scoring 3,283 points and blocking 748 shots in her career. She also had 18 dunks, including 11 her senior season.All Jobs
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407 more. View all jobs View all jobsOn a breezy day in 2009, action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, then governor of California, took to the stage to dedicate the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world’s most powerful laser. “I can see already my friends in Hollywood being very upset that their stuff that they show on the big screen is obsolete,” the governor quipped in front of the recently completed facility, which uses lasers to squeeze fusion energy from a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel. “Fusion energy may be exactly what will power future generations on the globe,” he added.
Fast-forward three years and the script is somewhat different: the lofty hopes of Schwarzenegger and other politicians who attended the ceremony that day seem less realistic. At the end of September, officials at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California, where the NIF is based, announced that the facility would miss a crucial milestone to produce ignition — releasing as much energy from fusion as is supplied by the lasers. After an intense, six-year effort, the facility remains a factor of ten away from that goal. In the coming weeks, LLNL scientists are expected to lay out an alternative, much longer, path to ignition, while senior officials refocus the laser’s work (see page 170). For now, thanks in large part to the NIF’s role in nuclear-weapons science, politicians will allow the research programme to trundle on at a cost of US$280 million per year. But the great unfulfilled promise of the NIF should serve as a cautionary lesson for scientists who promote Hollywood solutions from their research.
The NIF is a jaw-dropping piece of technology. It trains 192 separate laser beams on to a capsule of hydrogen fuel a few millimetres long. The power from the lasers compresses the fuel until it fuses, creating energy from the mass of the hydrogen isotopes. The NIF’s goal is to produce break-even energy from this fusion — no mean feat, considering that the input energy can be up to 1.8 megajoules.
In 2005, the LLNL and the US National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the lab, laid out a plan to reach the break-even point. The National Ignition Campaign, which kicked off the following year, aimed to bring the fledgling facility up to full power, kit it out with diagnostics and perform a series of tests on its hydrogen fuel. Tellingly, the original plan does not commit the lab to reach ignition, but instead called for “a credible ignition experimental campaign”.
“The line between optimism and overselling is a thin one that can too easily be crossed.”
But during the past six years, expectations around the NIF have grown well beyond that credible campaign. In many ways, the lab itself is to blame for the unrealism. Lab officials gave tours to prominent politicians and journalists in which they promised a lot more than just ignition. The NIF, they claimed, was the first step on the road to potentially unlimited fusion energy. In support of their dream, LLNL scientists developed a prototype for an electricity-producing reactor that they hoped would gain financing once ignition was achieved.
But problems were mounting even as the lab eagerly promised clean, cheap electricity. Outside reviewers noted that the hydrogen fuel was not being compressed properly. The computer codes used to predict the facility’s performance were themselves operating badly. Privately, most people familiar with the programme had known for more than a year that the NIF could not reach ignition in the time allowed. Yet the LLNL stubbornly insisted that it might yet meet its goal. Enthusiasm gave way to saving face, as the leadership struggled to hold the line and keep up the appearance that all was going well.
Fortunately, this is not the end of the NIF. In addition to carrying the far-off promise of clean energy, the facility also mimics the physics of nuclear weapons. Scientists at the lab will now use it to address questions about the ageing US nuclear stockpile. The lasers can provide physicists with an invaluable tool to study how materials behave at enormous temperatures and pressures — similar, say, to those in Earth’s interior. Despite the bluster of some at the lab, politicians have always recognized the value of this work, and they are willing to continue funding it for now.
The size and cost of the NIF make it an easy target for criticism, but those working there are hardly alone in their hubris. From stem cells to materials science, researchers around the globe make daily headlines with bold claims about what can be done in their fields. Politicians and the public, eager for solutions to the world’s many problems, embrace their words. The process is often healthy: scientists insert caveats, and citizens are given a vague sense that things may not work out. But striking the balance between enthusiasm and conservatism can be difficult. The NIF reminds us that the line between optimism and overselling is a thin one that can too easily be crossed.
Pride comes before a fall. Now the NIF has to find its feet all over again.Southern Company and Mississippi Power announced Wednesday afternoon that they would suspend all coal gasification operations at a Kemper County plant and simply use natural gas instead. The decision comes after the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) recommended that the plant burn only natural gas, which is cheaper at the moment.
The Kemper County plant was supposed to be a cutting-edge demonstration of the power of “clean coal," and, despite running five years late and more than $4 billion over budget, Kemper was able to start testing its coal gasification operations late last year. The plant used a chemical process to break down lignite coal into synthesis gas, or “syngas,” which was then fed into a generator. The syngas burns cleaner than pulverized lignite coal does. In addition, emissions were caught by a carbon capture system and delivered to a nearby oil field to help with oil extraction. That, Southern and Mississippi Power said, would reduce the greenhouse emissions of burning lignite by up to 65 percent.
But with only 200 days of gasification operations under its belt, Kemper identified more issues with its technology, including design flaws that caused leaks and ash buildup. Last week, the MPSC indicated that it would refuse to allow Southern to raise rates to cover Kemper’s continued construction and maintenance for gasification.
Today, it seems, Southern and Mississippi are taking the MPSC's recommendation seriously.
“Southern Company and Mississippi Power today announced the company is immediately suspending start-up and operations activities involving the lignite gasification portion of the Kemper County energy facility,” the two companies announced in a press release today. “The facility will continue to operate using natural gas pending the Mississippi Public Service Commission’s decision on future operations.”
The companies also said that they “believe this is the appropriate step to manage costs given the economics of the project and the Commission’s intent to establish a settlement docket to address Kemper-related matters including the future operation of the gasifier portion of the project.”
In a statement (PDF), the MPSC said that it would “proceed with its plan to issue an order addressing the future of the Kemper County facility at its meeting on July 6, 2017.”What is the Currency Exchange?
The Currency Exchange offers a safe and secure way for players to exchange NCoin for in-game gold, and sell gold for Hongmoon Coin.
How do I use the Currency Exchange?
You can use the Currency Exchange, as long as you’re level 16 or higher, by pressing the F9 key.
If you’re looking to sell your gold, simply click on the “Sales Registration” tab on the right of the Currency Exchange window. Fill in the amount of gold you wish to sell along with the price of the Hongmoon Coin you want to sell your gold for. You will only be able to sell your gold within the minimum and maximum price listed, which is explained in more detail below.
Listing gold for sale has the following limitations:
Up to 1,000 gold per listing
10 simultaneous listings
10 listings per day – 100 for Premium Members
Once your gold is listed for sale, wait for someone to purchase your gold and you’ll receive the Hongmoon Coin immediately with a receipt in your mail.
To use your NCoin to purchase gold, look at the available offers in the Buy Gold tab and click purchase on the one you want. It’s that easy! There is no limitation to the amount of gold you can purchase per day (other than what other players have listed).
To break it down more simply, the flow of the Currency Exchange works like this:
Gold put up for sale by Player A -> Gold purchased with NCoin by Player B -> Hongmoon Coin equivalent (minus 10% transaction fee) delivered to Player A
What are the fees when using the Currency Exchange?
If you are purchasinggold on the Currency Exchange there will be no fee for you. However, if you are selling gold, there is a 10% transaction fee on the received Hongmoon Coin.
How is the rate determined?
The Currency Exchange determines the Standard Rate by averaging the price of the completed transactions for the past 7 days. This means the rate is determined solely on how players sell and purchase gold using the Currency Exchange.
You can list your gold within plus or minus 50% of the current Standard Rate, rounded to the nearest whole number. For example, if the Standard Rate is 1:3 (1 gold for 3 NCoin), then you would be able to list your gold anywhere from 1:1 to 1:4. This allows the Standard Rate to move based on the economy.Reading the YouTube comments on a Merzbow song will give you a good idea of how polarizing his art can be.
Is this music? What did I just hear? Do people seriously listen to this?
Those are a few questions you’ll see from people attempting to understand the perplexing works of Merzbow, a.k.a. Masami Akita.
As one commenter suggests on Merzbow’s especially harsh 1994 album Venereology, “When you die and go to hell this is what you will listen to for eternity.”
Nevertheless, the pioneering Japanese noisemaker has amassed a large cult following with his strange, loud, often frightening soundscapes. After releasing more than 300 albums since 1980 — he won’t confirm exactly how many — the king of noise is coming to Edmonton.
Merzbow will play Pawn Shop Live, 10551 82 Ave., Wednesday night.
Akita played drums in a blues-rock band in high school in the early ‘70s that gradually moved toward improvisation and free jazz, influenced by the sounds of King Crimson and Albert Ayler.
When he grew bored of that, he broke free from all musical trappings.
“I felt I reached a dead end just playing instruments so I quit playing and tried other things like tapping the floor of the studio or rattling the chairs,” Akita explains.
“Quitting something is so thrilling to me, because it tells me what’s important.”
He was struck by avant-garde works like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music and Walter Marchetti’s jarring Homemade Electric Music. While studying fine art in university, Akita became obsessed with Dadaism and surrealism, and ditched conventional instruments altogether.
“All of this led me to making music only by noises and sounds generated solely by non-instruments,” he says. “This was the birth of Merzbow.”
Merzbow’s early recordings, made with collaborator Kiyoshi Mizutani, used tape loops and percussion, and the cassettes were adorned with collages made from pornographic magazines he found in the Tokyo subway.
Merzbow moved to digital recordings in the 1990s to simplify for touring, which – coupled with a passion for grindcore and death metal – led to the harsh sound that came to define his art. Albums like Pulse Demon were mastered at unusually high volumes, adding to the blurring, pummeling sonic assault.
He’s collaborated with the likes of Faith No More frontman Mike Patton and helped forge a niche that spawned a growing international community of experimental noise artists.
While some musicians are chided as sellouts for making sappy love songs, Merzbow took heat from some of his fans fans for merely using actual rhythms on his 2002 album Merzbeat.
He does not use lyrics, which has only helped shroud Akita in mystery.
A vegan and animal rights activist, he’s made political statements with album titles like 2007’s Peace for Animals and by performing on a laptop with a large “Meat is Murder” sticker.
The seeds of his activism were planted in 2002 when he began raising chickens.
“I gradually started to be concerned and care about chickens and all the barn animals I used to eat without giving it a second thought before,” he says.
The long-haired 57-year-old, who typically performs wearing sunglasses, has also written numerous books on fetishism and post-modern culture.
His latest album Tamayodo and upcoming release Nezumimochi are “monotonic electro pulse-noise works by all analogue equipments.”
On Wednesday, Merbow will play handmade instruments with contact microphones that connect to effect pedals and a laptop.
Warming the stage will be Holzkopf and Botfly from Vancouver, as well as Edmonton acts Borys and Zebra Pulse.
Tickets are $20 through yeglive.caOne of the things in common with the most lopsided Super Bowls in history happens to be the Denver Broncos (UPDATE: who’ll be playing in Super Bowl L as well) appearing, and always showing up on the losing side, losing to the Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers in these games.
The Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears both are on this list as well thanks to their impressive performances in wins over the Buffalo Bills (who usually made things closer in their losses) and the New England Patriots in the pre-Belichick/Brady days.
Super Bowl XXII: Redskins 46 Broncos 10
The Washington Redskins won their second Super Bowl title with a 42-10 win over the Denver Broncos, a team that tends to get demolished in Super Bowl games. The Broncos actually led 10-0 in the first quarter, but then got pounded by 42 consecutive points, with Doug Williams leading the Redskins by throwing four touchdown passes and 340 passing yards. He became the first player in Super Bowl history to pass for four touchdowns in a single quarter, and four in a half, with the Redskins scoring 35 points in the second quarter.
Super Bowl XXVII: Cowboys 52 Bills 17
The Dallas Cowboys won their first Super Bowl in 15 years by demolishing the Buffalo Bills, who were in the middle of their impressive SB four-game losing streak. The Cowboys forced an insane nine turnovers (four interceptions, five fumbles), getting 35 points off of those turnovers. The Bills played without Jim Kelly from the second quarter onward. It helped the Bills cut down the lead to 17-31, but the Cowboys scored three fourth quarter touchdowns to end the game. Troy Aikman won the MVP completing 22 of 30 passes for 273 yards and four touchdowns for a passer rating of 140.6, while also rushing for 28 yards.
Super Bowl XLVIII: Seahawks 43 Broncos 8
The Broncos were actually favored to win the game but botched up the first snap of the game, and went down to halftime behind by 22 points. The Seahawks scored a touchdown on the first play of the second half with a 87-yard kickoff return, and when the Broncos finally scored, it was when they were behind by 36 points. Malcolm Smith was the MVP with an interception returned for a touchdown, a fumble return and nine tackles.
Super Bowl XX: Bears 46 Patriots 10
Both the Bears and the Patriots were making their Super Bowl debuts, with the Bears going into the game after a 15-1 season. In their victory over the Patriots, the Bears set Super Bowl records for sacks (seven), fewest rushing yards allowed (seven), and margin of victory (36 points). The Pats were held to negative yardage through the first half (-19) and had a total of 123 yards from scrimmage at the end of the game. Bears defensive end Richard Dent, who had 1.5 quarterback sacks, forced two fumbles, and blocked a pass, was named the game’s MVP.
Super Bowl XXIV: 49ers 55 Broncos 10
A lot of Broncos in these games, huh? The 49ers scored 55 points with Joe Montana throwing five touchdown passes in a game that was over by the first half, with the Niners leading 27-3 when the teams went down to the locker rooms. The 49ers are also the only team to score at least eight touchdowns in a Super Bowl and at least two touchdowns in each quarter (the only mistake was a missed extra point attempt).His title may be different one year later, but Mike Petke says he approaches this year’s MLS SuperDraft with the same mindset as last year, when he led the club’s draft effort as interim head coach.
“There’s a different feel going into this draft [from] last year when I was interim coach going in with 18 other head coaches,” Petke said. “There’s no different mindset. It’s who I am and what we want to accomplish. It’s the same type of thing we’re going through this year. Hopefully we get something of substance.”
Last year, New York’s first pick came at No. 22, where the Red Bulls took Ian Christianson, who earned a roster spot but battled injuries throughout the 2013 season. The Red Bulls later selected Michael Bustamante among their Supplemental Draft picks. Picking at No. 22 once again this year (New York also has the 34th pick) after trading down several slots, Petke said the process of judging players outside of the top 10 picks can be challenging.
“It’s all about having an eye for talent and seeing if you can work with something,” Petke said. “It’s about finding intangibles that make you think they can make an impact, not necessarily immediately, but in years to come. Bustamante and Christianson are two players we have high hopes for.”
The buildup to the draft is underway at the 2014 adidas MLS Player Combine in Florida, but Petke says the preparation for making decisions on college players goes much farther back, and the combine simply provides more information to an established set of data.
“You go in with an idea of what you’ve seen throughout the year via the scouting department, and you hope the analyzing we’ve done is reassured down there,” said Petke, who was in attendance at the Combine over the weekend with members of the team's technical staff.
Asked if he was expecting to draft players to fill a positional need (this year’s draft class is thought to be deep on defenders) or simply take the best player available, Petke – true to form – kept his options open.
“I think you can draft for need, but it’s just a matter of what kind of talent is there,” Petke said. “If a player’s available in a position we’re not looking at that is head and shoulders above our positional need, I think it would be a situation where we would take a chance.”
The Red Bulls also have their natural second-round selection this year, so they will be picking two players next Thursday in Philadelphia. The second round has been good to New York in recent history, especially in even-numbered years – both Tim Ream (2010) and Ryan Meara (2012) were selected in the second round. Petke will be hoping to find a similar prospect with one or both of this year’s second-round picks.From U.S. News & World Report online on June 10:
“Earlier this year ABC News found that nearly 40 percent of likely GOP voters said they would be willing to consider a third-party candidate. One appealing third-party option has already emerged — Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. A former two-term governor of New Mexico, Johnson governed as a fiscally conservative, socially progressive Republican. He backed school choice and lowered taxes. He supports gay marriage and wants drugs to be legalized.
“These views are in keeping with the Libertarian Party’s philosophy — which holds that government should generally leave people alone — and are increasingly popular with voters. ‘One in five Americans consider themselves libertarian, with younger adults being the most likely to adopt the label,’ Reuters found last year….
“Despite the best intentions of the American founders to design a system immune to factionalism, the structure of American government favors the existence of just two dominant political parties. Since U.S. elections are winner-take-all, voters are incentivized to coalesce around the candidates they view as the least bad rather than cast votes for long-shot candidates who may better represent their views. Vote for the lesser of two evils, the theory goes.Greenland is melting fast, and that's bad news for sea level rise and other impacts of climate change.
“I don’t mean to make it sound so scary,” reporter Ari Daniel says by satellite phone from the cusp of Greenland’s Helhiem glacier. “This is one of the fastest-moving glaciers there is [here], it moves about three feet in an hour, you can almost see it [move].”
Get involved in the conversation Reporter Ari Daniel will be on Reddit to answer your questions about melting glaciers, rising sea levels and life on a glacier on July 31 from 12-1 p.m |
seconds before executing") do |n| options[:delay] = n end opt.on("-j x,y,z","--jurisdictions x,y,z", Array, "which jurisdiction will start") do |jurisdictions| options[:jurisdictions] = jurisdictions end server_list = %w[a b c] opt.on("-s SERVERS","--servers SERVERS", server_list, "which server will start between #{server_list.join(',')}") do |servers| options[:servers] = servers end
You can mark whether the value of the option is mandatory.
# Mandatory argument. opts.on("-r", "--require LIBRARY", "Require the LIBRARY before executing your script") do |lib| options.library << lib end # Optional argument; multi-line description. opts.on("-i", "--inplace [EXTENSION]", "Edit ARGV files in place", " (make backup if EXTENSION supplied)") do |ext| options.inplace = true options.extension = ext || '' options.extension.sub!(/A.?(?=.)/, ".") # Ensure extension begins with dot. end
For more details your can see this article and refer the Ruby rdoc.
Benefit of OptionParser is: we don’t need to use array index to retrieve options and we can write help text along with option definition.
Disadvantage of OptionParser is: since different commands need using the same option parser, you cannot define different option parsers for different commands. To solve this problem, you can resort to Thor.
Using Thor
As you know Thor is a replacement of Rake. Let’s see how we use Thor to refactor our command-line tool.
require 'rubygems' require 'thor' class ThorExample < Thor desc "start", "start server" method_option :environment,:default => "development", :aliases => "-e", :desc => "which environment you want server run." method_option :daemon, :type => :boolean, :default => false, :aliases => "-d", :desc => "running on daemon mode?" def start puts "start #{options.inspect}" end desc "stop","stop server" method_option :delay, :default => 0, :aliases => "-w", :desc => "wait server finish it's job" def stop puts "stop" end end ThorExample.start
desc defines command name and long description.
defines command name and long description. method_option defines option parser for this command.
defines option parser for this command. ThorExample.start is a method to start parse argument.
Execute it without argument, the output is:
Tasks: thor_example help [TASK] # Describe available tasks or one specific task thor_example start # start server thor_example stop # stop server
Execute it with argument help start, you’ll get help text for command start:
Usage: thor_example start Options: -e, [--environment=ENVIRONMENT] # which environment you want server run. # Default: development -d, [--daemon] # running on daemon mode? start server
As you can see, it’s very clean and easy to write.
For a more detailed usage, you can visit Thor github page and its rdoc.
Summary
Of course there are more ways to write a command-line tool. Choose what best fits your need and not the most powerful or latest one.
All the sample code is on github https://github.com/allenwei/ruby_command_line_sample.
I hope you found this article valuable. Feel free to ask questions and give feedback in the comments section of this post. Thanks!
Do also read this awesome Guest Post:Report Employee Misconduct
CONTACT US
QUALITY SERVICE IS YOUR RIGHT
FILING A COMPLAINT OF POLICE MISCONDUCT
If you do not wish to report your complaint in person, you may obtain a “Complaint of Employee Misconduct” form from any police facility or City Council field office. Complaints may also be filed online by clicking here or on the button below.
If you prefer to make your complaint by phone, you may call our 24-hour toll free hotline at (800) 339-6868.
Anonymous and third-party complaints are also accepted and will be investigated to the extent that sufficient information is provided. However, if you choose to not provide your contact information, the investigators will be unable to ask you follow-up questions that might be needed for a thorough, complete investigation.
The Investigation Process
Your complaint will be investigated by a trained supervisor. The investigation may include interviews of witnesses and officers; a review of Department records, policies, and procedures; an inspection of medical records, photographs and other evidence; and legal analysis.
The investigation of a personnel complaint and subsequent actions (including the administration of discipline when warranted) are involved and time consuming processes. The amount of time they take depends on a number of factors and generally varies from several months to about a year. Once the process has been completed, you will be notified of the outcome in writing if you have provided your mailing address.
Mediation Program and Alternative Complaint Resolution Process
Mediation is a form of confidential dispute resolution in which complainants and LAPD employees meet face-to-face with impartial mediators to discuss the alleged misconduct. The mediators are trained volunteers from the City Attorney’s Office, and have no power to influence the outcome of the mediation.
Similarly, for the ACR process, the parties meet to resolve the complaint through a discussion. The conversation is facilitated by an LAPD supervisor, and the ACR process is also confidential.
-You may file an online complaint here-
• Contact us• Commendations• ComplaintsThe motto of the Los Angeles Police Department is “to protect and to serve.” The Department is dedicated to providing the finest police service possible. In order to provide quality service to the community, we need your assistance. This is your police department. We welcome your comments and encourage you to let us know about the quality of service you receive from our employees.If you wish to commend the actions of employees of this Department, you may do so by clicking here, writing a letter to the captain of the station in your Area, or to the Chief of Police. Verbal commendations may also be given to any Department supervisor.If you believe the conduct of an employee was inappropriate, you may file an online complaint here.A complaint can be filed in person at any police facility in Los Angeles, Internal Affairs Group, the Police Commission, or the Office of the Inspector General. Although it is not required, the Department encourages community members to make these reports in person so a supervisor has an opportunity to do a thorough initial assessment of your complaint.All complaints are reviewed by IAG before being assigned for investigation. However, not all complaints are investigated by IAG. Depending on the misconduct alleged, personnel complaints may be investigated by IAG investigators or at the divisional level. Complaints not investigated by IAG are assigned to the accused officer’s division of assignment for investigation.Some complaints are eligible to be resolved through Mediation or the Alternative Complaint Resolution (ACR) process rather than the traditional, fact-finding investigation. These alternative complaint procedures, which take place in an informal setting, were developed to resolve complaints through dialogue and with the intent to strengthen relations between the community and the LAPD.If your complaint is determined to be appropriate for mediation or the ACR process, you will be notified. However, your participation would be completely voluntary.What’s a modular smartphone without modules? Being the influential company that Google is, Google has gotten a number of companies and independent developers to working on modules for their revolutionary open platform modular smartphone.
So what are the modules that are currently being developed for this awesome modular smartphone? The aim of this article is to round up all Ara modules; I will keep you updated on what modules are being worked on, all known concept of modules, and modules that are rumored to be in development.
This article is separated into three main sections, the links below will take you to them:
What Are Ara Modules?
Ara Modules are the removable discrete components of the Ara modular smartphone. Modules are used to add unique functions to Ara as well as make the device more customized to an individual user. Modules are hot-swappable; with the exception of the application processor module (AP module) they can be added to Ara or removed, all while the device is powered on.
What is Ara?
Ara is a modular smartphone that is being developed by Google’s ATAP team. Ara consists of a main frame or endoskeleton in which all modules are attached. Ara will be powered by a customized version of Android made specifically to cater to its modular nature. There will also be an Ara configurator app which will be used to manage all connected modules.
Modules In Development
This category contains all modules known to be in development for Google’s Ara modular smartphone.
Dual Sim Module
A module which will allow the use of two SIM cards.
Radiation Sensor Module
This module will allow for the testing of radiation levels.
SolidEnergy Battery Module
A revolutionary battery module capable of holding twice the capacity of current smartphone batteries.
Hearts Medical Module
A group of health focused modules to include a Glucose meter module, Blood test module, Urine test module, eye exam module and a thermometer module.
Biosensor Module
This module will be capable of analyzing substances such as water, blood, food and soil.
Innolux Display Modules
Innolux has created the first display module and plans on making: HD display module, 3D display module and E-ind display module.
Sennheiser HQ Audio Modules
An high definition audio module.
Toshiba 8MP, 5MP and 13MP Camera Module
Media Bar Module
This particular module attaches to the front of the device. Toshiba’s module includes a 2MP camera and consists of 3.5mm jack, speaker and a microphone.
Transfer Jet Module
This module will consist of Toshiba’s close proximity wireless transfer technology transferjet. This tech allows for the transfer of files between devices within close proximity at incredibly fast speeds.
Toshiba LCD and OLED display module
Toshiba has plans to make two display modules for Ara, one of LCD Tech and the other from OLED technology.
Toshiba Wireless Connectivity Module
This module will add NFC, Bluetooth and Toshiba RF ICs for low-power radio applications.
128GB Storage Module
A memory module, created through a joint venture between Kingston and Marvel will be a 1×2 module capable of read speeds of up to 800 MB/s and write speeds of 150 MB/s.
Marvel & Nvidia AP Module
Initially there will be two different application processor models (AP modules) to choose from, one comprising of Marvell’s Armada Pxa1928 and the other will be based on Nvidia’s Tegra K1 processor. The Tegra K1 builds on Nvidia’s Kepler architecture and consists of a quad Core CPU (Arm Cortex A15) running at 2.3 GHz. Marvell’s Pxa1928 is a 64 bit mobile system consisting of an advanced quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor running at 1.5 GHz.
Sunny Opotech Camera Modules
5MP camera module as well as camera modules of varied camera technologies such as Professional cameras, OIS and 360 degree cameras.
Tele Medicine Communication Module
Module for monitoring and reporting patients health status.
Articles You may like:
Jump to section: Modules – Rumored – Concepts – Back To Top
Concepts Of Ara Modules
This category contains known concept of modules for Google’s Ara modular smartphone:
Momento Module
A 3D modeling and projection module for Snapchat users.
The Yezz collection of modules
Smartphone OEM Yezz has revealed upwards of 50 concept modules which they plan on making available for Ara.
Lapka Concept Modules
Articles You may like:
Jump to section: Modules – Rumored – Concepts – Back To Top
Rumored To Be In Development
A little birdie whispered that these modules could very well be in development:
Pelican Imaging Array Camera Module – An advanced array camera module capable of 3D image and video capture.
An advanced array camera module capable of 3D image and video capture. Qwerty keyboard module
VLC (Visible Light Communication) Module
RF (Radio Frequency) Module
Articles You may like:
Jump to section: Modules – Rumored – Concepts – Back To Top
Do you know of a module that was not included? Please leave a comment below or send me an email using our contact form.Agent Carter is officially headed to Hulu.
Hulu today announced that it has acquired the exclusive subscription streaming rights the entire series run of the Marvel Television and ABC series, which was set in the post-World War II era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The series was inspired by star Hayley Atwell’s portrayal of SSR Agent Peggy Carter in the films Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as the Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter short.
The series began in 1946 and finds Peggy struggling to adjust to post-war society, where she is marginalized by men returning from the war even within the SSR. She’s given an escape from desk duty when Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is framed for selling deadly weapons. He asks Peggy to clear his name and lends her his butler, Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy) to assist her.
Peggy risks her career and her life by sticking her neck out for Stark but begins to wonder if Howard is really as innocent as he claims.
Agents Carter stars Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter, James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill, A Cinderella Story) as Agent Jack Thompson, Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) as Agent Daniel Sousa and Shea Whigham (\American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street) as Chief Roger Dooley.
Agent Carter ran for two seasons before being canceled by ABC. The second season saw Agent Carter going up against the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the villain Madame Masque, played by Wynn Everett.
Hulu is also home to the Marvel Television original series Runaways. Who knows? If there’s enough streaming interest in Agent Carter on the platform maybe they could be convinced to invest in a revival.Image copyright AFP Image caption The Syrian Arab Red Crescent and local NGOs are helping the displaced, the UN says
Up to 16,000 civilians have been displaced by the Syrian government's advance into besieged rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo, the UN says.
Humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said thousands more were likely to flee if the fighting continued to spread and intensify in the coming days.
He expressed concern about their fate, calling the situation deeply alarming.
Troops and militiamen have retaken more than a third of the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo since the weekend.
Overnight, at least 18 people were killed in government air strikes on the remaining rebel-held areas, including 12 in the Shaar district near the new northern frontline, according to a UK-based monitoring group.
Another 10 died in an air strike in the Bab al-Nairab area on Tuesday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added.
An opposition activist network said a group of displaced civilians had been targeted and it put the death toll at 25.
Aleppo was Syria's largest city and its commercial and industrial hub before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.
It has been divided in roughly two for the past four years, with the government controlling the west and rebels the east.
But in the past year, Syrian troops have broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed Shia Muslim militias and Russian air strikes.
In early September they reinstated a siege of the east, trapping the 275,000 people living there, and launched an all-out assault later that month.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Syrian government forces have been besieging rebel-held Aleppo since early September
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The government's aerial bombardment has reportedly killed hundreds of people in recent months
Government forces stepped up their offensive two weeks ago and broke through the rebel lines on Saturday. By Monday, they had recaptured the entire northern half of the rebel enclave.
"It's something that can't be imagined," Ahmad Aziz, a resident of a rebel-held area told the BBC. "We are witnessing the worst days ever. We can't move and see each other because of crazy shelling."
Mr O'Brien said he was "extremely concerned about the fate of civilians as a result of the deeply alarming and chilling situation unfolding in Aleppo".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption East Aleppo resident says he would rather die than return to government controlled Syria
"Intensified ground fighting and indiscriminate aerial bombardment over the past few days in eastern Aleppo city has reportedly killed and injured scores of civilians," he added. "There are no functioning hospitals left, and official food stocks are practically finished."
At the same time, Mr O'Brien noted, indiscriminate rebel shelling of civilian areas of government-controlled western Aleppo had killed civilians and displaced more than 20,000 in recent weeks.
Mr O'Brien said initial reports indicated that up to 16,000 people had fled their homes in eastern Aleppo in the past few days for government- and Kurdish-controlled districts, or other rebel-held areas.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Some 275,000 people were living in rebel-held eastern Aleppo before the government's advance
Image copyright AFP Image caption The government used coaches to take people from the recaptured Jabal Badro district
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent and local non-governmental organisations were helping the displaced, and the UN was ready to deliver aid to rebel-held Aleppo, he added.
A spokeswoman for the UN high commissioner for human rights separately expressed concern that displaced people perceived to have links or connections to rebel groups might be detained by government or Kurdish forces.
Peaceful activists and relatives of rebels have been punished in the past for their provision of support to what the government considers terrorists, she added.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption UNHCR spokesperson describes on Radio 4's Today the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo
The parties to the conflict in Syria, Mr O'Brien said, had "shown time and again" that they were "willing to take any action to secure military advantage even if it means killing, maiming or starving civilians into submission in the process".
Now at last, he pleaded, it was time to "restore basic humanity in Syria".Joined by the rest of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was the first of four speakers at a rally on the Capitol steps Wednesday to call for tougher gun control laws. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Rep. Lewis: 'No amount of blood' will push Congress on gun control
Rep. John Lewis castigated his Republican colleagues Wednesday morning for their unwillingness to support gun control legislation in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, declaring on the steps of the Capitol that “there’s no amount of blood or pain or death or suffering that would move this Congress to act.”
Joined by the rest of the House Democratic Caucus, Lewis (D-Ga.) was the first of four speakers at a rally Wednesday to call for tougher gun control laws, a push that has been reignited this week in the wake of a shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and more than 500 injured. That call for new gun legislation has been mostly stonewalled by Republicans, who control the majority in both houses of Congress.
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“This Congress has failed the American people. As in Newtown and Aurora and Charleston and Orlando, now in Las Vegas, how many more must die? A hundred? A thousand? 10,000? A million? What is your blood price? How many more must die?” Lewis said. “But there’s no number, is there? There’s no amount of blood or pain or death or suffering that would move this Congress to act. We hold moments of silence and vigil. We offer our thoughts and prayers, but it’s all a show, a placeholder until people forget.”
Increasingly, Democrats have been unwilling to steer away from politics in the wake of mass shootings, insisting that such moments put the issue of gun violence front and center before the American people and generate momentum for tougher laws. Last summer, Democrats staged a sit-in on the House floor to demand a vote on gun violence in the wake of a shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in the nation’s history until Sunday’s in Las Vegas.
Republicans have generally objected to calls for gun control legislation in the wake of shootings, accusing Democrats of politicizing a national tragedy. A handful of Democrats have begun refusing to participate in House-floor moments of silence for mass shooting victims, arguing that action, not silence, is required.
In the wake of last Sunday’s shooting, House Democrats have again called for new gun control measures as well as a congressional select committee on gun violence. “I ask the speaker, what’s so scary about a select committee?” Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), another of the four speakers at Tuesday’s rally, told the crowd. “You created two last Congress but can’t find the space for a committee to find a way to save 30,000 American lives every year?”
Lewis, a leader in the civil rights movement, recalled that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by gun violence, as was Sen. Robert Kennedy. And two members of Congress — former Rep. Gabby Giffords and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise — were seriously wounded in mass shootings.
He said Congress had been elected “to be a headlight and not a taillight” and called on its members to demonstrate “raw courage.”
“We can no longer be patient. If there was a fire, we would bring water. If there was a virus, we would send medicine, if it was one of the storms, we would give shelter. This is about guns, and so once more, this Congress does nothing,” he said. “Don’t tell me this is about anything other than greed. Greed, money and fear.”FALL RIVER, Mass. — The judge overseeing the murder trial of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez chastised his lawyer for making a joke about Deflategate while questioning a witness in court.
James Sultan was questioning a state police trooper about tire pressure Thursday when he jokingly asked whether the trooper had ever received “training in football deflation devices.”
On Friday morning, Superior Court Judge Susan Garsh told Sultan that they are conducting serious business, and she does not expect there to be any more jokes. Sultan agreed and expressed regret.
Hernandez is accused of the 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of his fiancée.
The Patriots were accused of using underinflated footballs in their AFC championship win. The NFL is investigating.
Thumbnail photo via Pool/USA TODAY Sports ImagesOriginally Posted by Rodolfo La Maestra Originally Posted by
Andrew,
To answer your questions.
The 4K server that Sony makes for 4K panel owners is designed to only work with the panel it was delivered with, and I did not have their 4K panel handy, it would not recognize my Sony 4K projector as compatible even when both are 4K, which is the way it suppose to be to protect content, congratulations to Sony.
The server is a Dell CPU with a Sony tablet to perform the controlling interface via WiFi for which the CPU has to use the provided WiFi bridge, an alternative is to move your home's wireless router close to the CPU and connect it with an RJ45, they have to belong to the same network.
The server is connected via HDMI to the display for the 4K video, and, if you do not have a 4K capable pre/pro receiver (not just with upscaling functionality), the instructions force you to use Toslink "for lossy audio" (if you can stand that with a 4K image), the other HDMI connector is not activated for giving the user the option of sending lossless audio thru it in parallel to the Video connection, and I filed a request for that.
The 4K server for the panel has 10 full length movies but also about 20 documentaries and indi content, clips, etc. For the purpose of a demo it is appropriate enough, but as I said, it only suppose to work with the paired panel, so in order to review it one has to have both units, which I may eventually request if I have more time.
Next week I will be receiving the "clunky" (as you said) Sony 4K server that is compatible with the 4K projector, I was hoping I would be receiving the Redray at around the same time but I doubt it because RED did not confirm the planned date yet.
As you already know this server does not have full length movies but rather short 4K clips, and some of them with problems, it is one of the 3 servers Sony uses for demos in shows worldwide. One of my purposes is to view again the 4K train clip but in my home theater with my screen, my projector settings, and my controlled light environment, not a Sony booth.
I expect that the Redray player will be delivered with some stored 4K content because I assume Odemax would not be available until March and I do not want to wait that long for a review, because if I do I will be doing it with a Redray player I plan to own, like you. I do not have a RED camera, but my Son is a videographer, although he just upgraded his very expensive equipment we were talking about getting one RED as well.
I would have to wait longer until the new Sony 4K server (the round UFO) can be made available for a review, but eventually I would be able to have an impression of how the 3 servers compare in image quality, functionality and service, although I always prefer to have them side-by-side, for which I may consider a repeat review when they are both commercially available.
Best Regards Andrew,
Rodolfo La MaestraMore’s the pity, I no longer care how I felt in Lisbon when I was 14 years old, but I wish I could see what I saw when I was there — if anything penetrated the fog of adolescent self-absorption. Why did I wait so long to get a camera? So many subjects, so much material, so much time with loved ones, unrecorded. I suppose the messy scrapbook of my brain was so cluttered with remembered images that I figured actual pictures were beside the point. And they were, until those memories began to fade.
As a child, I was one to stop, stoop and peer, painfully nearsighted — a condition that went undiagnosed for a long time, because my mother was horrified that I would have to wear glasses. Not for me the starry night sky, or the view out over a valley, or small creatures scampering through the canopy of trees in the backyard. I had blurry impressions, at best, of what was going on out there, and it was frightening. What I could see was what held still, and what was near. Pebbles in a stream, clear cold water rippling over them. Tiny bones sunk in the mud, the skull of a decaying animal. Those are the remembered images of a child wakening to the world around her.
When I finally did get glasses, at 12, it felt like nothing short of a miracle. That a person could actually see squirrels perched up high on a branch, or stars, twinkling individually, in a dark sky. All that had been there all along — and I had never seen it. Everyone else had had a postcard view of life. Now I did too. Perhaps that was why I was drawn to postcard views; they looked exotically grand, to my eye.
Now my camera allows me to capture the way I see the world — which turns out to have nothing to do with postcard views but rather more to do with glorious details, the way timbers meet on a Shaker roofline, or how lichen bursts open on a stone — and to re-experience it, and share it. What’s more, a camera offers a way to compare notes. My son recently showed me photographs from his honeymoon in New Zealand: The views were large, pulled back and breathtakingly beautiful. I suppose that is how life feels at the beginning of such an expansive and mind-bending journey as marriage: awesome. The views I’ve been focused on at this end of life are much smaller, though that word minimizes their impact: awe-inspiring.
I’m returning to my nearsighted way of traveling. I have an excuse to slow down again and return to that childlike wonder at all that is tiny and close. The camera enhances the pleasure. I love to walk, and can go for miles, but I used to walk very fast, uncomfortably so for many people. Now I walk slowly. Some call it dawdling. I call it lingering. Because of my camera, I have an excuse to linger over a flower peeking out from under frosty leaves. I can move slowly across a desolate beach in Vancouver with my camera, and stop at an abandoned lean-to made of driftwood. While friends scamper ahead on the trail, I am stuck at that mossy wall in Wales, the likes of which I have never before seen. And the slimy, fascinating snails! What are they doing, curled around one another, bathed in mucus that catches the light just so?Not in the dock, not at the defense table.
My first thought, upon entering the courtroom: Where’s the accused?
I would never have identified him in a police lineup.
I’m not playing disingenuous gender games here. Transgendered sexual identity is no longer a matter for tittering, if ever it was. It’s just that the defendant in court Friday looked not at all like the individual in the police handout photo, which was my reference point. Meaning, he — presenting as female — appears far older than 52 years of age, all wrinkly, with face collapsing inwards, nose curving down towards his protruding lower bite, and a thin grey bob of hair.
And then it dawned on me. Oh, that’s him. Or her. Sitting alongside his legal counsel. Or her legal counsel.
The offenses at issue are two counts of sexual assault.
As Crown attorney Jonathan Smith noted in his opening address to the jury earlier in the week, the alleged victims knew him as “Pat” or Patrick, and thus will refer to him by those names. “It is by no means an issue of disrespect for the defendant’s wishes to be referred to as Tara.”
To be clear: The accused self-identifies as female and prefers to be known as “Tara,” the name of his former wife, but is formally called Patrick Pearsall in court documents.
It gets confusing because — as per her preference — the appropriate pronouns for purpose of this account are a muddle.
At least at the time of the alleged assaults outwardly presenting as a man married to a woman.
Also presenting, as one alleged victim testified, as a paramedic to one accuser and as a doctor to another.
It can be firmly stated that he was never either.
But those were the professional roles he allegedly assumed to convince the women they should allow him to perform vaginal examinations on them.
Those were the alleged sexual assaults, to which Pearsall has pleaded not guilty.
One accuser, first to take the stand, was a 21-year-old homeless woman when she met Pearsall and his wife Tara Jean Tracey in the spring of 2008.
At the time, she’d been drifting among homeless shelters, coping with drug use and was pregnant by an abusive boyfriend, although she didn’t know her condition when she accepted an offer from the couple to move into their Toronto Community Housing apartment, paying modest rent for a room.
In fact, she scarcely knew the couple, having met Tracey on social media.
Within a few weeks of moving into the unit, the witness — a publication ban prevents identifying either of the alleged victims — began to experience vaginal bleeding.
At this point in her life, the young woman had never had a miscarriage (but had undergone seven abortions) and didn’t understand what was happening.
It was Tracey, she testified, who urged that she allow Pearsall, the “paramedic” to take a look down under.
The woman agreed and pulled down her pants, lowering herself onto a futon. The “examination” lasted 10 minutes, with Pearsall allegedly penetrating her digitally.
“I was young. I was naïve, and his so-called wife was encouraging it,” Witness A said under cross-examination yesterday. “He gave me two choices: go to the hospital or he could, quote, f__k the baby back inside me.”
That’s right.
Either get herself to emergency, where the ailing fetus would be extracted, or have sex with him because that would halt the miscarriage.
But Witness A wasn’t quite that naïve.
“I know you can’t f__k a baby back into a person.”
She drew up her trousers and got out of there lickety-split, never went to police.
Two years later, she told the court, she heard from Tracey that Pearsall had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old pregnant girl in Halifax after befriending that homeless teenager and her boyfriend.
In that case, Pearsall had claimed to be a doctor, warning the girl she might be having a miscarriage, a problem that could be fixed by having sex with him.
At trial, Smith said in his opening address, Pearsall admitted these facts and others before being convicted of sexual assault obtained by fraud.
On the stand yesterday, Witness A admitted she’d seen a story online about Pearsall being convicted as a sexual offender. But she denied seeking out any further reported details, such as Pearsall telling the Halifax teenager he could “fix her” by injecting fluid into her vagina.
The story now jumps forward to 2015 to another teen, age 17, who’d never met or heard of the Witness A.
This girl was in the care of the Children’s Aid society, living in a group home, her boyfriend in a foster home. She, too, was all screwed up — drugs, self-harming by cutting herself repeatedly on the legs and torso, suicidal thoughts.
That spring, Witness B discovered she was pregnant. Fearful of being removed from the group home and having her baby taken away, she fled.
This young woman has yet to testify. But the court was told in the Crown’s opening address that, upon running away, she encountered Pearsall and another woman at a Tim Horton’s in Scarborough. After bumming a cigarette, the teenager told the couple she was pregnant and had been kicked out of her group home, actually a small lie, and had no place to go.
They’d known each other for five minutes before, as court was told, the couple invited the teen to stay with them at a motel where they were residing.
Accompanying them to the hotel, Witness B realized there was only one bed.
She offered to sleep on the floor.
But the couple insisted that, because she was pregnant, she should sleep between them in the bed.
As Smith said in his opening address, the couple asked for no money, paid for the teenager’s food, took her shopping for clothes. Pearsall told her about the various jobs he’d held, including being a “doctor in the war and helping pregnant women.’’
Pearsall allegedly insisted that the teenager needed to see a doctor about her pregnancy, but the girl was afraid that, because of her age, medical authorities would report her to the CAS and the baby would be taken away after it was born.
If she didn’t go see a doctor, Pearsall allegedly insisted, he would kick her out of the motel. Or... he could conduct the vaginal exam for her.
Reluctantly, the teen agreed.
The exam was performed without gloves. In the three days that she afterwards remained at the motel room, Pearsall allegedly made sexual comments to her and touched her inappropriately. Feeling violated, she left, having no communication with the couple until two months later, when Pearsall allegedly offered to pay for a party she, the teenager, wanted to throw, offering to pay for whatever was needed if she would have sex with him.
She refused.
Like the other complainant, the teen never reported the incident to police until they showed up at her group home. That’s when she discovered they were investigating Pearsall and her story came out.
A man, now presenting as a woman, alleged to have sexually assaulted two young women.
The trial continues.Apple has sold the billionth iPhone, CEO Tim Cook announced at an employee meeting in Cupertino, California, on Wednesday.
"iPhone has become one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history. It's become more than a constant companion. iPhone is truly an essential part of our daily life and enables much of what we do throughout the day," Cook said in a statement.
Cook said that the billionth iPhone was sold last week.
"We never set out to make the most, but we've always set out to make the best products that make a difference. Thank you to everyone at Apple for helping change the world every day," Cook said.
Apple declined to comment on where the phone was sold.
— CNBC's Josh Lipton contributed to this report.The Kilton Library. Image: Tor Project
American libraries are signing up to help grow the Tor network as the team behind the anonymous web browsing protocol seeks to make the service both more secure and faster.
It's a move that's not out of character for libraries, which have always supported freedom of information and have often been at the forefront of civil liberties movements. But there's still a delightful bit of screwing with the system from within: Having taxpayer-funded institutions support a protocol that the Justice Department has said fosters a "zone of lawlessness" is pretty bold.
So far, just one American library is going to operate what's known as an "exit relay" or node, the parts of the network that help disguise where a connection is coming from, allowing a person to browse the internet or the dark web anonymously. There are roughly 6,000 Tor relays in operation, but only about 1,000 of them are exit nodes, which is where the traffic ultimately appears to be coming from to law enforcement who may be watching. The more exit nodes in operation, the more secure the network is (more on that in a moment).
After the Kilton Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, gets its node up and running, the Tor Project plans on expanding out to many others around the country with the help of the Library Freedom Project.
"Libraries are our most democratic public spaces, protecting our intellectual freedom, privacy, and unfettered access to information, and Tor Project creates software that allows all people to have these rights on the internet," the Tor Project wrote in a blog post. "Libraries serve a diverse audience; many of our community members are people who need Tor but don't know that it exists, and require instruction to understand and use it."
Indeed, this isn't the first time libraries have gotten involved in the Tor Project. Earlier this year, the Washington DC Public Library taught residents how to use Tor as part of a 10-day series designed to teach people about NSA mass surveillance.
It's particularly important that the Kilton Library, and presumably |
deer of a lifetime," McKinley said. "It's a deer of several lifetimes."
Follow Brian Broom on Twitter: @BrianBroom
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2gGP3WsMcConnell got hearty applause at the breakfast, in a high school cafeteria full of party stalwarts. But when I got out to Fancy Farm, the first people you saw lining the road outside the event were the Bevin acolytes with their homemade signs. I asked one, Stephen Howard, if he was disappointed in Rand Paul for supporting McConnell and whether this would undermine Bevin with Rand’s fans in the state. Howard shrugged the question away: “A lot of people see it for what it is,” he said. “He’s in the Senate now, and he’s running for president. He’s not saying anything bad against Mitch.” (I heard the same thing from another Bevin backer, a leader of the state’s strong industrial-hemp-activism network named Katie Moyer. “There’s a certain etiquette for running for Senate,” she said. “Deep down Rand is probably rooting for Matt.”)
Bevin’s supporters are taking heart in McConnell’s harsh attacks on their man (alleging misdeeds at the clock company owned by Bevin’s family). “For him to be putting out as many attack ads as he is shows he is scared, for him to be trashing him right off the bat,” said Howard. I asked Howard what it was, exactly, that he found McConnell insufficiently conservative on—hadn’t he been holding the line against Obama pretty much across the board? Howard rattled off McConnell’s support for the TARP bailouts, the Department of Homeland Security, and his reluctance so far to go along with a threat by a dozen of his colleagues to shut down the government if Obamacare is not defunded. As for all the intransigence against Obama, Howard saw that as mere “partisan politics,” not deeply held conservative principle. “He’s doing a lot of things to fool people into thinking that he’s conservative,” Howard said.
I heard an analogous critique at Fancy Farm from the other side of the aisle, from United Steelworker member Mark Belt, one of the 1,100 who is about to lose his job at the Paducah nuclear plant. McConnell hadn’t done as much as he could have for workers at the plant, he said, because he was so busy engaged in his gamesmanship with Reid and Obama. “He’s always opposed to everything, so we’re hung in the middle,” Belt said.
Again and again, one came up against it: a complete lack of good will or benefit of the doubt for the man who had been representing the state for almost three decades. When McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao, the arch-conservative secretary of labor under George W. Bush, was introduced, I was genuinely startled by the wave of booing from the Democratic side of the pavilion. Fancy Farm is known for its no-holds-barred atmosphere—so reminiscent of an earlier era in political pugilism that one half expects to see Tom Watson (not the golfer but the populist) stepping out of the shadows—but still, booing the wife? Though McConnell gave as good as he got, opening his speech with a shot at Grimes’ father, Lundergan—with Grimes sitting just a few feet behind him holding her husband’s hand -- before going in again at “San Francisco” and “Martha’s Vineyard” and “nanny state liberals.”
Then it came her turn, and the McConnell crowd (mostly college kids bused in for the occasion) raised up signs with her face on one side and Obama’s on the other, and she repeated the tough lines from the night before, except this time with the target sitting right behind her, a tight smile on his thin lips. “If doctors told Senator McConnell he had a kidney stone, he’d refuse to pass it” she said, a line that has been quoted as much as it was meant to be. Finished, Grimes swirled about and, to everyone’s surprise including McConnell’s, bent to shake the hand of he-who-would-not-pass-a-kidney-stone. McConnell was too startled to react, but Chao jumped up to punch Grimes, er, cordially return the handshake.
Sadly, I had to leave at this point to catch the last flight out of Nashville. I missed the speech of the afternoon, Bevin’s strikingly deft and assured broadside against McConnell, who had also skedaddled by this point, along with his bused-in supporters. “Where’s Mitch? The people of Kentucky have been wondering about that for quite a while now,” mused Bevin. Then: “There’s nothing in his 30 year history of voting that he’s proud enough to actually run on.” And: “I don’t intend to run to the left of Mitch McConnell. I don’t intend to run to the right of Mitch McConnell. I intend to run straight over the top.”
That’s going to be a steep climb, as my colleague Nate Cohn has noted. McConnell has oodles of campaign dough, and he has the persuasive argument, which he makes often, that he’s in a far better position to block the loathed Obama than a rookie back-bencher would be. Both Bevin supporters and Democrats noted that their toughest task would be getting voters over the hump of their reluctance to jettison a such a senior person representing their state.
But we do, at least, have a race on our hands—two of them. Mitch McConnell may well become Majority Leader in 18 months. But to get there, he's going to be spending a lot of time focusing on the fight in his own, surprisingly rutted backyard.
Alec MacGillis is a New Republic senior editor. Follow him @AlecMacGillis
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Jerry Lundergan was a former state senator. In fact, he was a former state representative and Democratic Party chairman.The NPR Tiny Desk Concert is where I have personally discovered many of my favorite artists. I never fully “like” an artist until I see them live. But to see them live in a tiny office? Priceless.
I was first hooked back in 2009 when I saw Avett Brothers perform on the program. I had just been introduced to the band at Forecastle Festival and found the NPR Tiny Desk Concert. My next obsession via NPR Tiny Desk Concert was K'Naan. I could go on... So many artists that have had Tiny Desk Concerts have been artists that I may have not have listened to otherwise.
NPR announced that they were doing a Tiny Desk Concert contest for local bands within the U.S. and local bands in Cincinnati jumped at the chance. Check out the submissions. Whoever wins, we know for sure that the music scene in Cincinnati is a winner already.
The Tillers
Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound
Young Heirlooms
Near Earth Objects
Elk Creek
Heavy Hinges
Did your band submit one and I missed it? Post your video in the comments below!Lib Dems and Tories deny being behind ‘illegal and unethical’ anonymous leaflet in north London marginal as local party makes police complaint
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have denied sending out an anonymous leaflet in a key north London constituency that urges voters to oust the Labour incumbent by voting tactically.
The local Labour party has made a police complaint about the mysterious flyer calling on residents to vote Lib Dem in Islington South and Finsbury, where the sitting MP is Labour’s Emily Thornberry.
Electoral law means that material which “can reasonably be regarded as intended to influence voters to vote for or against a political party” must bear the name and address of the publisher to ensure transparency.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The flyer distributed in Islington South and Finsbury. Photograph: The Guardian
The flyer, which appeared in letterboxes over the weekend, is edged in Tory blue and gives vote tallies for the 2005 and 2010 elections to illustrate how a vote for the Lib Dems by Conservatives could deny Labour the seat. It is 36th on the Lib Dems’ list of target seats.
Thornberry had a majority of 3,569 in 2010 – a significant increase from 484 in 2005. She said she had no idea who could be behind the leaflet and refused to speculate on a potential funder.
“We’re calling it what it is, it’s a US-style dirty tricks campaign,” she said. “It’s illegal, it’s unethical and we’re cooperating fully with the police.”
Thornberry, who was forced to resign her shadow cabinet position in November over a tweet featuring a St George’s flag, said she had seen the leaflet in a couple of wards over the past 24 hours, adding that the local party would keep an eye out for more.
A Conservative party spokesman said the leaflet had “nothing to do with us”. Helen Roberts, the Islington Conservatives election agent for local candidate Mark Lim, said she had reported it to Islington’s electoral services team.
The Islington Lib Dems’ spokesman, James Williamson, also denied any connection, calling the flyer “stupid” and “illegal”.
The Lib Dem candidate Terry Stacy tweeted that the leaflet was not his, but that he did not disagree with its content.
Terry Stacy MBE JP (@TerryStacyLD) @TomJSpencer @IslingtonLibDem Nothing to do with us Mr Spencer, but must agree, only way to beat Lab in Islington South is to vote Lib Dem
Gill Barr, a resident, received the leaflet at the weekend and said she thought it was from a political party. “I find it very weird,” she said, “and that’s got nothing to do with my own political preference. I do think it’s hard to have respect for anyone who won’t put their name to a leaflet like this, and according to the Electoral Commission, it’s illegal.”
Retired BBC journalist Martin Shankleman also received one of the leaflets and told the Guardian he found it difficult to believe it was not linked to a party. “Lib Dems are the prime suspect, as they would benefit from the tactical vote,” Shankleman said. “They have a reputation for fighting mean.”
An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: “The law [Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000] states that all printed material [ie posters, placards and leaflets] must include the name and address of the printer and promoter [the person who authorised the material to be printed]. This is so that electors can be clear about the source of the campaign material.
“It is an offence not to include an imprint on election material and any breach of the rules will be considered in line with the Electoral Commission’s enforcement policy.”
The Metropolitan police said in a statement: “We have today Tuesday, 5 May, been made aware by the media of an election leaflet being circulated in Islington that is said to have no imprint, and, as such, be in breach of the Representation of People Act, 1983. Detectives from the Special Enquiry Team are now investigating this allegation.”BY: Follow @DavidRutz
Hillary Clinton gets so frustrated with President Donald Trump at times that she yells at her television.
Clinton, whose new book What Happened comes out Tuesday and delves into her stunning election defeat at Trump's hands, told NPR that she was prepared to be president and that Trump has been "played" on the world stage.
Asked if she ever watched the news and wondered what she would do in a particular situation, Clinton laughed.
"No, I do it every single time! Look, I was prepared to be president," she said. "I had prepared and worked at it, and I go a little bit batty when I hear him say, ‘Gee, this is a really hard job. Who knew health care was so complicated?' I did. No, I always am responding and reacting. Sometimes I yell at the TV even."
Clinton, as she has already said, told NPR she would not be a political candidate anymore but would remain active in the Democratic Party.
"I'm done. I'm not running for office," Clinton said, adding anyone who wanted her to go away would be "disappointed."Most Americans Who Believe Abortion Is Immoral Don't Want It to Be Illegal: Gallup
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Most Americans who find the abortion procedure to be immoral also do not believe it should be illegal, according to Gallup.
In an analysis published Thursday, Gallup examined data compiled from surveys conducted 2013–2017 and found that while nearly half of Americans view abortion as immoral, only one in five want it to be illegal.
"That means that almost three in 10 Americans have the combination of attitudes that is our primary focus: viewing abortion as morally wrong but at the same time believing it should remain legal (at least in some circumstances)," noted Gallup.
"Americans are often more likely to view behaviors as morally wrong than they are to advocate that these behaviors be made illegal. This underscores a general tendency for Americans to hesitate before deciding that banning an action is appropriate."
Gallup also found that only 2 percent of respondents in the survey held the opposite opinion "that abortion is morally acceptable but should be illegal."
"Apparently, once Americans have decided that abortion is morally OK, there is little question in their minds that it should be legal," continued Gallup.
"About four in 10 Americans hold the consistent beliefs that abortion is morally acceptable and should be legal. Almost two in 10 Americans are consistent in the other direction -- saying that abortion is morally wrong and should be illegal."
In political circles, there have been many politicians, especially Catholic Democrats, who have said they personally oppose abortion but refuse to champion legislation to restrict it.
For example, former Democratic vice presidential hopeful Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia professed this position in an interview with CNN last year.
"I have a traditional Catholic personal position, but I am very strongly supportive that women should make these decisions and government shouldn't intrude," said Kaine in July 2016.
"I'm a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade and women being able to make these decisions. In government, we have enough things to worry about. We don't need to make people's reproductive decisions for them."
Others, including Catholic Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, took issue with such a reasoning and called on the faithful to not vote for such candidates.
"Support of abortion by a candidate for public office, some of whom are Catholics, even if they use the fallacious and deeply offensive 'personally opposed but...' line, is reason sufficient unto itself to disqualify any and every such candidate from receiving our vote," wrote Bishop Murphy last October.
"Which ones will recognize and respect the role of religion in the lives of citizens and the Church's right to mediate the truths of the Gospel and the Church's teaching as part of the public life of our country, in public ministries like health care, education and charitable works, without being forced to adopt and facilitate those cultural practices that are not consonant with Church teaching?"Last week, Megaupload’s Mega Song was on its way to becoming a viral hit, only to be removed from YouTube by a Universal Music takedown demand. Following the filing of a Megaupload lawsuit the song is now back online, but Universal are standing firm.
The label says that they have a private arrangement with YouTube that falls outside of the DMCA, and that essentially they can take down any content they like, whether they own the copyrights or not. Ben Jones takes a closer look at the mechanics.
When something is flagged by YouTube’s Content ID the copyright claimant has to decide what will happen to the video. The video can be monetized with ads, the video can be restricted from view in any or all countries, or nothing is done so the video can be used as a popularity measurement. In the Megaupload Mega Song case, UMG elected for a worldwide block.
In situations like these a marker is shown on the video manager of the uploader, alerting them to a copyright claim with details of who and what the claim is. It also gives the chance for the filing of a counter-claim with only three options. Once filed, the video is re-enabled and YouTube says they will contact the claimant to get an official DMCA notice.
This is as far as UMG says things have gone. However, investigating this myself, I uploaded a copy, set to ‘unlisted’ on Saturday. When the Content ID matched it and took it offline moments after it had been uploaded, a counter-notice was filed. That UMG would be consulted was displayed as the next step.
According to YouTube’s documents on the copyright process, for a claim to go any further requires a DMCA notice. Which is why late Monday morning, the following notice was sitting on the account.
The following email with similar information was also sent to us, including a link to a page where a DMCA counter-notice can be filed. It also required us to go through ‘Copyright School’ before we could do anything more with the account, including watching videos.
—
Dear BJonesTF:
We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from UMG claiming that this material is infringing:
P diddy feat kanye west,chris brown – Megaupload song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWeYXVezepE
Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube’s copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.
If one of your postings has been misidentified as infringing, you may submit a counter-notification. Information about this process is in our Help Center.
Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material was disabled due to mistake or misidentification may be liable for damages.
Sincerely,
The YouTube Team
—
Others also decided to experience things firsthand. They too got formal DMCA notices from YouTube.
So, for UMG to say ‘you can’t sue us, since we didn’t file any DMCA notices’ is questionable at best. The only way their claims make any sense is if Google (or at least their YouTube subsidiary) has been misleading people over the way their Content ID system works. While the system, which had its 4th birthday only 2 weeks ago, seems like a good idea, its implementation is horribly flawed, as we noted a few months ago.
Yet the Megaupload case now rests on their actions. If they did require a DMCA notice from UMG before taking a further step, then it will be on record and UMG is going to be in a lot of trouble over its pleading.
If, however, YouTube didn’t require a formal DMCA notice from UMG before issuing their formal take-down notice and warning, they’ve not only violated their own documented procedures, undermining their credibility, but they undo a lot of the goodwill surrounding their opposition to SOPA.
At present this is the position UMG has put Google in, and it will come down to Google’s admission of the existence of a notice.
It remains to be seen what Google’s response will be, but it’s certainly a case that’s being watched by many, especially with SOPA under debate, which will only increase the likelihood of such situations happening in the future.Speaking July, 14, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said his new British counterpart, Boris Johnson, lied during the Brexit campaign. (Reuters)
Speaking July, 14, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said his new British counterpart, Boris Johnson, lied during the Brexit campaign. (Reuters)
Britain’s new top diplomat, Boris Johnson, swept into office Thursday on a cloud of acrimony, amid worldwide disbelief that the irreverent campaigner for a British break from the European Union will now be his nation’s main voice abroad.
From composing a dirty limerick about the Turkish president and a goat to comparing the E.U. to Hitler and calling Hillary Clinton a “sadistic nurse,” the mop-haired Johnson spared few world leaders in his previous career as the devil-may-care mayor of London. This time, he was on the receiving end: France’s foreign minister declared that the “leave” campaigner had “lied a lot,” and Germany’s top diplomat called him “irresponsible.”
The unusually sharp rhetoric from Johnson’s new peers reflected the degree to which he has alienated Britain’s global partners and the challenges he faces as he takes part in his nation’s divorce from the E.U. From Washington to Paris and Berlin to Ankara, leaders uttered bitter cries of surprise at the appointment of a man who has reveled in dishing offense, not making friends. Critics said Britain appears to be taking further steps to disengage from the world.
[Boris Johnson has said some very undiplomatic things]
“I have no worries about Boris Johnson, but you know well what his style is,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told France’s Europe 1 radio on Thursday. “He lied a lot during the campaign.”
Ayrault was referring to a range of later-discredited claims by the anti-E.U. side before last month’s referendum on a British exit from the European Union, including the amount of money Britain pays to the E.U.
The criticism from the usually buttoned-down Ayrault is almost without precedent in the discreet world of European diplomacy, where top leaders typically attack one another’s policies, not their characters.
It foretells the reception that Johnson is likely to receive during the coming years of fraught negotiations with the 27 other E.U. foreign ministers, almost all of whom personally blame him for the chaos unleashed by the British decision to leave the bloc. The ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday in Johnson’s first test as foreign secretary.
“Sorry world,” read a cardboard sign that one British wag tied to the gate of Johnson’s London residence, captured on camera Wednesday night by Sky News.
The Sky News journalist noted to Johnson that he would have a long list of people to apologize to, including President Obama. In April, Johnson criticized Obama as a “part-Kenyan” who harbored anti-British attitudes because his father’s nation was once part of the British Empire.
Barely stifling a smirk, Johnson said that “the United States of America will be in the front of the queue.”
[New British prime minister vows “bold” future for U.K.]
Johnson will have to contend with France and Germany — the E.U.’s most powerful nations — and potential roadblocks to any advantageous deal for Britain as it navigates its split from the bloc. German and French politicians may have little tolerance for a man who during the referendum campaign in Britain compared E.U. efforts to unify Europe with Napoleon and Hitler.
“Boris Johnson doesn’t do good personal relationships with other politicians,” said Simon Tilford, deputy director of the London-based Center for European Reform.
Johnson’s German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also appears to hold a dim view of the newly minted British diplomat.
Hours before Johnson’s appointment was made public Wednesday, Steinmeier lashed out at him without using his name, criticizing “irresponsible politicians” who lured Britain toward a “Brexit” and then “didn’t take responsibility and instead played cricket.”
Johnson disappeared from public view in the days after the referendum and instead played cricket at a friend’s country estate.
In a short session with reporters outside the British Foreign Office on Thursday, Johnson shrugged off in his typically colorful fashion the European expressions of horror at his appointment.
“After a vote like [the referendum], it is inevitable that there is going to be a certain amount of plaster coming off the ceilings in the chancelleries of Europe,” he said. Asked about the French foreign minister’s assertion that Johnson had lied during the referendum campaign, he suggested that Ayrault had taken a very different tone in private communications.
Johnson said that he was determined to ensure that Britain remains “a great global player” and that he and U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, speaking by telephone Thursday, had agreed on the need to maintain Britain’s leading role in world affairs. The two will meet Monday in Brussels.
[Theresa May puts stamp on new government with mass firings]
Johnson has taken a softer line toward Russian actions in Ukraine than his predecessor, blaming the E.U. in part for the crisis there. And he has advocated working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to defeat the Islamic State militant group, an idea that is anathema to many in Washington and Europe.
Johnson’s fellow Conservatives generally stood firm behind the appointment, having resolved to end the internecine warfare that has nearly torn the party apart in recent months.
But the opposition Labour Party reacted with dismay. Angela Eagle, who is challenging party leader Jeremy Corbyn for his job, was making a campaign speech when a member of the audience shouted out the news. “They’ve just made him foreign secretary?” she asked, bewildered, before whirling her back toward the crowd in shock.
Johnson’s day-to-day involvement in Brexit negotiations has yet to be defined, with two other Euro-skeptic leaders taking prominent roles in Prime Minister Theresa May’s new government. David Davis, another “leave” campaigner, was given the new role of “secretary of state for exiting the E.U.” In Europe’s complex decision-making system, foreign ministers typically focus on E.U. relations with the rest of the world, not issues within the union’s borders. But Britain is now a special case.
Still, foreign ministers are often to be found heading faraway missions to places such as Papua New Guinea — which Johnson once suggested boasted orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing — or Washington. That may have been one of May’s strategies in appointing Johnson to the job, sidelining a critic who otherwise would have taken aim at her from his column in the Daily Telegraph.
One of the biggest disruptions of Johnson’s appointment may be to U.S.-British relations — an irony because he was born in New York, and public documents released in May showed that he was still a dual U.S.-British citizen. Because the United States taxes its citizens on earnings across the world, Johnson owed U.S. taxes on the 2009 sale of his London home, a bill he paid only last year, according to British news media.
“This is someone who at times has appeared to discount the relationship,” said Julianne Smith, a national security analyst at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, who has served in the Obama administration.
“He’s a very prickly personality and doesn’t appear to be someone who has spent much time thinking about foreign policy,” she said, joking that the general reaction in Washington to the appointment was “shock and awe.”
Turkey is another nation where Johnson will have to lobby for couples counseling. In May, he penned a naughty limerick suggesting that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had “sowed his wild oats with the help of a goat, but he didn’t even stop to thankera.”
“May God help him and reform him,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told the BBC on Wednesday, before Johnson’s appointment was announced. “And I hope that he won’t make any more mistakes and try to make it up with the Turks.”
Witte reported from London. Ylan Mui in Washington contributed to this report.
Read more:
Theresa May vows ‘bold, new’ future for Britain as E.U. exit awaits
The remarkable failure of David Cameron
This British party is embroiled in an ugly civil war. And it’s not the one that just lost its leader.
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the worldGrant Sides
A Birmingham man is jailed after he reportedly opened fire inside his Highland Park apartment, killing his own dog and a dog who was asleep on the bed in the adjacent apartment.
Grant Randall Sides, 25, was sought on felony warrants for a shooting complaint and two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, according to a Crime Stoppers bulletin. Birmingham police investigated the incident, and felony warrants were obtained against him on Friday.
Sides was undergoing booking at the Jefferson County Jail at 4 p.m. Monday. His bond is set at $30,000.
The shooting happened about 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 26, at an apartment complex on 22nd Street South. Brandon Watkins said he was at work when his landlord called him saying his neighbor - Sides - had fired shots and they believe some of those bullets had entered Watkins' home.
Watkins has one dog of his own, and was keeping his brother's two dogs while he and his family were out of town on vacation. He rushed home to find crime scene tape surrounding the complex. "When I got there, they let me know he had shot his dog and had shot rounds in my apartment,'' he said. "One of my brother's dogs was hit and killed."
Two of the pets in Watkins' apartment were in kennels. The third - 12-year-old Walter - was asleep on Watkins' bed. The shooting happened in Sides' kitchen, which shares a wall with Watkins' bedroom, and the bullet bore through his pillow. At least six shots bore through his wall.
"If it had been later in the night, he would have killed me," Watkins said. "Walter was on my pillow where I sleep."
Neighbors told Watkins that after Sides fired the shots, he ran out of the apartment yelling that he killed someone and fled the scene. He was arrested moments later when he crashed his vehicle on Highland Avenue, but apparently made bond pending the ongoing investigation. "It's been kind of crazy," Watkins said. "It's all been a blur."
Watkins said he had to call and break the news to his brother, who turned around and headed back to Birmingham. "My niece is really upset,'' he said. "She's 9 and Walter was 12 so that's all she's ever known."
He said there's still blood on his carpet from where Walter collapsed after getting shot. His own dog, Lennie, is still suffering from the ordeal. "He's traumatized,'' he said. "He won't go back there."
Walter's owner, Colby Watkins, said the whole thing is a sad and avoidable situation. "My friends and family are heartbroken over the loss of Walter, but it pales in comparison to the disgust and and anger about this guy killing his own dog in his own kitchen, and the blatant disregard for those around him by firing his gun indiscriminately into other people's homes,'' he said.
"The fact that he would have fired his gun and possibly killed a human being in another apartment and then got in his car and left is especially evil in my opinion,'' he said. "I hope he learns a lesson about such a disregard for his actions."
Updated at 4:04 p.m. to include that Sides is in custody and undergoing booking at the Jefferson County Jail.A clampdown on smoking in China and problems with a big acquisition have prompted a second profit warning in four months from Essentra, the maker of packaging and cigarette filters.
In a trading update, Essentra said profit would fall by up to 20% in 2016. The warning, which followed a downgrade in June, knocked a fifth off the company’s market value and sent its shares to their lowest level since early 2012.
Colin Day, the chief executive, whose departure was announced three weeks ago, told analysts: “I apologise that we had to do this. Clearly it doesn’t give anybody any great delight or satisfaction.”
Beijing bans smoking in public places Read more
Essentra said its filters business was affected by weaker demand in China, slower implementation of new contracts and the sudden decision by a US customer to move production to Thailand.
Day said it was hard to know what was going on in China and that he was wary about the outlook there. He said: “The underlying fact remains overall growth in China is slowing … You should talk to the tobacco companies. As the Chinese authorities seek to regulate smoking in public places, that puts pressure on growth.”
The company’s performance was also hit by problems at three factories acquired when it bought Clondalkin, a US-based packaging company, almost two years ago. The $455m (£367m) deal, completed in January 2015, was the biggest in a string of acquisitions since Day became chief executive.
Essentra expects adjusted operating profit for the year to the end of December to fall to £137m-£142m from £172m last year. In June it forecast profit of £155-£165m. Day said the business was sound but had had a difficult year and that there was no indication the dividend was under threat.
The company’s shares fell by 22% and were down 19% at 400p in early afternoon trading on Monday. Essentra shares have more than halved from 828p this year.
Day is stepping down on 31 December after almost six years in charge. He will be replaced by Paul Forman, who will join from Coats Group, the industrial thread manufacturer.
Essentra split from Bunzl, the distribution group, in 2005 and was called Filtrona until 2013. Last year it closed its filter factory in Jarrow, Tyneside, where the business started in the 1940s, and moved production to Hungary.Senate Republican leaders. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty
A new bid to cripple Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act apparently has legs. It took shape in late October, when conservative members of Congress started pushing the idea of using the big tax bill as a vehicle to eliminate the ACA’s “individual mandate,” which puts a tax penalty on people who don’t purchase healthcare. Early this month, President Donald Trump started stumping for the idea as well. Far-right groups in the House even tried to muscle a mandate repeal provision into their version of the bill this Tuesday, before a Thursday vote. The bill that passed the House on Thursday didn’t end up touch the individual mandate. But the Senate’s latest version, released on Tuesday, included language that would wipe it out starting in 2019.
Congressional Republicans have repeatedly tried to slash the ACA, and failed—thanks, more often than not, to opposition from moderate GOP senators. Fear of another such failure in the Senate was reportedly a big part of why the House held back on axing the mandate in its own bill. It seems odd, then, that the Senate decided to include anti-ACA language the House shied away from. So why did they decide to go for it?
The most obvious answer is that they need the money. Republicans have been struggling to make their tax cuts seem friendlier to poor and middle-class Americans without having to scrap big breaks for the wealthy and corporations. But they’re bumping up against a self-imposed limit of adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that killing the mandate would save $338 billion over ten years. So conservatives sold the provision as a means of freeing up resources to use to bolster tax cuts for the middle class.
However those savings are a direct result of the fact that millions would drop out of the ACA marketplace without the incentive of the mandate’s fine. (The CBO estimates 13 million more people would not have health insurance by 2027 as a result of the mandate being wiped out). These dropouts would mostly be the young and healthy, who often don’t feel the impulse to buy insurance on their own. But losing them would presumably boost the costs for older and sicker people remaining in the ACA market’s pool, resulting in an estimated average 10 percent premium hike for people with individual marketplace plans.
Killing the mandate also psyches up some on the right who could have opposed the bill for other reasons, Joe Antos, a health policy wonk at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told me. That’s the kid of chit-trading that usually moves big, divisive bills forward.
But “there are a whole bunch of other things you could change,” Antos pointed out, to make the tax legislation appealing to the right number of legislators. And many of them would have been less risky. As long as this provision is intact, it kills what was a very real hope that Republicans could attract red-state Democrat supporters. So why, of all the tweaks they could have made for cash or appeal, did they target the mandate?
“This whole issue is driven largely by the failure of the Senate this last year to do anything on repealing and replacing Obamacare,” said William Hoagland, a former Senate Budget Committee staff director and current analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “They’re looking at this not so much from the policy perspective as to being able to hold onto the majority in next year’s elections.”
Senators may not fear as much backlash or internal division about axing the mandate alone as it’s always been the least popular part of the ACA. Republicans also doubt, and have been working to discredit, the CBO’s numbers. So, Hoagland said, “the majority of them probably don’t see that it really will cause 13 million people to lose coverage.” They’ll likely try to sell America on that doubt, too.
Discrediting that 13 million figure could pose an issue for them, though, Hoagland pointed out, because “if they didn’t lose 13 million, they wouldn’t have $338 billion to spend on tax reform.” It remains to be seen whether the public will accept the GOP’s cognitive dissonance on this.
The choice to add the provision was, reportedly, not unanimous among Senate Republicans. But there’s been no real outcry against it, not even from folks who balked at coverage-dropping attacks on the ACA earlier this year. In fact, earlier this week Republican Senator John Thune claimed they’d done a whip count on the new version of the legislation and it was looking good.
This may stem from the fact that Senate Republican leaders reportedly struck a deal to final allowing compromise legislation that would stabilize the ACA’s individual markets temporarily to get a floor vote in exchange for putting the mandate provision in the tax bill. The reconciliation process that allows Republicans to pass this bill with a simple majority vote in the Senate also contained language mandating that it include provisions opening arctic preserves to oil drilling, something Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of the Republican no votes on previous ACA attacks this year, backs. Hoagland suggests this may blunt some of her expected outcry. And Senator John McCain, another previous ACA repeal no vote, may be pacified by the fact that the bill is moving through regular order, his big ask.
Knowing the likely wouldn't face as much friction on this provision as on past ACA-related votes, Senate Republican leadership faced no major restrictions to at least testing this language out before they had to lock in the legislation's text.
Liberals are gearing up to bash the GOP for trying to nix the mandate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said Democrats won’t vote for the Alexander-Murray compromise legislation if it’s put on the table in exchange for cutting the mandate. But Republicans don’t |
LEDES 1998B and HL7. It is frequently used because vertical bars are typically uncommon in the data itself.
Similarly, the vertical bar may see use as a delimiter for regular expression operations (e.g. in sed). This is useful when the regular expression contains instances of the more common forward slash ( / ) delimiter; using a vertical bar eliminates the need to escape all instances of the forward slash. However, this makes the bar unusable as the regular expression "alternative" operator.
Backus–Naur form [ edit ]
In Backus–Naur form, an expression consists of sequences of symbols and/or sequences separated by '|', indicating a choice, the whole being a possible substitution for the symbol on the left.
< personal-name > ::= < name > | < initial >
Concurrency operator [ edit ]
In calculi of communicating processes (like pi-calculus), the vertical bar is used to indicate that processes execute in parallel.
APL [ edit ]
The pipe in APL is the modulo or residue function between two operands and the absolute value function next to one operand.
List comprehensions [ edit ]
The vertical bar is used for list comprehensions in some functional languages, e.g. Haskell and Erlang. Compare set-builder notation.
Phonetics and orthography [ edit ]
In the Khoisan languages and the International Phonetic Alphabet, the vertical bar is used to write the dental click (ǀ). A double vertical bar is used to write the alveolar lateral click (ǁ). Since these are technically letters, they have their own Unicode code points in the Latin Extended-B range: U+01C0 for the single bar and U+01C1 for the double bar.
Some Northwest and Northeast Caucasian languages written in the Cyrillic script have a vertical bar called palochka (Russian: палочка, "little stick"), indicating the preceding consonant is an ejective.
Longer single and double vertical bars are used to mark prosodic boundaries in the IPA.
Literature [ edit ]
Punctuation [ edit ]
In medieval European manuscripts, a single vertical bar was a common variant of the virgula ⟨/⟩ used as a period, scratch comma,[4] and caesura mark.[5]
In Sanskrit and other Indian languages, text blocks used to be written in stanzas. Two bars || represent the equivalent of a pilcrow.
Poetry [ edit ]
A double vertical bar ⟨||⟩ or ⟨‖⟩ is the standard caesura mark in English literary criticism and analysis. It marks the strong break or caesura common to many forms of poetry, particularly Old English verse.
Notation [ edit ]
In the Geneva Bible and early printings of the King James Version, a double vertical bar is used to mark margin notes that contain an alternative translation from the original text. These margin notes always begin with the conjunction "Or". In later printings of the King James Version, the double vertical bar is irregularly used to mark any comment in the margins.
Encoding [ edit ]
The vertical bar is encoded in Unicode at U+007C | VERTICAL LINE (124 decimal · HTML | ).
Solid vertical bar vs broken bar [ edit ]
The broken bar (¦) in computing was historically an allograph of the vertical bar, and was perceived as such before the broad implementation of extended ASCII character sets (namely, ISO/IEC 8859 series), which made a distinction between the two forms. Since the 1990s, it has been a separate character (in Unicode) and not a part of ASCII; it is termed the "parted rule" in Unicode documentation. However, in some fonts, the glyph used for the vertical bar is identical to the glyph used for a broken bar.[6]
The broken bar is encoded in Unicode at U+00A6 ¦ BROKEN BAR (166 decimal · HTML ¦ · ¦ ).
Due to historical confusion between the two, computer keyboards and displays may not clearly or consistently differentiate them:
The typical keyboard layout used in the United Kingdom features separate keys for vertical bar and broken bar; however, in many fonts the vertical bar key produces a broken-bar symbol. [7] [8] Windows keyboard drivers have the vertical bar on ⇧ Shift + \, while the broken bar is on the grave accent (`) key, and is typed with AltGr + `.
Windows keyboard drivers have the vertical bar on +, while the broken bar is on the grave accent (`) key, and is typed with +. The ANSI QWERTY keyboard has only one key, which used to be labeled with a broken bar but now more commonly carries a vertical bar – since it always produces a vertical bar character.
On many German QWERTZ keyboards, the “> < |” key in the lower left is labelled “> < ¦” but always produces a vertical bar character.
On French AZERTY keyboards, the vertical bar can be produced by pressing ⇧ Shift + alt + L on Mac computers or AltGr + 6 on Windows computers.
The broken bar has hardly any practical application and does not appear to have any clearly identified uses distinct from the vertical bar.[9] In non-computing use — for example in mathematics, physics and general typography — the broken bar is not an acceptable substitute for the vertical bar. Aforementioned usages in computing rely on the abstract character with code point 124 (0x7C) in ASCII (or ASCII-compatible code pages) and do not depend on visual rendering, which actually may be a broken bar in some environments.
Some variants of the EBCDIC family of code pages such as EBCDIC 500 distinguished the broken bar from the solid vertical bar.[citation needed]
In common character maps [ edit ]
Additional related Unicode characters:
Double vertical line ( ‖ ): U+2016 used in pairs to indicate norm
Fullwidth vertical line (｜): U+FF5C
Parallel to ( ∥ ): U+2225
Latin letter dental click (⟨ǀ⟩): U+01C0
Latin letter lateral click (⟨ǁ⟩): U+01C1
Symbol 'divides' (⟨∣⟩): U+2223
Various Box-drawing characters at U+2500 to U+257F
In text processing [ edit ]
In LaTeX, the vertical bar can be used as delimiter in mathematical mode. The sequence \| creates a double vertical line ( a | b \| c is set as a | b ‖ c {\displaystyle a|b\|c} ). This has different spacing from \mid and \parallel, which are relational operators: a \mid b \parallel c is set as a ∣ b ∥ c {\displaystyle a\mid b\parallel c}. In LaTeX text mode, the vertical bar produces an em dash (—). The \textbar command can be used to produce a vertical bar.
The vertical bar is also used as special character in other lightweight markup languages, notably MediaWiki's Wikitext.
See also [ edit ]Team Sky's 2011 budget was £16.7m - of which £11m was on wages
Sir Dave Brailsford could set up a female Team Sky to help support "greater parity" between men's and women's cycling.
The British professional cycling team's boss said the idea was something he had been "talking about a lot".
Brailsford's comments came after Dutch world and Olympic champion Marianne Vos won the first ever one-day La Course by Le Tour de France in Paris on Sunday.
"We've got some brilliant female cyclists," Brailsford told BBC Sport.
"We all are very aware that there needs to be a greater parity, not just in road cycling but across all disciplines, both at Olympic and professional level."
Marianne Vos (far right) won La Course from fellow Dutch rider Kirsten Wild (centre)
The women's 91km, 13-lap race finished on the Champs-Elysees in Paris ahead of Sunday's climax of the men's Tour de France.
Britain's Emma Pooley is one of a number of leading female riders to lobby for the return of a stage race in France for women's road cycling.
She told the BBC: "This was the best opportunity for people all around the world to be able to see it.
Emma Pooley says La Course showcased the talent of female road cycling
"Track cyclists are brilliant at showing the world how strong women are and road cycling deserves that stage as well.
"There's definitely the potential for more, it has to grow slowly, because there's such a difference in the sports at the moment.
"There's nothing that stops women, physically. At the moment it is only a semi-professional sport so at the top level the riders are paid and they ride for time, but a lot of cyclists have to work as well to pay their way so they can't train for 250km stages."On March 11, 2011, the American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan received orders to change course and head for the east coast of Japan, which had just been devastated by a tsunami. The Ronald Reagan had been on its way to South Korea when the order reached it and Captain Thom Burke, who was in charge of the ship along with its crew of 4,500 men and women, duly redirected his vessel. The Americans reached the Japanese coastline on March 12, just north of Sendai and remained in the region for several weeks. The mission was named Tomodachi.
The word tomodachi means "friends." In hindsight, the choice seems like a delicate one.
Three-and-a-half years later, Master Chief Petty Officer Leticia Morales is sitting in a café in a rundown department store north of Seattle and trying to remember the name of the doctor who removed her thyroid gland 10 months ago. Her partner Tiffany is sitting next to her fishing pills out of a large box and pushing them over to Morales.
"It was something like Erikson," Morales says. "Or maybe his first name was Eric, or Rick. Oh, I don't know. Too many doctors." In the last year-and-a-half, she has seen oncologists, radiologists, cardiologists, blood specialists, kidney specialists, gastrointestinal specialists, lymph node experts and metabolic specialists. "I'm now spending half the month in doctors' offices," she says. "This year, I've had more than 20 MRTs. I've simply lost track."
She swallows one of the pills, takes a sip of water and smiles wryly.
It was the endocrinologist who asked her if she had been on the Ronald Reagan. During Tomodachi? Yes, Morales told her. Why?
The doctor answered that he had removed six thyroid glands in recent months from sailors who had been on that ship, Morales relates. Only then did Morales make the connection between the worst accident in the history of civilian atomic power and her own fate.
The Fukushima catastrophe changed the world. Nuclear reactors melted down on live television and twice as much radioactive material was released as during the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The disaster drove 150,000 people from their towns and villages, poisoned entire landscapes for centuries and killed hundreds of thousands of farm animals. It also led countries around the world to rethink their usage of nuclear energy. Fukushima is more than just a place-name, it is an historical event -- and it would seem to have changed the life of Leticia Morales as well.
It has been a painful experience, and not just because of the poor state of her health. It has also put her into conflict with her deepest convictions. The military she serves has told her that her mission on the coast of Japan was not dangerous to her health, but she is sick all the same. Morales joined the Navy when she was 19-years-old to give her life structure and a purpose, as she says. She spent a significant chunk of her youth in homes and at foster families because her mother was not able to care for her and her siblings. She only got to know her father as a grown woman. After joining, she went to basic training in the Nevada desert and then headed out onto the water.
Nice to Be Needed
Since 2008, she has been responsible for the flight deck on board the Ronald Reagan and about 100 sailors. The ship is a floating city, one with room for 100 planes below its decks. Its home port is San Diego, California, but Morales is stationed not far from Seattle in the state of Washington. She has spent a significant portion of her life on the world's oceans and has sailed past the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, China and Malaysia.
Usually, the crew only learns where they are headed once the ship has already cast off and headed out to sea. But the destination doesn't often change the routine on board, one focused primarily on training exercises and ship maintenance. Indeed, the missions are primarily intended to show the world that they are there, drawing US borders through the high seas. As such, says Morales, it is particularly nice to actually be needed from time to time.
The Ronald Reagan left San Diego on Feb. 2, 2011, heading for Busan, South Korea for a scheduled stop. It was still early in the vessel's semi-annual trip around the globe when Captain Thom Burke broke the news over the ship's PA system that a tsunami had struck Japan. He said the ship was heading for the Japanese coast to provide humanitarian assistance.
Morales hadn't felt anything, of course, with the open seas gliding smoothly under the ship. Furthermore, she had participated in a similar humanitarian mission after a deadly typhoon had struck the Philippines in 2008, so the diversion to Japan was nothing new for her. "It's what we do. We help," she says.
At first, she knew nothing about the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power facility, but says that, during the journey up the coast, she experienced a metallic taste in her mouth. Others noticed it too and Morales says the sailors even exchanged concerned glances. People exposed to radiation often complain of such a metallic taste and Morales now believes that this was the moment when they sailed through the cloud of nuclear radiation that Fukushima sent out over the Pacific.
Nothing to Regret
On the morning of March 13, the USS Ronald Reagan reached the Japanese coast and saw the unimaginable devastation for the first time, with houses, cars and debris floating in the water. There were also dead bodies.
Morales gets tears in her eyes when she remembers the suffering she saw. But it also serves to remind her that the mission was worth it, that she and her fellow soldiers did what they could to help and that she has nothing to regret.
Not long after their arrival, they learned of the explosions at Fukushima, but Captain Burke assured them that they weren't in danger. People back home, though, were more concerned and Morales began receiving worried emails from her father. He had spent years working at a nuclear power facility and had conducted radiation experiments with dogs -- beagles, she says. Her father warned her not to go up on deck, to drink only bottled water and to take potassium iodide tablets.
Still, when volunteers were being sought to help load goods onto an aid helicopter bound for the mainland, Morales joined in, as did the others in her unit. That's what they do. They help.
They did their best not to worry about the invisible danger, but there were occasions when it couldn't be avoided. After they had been stationed off the coast for a few days, for instance, they were suddenly told over the PA system to stop drinking tap water and stop showering. Morales also learned that her partner, who was stationed in southern Japan at the time of the tsunami, had been evacuated with her unit to Guam, an island in the middle of the Pacific located a very long way from the destroyed reactor. But the Ronald Reagan remained and the captain gave the all-clear the next day, saying that tests had come back negative. Morales continued working with her unit on deck and they forgot their concerns. "I don't think that Captain Burke would knowingly put us in danger," she says. "The Navy would never do such a thing. They didn't know any better either."
In the Defense Department report submitted later to Congress, it says that the ship had never been closer than 100 nautical miles to the coast. But that's nonsense, Morales says. She trusts her recollections and says that they had actually operated quite close to the coastline. Only in April did they leave Japan's east coast for Sasebo in the far southwest of the country before heading to Thailand and then to Bahrain. On July 10, 2011, they arrived home once again; it was Morales' 32nd birthday. Two weeks later, she was promoted and her salary jumped by $400 per month.
It was summer in Washington when she arrived home and she would have largely forgotten about the mission in Japan if it hadn't been for the pesky forms she had to fill out: How long were you outside? Where were you exactly?
She wrote: I was always on the flight deck. The whole time.
'Uncertain Radiological Threat'
The last message she got from her ship's captain came via Facebook. He thanked his crew for the great mission, particularly for the Japan segment. "We have the pride that comes with superbly conducting one of the most complex humanitarian relief operations in history. Not only did we work through debris fields, cold and icing conditions, but we did not waver amidst an uncertain radiological threat. (...) We overcame our fear and we did our job superbly. Tomodachi was the highlight," he wrote. The message was posted on Sept. 8, 2011.
In May 2013, Leticia Morales suddenly began suffering dizzy spells. Her arm swelled up, her right hand looked like a baseball mitt and she had tunnel vision, she says. Doctors made computer scans of her brain and took numerous blood tests. Her general practitioner told her that there was something serious going on, but they weren't sure what it was.
The kidney pains began around Thanksgiving, 2013. Again, the doctors didn't know what was causing it, but they found a tumor in her liver. In January 2014, a doctor told her that the problem was focused on her spine and in February, they found a malignant growth in her thyroid gland.
Morales began doing some research and found that many of the symptoms she had been suffering matched up with those experienced by people exposed to radiation. "Some of the doctors I visited confirmed as much," she says. "But they couldn't confirm that I had become exposed while on board the Reagan. They couldn't, or didn't want to. What do I know?"
In the summer of 2014, she began experiencing cardiac arrhythmia and that autumn, they found metastases in her breast.
In the meantime, the Defense Department had presented Congress with the results of a study focusing on the Navy's part of Operation Tomodachi. The study concluded that even those sailors who had spent the whole time on USS Ronald Reagan's flight deck had not been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. The report also found that their exposure to contaminated water during the mission did not exceed the total radiation experienced by passengers on cross-country airline flights. Furthermore, the report found, cancer caused by radioactivity develops much slower than that experienced by the ill sailors.
A Pentagon representative thanked Congress for its interest in the health of military personnel and said they had checked everything but found nothing suspicious.
Letitia Morales, meanwhile, was left with an endocrinologist whose name she couldn't remember, her thick medical files and the stories of a couple of other comrades on the flight deck who had also fallen ill.
A Serious Case of Hepatitis
But she also learned of a class-action lawsuit being prepared by two attorneys in California. They hoped to sue Tepco, the company that operated the nuclear facility at Fukushima, in the name of the 70,000 US soldiers and sailors who had spent time near the site of the accident. Morales contacted the lawyers, but it was important to her that the lawsuit was not aimed at the Navy. She is a soldier, after all, and wanted to remain loyal. She may have lost her health, but she hadn't lost her purpose in life.
The attorneys explained to her that it wasn't even possible to sue the military in America due to the Feres Doctrine, a Supreme Court ruling from the 1950s. It stipulates that soldiers cannot hold the state responsible for injuries or death resulting from military service. Reassured, Morales added her name to the class-action suit.
Those from her unit who had also become ill joined as well. Some of them live not far away from her in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, a region where Leticia and Tiffany feel comfortable as a lesbian couple. Last year, they bought themselves a brand new house in a neighborhood where the streets are named after US presidents and trees. Washington is a healthy, liberal state, a place where residents can legally buy marijuana just as they can Bud Light.
Brett Bingham, one of Morales' petty officers, lives in a brand new house of his own nearby. He has the neck of a football player, a smile like Channing Tatum, young children, several dogs and a three-car garage. The fourth is parked on the street. He donates blood twice a year.
Last year, though, shortly after making a regular donation, he received a letter from the blood bank telling him to call them immediately. They told him that he had a serious case of hepatitis and asked him if he takes drugs or otherwise might have used a contaminated needle. Bingham said no and consulted a doctor, who told him that he might be suffering from so-called "radiation hepatitis," a radiation-induced affliction of the liver that comes and goes. They performed a second examination and then a third before declaring him healthy. Still, he was no longer allowed to donate blood.
Ron Wright, a 24-year-old who joined the Navy in 2010, lives a few streets away. The voyage to Japan was his first mission abroad on an aircraft carrier and, the way things currently look, likely his last. He remembers standing with Morales' crew on the flight deck, the cold and the snow. But he also remembers the protective clothing they received after a few days: pants, jackets and booties to cover up their normal boots.
When they went down below decks following their shift, they would be scanned and they had to turn in the things that were deemed to be contaminated which were then burned and, Wright believes, dumped into the sea. Once, he even had to turn in his pants and, he still recalls, walk through the ship in his underwear. Everyone laughed, as did he. It seemed like a joke at the time. "They always told us that we were safe," Wright says.
Constant Companions
One month later, his testicles swelled up to the size of tennis balls, as he describes it, and the pain was unbearable. They were still in the Sea of Japan and a doctor on board recommended that the young sailor be flown out, partially because he didn't know what Wright was actually suffering from. Instead, he was given pain killers. And the treatment still hasn't changed: Neurontin and Percocet are his constant companions.
"When I asked if it might have something to do with the radiation from Fukushima, a doctor told me pretty gruffly no," Wright says. "He showed me some inquiry report from the Defense Department, but the pain didn't stop. I have been operated on seven times, always in military hospitals. Nothing has helped. There has been no diagnosis, just the pills."
Wright was unable to return to active service before the four years he had committed to expired. Now, he simply sits at home waiting for his next doctor's appointment. Mostly, he spends his time sitting in the kitchen, where he can look out the window at the forest, his dog at his feet. During a recent visit, his girlfriend was sitting on the sofa in the living room staring at her smartphone.
"What are you guys talking about?" she calls over at some point.
"About my balls," Wright says.
"Ah, okay," she says, without looking up from her phone.
The only sailor from Morales' unit who received a clear diagnosis is Theodore Holcomb. He had cancer of the parathyroid gland and it killed him in April of 2014. He is the first casualty of the aid mission Tomodachi.
Morales only learned from Holcomb's ex-wife how sick her fellow soldier was after he was too sick to talk on the phone. Holcomb never did talk much, particularly not about his problems, Morales says, but he was one of her most reliable seamen. He lived a long way away in North Carolina with his wife and then, later, with a friend in Reno, Nevada where he died.
"I think he was pretty messed up at the end," Morales says, "and I don't just mean his health."
They all only know each other from the ship. They live together for half a year and then they go their separate ways, to the furthest flung corners of the US. Most of them had to deal with their health problems all by themselves.
Left Without a Job
Theodore Holcomb died in the arms of his best friend Manuel Leslie. The two knew each other since the sixth grade and joined the Navy together. When Leslie got married, Holcomb was his best man and when Holcomb got married, Leslie returned the favor. Neither one of the marriages was destined to last. The Navy kills relationships, Leslie said, the women have to be alone so long.
In January 2013, Theodore Holcomb turned up at Leslie's house on the outskirts of Reno with a suitcase. The Navy hadn't extended his enlistment -- Holcomb had served for 14 years, but a pension only kicks in after 15. He was thus left without a job and his wife and daughter lived thousands of miles away. He had no idea what to do next. Leslie, who had left the Navy in 2006, could only imagine what his friend was going through.
Holcomb moved into the guest bedroom and the two unemployed veterans lived like school boys in a never ending summer vacation. Or like retirees. They spent a lot of their time outside, often going hunting together. Slowly, Holcomb left his life on the water behind and became used to his new reality. It took at least a year before his friend began to accept that it wasn't his fault he had been discharged, Leslie says.
And then, Holcomb got sick.
Shortly before Christmas of 2013, he suddenly had trouble breathing and the doctors told him in January that he had thymus cancer. The thymus is a gland located behind the breast bone and thymoma, as cancer of the gland is called, is extremely rare. One of the risk groups for this sort of cancer, however, includes those who have been exposed to radiation. Holcomb was 35 when he was diagnosed with cancer and chemotherapy began immediately. He lost over 10 kilograms (22 pounds) in a single month, Leslie says. Normally, thymus tumors grow slowly, but in Holcomb's body, the cancer spread extremely quickly.
Manuel Leslie drove back and forth to the hospital and organized a spot in a palliative care center once the end was near -- a nice place with a rose garden where the two ex-soldiers in their 30s could sit waiting for death. Just before he passed away, Holcomb forgave his wife, but he still didn't want her or his daughter to visit, preferring that they remember him as a strong man rather than, as Leslie says, the scarecrow he had become. Still, he wanted the opportunity to wish his daughter a happy fifth birthday. Leslie held the phone for him.
The girl said: But my birthday isn't for another five days, daddy.
I know, Holcomb replied.
He died that night. Manuel Leslie was sitting next to his bed.
Day in Court
He was cremated and his ashes were divvied up. His ex-wife in North Carolina received a third of them, as did his parents in California. His friend in Reno got the remaining third and he keeps the urn, a box made of cherry wood, on the mantel of his fireplace.
Leslie is sitting in the cafeteria of a department store in the desert 10 miles outside Reno. He is a short, stocky man who visited 26 countries while in the Navy, but now he is taking care of his parents, who are also suffering from cancer. The department store is dedicated to hunting and behind him are gun safes and mounted animals: antelopes, wolves and grizzly bears, but also elephants, lions and rhinos. Men and their children are standing in front of glass display cases and ogling machine guns worth $15,000.
Manuel Leslie hates the Navy, but he also loves it. It destroys lives, but it also saves them. It is both the meaning and the curse of his existence. His best friend became terminally ill because of his participation in a mission to help Japan. His grandfather was stationed on Hawaii with the Navy at age 16 when the Japanese attacked. He himself spent the best year of his life in Tokyo.
Leslie is now the executor of his friend's will, though there are really only two things that he has to do. One is keeping in touch with Holcomb's daughter. The other is ensuring that his friend gets his day in court. Leslie is representing his friend in the class-action lawsuit against Tepco, Toshiba, Hitachi, Ebasco and General Electric, all of which had a hand in operating or constructing the reactors at Fukushima.
The suit is being led by Paul Garner, an attorney who has already spent much of his life going after the companies for the damage they have done to the environment, for their violations of human rights or for making people sick. He is in his late 60s, is overweight and wears a sweaty red shirt. From the few hairs on his head, he has managed to create a thin braid. And he arrives to our meeting over one hour late.
He says that his old Mercedes wouldn't start, so he had his brother Bob -- a small, jumpy man in a Hawaiian shirt -- give him a lift. When the brothers walk into the deserted restaurant on the outskirts of Palm Springs, they don't look like two men preparing to file a billion-dollar liability suit.
But they were the first.
Screwing People Who Screw People
Bob Garner, who was part of Robert Kennedy's campaign team in the 1960s and who has been working on a great American book of poetry since then, met the father of Lindsey Cooper two years ago at a gas station in the desert. Cooper had been on board the USS Ronald Reagan during its voyage to Japan and the father told Garner that his daughter had come down with a thyroid complaint and that he knew of other sailors who had likewise become sick. Bob told his brother Paul about the meeting who then told his partner Charles Bonner, who runs a small legal practice in Sausalito.
The two know each other from the civil rights scene: Garner is a Jew from New York and Bonner is a black man from Alabama. In their free time, the two old men sit on Bonner's dock on a lake in the Californian mountains drinking wine and singing Pete Seeger songs. In their professional lives, the have sued companies like Chevron, Exxon and Shell. They were unimpressed by the report compiled on the Ronald Reagan by the Defense Department. Their motto is: We screw people who screw people.
Paul Garner sets a thick, greasy file folder on the table. After looking into the case, they contacted over 500 sailors who had become ill after the mission in Japan. Two-hundred-fifty of them answered and their stories form the backbone of the case they hope to argue before the court. Garner orders a soup and a sandwich and quotes from the dramatic stories told in his binder: The woman sailor who gave birth to a sick baby; the seaman who was told by the doctors that he had a genetic defect although his twin brother, a civilian, is completely healthy; the seaman who went completely blind after returning from Japan. There is another story of a seaman who was stationed in Japan with his family and became ill with leukemia. There is the Navy airplane mechanic who is suffering from an unexplained loss of muscle mass.
Garner runs down the list of illnesses and symptoms, a variety of different forms of cancer, internal bleeding, abscesses, tumors, removed thyroid glands, gall bladders extractions and birth defects. His brother Bob interrupts: "All that suffering, the pain. Those pigs." As Bob Garner holds forth on the fates of the sick sailors, he quotes Martin Luther King and Marx; he talks about how Hillary Clinton was ensnared in the military-industrial complex during her term as secretary of state. He compares Vietnam with Afghanistan.
"The ship is named Reagan. Reagan himself was a spokesperson for General Electric in the 1950s. You just have to add one to one," Bob Garner says. Will you finally shut up, his brother Paul interjects.
Moral Support
Paul Garner too wants to unmask capitalism. He too wants justice and compensation for the sailors who were aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. He wants to show just how strong the global atomic energy lobby is. He wants the trial to become a stage on which Bonner and Garner can show just how recklessly we are treating our planet.
It will be difficult to prove that their clients received unhealthy doses of radiation during the mission and became ill as a result. It may even be impossible. Lots of money will be at stake, but first of all, they have to convince a district court in San Diego that they can proceed with the lawsuit in the first place. Their first attempt was denied.
Paul Garner had asked the sick sailors to come to San Diego for an August hearing as moral support. Most, though, didn't dare show up, not even those who live in the city. Lindsey Cooper, for example. The woman who started the whole thing was torn apart on a CNN program by atomic energy experts and was later mocked on conservative radio shows. She doesn't want to relive the experience.
Kristian William, a helicopter pilot from Texas who flew aid goods from the Ronald Reagan to the Japanese mainland, suffers from cancer of the parathyroid gland, a rare form of cancer that is usually triggered by a high dosage of radiation. But he still doesn't want to go public with his suffering, he says on the telephone, because he is more afraid of being misrepresented in the media than he is of the cancer itself. Even Leticia Morales, the chief of the Ronald Reagan flight deck who encouraged her fellow soldiers to join the class-action suit, stayed away from the San Diego court. She didn't want to be photographed, she said. She is, after all, a soldier.
Coverage of the USS Ronald Reagan has been astoundingly limited. Here and there, the fate of an individual seaman makes it into the local news, but then it's gone again without anyone connecting the various cases. The Navy says it doesn't want to comment on an ongoing case. The Defense Department refers to the report compiled for Congress.
The sailors themselves don't want to be both ill and humiliated. They don't want to stand up to the Navy, their Navy, their country. The United States is a country that values its military, but it is also a country of lawyers. The soldiers have become trapped between these two fronts.
Nobody's Left Behind
Paul Garner told them that it took 20 years before the military recognized that Agent Orange, which was used liberally in Vietnam, was harmful to health and even life threatening. Twenty years is a long time.
In the end, only a single sailor from the USS Ronald Reagan appeared before the court in San Diego: Steve Simmons. A lieutenant in the Navy, Simmons is now confined to a wheelchair. A sticker on his wheelchair reads: Nobody's left behind.
At the beginning of June, 2014, Simmons was honorably discharged from the Navy for medical reasons at the Navy Memorial in Washington, DC. He wore his white dress uniform for the occasion and thanked the Navy for 17 great years, adding that he would have liked to remain in service for 30. Few people attended the event -- just one other wheelchair-bound serviceman who Simmons had met in the hospital and Nancy, his wife, who he had met over a dating-website belonging to his church. After his discharge, he moved with her and her four children to Utah, not far from Salt Lake City. The climate there is better for him than damp Washington DC, where he used to live. They built a ramp into their new house to make it wheelchair accessible.
Simmons got up at 4 a.m. so as to be on time for the court hearing that day, flying from Salt Lake City to San Diego via Los Angeles before driving to the courthouse in a rental car. After the hearing, he was to fly back home -- a round trip that cost him and his wife $700. But it is important for him. He finally wants some certainty.
Simmons' complaints began one year after he returned from Japan. His muscles began to fail and his hair started falling out by the handful. He got migraines, experienced bloody discharges, became incontinent and his fingers turned yellow, even brown on some days. His feet are now dark red in color and he experiences whole-body spasms; his liver test results are comparable to those of an alcoholic. Four years ago, he competed in triathlons and hiked in the mountains. Now, he can no longer walk -- and nobody can tell him why.
On his darkest days, Simmons finds himself leaning toward conspiracy theories -- toward the notion that a diagnosis has not been provided because it would require an admission that his suffering is caused by exposure to radioactivity. That, though, would mean that the Defense Department reports were intentionally inaccurate. He says there was one doctor who told him it was better that he didn't know what was making him ill. Early on, he was in a military hospital in Washington DC together with three other men who had similar symptoms, he says. They had served on nuclear-powered submarines, but they disappeared from one day to the next, and when he asked what happened to them, everyone acted as though they had never been there in the first place.
Ship of Ghosts
Simmons doesn't believe that the Navy is behind it, nor does he doubt the stated motives of their mission to Japan. He has participated in two tsunami-related aid missions and says he would join a third as well, were he able to. He says he frequently met Captain Burke at senior officer meetings during the critical period of their mission off the coast of Japan and says that he seemed concerned, but not heedless.
What bothers him, he says, is how quiet Burke has now become. Simmons believes his former captain is staying silent so as not to jeopardize his career. He is now in the Pentagon and would like to become an admiral, Simmons says.
"Personal, diplomatic and economic interests are all at stake," Simons says. "They're leaving us alone. They're closing their eyes, keeping quiet and waiting for it to blow over. There are sick soldiers everywhere, many in the hospital in San Diego, or in the medical center in Hawaii. They are ordinary folks who are poorly insured, with family and kids. Loyal and scattered. Most of them don't know how to react. Those who raise their voices are denounced in the Internet for being unpatriotic. You have to put up with a lot |
a few capitalists flush with money decide if they will use someone else's idea to increase their fortune. Americans are mesmerized. These guys, generally devoid of scientific training, numerical analysis, and other skills, will make one of the beggars rich based on their hunch.
Americans accept that because these capitalists are risking their capital it is acceptable to make a fortune that is cumulatively based on the knowledge of others, while in the aggregate the actual worthy ones get pennies. Americans accept that the risk of the capitalists' fortune is worth more than the risk of the construction worker losing a limb or life. Americans make many other sacrifices of self to ensure the capitalist is comfortable and his risk is virtually risk-free. Donald Trump can be bankrupt one year and in full recovery two years after, yet middle-class Americans are still unrecovered after seven-plus years of crisis and 30 years of decline.
What is true? The average American is in the driver's seat. Americans can live without capital with basic skills. The average American gives worth to capital, not the other way around. One of these days that light will go on and enough Americans will realize that truth. That is the biggest fear of the wealthy capitalist.
The 47 percent many of capitalists talk about is a psychological number. In their game, 47 percent—almost half—are takers. The other 53 percent are makers. That 53 percent are mad. They are working hard while those loafers take their money. The 53 percent fight for policies that really benefits the 1 percent under the false belief that they are sticking it to the 47 percent. Sadly, the 47 percent that are the "takers" are just as important in making the economy run as everyone else. They are not takers at all. Their worth is just discounted in order to create the conflict between the masses to ensure the 1 percent is not the target.
The most dependent class in our society is the wealthy. The masses take care of them. The masses keep their factories producing, the masses invent the technologies that make them profits. The masses buy the goods they sell. And on and on.
To move forward, the masses must remove the chains from their minds, discount the lies, educate themselves, and demand what is theirs. They must remove the corrosive nature of money out of politics. They must abolish corporate personhood and the tenet that money is speech, likely through a constitutional amendment.
Americans must demand the return through taxation of ill-gotten gains obtained through structural defects within our fraudulent economy. Americans must demand unfettered voting rights. They must demand that all employers pay a living wage. If a business cannot pay a living wage, it is not a viable business and just an extender of indentured servitude. Preferential treatment of capital appreciation over working income must end. Social Security taxes must be charged on all income. Health care must be declared a right with basic health care paid out of general revenue through taxation of us all. Higher education based on merit must be free. Every working American will pay it forward. A large inheritance tax must be reinstituted to ensure cumulative wealth cannot be extractive of middle-class wealth.
America needs President Obama’s middle-class economics on steroids. That is how emancipation begins.READER COMMENTS ON
"Ohio U.S. House Candidate Issues Press Release on Sibel Edmonds' 'Revealing' Testimony"
(63 Responses so far...)
COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
... Styve said on 8/12/2009 @ 12:49 pm PT...
Wayne Madsen caught this earlier this morning, from the Chicago Tribune... Congresswoman’s son-in-law dies snorkeling CHICAGO - Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s son-in-law has died while snorkeling during a family outing in Mexico. The Illinois Democrat, husband Robert Creamer, their nine children and grandchildren were all in Mexico when Michael McLaughlin died. Schakowsky says McLaughlin’s death “leaves a big hole” in family members’ lives. McLaughlin was snorkeling alone Sunday when a bystander on the beach saw that something was wrong. Family members tried unsuccessfully to rescue him. McLaughlin was a 38-year-old New York filmmaker and editor. His wife, Lauren McLaughlin, is the daughter of Creamer and his former wife, Day Piercy. —— Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/index
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/12/2009 @ 12:54 pm PT...
COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
... connecticutman1 said on 8/12/2009 @ 12:59 pm PT...
Thanks, BradBlog, for following and updating this story.
COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
... mick said on 8/12/2009 @ 1:10 pm PT...
""Jean Schmidt has displayed a pattern of taking money from groups in exchange for pushing their agendas" said David Krikorian "Whether it be taking money from the trucking industry to raise the federal weight limit on tractor-trailer trucks despite the public safety hazard and road damage concerns or taking money from the banking lobby to push for bailouts for the banking industry or in this case taking money from the Turkish lobby in exchange for pushing its denial of the Armenian Genocide, Jean Schmidt has shown that she is for sale in the US House." And criminal charges will come when?
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
... sibel said on 8/12/2009 @ 1:14 pm PT...
Turkish Coalition of America in attack mode:
http://turkeyamericablog...s-by-armenian-lobby.html It's a blog so maybe worth a visit
COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
... Styve said on 8/12/2009 @ 1:20 pm PT...
Bizarre...I posted on FDL what WMR provided its readership with about the Schakowsky "drowning", and followed it with the Tribune article I posted here. The initial post was pulled, with no explanation, even though Wayne gave clear sourcing... After that, I tried to post a question asking why my posts are being censored, and the post didn't even go up...it was blocked. Brad, you expressed disdain for Madsen's sourcing when he noted Schakowsky's role in the ATC bribery scenario. He provides credible cites for this tragic news, so I hope that you will let this stand... According to today's Chicago Tribune, a local coroner said that McLaughlin died of asphixiation while snorkeling. The news involving Schakowsky's son-in-law happened after the congresswoman was identified in a WMR exclusive as being subjected to a Turkish intelligence lesbian sexual blackmail operation involving Schakowsky and a female employee of a Turkish government-run organization in Washington, DC. The information was provided to WMR by federal law enforcement and congressional sources.
COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
... PLUNGER said on 8/12/2009 @ 1:23 pm PT...
http://www.aztlan.net/israeli_sexpionage.htm Sexpionage is a foreign espionage tactic practiced by our alleged allies, Israel and Turkey, for purpose of blackmailing elected public representatives - costing us Trillions of dollars, the abandonment of our own national security and moral principles. JOE LIEBERMAN helped to set-up Bill Clinton in the Lewinsky affair to enable Israel to blackmail the President of the United States. http://www.rense.com/general69/col.htm THIS IS TREASON. Lieberman was the first prominent Democrat to criticize Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Joe Lieberman knows all about Israel's intelligence efforts inside the US to ensnare the most powerful governmental officials in lustful entaglements - as SEXPIONAGE is a primary weapon in Israel's War Against The American People. Lieberman knows for a fact that Chandra Levy was a Mossad plant - a "Swallow," placed close to Gary Condit in order to seduce him (for blackmail) and to gather secret intelligence (Condit was on a powerful Intelligence Committee). Lieberman knows all about Israel's Blackmail and espionage inside the United States, and he is complicit in enabling it. Sexpionage is so important to Israel, that it has opened an office for this purpose right smack in the center of US political power --- Washington D.C. The office fronts as a post 911 anti-terrorism institute and is located at 3811 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 720 Arlington, VA 22203. The Chief of the office is non other that the immediate former Director of the Israeli MOSSAD, Shabtai Shavit. JOE LIEBERMAN - CHOOSE SIDES. Expose the truth behind Ariel Joseph Weinmann's recent arrest for passing TOP SECRET American Submarine data to Israel. This case is as big as the Pollard spy scandal, and the American Media will not even cover it. JOE LIEBERMAN - CHOOSE SIDES. Kobi Alexander, former Comverse CEO is wanted on FEDERAL charges. WHERE IS KOBI ALEXANDER? Why is he in the WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM if he is only guilty of Securities Fraud? He and Dov Zakheim were OPERATIONALLY INVOLVED IN 9/11 - THAT is why Alexander is being protected by CO-CONSPIRATOR, Dick Cheney. The reason the GOP, Mel Sembler (the guy who facilitated the Niger Forgery AND led the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund) and Rove helped LIEBERMAN GET RE-ELECTED, is that he is a mole for the Shadow Government behind 9/11. CHOOSE SIDES JOE. I'M WITH THE AMERICANS. Now, about Rahm...
COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
... Styve said on 8/12/2009 @ 1:55 pm PT...
The posts that seemed to have been blocked on the Sibel Edmonds matter at Firedoglake, have been restored. May have been a glitch... Hey Plunger...long time, no see...
COMMENT #9 [Permalink]
... Kingfisher said on 8/12/2009 @ 2:13 pm PT...
""Jean Schmidt has displayed a pattern of taking money from groups in exchange for pushing their agendas" said David Krikorian "Whether it be taking money from the trucking industry to raise the federal weight limit on tractor-trailer trucks despite the public safety hazard and road damage concerns or taking money from the banking lobby to push for bailouts for the banking industry or in this case taking money from the Turkish lobby in exchange for pushing its denial of the Armenian Genocide, Jean Schmidt has shown that she is for sale in the US House." And criminal charges will come when? If it is done legally they never will. Being a shill for special interests is not necessarily a crime.
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
... Gos said on 8/12/2009 @ 2:21 pm PT...
Oh yeah because it's TURKISH influence that is tearing America apart. If only we had a more evenhanded approach to countries that have issue with the actions of the TURKISH government the world would be a much more peaceful place.
COMMENT #11 [Permalink]
... Kingfisher said on 8/12/2009 @ 2:24 pm PT...
I fear the deposition material is going to get bottled up by the Ohio Elections Commission somehow. I have no legal reasoning behind this concern, but it seems like an ideal choke point if one wanted suppress this. The video should have been released by now, or Sibel's prepared statement at the least. Are they waiting until after the Commission hearings to release it? If so, see the above concern.
COMMENT #12 [Permalink]
... Styve said on 8/12/2009 @ 3:00 pm PT...
Shouldn't John conyers' office be all over this?
COMMENT #13 [Permalink]
... Jon in Iowa said on 8/12/2009 @ 3:00 pm PT...
There's something... striking about the comments today. Fixed?
COMMENT #14 [Permalink]
... Hank said on 8/12/2009 @ 3:15 pm PT...
I have been following Ms. Edmond's revelations from the beginning. If what she knows is every revealed to the American people sans a media filter, look out. Heads which should have rolled years ago will start rolling with a vengeance. 'bout time.
COMMENT #15 [Permalink]
... Norman Israel said on 8/12/2009 @ 3:21 pm PT...
First the “octo-mom”, not this weird “sibellydancer”… Sheesh! Give me a break! If you believe this shady woman, who is discredited and fired by FBI 7+ years ago and who is trying to get back to FBI payrolls since, then you can believe the world is flat. Nothing she said is new and all tall tales. The real question is why “sibellydancer” now? It is now because Krikorian, in a desperate attempt to disprove charges of libel he shamelessly leveled against an honorable Congresswoman Schmidt, is using anything that he thinks might help him and his sick cause of peddling a bogus genocide. But it is too little, too late. Krikorian made his bed, now he will have to lie in it. He will find out, the hard way, that the U.S. is a country of laws, not slanderous claims. Armenians poisoned for decades the columns and screens in this country with their brand of racist and dishonest history. Now they are trying to close the door on fair-minded readers from finding out the deception behind the Armenian claims. Myth substitutes facts. Politics voids scholarship. Perception replaces precision. Votes beat facts. Ill-informed editors regurgitate propaganda for quick pats on the shoulder. And a bogus genocide is marketed as the whole truth. A sad day for freedom of speech when the truth cannot be spoken for fear of being branded a genocide denier by outspoken genocide falsifiers.
COMMENT #16 [Permalink]
... M said on 8/12/2009 @ 3:44 pm PT...
Wow, the radical right is raging like a beast. If it were possible, they'd fool the very elect...
COMMENT #17 [Permalink]
... Styve said on 8/12/2009 @ 4:07 pm PT...
Jon from Iowa... There's something... striking about the comments today. Fixed? What do you mean?
-------- M, did you look at the site Sibel mentioned above? Norman just plaigiarized a few lines...sort of a faux, or copycat rage.
COMMENT #18 [Permalink]
... Tunga said on 8/12/2009 @ 4:10 pm PT...
#15 abnormal Israel should be taken with a grain of red sea salt. The last batch of Polonium that Norm sold to the Tunga was well past it's half life expiration date. Then he refused to refund the 20 grand per ounce we paid in hard yuan rubles! Basement nukers beware! Normal Norm is a phoney. You could get a hotter product from a Jacker Crack box.
COMMENT #19 [Permalink]
... Simon said on 8/12/2009 @ 6:14 pm PT...
"involving Schakowsky and a female employee of a Turkish government-run organization in Washington, DC." http://onlinejournal.com...blish/article_5007.shtml This is the Wayne Madsen post about the Democratic House woman from Chicago.
COMMENT #20 [Permalink]
... cann4ing said on 8/12/2009 @ 6:32 pm PT...
Google made an excellent point: "So you can imagine an ad by a Nazi group that said the Holocaust is a myth," a person familiar with Google's policies told FOXNews.com...
COMMENT #21 [Permalink]
... jbnhm said on 8/12/2009 @ 6:41 pm PT...
Correction Tunga #15 should be taken with all the dead sea's salt
COMMENT #22 [Permalink]
... Mitch Trachtenberg said on 8/12/2009 @ 7:07 pm PT...
Brad, Why is it relevant to your reporting that the alleged affair was "lesbian"?
COMMENT #23 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/12/2009 @ 7:30 pm PT...
"Turkey America" - isn't that the new KFC/GOP sandwich??? Sorry........
COMMENT #24 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/12/2009 @ 7:31 pm PT...
"I'll have a 'Turkey America' with freedom fries...hold the mayo on that 'Turkey America' sandwich, please..."
COMMENT #25 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 8/12/2009 @ 8:51 pm PT...
Yer thinking of the American Turkey, Danny....
COMMENT #26 [Permalink]
... jbnhm said on 8/12/2009 @ 8:52 pm PT...
@Mr. Trachtenberg It's relevant because like it or not that will make it more controversial in this country.
COMMENT #27 [Permalink]
... Jon in Iowa said on 8/13/2009 @ 12:15 am PT...
Styve #17, I mean that the text for the entire comments section is struck out, and I made an unsuccessful coding attempt to end it.
COMMENT #28 [Permalink]
... mick said on 8/13/2009 @ 12:18 am PT...
COMMENT #15 [Permalink]
... Norman Israel said on 8/12/2009 @ 3:21 pm PT... First the “octo-mom”, not this weird “sibellydancer”Are you being racist here?… Sheesh! Give me a break! If you believe this shady woman Shady,how?, who is discredited When was Sibel discredited? and fired by FBI 7+ years ago and who is trying to get back to FBI payrolls since, then you can believe the world is flat. Nothing she said is new and all tall tales Really?. The real question is why “sibellydancer” now? NOW as apposed to the last seven plus years that she has tried to tell "her story" It is now because Krikorian, in a desperate attempt to disprove charges of libel he shamelessly leveled against an honorable Congresswoman Schmidt LOL honorable, is using anything that he thinks might help him and his sick cause of peddling a bogus genocide "BOGUS" really?. But it is too little, too late. Krikorian made his bed, now he will have to lie in it. He will find out, the hard way, that the U.S. is a country of laws so now you're a comedian, not slanderous claims.
Armenians poisoned for decades the columns and screens in this country WTF with their brand of racist and dishonest history Please explain your claim. Now they are trying to close the door on fair-minded readers Do you include yourself in this definition? LOL from finding out the deception behind the Armenian claims What "deception" are you talking about?. Myth substitutes facts What "Myth"?. Politics voids scholarship What "scholarship"?. Perception replaces precision WTF. Votes beat facts WTF. Ill-informed editors regurgitate propaganda for quick pats on the shoulder WTF. And a bogus genocide is marketed as the whole truth Explain the "bogus genocide". A sad day for freedom of speech when the truth cannot be spoken for fear of being branded a genocide denier LOL by outspoken genocide falsifiers Kinda like Holocaust denier,good play on words there. Maybe it should be illegal to investigate ALL claims of genocide or any Holocaust just so we have a level play field?
COMMENT #29 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 8/13/2009 @ 12:22 am PT...
That's very weird, Jon. There's no strike out for me on the site or the admin either... and hasn't been since sometime mid-morning.... Are you using some sort of exotic browser????
COMMENT #30 [Permalink]
... Phil said on 8/13/2009 @ 2:27 am PT...
Assuming, David Krikorian case comes to an end, and they finally release Sibel's transcripts, and audio, and video. What then? And if nothing.. Or assuming nothing happens, yet someone (anyone have a full list of who) has now read and heard Sibel's testimony, considering the material at hand in regards to national security's secrets and the really bad oath breakers in various places in our government who purportedly gave away those secrets, how is it not even one security clearance been yanked yet just to check if it's the testimony is accurate? Whoever has heard Sibel's testimony (if they swore an oath), a reality and sanity check please, take action and uphold your own sworn oath. How can our government argue for torture (even if it was acceptable) when they won't even investigate sworn testimony about domestic enemies in our own country? If it stand's like this, the way I see it is. America and it's government are nullified. Which begs the question, if there are no more laws, then who and what is holding us together as a country and how much longer can it possibly last with such malfeasance?
COMMENT #31 [Permalink]
... Soul Rebel said on 8/13/2009 @ 3:30 am PT...
I'm with Jon - all my text is struck also
COMMENT #32 [Permalink]
... Jon in Iowa said on 8/13/2009 @ 7:30 am PT...
99, I'm on I.E. 8. I know I've seen it break one or two other sites, but switching to "compatibility view" only makes the strikeout worse. In regular I.E. 8, it starts with "Share this article with the world" and goes down the left-hand column. In compatibility, it starts after the "Donate to Brad Blog" image and hits both columns.
COMMENT #33 [Permalink]
... Phil said on 8/13/2009 @ 7:40 am PT...
Okay, last night, I didn't notice any strikethrough problem on Bradblog, but this morning I got the following. http://sacxtra.com/image...adblog.strikethrough.png
COMMENT #34 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/13/2009 @ 8:19 am PT...
Our daily proof that the corporate MSM isn't liberal...we had Sibel Edmonds, Blackwater, the e-vote hacking at the Ca. college, and today's is: When a scandal involving the Bush administration’s firing of US Attorneys broke in early 2007, initial coverage by the Washington Post supported the idea that the firings had been politically motivated. That approach, however, quickly changed to one that was far more friendly to the White House. Emails show Washington Post reporter coordinated attorney firing story with White House Doesn't PROOF & EVIDENCE mean anything anymore?
COMMENT #35 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/13/2009 @ 8:20 am PT...
That's only stories in the LAST WEEK!!! That are being blacklisted!!!
COMMENT #36 [Permalink]
... Tunga said on 8/13/2009 @ 8:44 am PT...
Thanks JBNHM! Tungas subscription to National Geographic ran out in the 60's. Dead Sea not Red sea. Got it! Now about those scrolls...
COMMENT #37 [Permalink]
... Zareh said on 8/13/2009 @ 9:13 am PT...
#15 the person who wishes to use a fake Jewish sounding name must be very desperate. Such dishonorable and cowardly practice reminds me of a well known Turkish individual who has made his life's mission to spread anti-Armenian hatred. A certain E.K.
COMMENT #38 [Permalink]
... Phil said on 8/13/2009 @ 9:18 am PT...
I also noticed an exploit for word press.
Hopefully someone updated Bradblog?
COMMENT #39 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 8/13/2009 @ 11:07 am PT...
Hey, Jon, thanks for letting us know! By sheer "luck" I am forced to be on my mother's PC for a few days and I could go over to IE and thar she blew. Isn't that strange that it would only do it on one browser...? Brad zigged when he should have zagged or something. Should be all fixed now. Thanks again.
COMMENT #40 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 8/13/2009 @ 11:15 am PT...
Thank you, too, Phil. That was very kind of you to make that illustration. If I were at home, I might not have been able to see what the heck was going wrong and that would have saved all kinds of bad stuff... me freaking out... or me thinking Jon was seeing things... or a flame war between strikers and strikees.... It might have become epic!
COMMENT #41 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 8/13/2009 @ 11:18 am PT...
Strike Force 99 from Planet X vs. The Stricken Commentariat of All Blogistan... we have averted disaster for sure....
COMMENT #42 [Permalink]
... cann4ing said on 8/13/2009 @ 2:41 pm PT...
Big Dan linked to a raw story piece about how the Bush White House and a Washington Post reported collaborated on the U.S. attorney firing scandal.. Well, in Iraq we had embedded journalists. Here, at home, we have "in bed with" journalists.
COMMENT #43 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/13/2009 @ 6:55 pm PT...
comment #42, ever see Danny Schechter's "Weapons of Mass Deception"? How the military/media worked together to get us into the wars? Embedded reporters?
COMMENT #44 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/13/2009 @ 6:57 pm PT...
The movie is in this post: http://bigdanblogger.blo...ts-blinded-by-right.html Like I said: the corporate so-called liberal media speaks for the few wealthiest, the military, corporations, and the government if government is doing things for THEM and not US.
COMMENT #45 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/13/2009 @ 7:03 pm PT...
Everyone needs to watch "Weapons of Mass Deception", if you didn't yet.
COMMENT #46 [Permalink]
... Soul Rebel said on 8/13/2009 @ 8:47 pm PT...
That was a great flick. Like Palast's reporting, one of those "if only people would open their eyes and ears."
COMMENT #47 [Permalink]
... jbnhm said on 8/13/2009 @ 11:39 pm PT...
@Tunga red sea's fine, I just wanted more salt.
COMMENT #48 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/14/2009 @ 4:42 am PT...
Where's ANBCBSNNX's coverage of the black woman having her Rosa Parks sign stolen and crumpled up at a Town Hall meeting by a white guy? http://www.google.com/#h...&fp=49a00ca4adea6ff6 http://thedailyvoice.com...sa-parks-002192.php/foul
COMMENT #49 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/14/2009 @ 4:45 am PT...
She did get on CNN, according to the first story. This should be a #1 story in the news. Is it?
COMMENT #50 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/14/2009 @ 4:49 am PT...
When you google "gun at obama town hall", you get all sorts of major networks on the first page, including CBS, MSNBC...when you google "maxine johnson mccaskill", you don't get a major network on the first page. Is it google? Or aren't they covering it?
COMMENT #51 [Permalink]
... Cross said on 8/14/2009 @ 7:14 am PT...
This piece was written for another post, but directly links to the Sibel Edmonds' revelations. Karl Rove: One of three known residences for Karl Rove is at 21 Dill Lane, Rosemary Beach, FL. Now that emails are surfacing implicating him in removal of Federal Judges, other issues more serious are also being considered. 1. Was the governor of Alabama framed by Rove's dirty tricks department? 2. If Rove is charged with High Crimes and Misdemeanors, does owning a home in Florida allow him a bolt hole? We now learn that Scooter Libby was a peripheral distraction to a much larger crime located in Turkey. See 123realchange.blogger.com or Brad blog. Follow the trail to Rove, the Insider. Larry Franklin, convicted for spying - sentence suspended, and the Israeli Mossad are directly linked to Rumsfeld's Office of Special Plans, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove.
Turkey is the hub of heroin manufacturing distributed by the Russian/Israeli Mafiya. The World Bank protected Turkey from these known crimes under Paul Wolfowitz. Robert Zoellick, his successor is also complicit. Patrick Fitzgerald and Jamie Gorelick (linked to Zoellick) were implicated in suppression evidence for 9-11 as early as 1995 according to Peter Lance's book 'Triple Cross'. Why?
Fear, marshal law, infrastructure for a police state in place, global overpopulation. Solve it by eliminating 80% of us. Valerie Plame was on to this Turkish hub, selling of nuclear secrets, salting evidence for weapons of mass destruction to Iraq by the Carlyle Group. The word went out to get Dick Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame. Sworn testimony by Sibel Edmonds in the Ohio Krikorian case implicates Marc Grossman and Richard Armitage as the real criminals who outed Valerie Plame. Karl Rove knows much. This is why he is protected. He is YOUR neighbor. Think about it. The Solution: Use every means - twitter, blogs, person to person - speaking Truth to Power. The solar/hydrogen economy is ready for implementation. (Jeremy Rifkin, Roy McAlister, and Justin Sutton). Restore organic agriculture and nutrient density to our food. Simplify your lifestyle. Remember this country was established on freedom of religion. Jesus may be the only way, but he is also the Truth. Eliminate racism. YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and Christian missionaries are imposing a global theocracy in misguided hubris exploited by godless neocons. (The YWAM link is tenuous, but can be followed through the recent C street revelations.) I directly heard Pat Roberston allege that Christians had the right to usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth through a theocracy.
Anyone believing in a supernatural boogeyman does not have inner peace. Don't give money or power to be seen. Do it secretly. Giving out of fear is wrong. Separate judgment from discernment. Learn by talking to animals and listen to them. They will flee from you if you are arrogant.
COMMENT #52 [Permalink]
... Big Dan said on 8/14/2009 @ 7:28 am PT...
Best video of the black woman who disrupted the town hall meeting by having her 'Rosa Parks' sign ripped up by a white guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGiLZF--ehA She was charged with: "Littering and having a sign torn up" (sarcastic)
COMMENT #53 [Permalink]
... Styve said on 8/14/2009 @ 4:21 pm PT...
Madsen responded to Brad Friedman's dismissive comments above... I am curious about the Creamer revelation, though admittedly WMR assumes it to be common knowledge he is a "con". Is there any further news on this death of McLaughlin in Mexico? ----------------- Just outing? Outing who? A major supporter of Friedman's American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) crowd being the subject of blackmail and also sitting in the oversight chair for the House Intelligence Committee is just outing? Excuse me, but Schakowsky's predicament primarily helps one country in the Middle East and it is not necessarily Turkey. The AIPACers know exactly where the Schakowsky matter is going to end up --- on the front steps of the Israeli embassy in Washington, the scene of so many other espionage operations directed against the United States. In fact, a NSA source has confided that Israel, after China, now poses the most significant hostile intelligence threat to the United States. But Friedman has a little problem with Jan being the subject of the lesbian "hooking" operation. Schakowsky's husband is Richard Creamer, an ex-con who also happens to write for Friedman's Los Angeles friend Arianne Huffington's "Huffington Post." And with the body of Creamer's son-in-law being found floating in the Caribbean waters off Mexico while the family was vacationing there, the day after WMR broke the Schakowsky story, there must be some real dread among the AIPAC "amen corner" in Los Angeles. The truth is certainly uncomfortable for certain quarters whether they be on the web or not. The usual suspects can always be expected to go on the attack --- I have been experiencing the slinging of mud for years from the one-time CIA applicant who runs DailyKos not to mention the Democratic Underground lads who call WMR a "highly unrealiable and/or bigoted web site." It seems that Mr. Allen, also known as "Skinner," cannot make up his mind with his "and/or" statement.
COMMENT #54 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 8/14/2009 @ 4:41 pm PT...
...Friedman's American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) crowd... If there is any merit to that accusation, I want a really, really biiiiiig check, but, well, no wonder Brad doesn't think much of his journalism....
COMMENT #55 [Permalink]
... Zekiye said on 8/15/2009 @ 7:24 am PT...
‘August 13, 2009
COLUMBUS - U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt’s Armenian-American opponent probably made false statements during the 2008 campaign about contributions she received from Turkish political action committees, a unanimous three-member panel of the Ohio Elections Commission ruled today’. We, Turks are used to such immoral Armenian tactiques. let us concentrate on the attitute of the Armenians towards the scholars or people who do not support their thesis up till now:
The home of American Professor Stanford Shaw of the University of California-Los Angeles was firebombed in retaliation for his academic courage in disputing the Armenian genocide claim, in 1977 http://www.washingtontim.../armenian-crime-amnesia/
http://209.232.239.37/gt...ewIncident.aspx?id=56624 Sixty nine academicians who specialized in Turkish, Ottoman and Middle Eastern studies from 44 different American universities and colleges published a declaration in The New York Times on May 19, 1986 and declared: …….No signatory of this statement wishes to minimize the scope of Armenian suffering. We are likewise cognizant that it cannot be viewed as separate from the suffering experienced by the Muslim inhabitants of the region. The weight of evidence so far uncovered points in the direction of serious inter-communal warfare (perpetrated by Muslim and Christian irregular forces), complicated by disease, famine, suffering and massacres in Anatolia and adjoining areas during the First World War. Indeed, throughout the years in question, the region was the scene of more or less continuous warfare, not unlike the tragedy which has gone on in Lebenon for the past decade. The resulting death toll among both Muslim and Christian communities of the region was immense. But much more remains to be discovered before historians will be able to sort out precisely responsibility between warring and innocent, and to identify the causes for the events which resulted in the death or removal of large numbers of the eastern Anatolian population, Christian and Muslim alike………… the history of the Ottoman-Armenians is much debated among scholars, many of whom do not agree with the historical assumptions embodied in the wording of H.J.Res.192. ….Such a resolution, based on historically questionable assumptions, can only damage the cause of honest historical enquiry, and damage the credibility of the American legistlative process. The producers of the ‘historical documentary film Sarı Gelin (www.sarigelinbelgeseli.com) suggested to interview some of these academicians. However they were rejected because these academicians and their families were threatened by the Armenians, via telephone calls and letters, in 1986 for signing this declaration. Justin McCarthy’s family had to get police protection. Prof. McCarthy himself was threatened with losing his job if he continued his research. http://turkishweekly.net.../top/comments.php?id=594, http://www.tallarmeniant...com/69histors-charny.htm, http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/intimidate.htm
The Armenians sued Bernard Lewis, the French historian famous for his Middle Eastern and Ottoman studies, in France, in 1993 just because he wrote in Le Monde that 'the 1915 events were not ‘genocide’. American judge Samuel Weems’s life was threatened by the Armenians since he published his book ‘A terrorist State: Armenia’. In Netherlands, Turkish origined party members who told that they did not agree with the Armenian thesis were discharged from the party, because of the pressure of the Armenian voters of the country. Additionally, Turkish university students studying in the USA are under threat of Armenian students, just because they reject the Armenian claims. In some universities it reaches to such an extreme point that one young university student needs police escort. 'Oath of Asala' which is a branch of Asala declared that they would spare GAKAVYAN's life in case he abandoned this apology project and disclosed the names of the people who urged him to do so, according to the Armenian newspaper "Azg",http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?
aType=RadikalHaberDetay&ArticleID=921474&Date=14.02.2009&CategoryID=98. The petition of Dr. Armen Gavakian from the Macquarie University in Sydney, who is also co-chair of the Turkish-Armenian Dialogue Group would read |
1, D and E). Such a signal is a precise and unusual prediction for fMRI (supplementary text): It is predicted in the bulk activity because grid cells share a common grid axis (12–14), and conjunctive grid cells fire faster on average when movement is aligned to this axis (9). It pertains to the moving direction and cannot be explained by any characteristics of the currently experienced visual scene. It is hexagonal and therefore does not align on average to the cardinal directions. Its temporal waveform is different in every scan and every subject (fig. S4) and thus cannot be easily predicted by imaging artefacts (supplementary text and table S1).
Fig. 1 Experimental design for navigation in abstract space. (A) Subjects were trained to associate stimuli (birds) with outcomes (Christmas symbols). (B) Example trajectory in abstract space. A location in this abstract space was represented by a bird stimulus. A trajectory was equivalent to visually morphing one bird into another (Fig. 1C). The direction θ of the trajectory depended on the ratio of the rates of change of the legs and the neck (movie S1). Subjects were not consciously aware that these associations could be organized in a continuous “bird space.” (C) Example trial corresponding to the trajectory with direction θ. (D) Trajectories can be categorized as aligned (red sectors) or misaligned (gray sectors) with the mean orientation ϕ of the hexagonal grid. Note that ϕφ is different for each participant [see (26) for details on how ϕ was calculated]. Here, the direction θ is aligned with the grid. (E) fMRI markers of grid cells showing hexagonal symmetry: The signal is bigger for trajectories aligned versus those misaligned with the grid. (F) (Top) Color-coded trajectory maps illustrating time spent in each part of the environment during the “explore” task in the first (quantile1) and last parts of training (quantile5). Yellow is maximum and dark blue is 0. (Bottom) Barplots showing the amount of time spent at the locations/stimuli paired with outcomes in each epoch relative to the total time spent navigating (“time at outcomes” quantile1 versus quantile5, t 22 = –3.17, **P < 0.01). (G) In the “collect” task, participants made significant improvements in training day 2 compared to training day 1: The percentage of trials with an angle error < 15° (t 33 = 2.37, *P < 0.05) and with only one transition increased (t 33 = 2.55, *P < 0.05). In the “recall” task, participants made significantly more correct responses in day 2 compared to day 1 (t 41 = 3.89, ***P < 0.001). (H) Example data from the most commonly used schedule: even distribution of trajectory angles across all trials (light gray), outcome trials (medium gray) and nonoutcome trials (dark gray). (I) Example data from the most commonly used schedule: We tested if the sin(6θ) and cos(6θ) regressors correlated with multiple confounding factors. These regressors did not correlate with the start neck, start legs, end neck, and end legs lengths, whether the subject responded accurately or whether the morph passed through an outcome (all coefficients of determination R2 averaged across all subjects < 0.02). [(D) and (E) are adapted by permission from Nature (9)]
This gridlike signal is not unique to the entorhinal cortex, but can be measured during spatial navigation in prescribed parts of the medial frontal, medial parietal, and lateral temporal cortices (9). Despite no report in rodents of grid cells outside the hippocampal formation, direct recordings during brain surgery in humans have confirmed gridlike firing patterns in some of these areas (8). This same network of brain regions, often referred to as the “default mode network” (15), is also regularly activated in nonspatial tasks that involve the manipulation of conceptual knowledge, such as memory (16), imagination (17), scene construction (18), valuation (19), and theory of mind (20), and in situations when subjects must generalize learned concepts to novel situations (1, 2, 21).
The ability to interact with knowledge in this flexible and generalizable way is the central advantage of maintaining an explicit cognitive map (3). Together with the regions’ established role in nonspatial conceptual generalization, the finding of gridlike activity in these brain regions during spatial navigation therefore raises the possibility of common neural coding mechanisms for storing spatial and conceptual representations. Indeed, this hypothesis is strengthened by the findings that hippocampal cells (analogous to rodent place cells) encode individual concepts in humans (22) and sound frequency in rodents (23), and that rodent grid cell coding may not be restricted to spatial dimensions, but also represent time (24).
We used fMRI to test if humans use a hexagonally symmetric code when navigating through abstract conceptual representations. We designed a task analogous to the one used for navigation in physical space (9), with the notable difference that our dimensions were organized in an abstract, rather than physical, space.
Twenty-eight healthy subjects performed a stimulus-outcome (S-O) learning task in which they learned that bird stimuli (25) were associated with different Christmas symbols (Fig. 1A). The study therefore resembles other S-O learning tasks except that here, the bird stimuli were not independent fractals or symbols but, instead, they varied according to two continuous dimensions: the lengths of the neck and legs. Each stimulus could therefore be described within a two-dimensional conceptual “bird space” (Fig. 1B). Even though the features of this bird space were lengths as in physical maps, here they had to be extracted from a one-dimensional (vertical) visual space where different stimuli did not form any angles (Fig. 1A) and transformed into a two-dimensional conceptual map (Fig. 1B).
Participants had extensive experience of the bird space the day before scanning (26). Briefly, we first trained them to morph birds with specific neck:legs ratios, using a nonspatial controller (fig. S1). Next, the participants learned which bird stimuli were paired with outcomes by freely morphing the neck and legs dimensions. The outcome symbols would appear on screen whenever the morph matched the associated bird (fig. S2). This ensured that subjects became familiar with the entire bird space and not just with the S-O pairings. Indeed, participants progressively refined the locations of the outcomes through training (Fig. 1F and fig. S6). We periodically tested their knowledge of the bird space by asking them to find specific outcomes from arbitrary start positions, by correctly choosing the appropriate neck:legs ratio. When asked to make such ballistic movements, subjects significantly increased their precision through training, and therefore learned to visualize the target bird (Fig. 1G and fig. S7). In the scanner, participants continued to improve performance each day, possibly because they received fresh training before each day’s scanning (Fig. 1G and fig. S8).
Each subject participated in two to four separate fMRI sessions, spanning two separate days, at least 1 week apart. In each trial during scanning, subjects watched a video of a bird morphing according to a predefined neck:legs ratio (Fig. 1C and movie S1). They were then instructed to imagine the outcome if the bird continued to morph with the same neck:legs ratio. In some trials, they had to choose one of three offered outcomes: two outcomes they were trained with and a “no outcome” option (black square). Participants reached a performance of 72.8 ± 1.0% accuracy in predicting outcomes, and 0 out of 28 reported conceiving of the relationships between birds or outcomes as lying in a spatial map (26).
To test whether the fMRI signal had hexagonal symmetry, as a proxy for grid cells, we ensured that the orientation of the trajectories for movement in bird space was dissociated from the properties of the visual scene. That is, trajectories with the same orientation were formed by different stimuli, and trajectories with different orientations could pass through the same stimulus. Indeed, the critical hexagonal symmetry regressors described below did not share more than 5% variance with any tested basic visual property of the stimuli, outcomes, or behavioral accuracy in any subject (Fig. 1I). The trajectories were sampled evenly across directions both in sum and when separated according to outcome (Fig. 1H and fig. S5).
Despite the absence of any hexagonal modulation of these confounding factors, we found a hexagonal modulation effect in the neural activity. We first identified hexagonally symmetric signals across the whole brain and then we focused on those regions where the effect was strongest. This approach allowed us to test in an unbiased way if this hexagonal symmetry had a consistent grid angle across two sessions acquired on the same day and more than a week apart.
To identify brain regions sensitive to hexagonal symmetry, we used a Z-transformed F-statistic to test for a significant modulation of the fMRI signal by any linear combination of sin(6θ) and cos(6θ), where θ is the trajectory angle in bird space (26) (fig. S3). We found hexagonal symmetry in a network of brain regions that overlapped anatomically with the network found during navigation in physical space (8, 9) and with the default-mode network (15) (Fig. 2A and fig. S10). However, although these brain regions all survived whole-brain cluster correction, this quadrature test could overestimate the Z scores (26). Thus, we used this test not for statistical inference per se, but rather to create orthogonal regions of interest that allowed us to test in an unbiased way if the grid angle was consistent across separate experimental sessions. This was possible because the quadrature test was independent from the phase of the periodic signal, that is, the grid angle. We focused on brain regions where grid cells have been recorded in humans during spatial tasks (8): that is, the anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and entorhinal cortex (ERH).
Fig. 2 Identifying hexagonally symmetric signals across the whole brain. (A) Hexagonal modulation in a network of brain regions including the medial prefrontal cortex, with a peak in its ventral region (vmPFC; peak Montreal Neurological Institute coordinates –8/42/0, peak Z score = 4.09), the medial entorhinal (ERH; –18/0/–38; Z = 4.41), the orbitofrontal (OFC; 6/44/–10; Z = 4.27), the posterior cingulate (PCC; 0/–32/28; Z = 4.3), retrosplenial (RSC; 6/–52/24; Z = 4.73), and lateral parietal cortices (LPC; 30/–62/28; Z = 4.96) and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ; 52/–42/40; Z = 4.13). For visualization purposes, the maps are cluster corrected at a cluster threshold Z = 3.1 and P < 0.05 for all brain regions apart from the ERH, where we used a more lenient threshold of Z = 2.3 and P < 0.05. (B) Subjects who performed better at the task had significantly more hexagonal signal modulation in the vmPFC (correlation coefficient r = 0.432, P = 0.039).
Using the peak coordinate of the hexagonal modulation signal in the mPFC located ventrally (vmPFC), we found that subjects with greater hexagonal modulation had a more accurate performance at the task (Fig. 2B). This region has also been shown to correlate with the performance in memory and conceptual knowledge tests (1, 21). As previously described for spatial hexagonal symmetries (9, 10), we next asked whether the grid angle to which this hexagonal modulation was aligned was consistent between separate experimental sessions. We thus used the data from one session to estimate the grid angle for a given participant, using the beta coefficients for the sin(6θ) and cos(6θ) regressors (26) (fig. S3). We then took the data from a separate session and looked for differences in activation between trials in which the trajectories were aligned versus misaligned to this hexagonal grid. This was achieved with the regressor cos(6[θ(t) – ϕ]), where θ(t) is the trajectory orientation in trial t and ϕ is the mean grid orientation across the region of interest (9, 10). This “cross-validation” procedure was counterbalanced across sessions. We then performed a one-sample t test across the group on the resulting regression coefficients.
Using this approach, we tested for hexagonal consistency between separate sessions acquired half an hour apart. We found such an effect at the whole-brain level in the vmPFC (Fig. 3A, left). To test if this effect was a function of the presence of outcomes, we included in the design matrix a confound regressor that modeled out the effect of outcomes. We found that the map did not change (fig. S11). Again, the consistency effect correlated with behavior in subjects who performed better at the task (Fig. 3A, right). Thus, we replicated the finding that participants with more gridlike representations performed better at the task, using two independent analyses. The same neural signal was not predicted by the speed of learning of the task during training (26) (Fig. 1, F and G). Gridlike activity was therefore related to the current performance rather than the trajectory of learning.
Fig. 3 Grid angle consistency between separate sessions acquired within the same day. (A) Left: Whole-brain level grid angle consistency in vmPFC (cluster corrected Z = 2.3 and P < 0.05; 16/54/–2; Z = 3.76, P < 0.0001). Right: participants with higher hexagonal consistency performed more accurately on the task (r = 0.431, P = 0.039). (B and C) Left panels: Sixfold modulation signals aligned to the same grid angle in the vmPFC (t 26 = 2.61, *P < 0.05) and ERH (t 27 = 2.36, *P < 0.05). The effect is plotted separately for all aligned (red) and misaligned (gray) trajectories. Right panels: This effect was specific for sixfold, but not any other control periodicities between four- and eightfold (all P > 0.15).
Next, to examine the pattern underlying this hexagonal effect, we separated all aligned (red) and misaligned (gray) trajectories (26) (Fig. 1D). The signal in the vmPFC was significantly higher for aligned than misaligned trajectories (Fig. 3B). The same pattern appeared in ERH (Fig. 3C). This effect was significant only for sixfold but not control four-, five-, seven- and eightfold symmetries (Fig. 3, B and C, right panels).
We also tested for hexagonal consistency between separate sessions acquired more than a week apart. We found a significant effect in the vmPFC (Fig. 4A). When grouping together within- and between-day data, the consistency effect was strongest in the vmPFC (Fig. 4B). Moreover, we found hexagonal consistency also between the ERH and vmPFC, suggesting that different brain regions may contain gridlike activity that is aligned to the same angle (Fig. 4C). Again, all these effects were significant only in hexagonal but not control symmetries (Fig. 4, right panels).
Fig. 4 Grid angle consistency between separate sessions acquired more than a week apart. (A) Cross-day consistency of the grid angle in vmPFC (left panel t 20 = 3.65, **P < 0.01; right panel all P > 0.18 for control periodicities). (B) Within- and cross-day consistency in vmPFC (left panel t 20 = 3.41, **P < 0.01; right panel all control P > 0.15). (C) Cross-region consistency between the ERH and vmPFC (left panel t 21 = 2.18, *P < 0.05; right panel all control P > 0.46).
Although the coarse nature of the fMRI signal urges caution in making conclusions at the level of neuronal codes, we have reported an unusually precise hexagonal modulation of the fMRI signal during nonspatial cognition. When subjects perform this abstract cognitive task, this signal exists in a set of brain regions markedly similar to those observed when subjects run in a virtual reality spatial environment (9) (fig. S9), despite profound differences in the cognitive and perceptual demands of the two tasks. The hexagonal grid is consistently oriented across sessions that are acquired both half an hour and more than a week apart. Together, this evidence suggests that gridlike codes that are known to underlie spatial navigation, and recently discovered in the temporal dimension (24), can also be used to organize abstract knowledge of the type that is difficult to study in nonhuman species. In the event that such conceptual grid cells can be recorded directly, it will be of interest to know whether they share relationships (such as relative phases) across spatial and conceptual tasks, suggesting that conceptual tasks can be solved by subconsciously mapping abstract dimensions onto preexisting spatial maps, or whether new organizations can emerge to represent conceptual problems. It will also be informative to study how such cells behave in conceptual problems that are not easily mapped onto continuous two-dimensional spaces (27, 28).UPDATED 9/16/16 3:22 p.m.: The internet has been on fire since The Game publicly threw shots at Meek Mill at his concert and dropped a record dissing the Philadelphia rapper, and now we may finally know the reason why. According to TMZ, The Game is reportedly accusing Meek Mill of being a snitch because of the investigation into a robbery involving Sean Kingston at an L.A. club.
If you remember, Kingston got hit in the head with a bottle before his $300,000 chain was ripped off his neck. Both Game and Meek were in the club during the incident and Game allegedly believes Meek told Kingston's team that Game or someone in his crew was involved in the robbery.
Meanwhile, Meek has responded to the feud with his own Instagram post featuring a picture of him with Nicki Minaj at his side. "U wanna fight? Next morning a diss raps...... Then the pre-order links! THE JIG IS UP YALL GUYS REAL RAPPERS! Make sure y'all go support them industry cats!"
Meek copping a plea smh RT @itsbizkit: Meek Mill & The Game battle it out on Instagram pic.twitter.com/Z93xtcmAgF — BernieNotNice (@B_TheRealest) September 16, 2016
The Game clapped back on IG with a photo of Nicki Minaj holding his arm from the "Pills N Potions" video with the caption: "The last time Nicki held a REAL NIGGA!!!"
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The last time Nicki held a REAL NIGGA!!! 🐀 A photo posted by The Game (@losangelesconfidential) on Sep 16, 2016 at 12:31pm PDT
In response, Meek dropped a random casual shout out to the new iPhone. "The IPHONE 7 just came out we ain't tryna hear that shit! Lol," he wrote before calling out the Game for being a "fake gangsta" and "lame." " How do you get on change of hearts! YOU A FAKE GANGSTA........ AINT NO REAL LA NIGGAS STANDING BEHIND THIS FUCKERY.... WHERE WAS YOU AT IN LIFE WHEN YOU DECIDED TO GO ON CHANGE OF HEART! AND THE HO HAD A CHANGE OF HEART ON YOU BECAUSE YOU LAME! Somebody pull his resume lol 😂🤔🤔😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤔😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂" Unfortunately, Meek deleted the Instagrams, but others screenshotted for viewing.
Meek Mill response to The Game😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/dtA9P9ewFr — RemySounds (@remysounds) September 16, 2016
In case you're confused at how the Meek Mill and The Game beef started.. [VIDEO] https://t.co/a6xWa6CBZo pic.twitter.com/m5AD5wohgZ — Ani Caribbean (@AniCaribbean) September 16, 2016
Meek Mill throwing subliminal shots at the game on instagram https://t.co/qL4i1hYIWQ pic.twitter.com/jJTeZmLJaE — ಠ_ಠ ☺ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@StreetTeamAC) September 16, 2016
Game didn't back down and posted up one more time writing, "Shout to all my BOSS BITCHES wifing niggas 🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀 #FutureFrom8MileLookinAssNigga#HappyWifeHappyLife#YouSnitchedOnMeAndYouKnowIt."
Shout to all my BOSS BITCHES wifing niggas 🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀 #FutureFrom8MileLookinAssNigga #HappyWifeHappyLife #YouSnitchedOnMeAndYouKnowIt A photo posted by The Game (@losangelesconfidential) on Sep 16, 2016 at 1:37pm PDT
Whoopi Goldberg come get yo son..... (Walk in the salon like gimme the tarantula) 🐀🐁🐀🐁🐀🐁🐁🐀🐁🐀 A photo posted by The Game (@losangelesconfidential) on Sep 16, 2016 at 1:49pm PDT
See original post below.
The Game has a problem with Meek Mill. The 1992 artist was filmed at Story in Miami dissing Meek onstage for being a "snitch" and seemingly threatening to "beat [his] ass." According to Uproxx, Game's anti-Meek comments were made on Thursday. Meek hasn't directly responded to Game's comments just yet, but he did hit up Instagram with what may be a subtle reply early Friday morning.
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#thegame sending shots at #meekmill while in the club. A video posted by DJ Akademiks (@akademikstv) on Sep 16, 2016 at 2:38am PDT
"I just wanna beat that n****'s ass one good time," Game is seen telling the crowd in footage shared across social media. "When you see me n****, square up. It ain't gotta be about no guns. Fuck Meek Mill." Though it's not immediately clear what has Game feeling this way about Meek, what is clear is that dude is very upset.
Meek Mill and The Game were previously collaborators on the Documentary 2 bonus track "The Soundtrack" just last year. In an Instagram post shared Friday, Meek said "we ain't rapping fan handle ya biz [sic]," adding that he loved "this shit." Fans' comments on the post have since turned into a discussion on the meaning behind Game's comments.
We ain't rapping fan handle ya biz......... I love this shit lol A photo posted by Meek Mill (@meekmill) on Sep 16, 2016 at 2:19am PDT
Last month, The Game and 50 Cent squashed their own high-profile beef with a bonding session at a strip club. "I always said I didn't understand where it came from," 50 Cent told Big Boy during a Real 92.3 chat. "He explained it to me. We're in the same place. We're cool. I haven't wished bad on him the entire time."
The Game later shared the Meek Mill diss track "92 Bars" which you can listen to here. His new album, 1992, is due October 7.Senate Democrats sent Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai a letter Wednesday, urging him to delay a vote on internet neutrality rules. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Senate Democrats pressed Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday to delay a vote on internet neutrality rules, arguing in a letter that the repeal of the regulations could be devastating for K-12 and higher education.
The letter, organized by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and signed by more than 20 of her Democratic colleagues, comes a day before the FCC is set to vote Thursday to undo Obama-era regulations that ensure companies that provide internet access cannot favor certain websites over others by choosing which load faster – rules that are widely known as net neutrality.
“By overturning the commission’s current rules that preserve net neutrality and prevent internet service providers from blocking, throttling, or otherwise privileging lawful content, we fear that the Draft Order could harm our nation’s students and schools – especially those in rural and low-income communities,” they wrote. “We urge you to delay this monumental decision to dismantle net neutrality until you have fully examined the Draft Order’s impact on our nation’s students and their ability to learn.”
Pai has argued that the rules are too burdensome and that they stifle innovation. Repealing net neutrality, he has said, is imperative to return to a “free market-based approach” to the internet.
But Democrats, along with a host of K-12 and higher education groups, are worried that repealing the regulation would disproportionately hurt students in rural areas, which account for the majority of schools that still lack high-speed fiber optics, as well as the estimated 5 million students whose only access to the internet is in schools.
“By rolling back the FCC’s current prohibitions against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, the Draft Order could lead to a tiered and compartmentalized internet, and whose characteristic openness is limited to those students, schools, and institutions who can afford it,” they wrote.
The letter underscores the significant strides in improving high-speed connectivity, largely thanks to the federal E-Rate program, which provides funding for schools and libraries to connect to the internet and which the FCC, under the Obama administration, voted to modernize in 2014 with a $1.5 billion boost in funding.
Indeed, in four years, the number of students with access to high-speed internet has increased tenfold. In 2013, only 4 million students had access to broadband that provided internet fast enough to allow for digital learning in the classroom. Now, four years later, that number has catapulted to 39.2 million.
The letter also details potential pitfalls in the higher education space at a time when online class enrollment has never been higher: As of the fall of 2015, more than 6 million students enrolled in at least one online course, representing about 30 percent of enrollments, compared to less than 10 percent in the fall of 2002.
“Should the Draft Order be adopted, video lectures and online learning resources that are essential to institutions of higher education may be rendered unavailable by [independent service providers] that decide to block them or otherwise privilege a competing resource,” the Democrats wrote. “Additionally, basic research, which today more than ever relies upon frequent exchange of massive data sets online, could be severely impacted by a tiered and tolled internet.”A Manhattan underwear heiress says her newlywed hubby conned her into raiding a trust fund with phony sob stories about mob gambling debts — only to lavish the six-figure payout on his New Jersey mistress.
Now wounded wife Candice Feinberg is seeking revenge on them both — to the tune of more than $10 million — in a stunning Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
The alleged two-timing cad, Steven Lalicata, 30, convinced his wealthy bride into withdrawing $744,000 from her trust fund to pay off his supposed gambling debts to mobsters, Feinberg says in her $10.7 million suit, but all the while he “was stealing the money to live a double life.”
Feinberg — then a recently divorce mother — met Mr. Wrong at the Beach Bum Tanning Salon in July 2010 and quickly fell for the tall, muscular smooth-talker.
The 39-year-old’s dad is retired garment industry executive Herbert Feinberg, who is himself something of a legend credited with inventing seamless panties.
Little did she know that her tanning salon beau was faking much more than his bronzed skin tone.
They married in 2011 and shortly after he said, “I do” Lalicata allegedly conspired with a cousin and a friend to concoct “an elaborate scheme to steal large sums of money” from Feinberg.
Click for more from NYPost.comAlthough it has (rightfully) been maligned as the Worst Year Ever, 2016 was also an interesting year for our understanding of gender archetypes and how they affect our society. In some senses, 2016 was a boundary-breaking year, with huge steps forward for transgender awareness and new openings in the definitions of masculine and feminine "spheres" and what people of certain genders can and cannot do. In other ways, though, it was a year that shifted the conversation in more negative ways, a trend exemplified by the results of the presidential election. We won't look at gender in the same way after 2016, but not all of the new elements are necessarily great improvements.
What do we talk about when we talk about gender? The year 2016 revealed just how expansive that conversation has to be, from the behavioral expectations placed on girls and boys from birth to understandings of gendered roles in society, and how personal conceptions of gender can differ radically from physical ones.
For many of those aspects, 2016 has been a seminal year, where we'll carry forward the progress (and the hurt) from these landmark moments for years to come.
Covergirl Signed Its First Male Spokesmodel Let's start with something deeply positive: Covergirl's decision to hire their first ever male spokesmodel, the incredible James Charles, to feature across their campaigns. Charles can work a highlighter like nobody's business, and the campaign was a direct hit at gendered notions of cosmetics as purely female, which, to be honest, isn't backed up in the history of makeup at all. Men have used makeup throughout history, from the ancient preference for face and body-painting to the powdered faces and rouge of pre-Revolution France. The modern world, however, has largely restricted cosmetics along gender lines, so Charles' big-name (and big-money) campaign as a cosmetics maven, plus cheekbones, is a big boundary-breaker for the notions of gender performance and the inherent "femininity" of makeup. Considering that the previous standard-bearer for male makeup, Johnny Depp, had a spectacular fall from grace in 2016 with allegations of violence against ex-wife Amber Heard, there was a need for a new positive icon for men in eyeliner.
Laverne Cox And Hari Nef Kicked All The Asses It's Laverne Cox's world; we're just living in it. The transgender icon came off a heady 2015 in which she'd made TIME's list of 100 Most Influential People (and its cover), and has only made further progress for visibility and excellence; she took on the gender-bending Frank'N'Furter role in FOX's remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with ease, and continues to be a powerful advocate for trans issues around the world. The new spotlight was on Hari Nef, the trans model and actress who starred on Transparent and was the first openly trans woman to take several steps: one, be on the books of IMG Models; two, feature on the cover of a major British magazine when she took the cover of Elle in September. Cox isn't a lone voice (or always paired with Caitlyn Jenner) any more, and that has made 2016 an incredibly exciting time.
Science About Deep Gender Stereotypes Went Mainstream The science of gender went big in 2016, and we now know things about the way gender functions that we've never known before. The idea of "gendered toys" was still a hot-button issue, with new science emerging to indicate that children as young as nine months gravitate towards "gender-appropriate" toys (dolls for girls, trucks for boys); but we're still not sure whether it's something innate in children, or if they're picking up on gendered messages from their parents and caregivers. And a major conference given at the White House in November showed new research that the toys we give our kids, emphasizing nurturing or spatial awareness, may have big knock-on effects on their skills in the future, setting up their strengths and weaknesses for adulthood. The idea that women just "aren't good enough" at STEM to pursue a career in it was also tackled in 2016 (by female scientists, no less). And there's been a breakthrough: a study in November found that a big part of the reason that girls stay away from STEM isn't about test results. It's down to self-confidence and the weight of public perceptions; girls and young women seem to absorb societal beliefs that "girls can't do math" and rate their own abilities lower as a result, while boys often have an inflated view of their skills. Parents in the study tended to hold higher opinions of sons' mathematical abilities, which probably added an extra layer of discouragement. Gendered stereotypes go very deep indeed, it seems. While it's upsetting to have proof of that, 2016 also proved it can be very useful.
NASA Threw Gender Stereotypes Out The Window One place where gender inequality and the notion of the "inferior" woman became obsolete in 2016 was the astronaut training class at NASA, where, for the first time, its intake was 50 percent women. Entry to the astronaut training is notoriously difficult, restricted to eight candidates, and this year four are women, marking a historical achievement for an agency that's featured some pretty spectacular female thinkers over the years; the engineer Margaret Hamilton, for instance, wrote the bulk of the Apollo 11 mission's codes by hand. The future looks bright at least when it comes to the stars.
We Saw Female-Led Nerd Culture Break Through Star Wars on YouTube It may be that 2016 was the year in which the boundaries between "male" and "female" entertainment broke down with a crack. From the female quartet of Ghostbusters, which led to trolling from men grumpy about it "ruining their childhoods," to the record-breaking Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with its female lead (and diverse cast), and Arrival's glorious sci-fi fantasy anchored by Amy Adams, the big-bucks mainstream nerd cinema culture became a space for female leads at last. Unfortunately, the sexist backlash has proved that gender equality remains a serious issue in this most male of spaces. Critics have also pointed out that both Rey and Jyn, the two new female Star Wars leads, are virtually the only females with major roles in either film; and the new drama-space-rom-com attempted mash-up, Passengers, has been utterly derailed by people pointing out that Chris Pratt's character is actually "creepy" and "stalkerish," rather than romantic. There's still a long way to go, but it's been a seminal year.
Trans Rights Awareness Hit A New High Late Night with Seth Meyers on YouTube Beyond the visibility of individuals, the transgender experience became a more prominent part of culture in 2016 more generally. The release of Against Me!: Shape Shift With Me, the film documenting the transition of punk rocker Laura Jane Grace as she fronted the band Against Me!, raised hugely important conversations, while in sadder news, Chelsea Manning's continued incarceration in a men's prison was appealed loudly by the National Center for Transgender Equality. And everybody everywhere had an opinion about the "bathroom bill" of North Carolina, which blocks people from using bathrooms that don't correspond to their gender assigned at birth. It was one of the highest-profile issues of the year, with everybody from Bruce Springsteen to Demi Lovato and the National Collegiate Athletics Association protesting the state. Although an attempted repeal of the bill has just failed, the sheer weight of outcries against it indicates that transgender rights are accelerating as a part of the American consciousness, and that a tipping point is coming.A second man was found dead in Central Park waters Wednesday morning, just one day after authorities pulled an unidentified male from the park's reservoir, police said.
Police responded to a 911 call around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and found an unresponsive male in Central Park's Swan Lake near 59th Street and East Drive. Emergency personnel pronounced the unidentified man dead at the scene after removing him from the water, an NYPD spokesman confirmed to Fox News.
On Tuesday, maintenance workers discovered an unidentified male in Central Park’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir near 90th Street and Central Park West. The man was naked and had begun the process of decomposition, police said.
A police spokesperson speculated that the body had been in the water for more than a month.
The man found Wednesday – about 30 blocks southeast in a separate body of water – was clothed. There were no signs of trauma, and the medical examiner is working to determine a cause of death, police said.
Police have made a tentative identification of the man found Wednesday but are "awaiting further confirmation," Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters Wednesday afternoon. The man is believed to have been in his 30s, police said.
Boyce estimated that he had been in the water for less than two weeks.
While the investigations into both deaths are still ongoing, “there is no indication” at this time that the two are connected, a police spokesman said.
"There's no criminality right now to show there's anything more than a coincidence," Boyce |
natural disaster, or other calamity has been much on the mind of Israel’s top communication companies for years. That’s why nine of them — among them giants like Alvarion, Gilat, Elbit, and Wavion — in 2009 established the RESCUE (Rapidly Deployable Communication Infrastructures for Rescue Forces) Consortium, which was organized to develop a foolproof communication technology that could continue functioning, thus enabling defense and rescue workers to communicate regardless of what was going on around them.
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“Communications” is a big word and it encompasses a big swath of technologies, including Wi-Fi, WiMax, 3G and LTE cellular networks, P25/Tetra, satellite communications, and more. Each one of the consortium’s members specialize in one or more of these areas, which all have their advantages and disadvantages, their more appropriate and less appropriate uses. The group decided to pool its resources to develop an integrated system of broadband solutions and routing technologies, including bi-directional mobile and quick deploy satellite terminals, distributed control, self-organized networks (SON), autonomous-routing, and self-forming capabilities. All these, consortium members said at an event introducing the system at Gilat Satellite’s Petah Tikva headquarters this week, will ensure that Israel can maintain its communications capabilities under any circumstances.
“The communication infrastructure required for the success of first responder and rescue forces are often damaged or destroyed after earthquakes, floods, fires, hurricanes, tsunamis or terrorist attacks,” said Avi Gal, director of Projects and Alliances at Gilat and chairman of the RESCUE Consortium. “The capabilities developed enable the communication between the rescue forces and the command centers, for more effective management and success of the rescue and lifesaving missions.”
The consortium is also a member of the Chief Scientist’s Office MAGNET program, which encourages Israeli tech companies to work together to create “value-added” solutions that harnesses existing technology to create new products and services. Indeed, said consortium members, there is a great deal of interest around the world for solutions of this kind including in the US, Europe and Japan. In the US, a designated association, FirstNet, was recently formed and funded by Congress to build a communication network for rescue forces. Unique frequency bands were devoted for FirstNet using LTE technology and complementary connectivity solutions such as satellite communication, with the network requirements are similar to the ones demonstrated by the RESCUE consortium. Members said that they hoped to be able to market the Israeli solution abroad.
“The technologies developed by the RESCUE consortium will enable the creation of communication networks that can be rapidly deployed in the event of disaster,” said Ilan Peled, director of the MAGNET Program. “We are excited by the innovation of the integrated solution, reflecting the strength of the technological infrastructure in Israeli industry.”Maya, definition and study. A-Z index of Cognitio.
Maya, definition and study. A-Z index of Cognitio.
The ancient Mayas were a population settled in Mesoamerica where they developed a civilization known for art, architecture, refined mathematical and astronomical systems, and writing, the only known writing system fully developed in pre-Columbian Americas. Mayan civilization developed into an area that includes today’s Mexican southeastern, Guatemala and Belize, as well as western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Usually, the history of Mayan civilization is divided into three main periods: pre-classical, classical, and post-classical. The beginning or end dates of a given period may also vary by a century depending on the author or the reference text. The pre-classic period extends around 2000 BC and 250 DC, followed by the classical period, about 250 dC. at 950 d.C. and the Postclassic since 950 d.C. in the middle of the 16th century. In 1511, a Spanish caravel wrecked in the Caribbean and about a dozen survivors landed on the Yucatan coast where they were captured by a Maya; almost all the prisoners were sacrificed, but two were spared and one of these, nine years later, became Hernán Cortés’s interpreter. Following the Spanish conquest, most of the characteristics of the Mayan civilization disappeared. However, many settlements remained distant from the Spanish colonial authorities, and some were able to continue living independently so that Mayan communities and families could maintain their traditional daily life. Catholic missionaries wrote detailed Mayan accounts in support of their efforts to evangelize and absorb this population in the Spanish empire, leaving detailed descriptions of the ruins they found in the Yucatan and Central America. During the nineteenth century cataloging and retrieval of Ethno-historical finds and the first studies to decipher hieroglyphs were seen. Unlike Aztecs and Inca, the Mayans have never, throughout their history, integrated into a single state or empire: in fact, they were characterized by a set of the city-state and small realms.
These units, however, often interacted with each other in complex networks of rivalries, vassals, and alliances. In common with other populations of Mesoamerica, the Mayans believed in a supernatural kingdom inhabited by a number of powerful gods, which had to be sacrificed with ceremonial offerings and ritual practices. There had been several worlds: each one had perished in a flood and was expecting another flood. The Mayan universe, like the Manichean, was troubled by the perpetual struggle between the powers of evil and good.
Good brought rain, fertility, and abundance; badness led to drought, hurricanes, and wars. At the center of the Mayan religious practice, there was the cult of the dead ancestors, those who would act as intermediaries among their living descendants with the inhabitants of the supernatural kingdom.
The first intermediaries between man and the supernatural kingdom were, however, the shamans. Blood was considered to be a powerful source of nourishment for the Mayan gods and a necessary fact to maintain the balance of the cosmos, so the sacrifice of a living creature was an important supply of blood. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life could be the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and so the most important Maya rites culminated in human sacrifice. The Mayans believed in a great variety of divinities, supernatural entities, and sacred forces.
They used to extensively interpret what they considered sacred and identified the gods with specific events, there were also gods with a special jurisdiction over the chronological periods in which time was divided, others were still reserved for each day separately and every number had his god. The interpretation of the Mayan deities was intrinsically linked to the calendar, astronomy and their worldview. The importance of a divinity, its characteristics, and its associations varied according to the movement of the celestial bodies. Itzamna was the Creator God, but he also embodied the cosmos and was at the same time the sun god.
The Popol Vuh was written in Latin characters during the early colonial times and it was probably the transcription of a hieroglyphic book composed by an unknown noble K’iche.
It is one of the most important works of the indigenous literature of the Americas. The Popol Vuh tells the myth of the creation of the world, the legend of the Gemini Heroes, and the history of the post-class Kingdom of K’iche. The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies and patiently recorded the astronomical data on the movements of the Sun, Moon, Venus and the stars.
There are hundreds of Mayan sites spread across five states: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. The six sites considered particularly outstanding due to their architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras.
Maya, definition and study. A-Z index of Cognitio.
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Like this: Like Loading...CHICAGO, Ill. (February 19, 2014) – The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced Thursday that the club has waived forward Kellen Gulley and midfielder Brendan King.
Gulley joined the Fire on Aug. 11, 2011 when he was signed as the second Homegrown Player in Fire history. The Clinton, Miss. native was named to the U.S. Soccer U-17 Residency Program in January 2010 and earned eight caps at the U-17 level, tallying four goals during international competition in 2009 and 2010.
King, a 23-year-old midfielder from Naperville, Ill., joined the Men in Red on January 31, 2013 after spending 2012 with Norwegian Division One side Alta IF where he appeared in seven matches and League of Ireland Premier Division side Bray Wanderers AFC where he made one appearance.
Name: Kellen Gulley
Position: Forward
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 185 lbs.
Date of Birth: April 6, 1994
Hometown: Clinton, Miss.
Citizenship: USA
Departed: Waived on Feb. 20, 2014
Name: Brendan King
Position: Midfielder
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 160 lbs.
Date of Birth: February 25, 1990
Hometown: Naperville, IL
Citizenship: USA
Departed: Waived on Feb. 20, 2014The Portland Police Bureau plans to move ahead with random drug-testing of officers this year, and has decided to include exams for steroids, despite stiff opposition from the police union.
On Jan. 12, the city will begin training officers on the effects of drugs and alcohol in the workplace, and review the new policy.
Once the training is completed, up to 55 officers a month, or 660 a year, will be tested in a fiscal year.
When city officials approved the contract last February, they said they planned to delay steroid testing, calling it too costly.
But the city has found a California lab, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory, that will do the tests at a reasonable cost of about $100 per exam, said Yvonne Deckard, director of the city's Bureau of Human Resources.
Portland police will join other major law enforcement agencies, such as Phoenix, Dallas, Albuquerque, N.M., Boston and New York police, who include steroids in their random drug tests.
Use of anabolic steroids, which are essentially synthetic forms of testosterone, sometimes results in a significant elevation of male hormones and can lead to violent outbursts and uncontrolled anger, studies have found. Steroids have legitimate medical uses but are frequently abused for illegitimate recreational uses, such as bodybuilding, weightlifting or “bulking up.”
Deckard said she was unable to reach any agreement with the union on the steroid tests despite multiple meetings last year, but cannot delay the testing further. She said she last met with union leaders in November, but couldn't find a date in December acceptable to the union to meet.
"Frankly, we have bargained this to completion," Deckard said. "This is a very important issue for the City Council and the citizens of Portland."
Deckard sent the union a letter Dec. 29, notifying it of the city's plan to move forward. "While the PPA indicated its intent was to work collaboratively with the City, the PPA's behavior has demonstrated otherwise,"
.
Turner filed a grievance last September, demanding the city "cease and desist" from moving forward with any drug-testing policy to which it had not agreed.
Turner, in a statement issued today in response to the Oregonian's questions, said Deckard had misrepresented the union's efforts to come to an agreement. He said he did meet with Deckard Dec. 1, but the union still had concerns about the steroid testing, including the fact that any detectable level of steroids would be considered a positive drug test under the city's current policy. A less stringent standard was discussed when the contract was ratified, he said.
The union has argued that members who take over-the-counter supplements could test positive for steroids. The union wanted the city to conduct a special test for supplements if an officer tested positive for steroids.
"To expect officers to read the list of ingredients on the back of a supplement bottle, many of which are in chemical terms, and then determine whether those chemicals might contain illegal substances is to ask the impossible,''
An extra test would cost about $300, Deckard said.
"I said that's not reasonable," Deckard said. "Other jurisdictions have steroid testing, peroid. If you test positive, you test positive, period. My position is, your employer now tests for steroids, and you agree to it. What your job is, is to make sure you don't test positive for steroids."
Dr. Linn Goldberg, OHSU's head of health promotion and sports medicine, said the union is mistaken. "They don't know what they're talking about," Goldberg said.
If an officer taking a sports supplement, for example, tests positive for steroids, that means the supplement company may illegally be placing steroids into the supplement. Supplements aren't regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
He cited a 2003 study by the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission, which found that about 18 percent of dietary supplements sold in the U.S. for the purpose of building muscle and improving athletic performance have been contaminated with steroid-like chemicals. The commission, as a result, recommended athletes not take these supplements.
"But to say that amino acids or different types of supplements will test positive when they're not steroids, is patently false," Goldberg said.
Until now, the bureau has only tested officers for drugs if supervisors have "reasonable suspicion" that an officer was using.
Under the new random drug-testing policy, the bureau will test for five classes of drugs: marijuana, cocaine, opiates, phencyclidine or PCP and amphetamines.
says the city's intent is to balance accountability with treatment, based upon the "joint desire" to achieve a work force that is 100 percent drug free.
"Drug and alcohol testing, which will be part of the program, is intended in part as a means of identifying those who need help," the policy states.
The steroid testing will be done at a certified lab. Officers are to provide a urine sample in the privacy of a stall while a collection site person remains in the room.
While the written policy says the city will "randomly test a subset'' of the 660 officers randomly tested each year for anabolic steroids and prohormones, Deckard said all the random drug tests will include testing for the steroids.
"The City has informed the PPA that every individual randomly selected for drug testing will automatically be tested for steroids,'' Deckard said.
If an officer tests positive for less than.08 percent blood-alcohol content; marijuana; or "illegally used drugs" and it's a first offense, the city will give the officer the option to seek treatement, face up to a 40-hour suspension without pay or be assigned a desk job and have restricted police powers. Refusing to submit to a drug test, or switching or adulterating any urine sample, shall result in termination.
If an officer tests positive for drugs but has knowledge of "possible alternate medical explanations" a review will be done by a medical review officer before results are sent to the Police Bureau.
--Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (R-Ky.) congratulated Roy Moore on Tuesday night for his win against Sen. Luther Strange Luther Johnson StrangeDomestic influence campaigns borrow from Russia’s playbook Overnight Defense: Senate bucks Trump with Yemen war vote, resolution calling crown prince'responsible' for Khashoggi killing | House briefing on Saudi Arabia fails to move needle | Inhofe casts doubt on Space Force Five things to watch in Mississippi Senate race MORE in the GOP runoff for Alabama's open Senate seat, saying that he shares Moore's frustration with Washington.
The statement marks an about-face for McConnell, who pushed hard for Strange to beat Moore in the primary. Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC associated with McConnell, spent heavily in an effort to elect Strange, and Moore repeatedly slammed McConnell during the campaign.
"I would like to congratulate Roy Moore on his victory in Alabama tonight. He ran a spirited campaign centered around a dissatisfaction with the progress made in Washington. I share that frustration and believe that enacting the agenda the American people voted for last November requires us all to work together," McConnell said in a statement.
NEW: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urges redoubling of efforts in support of Roy Moore in Alabama general election, in statement pic.twitter.com/2yo8uX882H — NBC News (@NBCNews) September 27, 2017
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Moore, a former chief justice of the state's supreme court, ran a vehemently anti-establishment campaign that appealed to grassroots GOP voters and supporters of President Trump, who backed Moore's opponent.
The judge was ahead by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin when the race was called. The former judge will now run in the general election in December for the rest of the term left open by Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsFormer Trump refugee director did not notify superiors about family separation warnings Court rejects challenge to Mueller's appointment Trump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report MORE.
"Senate Republicans will be as committed to keeping Alabama's Senate seat in Republican hands with Roy Moore as we were with Luther Strange. I urge all of our friends who were active in the primary to redouble their efforts int he general election," McConnell said.It’s the question of our time, really: Did Dallas Cowboys rookie free agent lineman La’el Collins help himself to a free tossed salad? A self-proclaimed “orally gifted” escort who goes by the handle of THROATZILLA certainly thinks so, and she publicly unloaded both barrels on Collins earlier this month by making her accusations public. The validity of those delightful accusations is the subject of this week’s Deadcast.
Here is Throatzilla’s full statement about the alleged incident:
I’m an escort & lael Collins hired me to eat his a** & give him head last Sunday but when it came time to pay, he said he meant he would take me out to eat. After us arguing for 20 minutes he agreed to pay me Thursday. So when Thursday came, he made me delete his number & all of our text messages, but I requested them from Sprint he has now changed his number but I blasted him on Twitter & him & his agent got my Twitter deleted.
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Intriguing! Oh, but we’ve got more than just butt action this week, gang. We’re also talking about Jason Whitlock’s “firing” (as much as you can be fired while still getting paid to be a moron), terrible baseball takes, Rachel Dolezal, James Bond, and more. Join Marchman as I as we once again struggle to gracefully transition from one subject to the next. If you have anything you’d like to hear discussed on the revived podcast, just send it in to tips@deadspin.com with the subject line DEADCAST. You can listen to the show here or download it over at the iTunes store.
Photo via APUPDATE: An RCMP spokesperson tells CANADALAND that they met with Northern News Services on the afternoon of April 24 and that “all issues have been discussed and resolved.” The RCMP adds: “There will be no further discussion or information on the matter. We look forward to a continued relationship with Northern News Service Ltd.”
Last Friday, the RCMP announced a big drug bust in Yellowknife. They held a news conference in the afternoon to present the haul of evidence they had obtained.
John McFadden, a reporter who covers the police for the local Yellowknifer paper, learned of the presser from an email blast sent to the press by RCMP Constable Elenore Sturko.
But when McFadden showed up to the RCMP station where the news conference was taking place, he was barred from going in.
In an e-mail he sent to his editor, obtained by CANADALAND, McFadden says that Constable Sturko told him he was being kept out because of his “unprofessional and disrespectful conduct.” She then let CBC reporter Mitch Wiles in, McFadden writes, “before closing the locked door on me.”
“I did witness John McFadden being denied entry to last Friday’s RCMP press conference,” confirmed Mitch Wiles. “I don’t want to speculate on why the RCMP denied McFadden access to the event. I have not seen John McFadden act inappropriately while covering a story.”
“I have never been disrespectful to the RCMP,” McFadden said, reached by e-mail.
In an email sent shortly before the conference, Constable Sturko tells Yellowknifer editor Bruce Valpy that due to McFadden’s “disrespectful tone”, “we do not see any benefit in speaking to him, or answering his inquiries.”
The two examples of a “disrespectful tone” given by the RCMP can be read here.
A close read of the correspondence between the reporter and the Mountie reveals little that might be considered disrespectful or rude on McFadden’s part, unless presenting a list of direct questions counts as bad manners.
It may be that McFadden’s journalism and not his etiquette is what got him banned.
The rift seems to have come after McFadden published a March 18 story on a firearms robbery. Sources at Northern News (Yellowknifer’s parent company) tell CANADALAND that the RCMP took issue with his opening line.
McFadden wrote: “There are serious concerns after a hand gun and a high-powered assault rifle, along with thousands of rounds of ammunition, were stolen from a residence in the Range Lake area on March 13.”
The RCMP, we are told, didn’t like the term “serious concerns,” and raised the issue with the reporter. McFadden apologizes to them for not saying exactly who had the serious concerns. Constable Sturko later seized on that apology, writing that McFadden, “by his own admission…does not report accurately on our organization.”
As you can read, McFadden makes a genuine effort to reach out to Constable Sturko, adding “I think we have a strong, mutual relationship. The last thing I want to do is jeopardize that in any way. I hope we are cool.”
Two weeks before his firearms robbery story, on March 5, McFadden reported on the RCMP’s own admission of a failure to notify the public about a break and enter and sexual assault. Two weeks after the incident, a similar break and enter and sexual assault occurred. The same convicted sex offender has since been charged in both cases.
As he is a police reporter in Yellowknife, it’s hard to imagine McFadden being able to do his job without access to the local RCMP.
CANADALAND obtained these e-mails as part of a chain that was forwarded to all Northern News Service editorial staff, along with a note from Managing Editor Bruce Valpy supporting his police reporter.
In his message to staff, Valpy writes: “It is clear John is being held responsible for what the RCMP considers to be negative reporting on their activities in Yellowknifer… We will continue to report the news and we hope NNSL editorial staff will ensure the RCMP understand they have no basis for their complaint against John and we will not tolerate any attempts to channel news away from him.”
“We stand by John’s reporting,” said Valpy, reached by phone at his office. “We stand by him as a journalist. We will keep sending him to press conferences because he is our police reporter. That is all I have to say about that.”
We asked Constable Elenore Sturko and the RCMP to explain her claim that McFadden admitted his reporting is inaccurate. We also asked why McFadden was barred from the press conference by the RCMP and if the RCMP could cite any reporting by McFadden or Northern News Service that is inaccurate. They did not reply to these questions.
[email protected]The most significant challenge facing higher education today is our growing economic segregation. College completion rates for those at the lowest socioeconomic rungs continue to lag far behind those of their wealthier peers, not only due to diminished financial resources but also because of a lack of social and cultural capital. Redressing this phenomenon will require offering an education that prepares each and every student for success in work and life, while inspiring them to take seriously their social responsibilities in a society plagued by persistent inequities.
In fact, the board of directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, where I serve as president, expanded the organization’s mission in 2012 to embrace both inclusive excellence and liberal education as the foundation for institutional purpose and educational practice. The addition of inclusive excellence as one of AAC&U’s foundational principles reflects the ideal that access to educational excellence for all students -- not just the privileged -- is essential not only for our nation’s economy but, more important, for our democracy. Democracy cannot flourish in a nation divided into haves and have nots.
The equity imperative as an essential component of educating for democracy has been at the forefront of my mind during the past few weeks of nonstop coverage of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. I have been particularly focused on the potential impact of various higher education policy proposals on AAC&U’s objective of advancing a public-spirited vision of inclusive excellence as inextricably linked to liberal education.
While higher education issues were pretty much absent from the Republican convention speeches, an earlier proposal by Donald Trump, developed by Sam Clovis, his educational policy adviser, to restrict eligibility for student loans in order to make it more difficult for those at “nonelite colleges” to major in the liberal arts previously caught my attention. Indeed, I am convinced that, if enacted, it would risk exacerbating what Thomas Jefferson termed an “unnatural aristocracy,” where only the wealthy gain the benefits of the kind of broad and engaged liberal education that Clovis himself insists is the absolute foundation for success in life.
Trump’s proposal makes at least two serious errors about the value of a college degree in today’s world. It assumes, first, that one’s undergraduate major is all that matters and, second, that only some majors will prepare students for success in the workplace. The evidence from AAC&U’s own surveys of employers, and from many economists, suggests that this is simply not the case. As noted in the title of our 2013 report of employers’ views, “It Takes More Than a Major,” more than 90 percent of employers agree that “a graduate’s ability to think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major.” Students can develop such cross-cutting skills in a wide variety of chosen disciplines, if the courses are well designed and integrated within robust, problem-based general education programs.
A student’s undergraduate experience, and how well the experience advances critical learning outcomes, is what matters most, with 80 percent of employers agreeing that all students need a strong foundation in the liberal arts and sciences. A liberal education fosters the capacity to write, speak and think with precision, coherence and clarity; to propose, construct and evaluate arguments; and to anticipate and respond to objections. And it offers what employers value the most: the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings, to engage in ethical decision making and to work in teams on solving unscripted problems with people whose views differ from one’s own. In a globally interdependent yet multicultural world, it is precisely because employers place a particular premium on innovation in response to rapid change that they emphasize students’ experiences with diverse populations, rather than narrow technical training.
The data confirm what we already know: students in all undergraduate majors can and should gain the outcomes of a broad liberal education. Therefore, we need to be vigilant in rebutting accusations of irrelevance and illegitimacy leveled specifically at the liberal arts and sciences and to recognize those charges for what they are: collusion in the growth of an intellectual oligarchy in which only the very richest and most prestigious institutions preserve access to the liberal arts traditions. Trump’s ostensible presumption that college is only about workforce training is dangerous to our democratic future.
Of course, it is unclear whether a proposal to use student loans to steer students away from certain majors could be implemented, given the challenges of predicting career trajectories based on majors and types of institutions. (After all, I was a philosophy major who began at a community college under funds from the Comprehensive Employment Training Act, Pell Grants and Perkins Loans.)
Still, in order to restore public trust in higher education and destabilize the cultural attitudes at the basis of Trump’s policy proposal, we need to demonstrate in a more compelling way to those outside of the academy, Democrats and Republicans alike, the extent to which we actually are teaching students 21st-century skills, preparing them to solve our most pressing global, national and local problems within the context of the workforce, not apart from it. To do so, our institutions of higher education must come together to engage in an honest assessment of our effectiveness and undertake a collaborative exchange of best practices. Our shared commitments to equity, democratic and economic vitality, and inclusive excellence demand nothing less.Build Your Own /r/thebutton with Meteor
Rahul Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 25, 2015
Update: Since writing this over a year ago, a couple of things have changed. First, /r/thebutton timed out a little after this article was published, so you won’t be able to see the real thing in action. Second, Meteor has obviously been under development since, so some of the recommendations written below may no longer accurate. I’m leaving the article up since it’s still generally interesting.
Reddit has been taken over by a clever little toy launched as an April Fools’ joke: The Button. Over three weeks on, it’s still getting plenty of clicks.
In short, The Button is just that: a button. It’s attached to a timer that counts down from 60 seconds. You’re invited to click it, but there’s a catch: The Button can only be clicked by Redditors who had an account before April 1st. Once you click it, you can never click it again. There’s a reward, though: you get to display flair next to your username indicating how much time was left on The Button when you clicked it. What will happen when time runs out? No one yet knows.
Besides being a fascinating social experiment, The Button is also a terrific example of a modern real-time web app. The counter counts down and resets in real time as it’s clicked. The number of participants (people who’ve clicked The Button) increments in real-time. State is shared across potentially thousands of clients. Despite being a small app, there’s probably a lot of hidden complexity in the codebase.
To explore how The Button works and to offer a tutorial for those looking to write similar apps, I decided to create a rudimentary clone, which you can see here:
https://github.com/Primigenus/thebutton
I chose the Meteor platform to do this, as it was designed with exactly this kind of application in mind. It took me nearly no time at all. Below, I’ll walk through the most important parts of the app.
Wait, what’s Meteor?
Meteor is a platform for writing software for the web and mobile. At its heart lies a philosophy that programming is currently too hard and that there could be a simpler way. This is reflected in almost everything Meteor does, including installing it.
Why use Meteor instead of something like Angular, Ember or React? Because with Meteor we’ll be able to build the whole app including the server and database, not just the part running in the browser. What about full stack frameworks like Rails, Django or MEAN? Meteor is designed for real-time software, and as a result we can write much less code and spend much less time configuring everything to work.
This article assumes basic familiarity with programming and web development. If you want to get a handle on Meteor’s basics, follow its excellent tutorial for beginners first.
Building a basic /r/thebutton
Looking at /r/thebutton, we can roughly observe how it works and infer what the server is probably doing. At the very least, there needs to be a timer that syncs with the server. We need a button that sends a signal to the server when pressed, and becomes disabled afterwards. Then we need to record some information about the person pressing it: how much time remained when they clicked, who they are, etc. And when they do press the button, we need to reset the timer for everyone else.
Step 1: Set up the timer
First we need to start the timer on the server and then make sure we can access it in the browser. One strategy for accomplishing this would be to have a timer on the server which we can poll from the client:
if (Meteor.isServer) {
var timer = 1000 * 60;
Meteor.setInterval(function() {
timer = timer - 1000;
}, 1000);
Meteor.methods({
getTimer: function() {
return timer;
}
});
}
if (Meteor.isClient) {
Meteor.setInterval(function() {
Meteor.call("getTimer", function(err, res) {
Session.set("timer", res);
});
}, 1000);
}
However, this is quite low level — we’re managing the exchange of data between server and client ourselves, and asking the server for new information every second, which is inefficient. Meteor makes this much easier by offering collections that are synced automatically between the server and client:
Timer = new Mongo.Collection("timer");
if (Meteor.isServer) {
Meteor.setInterval(function() {
Timer.update(Timer.findOne()._id, {
$inc: {value: -1000}
});
}, 1000);
}
…which allows us to get rid of the method and take advantage of Meteor’s reactivity and publish/subscribe model.
Further, by being able to reason about the timer as a value that changes throughout the app without needing to consider the environment (eg. server or client), Meteor helps simplify how we model our app and reduce the number of elements we need to keep track of.
On the client, we can then just refer to the value in the collection. Since Meteor is reactive, all we have to do to display the timer is print the current value:
<template name="countdown">
{{timeRemaining}}
</template>
…then hook it up, and it will be updated when it changes:
Template.countdown.helpers({
timeRemaining: function() {
return Timer.findOne().value;
}
});
Great! Now our server is counting down to zero and our page is showing us the current time remaining. Time to make a button.
Step 2: The Button
This can be described in HTML, like so:
<template name="thebutton">
<button>Click me!</button>
</template>
When we click it, we store the click in our database:
Clicks = new Mongo.Collection("clicks");
Template.thebutton.events({
'click button': function() {
Clicks.insert({
userId: Meteor.userId(),
clickDate: new Date(),
timeRemaining: Timer.findOne().value
});
}
});
But wait, what’s Meteor.userId()? Meteor provides that as part of its accounts package, but in order to get access to it, we’ll need to install it. Meteor comes with an extensive package system that includes such accounts. Back in the terminal, we can just run this:
meteor add accounts-ui accounts-password
And then to log in, we can just display login buttons somewhere:
<div class="login">{{> loginButtons}}</div>
So now we have a timer, a button, and clicks by signed in users recorded. But what makes The Button work is the fact that you can only click it once.
Step 3: One‘s all you need
First, let’s prevent the user from clicking more than once. To do this we can just check whether we already recorded a click for this particular user when he or she clicks:
var click = Clicks.findOne({userId: Meteor.userId()});
if (click) return;
We also want to show the user how much time was remaining when they clicked, and only allow them to click if they’re logged in. To do this we can update our Button template and include the various states we expect:
<template name="thebutton">
{{#if currentUser}}
{{#unless clicked}}
<button>Click me!</button>
{{else}}
You clicked with {{timeRemaining}}s left.
{{/unless}}
{{else}}
<button disabled>Log in first</button>
{{/if}}
</template>
Then hook them up to the right behaviour (currentUser is provided courtesy of the accounts package):
Template.thebutton.helpers({
clicked: function() {
return Clicks.findOne({userId: Meteor.userId()})!= null;
},
timeRemaining: function() {
var click = Clicks.findOne({userId: Meteor.userId()});
if (click)
return click.timeRemaining;
}
});
That’s it! We now have a persistent timer, a countdown, and a button that you can only click once. But it’s no fun just playing with this by ourselves, since the whole point of the button is to use it with other people. So let’s list the number of people who’ve clicked, and then put it online so others can join in.
Step 4: Never click alone
Like earlier, listing the number of participants is straightforward. First we need a template:
<template name="participants">
{{numParticipants}} participants
</template>
Then we need to tell the template where to get the number:
Template.participants.helpers({
numParticipants: function() {
return Clicks.find().count();
}
});
And we’re done! Time to put this baby online and share it with friends. I recommend Meteor’s own hosting platform, Galaxy, to do this. Once you’ve set up an account, you can just run:
DEPLOY_HOSTNAME=galaxy.meteor.com meteor deploy mybutton.meteorapp.com
Have fun!The Aleph
by Jorge Luis Borges
O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a King of infinite space...
Hamlet, II, 2 But they will teach us that Eternity is the Standing still of the Present Time, a Nunc-stans (as the schools call it); which neither they, nor any else understand, no more than they would a Hic-stans for an Infinite greatness of Place.
Leviathan, IV, 46
On the burning February morning Beatriz Viterbo died, after braving an agony that never for a single moment gave way to self-pity or fear, I noticed that the sidewalk billboards around Constitution Plaza were advertising some new brand or other of American cigarettes. The fact pained me, for I realised that the wide and ceaseless universe was already slipping away from her and that this slight change was the first of an endless series. The universe may change but not me, I thought with a certain sad vanity. I knew that at times my fruitless devotion had annoyed her; now that she was dead, I could devote myself to her memory, without hope but also without humiliation. I recalled that the thirtieth of April was her birthday; on that day to visit her house on Garay Street and pay my respects to her father and |
, by the very nature of its monarchy, do a good job running the state, it must keep its citizens in a state of fear and dependence. It can’t rely solely on one or the other; too much fear will cause a backlash, too much dependence and the state will go broke bribing everyone. And the Houthi takeover of Yemen threatens the fear pillar by exposing how weak Saudi Arabia really is.
So the House of Saud has gone to war and has opened the door to something truly disastrous.
For Saudi Arabia does not have the power to wipe out the Houthis and reorder Yemen.
Yemen is a country of 24.5 million people with a rapidly drying aquifer and a dismal economy. To wipe out the Houthis militarily would require the same amount of geopolitical power used by the Allies in World War II to destroy Nazism and Japanese militarism. Saudi Arabia does not have that; its own population is only near 29 million, with only 18.7 million actual Saudis and the rest foreigners come to suckle on the oil teat. The Allies had not only overwhelmingly bigger economies but overwhelmingly bigger populations as they subjected and destroyed the Axis powers. Saudi Arabia cannot hope to remake Yemen into a reliable client.
Instead, Saudi might focus on the the half of Yemen that provides the backbone of Houthi power: the Zaidiyyah Shi’a, who acount for around somewhere near 35-40% of the population. That’s still not a great formula, though. While there’s plenty of debate over how many troops one should use to crush an insurgency, one popular number is 20 counterinsurgents per 1,000 citizens in an area of operations. If we intentionally underestimate how many Houthi supporters there are of the probable Zaidiyyah Shi’a in Yemen, and just peg it at 8 million, that’s still 160,000 Saudi troops deployed to successfully wipe out the military movement. Saudi Arabia has only 150,000 ground troops, half of which are reserve.
Saudi military planners may not agree with that (very rough) number, but they aren’t acting like men in a position of strength. Saudi Arabia called off the war recently, only to quietly start it back up again.
Thus Saudi Arabia is now sucked into a quagmire that risks exposing its flaws. It cannot win in Yemen; it hasn’t the power. Nor, however, can it ignore Yemen, and be shown as a Gulf paper tiger. So it must walk the impossible line of appearing to be victorious without ever actually winning.
This is unlikely to be the end of the House of Saud, but it will be one of the many straws that breaks this camel’s back.
In 1778, France’s decisive intervention in the American Revolution was widely seen as a wise geopolitical gambit that helped the French turn the tables on a rising Britain. Ten years later, the debt incurred from that war, combined with an inept governing system, destroyed the French monarchy. What was a smart move one year turned into a disaster another.
Yemen isn’t even a smart move; it’s a losing war no matter how you slice it. Saudi Arabia has gone in anyway. What blowback will it suffer? Time will tell, but this will not be the last big risk Saudi Arabia takes as it flounders to save its regime. One of them will bring about the end of the House of Saud.
It is still possible for the Saudi royals to reform their country into a constitutional monarchy and thereby save themselves. But there’s little evidence the House of Saud is dominated by that kind of sense. Into Yemen they go; that abyss will swallow up much of Saudi power. How much power they’ll have left in the aftermath remains to be seen.
AdvertisementsWe know that IBM’s Watson which is a supercomputer created in 2011 and named after the first CEO of IBM and industrialist – Thomas J. Watson, has won the Jeopardy challenge to the 74 times consecutive winner Ken Jennings and cooked an exotic meal. But many of us may not know that Watson has diagnosed a woman in Japan suffering from Leukemia which the doctors cannot detected. The doctors of University of Tokyo’s Institute of Medical Science, Japan were left confounded when she was not responding to the treatment after diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Then the AI system of Watson fed the woman who was 60-years old’s genetic information and made about 20 million clinical oncology studies. Not more than ten minutes, Watson pointed a different form of Leukemia and recommended another treatment, which was resulted successful!
“Watson’s solid detection and treatment solution to this is a proof that the AI is really changing the world”, said by professor Satoru Miyano who was involved in the case. The chairman of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence and member of the National Institute of Informatics, Seiji Yamada added that, “This is the first time in the history of the nation when an AI system has saved a human life”. He also said that, “In the field of the medical and health care, this is the most practical application for the Artificial Intelligence.”
Hence, the medical team of the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Medical Science decided to continue the using of the Watson system. Still it seems to be a long while before IBM’s Watson and other Artificial Intelligence systems provide regularly advice to the hospitals. The diagnosis of Leukemia just shown that how useful the AI technology could be in the medical field to plug in the right data and providing the right treatment.
Not only the medical science that IBM’s Watson has vanquished. It is a cognitive computer system trying to imitate the working of a human brain through self-learning. It mines a vast amount of data, recognizes the pattern and processes the language. Consequently, it produces results quicker than a human can provide on his own. The ultimate goal of the Watson AI system is to provide solutions to the problems without having any human interaction.
For some minor illnesses which are not having in depth studies, it is difficult to provide a body for clinical studies, which is needed for detecting such rare illnesses by Watson AI system. It is needed to examine such body by Watson to compare it with a patient’s medical condition to detect the symptoms and providing the solution. Not only this, the AI systems needs a big amount of DNA repositories. This creates serious issues around privacy and security of such data.
Currently, in the United States, the AI systems are already in use of supporting the treatment of brain tumors and leukemia. However, saying for this particular case, it is surely a real big and bold step into the age of AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Written by Mandip Pandya, Best On Internet.A year and a half ago, we saw our first look at DARPA's hummingbird drone, a teeny robotic spyplane inspired by the mid-air dexterity of the hummingbird. But now we've got a video of the drone in action, much more capable and with the ability to do its acrobatics for much longer.
The drone, built by AeroVironment with funding from DARPA, is able to fly forwards, backwards, and sideways, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Not only does the 'bot resemble its avian inspiration in size (it's only slightly larger than a hummingbird, with a 6.5-inch wingspan and a weight of 19 grams), it also looks impressively like a hummingbird in flight. That's not vanity--it's key to the drone's use as a spy device, as it can perch near its subject without alerting it (supposing that area has a population of hummingbirds--the usual reaction to seeing a hummingbird here in midtown Manhattan is something like "OMG you guys look at the hummingbird!!!!!!," which is not necessarily an ideal situation for a spy-drone).
The drone can currently fly for about eight minutes, impressive considering that range was only 20 seconds a short two years ago. But the engineers aren't satisfied, branding the current drone a prototype and continuing to work on it. Within a decade, says AeroVironment's project manager, this drone could easily be counted on to carry out complex and difficult reconnaissance missions.
[via L.A. Times]Real Madrid sporting director Zinedine Zidane open to position as France coach
The former playmaker has admitted that he would be tempted to take the job if the opportunity to take the reins of the national side were to present itself
Real Madrid sporting director Zinedine Zidane has revealed that he would be interested in taking the position as France national team coach in the future.
The former France international ended his playing career in the summer of 2006, but returned to football in June 2009 when he was named advisor to Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. Zidane was appointed sporting director at the Santiago Bernabeu side earlier this year, and the Frenchman now appears to have coaching ambitions as well.
"Whether I'd like to be coach of Les Bleus? Why not! That wouldn't be a bad thing. Everything's possible in life," Zidane was quoted as saying by Le Parisien.
France is currently coached by Laurent Blanc, who replaced Raymond Domenech after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Blanc's men sit first in Group D of their Euro 2012 qualification campaign and need just four points from their last two games, against Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, to book their ticket for next year's tournament.Due to reports of abuse, Mexico has banned circus animals.
Circus owners are justifiably concerned about what is going to happen to their animals, especially since the ban on keeping lions and tigers for spectacle, which starts on July 8, does not inform as to where the animals are going to be relocated to.
According to International Business Times, Armando Cedeno, president of the national association of circus owners and artists, said, "We are waiting for a response from the government about what will happen to our animals."
Wherever the animals go, it will end up being an expensive adjustment.
According to animal tamer Bruno Raffo, who hails from Tizayuca, it costs around 3,000 Mexican pesos ($194) a day just to feed the tigers -- and that is not even counting vet bills for the occasional check-up.
The Mexican ban on circus animals will affect the futures of man and beast alike.
At least 1,000 circus employees took to the streets of Mexico City to protest against the ban last June.
They argued the ban would leave them jobless.
The worry among the protesters is that new ruling will affect some 50,000 circus employees along with 3,000-3,500 animals.
It has been suggested by circus employees that an inspection system for the city's estimated 50 circuses should be implemented in an effort to curtail potential animal abuses they concede do actually occur.
Jesus Sesma, the politician who pushed for the law banning circus animals, described it in a press conference as promoting "a respect for living beings who are not human."
Privately owned zoos have stepped up and offered to help, but have stipulated that the transition would be a difficult one.
As reported in Reuters, Frank Carlos Camacho, director of Africam Safari which is located in the central city of Puebla, has said, "It depends in great measure on the physical and mental condition of the individual (animals) themselves, to be able to adapt."Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Aug. 3, 2017, 11:51 PM GMT / Updated Aug. 4, 2017, 11:55 AM GMT By Phil McCausland
A number of criminal cases in Baltimore have gone up in smoke over the past two weeks after two Baltimore police body-camera videos have allegedly shown officers planting drugs on residents of the city.
The most recent video, released Tuesday by Baltimore defense attorney Josh Insley, has led the Baltimore City States Attorney’s Office to refer two officers to Internal Affairs and postpone all cases involving the officers.
Five cases have also been dismissed — including Insley’s client, Shamere Collins, 35, whose car appears in the newly released video.
“I think they put something in my car,” Collins told NBC News' Stephanie Gosk in an exclusive interview.
Officers arrested Collins on Nov. 29, 2016, after they told her they smelled marijuana. They then searched her car and said they recovered bags of heroin and marijuana. She was later charged with felony distribution of narcotics.
The most recent video appears to show an officer place a baggie of what appears to be drugs inside of a car while surrounded by other Baltimore police. He then bends over again and appears to find them.
Collins, who admits to being a recreational marijuana smoker, said she was shocked to hear they had discovered the bags of weed and heroin.
"My mind — I went numb like — I didn't know what was going on," Collins said. "They [were] telling me I was facing time and all this... so it's like I felt numb. I didn't know what to do."
Related: Body Camera Video Allegedly Shows Baltimore Police ‘Plant’ Drugs
Two officers in Collins' case were referred to Internal Affairs by the city’s State Attorney’s Office, which urged residents to not rush to judgment.
But, two weeks ago, Maryland Office of the Public Defender released a similar video in which an officer appeared to plant and later find drugs on a plot of a Baltimore residence. Three officers were implicated in the video.
The State's Attorney’s Office said that it had dismissed or is set to dismiss 41 cases because of the first video, 55 are under review and 27 are considered viable cases to prosecute because of evidence beyond the officers’ testimony.
Two of those officers were placed on administrative duty and one was suspended.
These cases of police evidence tampering aren’t helping the image of a beleaguered agency one year removed from a U.S. Department of Justice report that described the Baltimore Police Department as engaging “in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution or federal law.”
“What these videos show is a deep culture of disrespect for the people of Baltimore,” said Assistant Public Defender Debbie Katz Levi.
The Baltimore Police Department is investigating both videos and advising officers to keep their body cameras on at all times.
Baltimore Police Spokesman T.J. Smith described the video as disturbing but said that the clip is perhaps being taken out of context.
“There’s more to the story, I mean, the only sections that are being relooped and relooped are the questionable sections,” he told NBC News.
Smith later suggested that the police may have recreated the drug discovery for the body cameras.
Still, Collins said that it has shaken her faith in the Baltimore police, which she said is widespread throughout the city.
"It makes us even scared to address the police or call them for anything because we're scared," Collins said. "I'm not saying all police are bad because I have law [enforcement] in my family. So I'm not saying all of them are bad but it's... the one's that's bad is making all of them look bad."Here's a fun design challenge: How do you make a first-person game that tells a cogent story, while still allowing players to explore and make meaningful choices, without common FPS game mechanics like combat or player death?
Campo Santo aims to do just that with Firewatch, and at GDC 2015 developers Nels Anderson and Jake Rodkin spoke at length about how Firewatch is being built with those objectives in mind.
Level design is the primary focus of their talk, but they also cover world structure, goals and gating, "encounter" design and the technical tools used as they explain where the design of a non-combat exploration game mirrors other first-person games -- and where it differs.
It's a design-centric talk (embedded above) worth watching for all developers -- especially those working on first-person experiences -- and now you can do just that for free here on the GDC Vault.
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM TechCLOSE Palestinians protest in NYC after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel Viorel Florescu/NorthJersey.com
Palestinians protest in NYC Trump’s Jerusalem declaration. Protest organized in cities across the U.S. and in many parts of the globe on Friday. NJ joining NYC. (Photo: Viorel Florescu)
NEW YORK — Chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," hundreds of protesters – including many from North Jersey – filled Times Square on Friday to denounce President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
One of the holiest and most contested cities in the world, Jerusalem holds vast significance not only to Jews, but also to Palestinian Muslims and Christians, who make up about 37 percent of the city’s population.
On Friday, protesters alternated between feelings of anger and fear. Many were vexed by the president's announcement, believing it would stifle peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Others worried the news could usher in a new era of violence in the region.
Palestinians protest in NYC Trump’s Jerusalem declaration. Protest organized in cities across the U.S. and in many parts of the globe on Friday. NJ joining NYC. (Photo: Viorel Florescu)
“You’re seeing unrest not only in the U.S. but all over the world,” said Omar Awad, president of the Islamic Center of Passaic County.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Trump declares Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
NORTH JERSEY REACTION: Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital sparks fears
JERUSALEM: Cardinal Tobin of Newark criticizes Trump's decision
In a move that sent shock waves across the world, Trump announced Wednesday that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and called for moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the holy city. World leaders from U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to Pope Francis criticized the decision, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some Jewish-American groups praised it.
Protesters gathered in Times Square on Friday, Dec. 8. 2017, to denounce Pres. Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Photo: Viorel Florescu/NorthJersey.com)
On Friday, crowds of protesters began to swell just before sundown along a fenced-in section of 42nd Street. Many waved Palestinian flags or held up signs proclaiming“Free free Palestine” and “End the Occupation."
A rented U-Haul flatbed truck served as the stage for dozens of speakers who through a microphone led chants in Arabic and English.
Sayel Kayed of North Bergen had parked the truck earlier in the day at the corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. The Palestinian native, who heads the New Jersey chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, called Trump's decision a “slap in the face” for Muslims who face discrimination in Jerusalem.
“This is a move to ethnically cleanse the Palestine area even more,” he said.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags at a protest on Friday. Dec. 8. 2017, denouncing Pres. Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Photo: Viorel Florescu/NorthJersey.com)
Kayed's organization is one of several that banded together to host Friday's demonstration, which attracted hundreds of Palestine supporters from the Tri-State area.
Lamis Deek represented Al/Awda, a group that advocates for the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. The attorney from Brooklyn said Friday that she feared the president’s announcement would turn peace talks into a farce.
“This moment lets us know that the only way we will ever achieve peace is to ensure that there is justice and liberation for Palestinians,” Deek said. “Regional peace is critical for global peace.”
The United States remains "deeply committed" to facilitating a peace agreement, Trump said this week. But he argued that decades of presidential waivers delaying the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem had not moved negotiators closer to a peace deal.
Palestinian supporters protest in Times Square. (Photo: Viorel Florescu/NorthJersey.com)
But many around the world fear the president’s stance will jeopardize the United States’ position as a peace broker, alienate major allies and foment unrest.
Jerusalem is home to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in the world for Jews, who come from around the world to pray at the Western Wall. For Christians, it is where Jesus ministered, died and was resurrected. For Muslims, Jerusalem’s heart is Al Aqsa Mosque and the surrounding area, where they believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven.
The United Nations partitioned Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in 1947, designating Jerusalem an international city. Jerusalem itself was divided not long after – the western half became part of Israel, and East Jerusalem came under the control of Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War of 1967, but the city's status remains disputed and the occupation is considered illegal under international law. For decades, U.S. administrations have said the status must be decided by peace talks.
Solutions to the infighting were always few and far between, Kayed said. Now, the United States' position as an arbiter in those discussions is weaker than ever, he said.
“Negotiations really weren’t going anywhere, but now it’s more clear that the U.S. is not interested in peace," said Kayed.
Email: nobile@northjersey.com
Read or Share this story: https://njersy.co/2jbdXicIt appears, Bernie Sanders' campaign is investing for a long, drawn-out contest with Hillary Clinton. | AP Photo Sanders campaign buys ad time for 4 Super Tuesday states The candidate is investing for a long, drawn-out contest with Hillary Clinton.
Bernie Sanders’ campaign has reserved time for television advertisements in at least four Super Tuesday states, according to media buying sources.
The initial buys, which will likely rise, are in Minnesota (around $240,000), Colorado (around $700,000), Massachusetts (around $300,000) and Oklahoma (around $400,000).
Story Continued Below
By looking beyond the upcoming contests in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the Sanders' camp is investing for a long, drawn-out contest with Hillary Clinton.
Both campaigns are advertising currently in Nevada and South Carolina, the next two contests after Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire, where Sanders is expected to win after Clinton's narrow win in Iowa last week.
Minnesota and Colorado in particular are seen as opportunities for Sanders, largely because they have heavily liberal, largely white Democratic constituents and are caucus states where he has built up organizations.
Massachusetts has been a target of his for months and some of his New Hampshire advertising in the Boston market has been built around raising awareness of Sanders for Massachusetts voters. While the Vermont senator is an even heavier underdog in Oklahoma, meanwhile, his team believes that the few Democrats there may be ripe targets for him.
Sanders aides declined to confirm the buys.In a reveal show that went faster than I could tweet, the draw for the fourth round of the US Open Cup was just revealed on 120sports.
The draw saw seventeen MLS clubs enter the competition. Fifteen were drawn against non-MLS teams, while two MLS clubs, the Timbers and Sounders (juicy) will play each other. The committee normally attempts to keep teams within similar geographical zones when pairing opponents, but there were a few that were naturally forced to play an opponent out of its region.
One of those matches is the Armada match. They were drawn against the Columbus Crew, winners of the competition in 2002.
The good news is that the Armada won the hosting coin flip and will host the match on either the 15th or 16th of June. The question now is where the Armada will play their game, because the Suns have a home game on the 15th, and I’m not too sure the Baseball Grounds can be converted to Community First Park quickly enough for a match on the 16th. The other options in town are Everbank Field, which would be ok, and Hodges Stadium at UNF, which would be a little less ok.
Of course, all of these questions could be pointless if the Armada don’t beat the Richmond Kickers on May 27th to advance to the fourth round anyways. We’ll have more on the team’s journey through the tournament over the coming weeks.
UPDATE
US Soccer also released dates and times for the matches here. Looks like the matches will be on the 16th and 17th, not the 15th and 16th like I had previously stated.
And the Armada, should they beat Richmond, will play at Hodges Stadium at UNF at 730pm on the 17th of June.
AdvertisementsWhat perfect and surprising gifts! Who doesn't like waffles? Also, the mix I'm excited to try! I used to sell this at a bookstore I worked at years ago, and could never justify getting it for myself, despite all the wonderful things I've heard. Another plus, I get a fantastic tasting mix, with no effort. A plus for any working mom! The CD, I was not expecting at all! My Santa reached out and said my gift would come separately, so I assumed it ended up packaged together and complete. Checked my mail box on the way to work, and to my surprise I unwrapped a Pearl Jam concert, in Phoenix (Yay!) My Santa was successfully able to get me something I've never heard and make me feel young again. Thank you!Image Credit: © 2011 MVLFFLLC. TM & © 2010 MarvelFor fans of superhero movies, the most patriotic holiday on next year’s calendar won’t fall on July 4th, but exactly 18 days later. That’s when Paramount Pictures will release Captain America: The First Avenger, a big budget adaptation of the Marvel Comics shield-bearing super-soldier. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly offers your first look at star Chris Evans in the hero’s red, white and blue threads — but you can get a peek at the man in uniform right here, right now.
Our story also brings you to the set of the London-based production, directed by Joe Johnston (The Wolfman, October Sky). During a break in shooting, Evans — on his second tour of Marvel duty, having played the Human Torch in Fox’s Fantastic Four films — explained he was reluctant to accept the call of Captain America, in part because he had already portrayed a Marvel-ous mystery man. Of course, he also worried about the potential cost of failure, but he also worried the potential cost of fame should the movie be a hit.
“At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, ‘If the movie bombs, I’m f—-ed. If the movie hits, I’m f—-ed!'” After declining the part three times, Evans took a meeting with Marvel execs and Johnston and was dazzled by their plans for the movie. He still felt wary about suiting up for Captain America — but then he had an epiphany. “I was just scared,” he says. “I realized my whole decision making process was fear based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear.’” Evans signed a six-picture deal with Marvel to play the character, and he has no regrets: “I can’t believe was almost too chicken to play Captain America.”
The movie — which also serves to set up Marvel’s 2012 superhero team-up, The Avengers –– hews closely to Captain America’s WWII-era origins. The year is 1942, and Steve Rogers is a scrawny lad who desperately wants to fight Nazis for his country but can’t because he’s been deemed physically unfit. His fate — and his physique — is radically transformed when he signs up for Project: Rebirth, a secret military operation that turns wimps into studs using drugs and assorted sci-fi hoo-ha. There’s a love interest (Major Peggy Carter, played Haley Atwell), there’s a sidekick (Bucky Barnes, played by Sebastian Stans), and there’s the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Hitler’s treacherous head of advanced weaponry, whose own plan for world domination involves a magical object known as The Tesseract (comic fans know it better as The Cosmic Cube). “The interesting thing about this character is that he’s an everyman who in the course of a few minutes become a perfect human specimen. That has to create some interesting personal issues,” says Johnston. “I saw it as an opportunity to make a superhero movie that felt real, that didn’t have to rely on an overabundance of fantasy elements.”
For more on Captain America, check out the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on sale Oct. 29. You can also view our Comic-Con 2010 interviews with Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving and Joe Johnston in the video below. And make sure to watch our chats with Kiernan Shipka (Sally in Mad Men) and Chloe Moretz (Let Me In and Kick-Ass), part of a child stars feature in the issue.Should government be secular? Or should government reflect the traditions, and religions, of the people from whom it derives its authority?
Those on both sides of this issue seem to be in a stalemate. Each can selectively introduce historical evidence to support or refute the positions of the other. And while the courts may declare winners, I fear that the evangelical movement has been led astray by allowing itself to be distracted from a simple, glaring truth.
They already support secularism under a different name.
Advocates for secular government are simply asking for fairness in the law. This is not a particularly controversial point of view. Consider our notion of justice, for example. We believe that all people should be equal before the law (we even have the 14th amendment to help protect that belief.) We believe that justice, or the equal application of law, should be blind.
Great controversies arise when some of us feel that Lady Justice peaks from beneath her blindfold and treats one person differently before the law than another. If we feel we are being treated unfairly – or judged disproportionately – in relationship to others, our Golden Rule alert system kicks in. This is an old friction point, worn thin by a long history of perceived contrast in treatment under the law in relation to wealth, race or religion.
Someone who advocates for secular government is simply asking for this same fairness in the creation of law that we already hold dear in both the interpretation (courts) and enforcement (police) of the law.
If we are ever to fully realize that ideal which we have personified into marble statues, we all must accept that – when it comes to the governmental institutions that create law – race, wealth or religion should be checked at the door.
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Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, etc. Low Complexity Products or Initial Products : Etsy has a ton of handmade products and some have gone on to become funded companies. http://ProtoTank.com http://www.etsy.com/shop/8BitLit
: Etsy has a ton of handmade products and some have gone on to become funded companies. Hardware focused accelerators:
Initial Customer:
SBIR/STTR:
Yea, I think Mahesh is on the right track. There's a few ways to start without a ton of capital:I don't have a great example, but a tried and true method is to sell your idea to a company who will pay for you to implement it. Then you've got a prototype. Often a prototype can be done pretty cheaply. Many industries, like toys, will partner with you on products - but they give you crap terms. However, you may be able to use success here into raising money.The government will often pay for your initial costs in the range of 6-figure grants / loans - check those two resources.The mentioned Dragon Innovations is a good solution once you want to go to production, but they'll want you to have some funding.The reviling McCain campaign volunteer* is suddenly very upset with the media for creating a ‘political firestorm‘ over her allegations that she was beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, and mutilated by a 6’4″ black man who did these things simply because she had a McCain bumper sticker on her car. Yes, that’s right, she is claiming that it’s the media’s fault that her hoax was talked about in the first place. This leaves me wondering what her motivation was to give herself a black eye, scratch a backwards B into her cheek, and report it to police? Could she have only been looking for attention amongst a small group of people with this obviously ill-prepared hoax? Of course not.
Not only did she quite obviously intend for this to get into the media, the McCain campaign themselves attempted to capitalize on this incident, not only publicizing that McCain and Gov. Palin had called her to see how she was, but apparently pushing the story to reporters! It makes me wonder how much of this was her own inspiration, and how much it was a group effort.
This is the same idiot that posted videos on YouTube complaining about a tall (maybe 6’4″?) black janitor that removed some signs that she had obviously not received permission to put up:
And here’s Ashley ‘ZOMG! I just got beaten up by a fake Obama supporter!’ Todd introducing herself:
I’m sorry McCain campaign, but she is simply more than just a ‘volunteer’. The responsibilities she listed are more in line with a paid employee of an organization affiliated with the campaign, not a straight volunteer.
*currently there is a debate evolving as to whether on not she had a paid position for a group that works for the McCain campaign
AdvertisementsRecently I ran into an issue where I couldn’t use PHP to retrieve an SSL site on OSX Sierra. Interestingly, the following scenarios were true:
PHP using libCURL worked fine. HTTPS would access and decode without an issue
file_get_contents was unable to access the URL
SOAPClient was unable to decode SSL resources
The error produced by file_get_contents for the URL in question was:
error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed
After a bit of digging, I found the following:
libCURL uses the Apple SecureTransport layer to map and manage their SSL certificates. This means that they do not rely on OpenSSL certificate data to be able to verify intermediate certificates
file_get_contents and SOAPClient still rely on libssl to be able to perform their SSL verification chain, which expects intermediate certificates to exist on the file system
Running the following command:
php -r 'print_r(openssl_get_cert_locations());'
returned a set of default files and locations that PHP’s openssl layer was expecting to find data:
Array ( [default_cert_file] => /usr/local/libressl/etc/ssl/cert.pem [default_cert_file_env] => SSL_CERT_FILE [default_cert_dir] => /usr/local/libressl/etc/ssl/certs [default_cert_dir_env] => SSL_CERT_DIR [default_private_dir] => /usr/local/libressl/etc/ssl/private [default_default_cert_area] => /usr/local/libressl/etc/ssl [ini_cafile] => [ini_capath] => )
but none of these paths existed. The solution/workaround I implemented was running the following in shell:
% sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/libressl/etc/ssl/certs % sudo curl -o /usr/local/libressl/etc/ssl/cert.pem https://curl.haxx.se/ca/cacert.pem
This creates the default_cert_file directories and imports the latest certificate store from curl.haxx.se.
Other options may include using tools such as brew to install additional resources on the system; but I prefer not to do that – or utilising tools such as Docker to contain your PHP application execution.ST. LOUIS -- The Detroit Red Wings signed free-agent goaltender
to a contract for the remainder of the season on Thursday.
Now they will wait to see if he officially becomes their property.
Nabokov, 35, must be placed on waivers at noon Friday. Any team can put in a claim for him until noon on Saturday. And considering the low amount of the contract – $570,000, which, prorated, amounts to about $250,000 for the rest of the season -- even people in the Red Wings organization believe he will be claimed.
“I wouldn't get my hopes too high; the contract is peanuts," one source said. “Anyone in need of a goaltender will put in a claim. Somebody in the West might say, 'I don't want Detroit to pick him up.'"
Red Wings general manager
declined comment, saying, “He's nobody's player until noon on Saturday.''
Coach
echoed those sentiments following Thursday's 4-3 overtime win in St. Louis.
“He's not our player, so when he becomes our player then I'll talk about him,'' Babcock said. “In the meantime, as an organization, even though we've signed him, until he clears waivers and becomes a Red Wing there's no sense talking about him."
Players were surprised by the move.
“That's out of my hands, that's up to management, what they think," goalie
said. “If he can help us, he can help us."
doubts that Nabokov will clear waivers.
“That was a bit of a surprise, but there's still a long way in the whole process before that becomes a reality that he's here," Draper said. “I don't think there's too many teams who are going to be willing to help us out (by not claiming him).
“You just have to look down the hall here (at the Blues) and see what happens with a team signing a player and him going through waivers. We'll have to see what the process is."
The Blues recently signed forwards Marek Svatos and Kyle Wellwood, only to lose them on waivers, to Nashville and San Jose, respectively.
Nabokov started the season in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League but was released by SKA St. Petersburg on Dec. 10.
Holland declined to elaborate on why he pursued Nabokov but said he is happy with his goaltending. Howard returned to the lineup Thursday, after missing two games with a bruised right knee. Joey MacDonald went 1-2-1, with a 2.53 goals-against average and.903 save |
the bonds in its possession, and also the bonds that shall have been paid off, or what parts thereof, since the last quarterly publication.
The national bank shall issue bank notes upon the security of the bonds in its possession. The notes so issued, shall be applied to pay the pensions of aged persons, and the compensations to persons arriving at twenty-one years of age. It is both reasonable and generous to suppose, that persons not under immediate necessity, will suspend their right of drawing on the fund, until it acquire, as it will do, a greater degree of ability. In this case, it is proposed, that an honorary register be kept, in each canton, of the names of the persons thus suspending that right, at least during the present war.
VI. As the inheritors of property must always take up their bonds in four quarterly payments, or sooner if they choose, there will always be numeraire arriving at the bank after the expiration of the first quarter, to exchange for the bank notes that shall be brought in.
VII. The bank notes being thus put in circulation, upon the best of all possible security, that of actual property, to more than four times the a mount of the bonds upon which the notes are issued, and with numeraire continually arriving at the bank to exchange or pay them off whenever they shall be presented for that purpose, they will acquire a permanent value in all parts of the Republic. They can therefore be received in payment of taxes, or emprunts equal to numeraire, because the Government can always receive numeraire for them at the bank.
VIII. It will be necessary that the payments of the ten per cent be made in numeraire for the first year from the establishment of the plan. But after the expiration of the first year, the inheritors of property may pay ten per cent either in bank notes issued upon the fund, or in numeraire.
If the payments be in numeraire, it will lie as a deposit at the bank, be exchanged for a quantity of notes equal to that amount; and if in notes issued upon the fund, it will cause a demand upon the fund equal thereto; and thus the operation of the plan will create means to carry itself into execution.
Thomas PaineThese mysterious beach formations, like the ones spotted on a beach in Dorset, England, are called beach cusps – and one reason they’re mysterious is that scientists still aren’t completely sure how they’re formed.
Beach cusps, which often appear during or after storms, are unusual because their spacing is uniform and regular. If you don’t believe in aliens, there are two prevailing theories about their formation. The first is the ‘standing edge’ theory, which involves interactions between normal waves approaching the shore and “edge” waves, which form perpendicular to the shore. The interactions between these waves form regularly-spaced points of different wave intensity. The other theory is the self-organization theory, which claims that cusps are the result of regular wave, current, and sand interactions over time that create feedback loops. Many scientists believe that both of these theories might work in unison to create these curious structures.
Jurassic Coast, Dorset, England
Image credits: Dr Stanislav Shmelev
Image credits: leenaj
Palomarin Beach, Point Reyes, USA
Image credits: David Abercrombie
Image credits: David Abercrombie
Ringstead Bay, Dorset, England
Image credits: RHughes51 of 83 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × See what President Trump has been doing since his inauguration View Photos The new president met with business leaders the day after swearing in senior members of his White House staff. Caption The beginning of the president’s term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media. March 17, 2017 President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, walk to Marine One at the White House en route to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump has long been effusive in his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.
In an interview with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, which will air ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his “respect” for Putin — even in the face of accusations that Putin and his associates have murdered journalists and dissidents in Russia.
“I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them,” Trump told O'Reilly.
O'Reilly pressed on, declaring to the president that “Putin is a killer.”
Unfazed, Trump didn't back away, but rather compared Putin's reputation for extrajudicial killings with the United States'.
“There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers,” Trump said. “Well, you think our country is so innocent?”
Vice President Pence and senators of both political parties on Feb. 5 reacted to President Trump's comments about Russia and the United States in a Fox News interview. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
Trump added that he thinks the United States is “better” getting along with Russia than not.
“If Russia helps us in the fight against ISIS, which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all around the world, major fight. That’s a good thing,” Trump said. ISIS is another name for the Islamic State.
It wouldn't be the first time Trump has brushed aside the topic of Putin's political killings.
[Donald Trump isn’t fazed by Vladimir Putin’s journalist-murdering]
In a 2015 interview on “Morning Joe,” Trump was pressed on the same issue and gave a similar answer.
“He kills journalists that don't agree with him,” the show's host, Joe Scarborough, pointed out.
“Well, I think that our country does plenty of killing, too, Joe,” Trump said.
As recently as this week, a prominent Putin critic exhibited symptoms of poisoning for the second time since 2015. The incident drew the attention of Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), a staunch Russia critic, who tweeted two newspaper editorials that call for the United States to denounce the incident as an act of political retribution. He called both editorials “a must-read.”Elizabeth Turk stands in the yard of Chiarini Marble & Stone as a forklift moves massive slabs of rock nearby and several workers grind away at sculptures, their tools filling the morning air with the sounds of a high-volume dental office. Turk, her bright eyes particularly blue in the warm California sunlight, is taking an account of everything that was stolen.
The night before, thieves had hopped the fence of the marble yard and made their way to Turk’s studio area, cutting the latches off metal lockers and stealing a bunch of old tools. Turk had added the locks after a similar break-in last year, but the burglars brought bolt cutters this time. What they didn’t bring was a guide to contemporary art. Otherwise, they probably would’ve nabbed the finely carved sculptures on the very next shelf, those created by Turk, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship.
When Turk first set up shop in the yard, 13 years ago, the Pasadena native worked outdoors under the sun, then she upgraded to a tent, and now she’s spread out across the compound, dodging her landlord’s forklifts as they ferry marble to be fitted in homes all along Newport Beach. Located just off the Santa Ana Freeway between La Chiquita Grocery and an auto-dismantling shop, Chiarini Marble was Turk’s refuge from the hectic New York art world, a not-very-quiet place to craft her delicate stone sculptures. “I’m like a parasite,” the artist says, showing off the crannies she has found within the grounds to create works that make marble seem as light as silk.
She is perhaps best known for her “Cages:” intricate works sliced from quarter-ton blocks of marble that flow like one long Möbius strip. Michelangelo claimed he saw figures in marble and carved away until he set them free, but for Turk the process is more of a conversation. She’s constantly editing, grinding, seeing how far she can take one curve, extend one line, turn marble into lace. If she goes too far — crack — the piece is kaput.
Elizabeth Turk Has a Genius for Marble 1 / 5
Email Elizabeth Turk Has a Genius for Marble Marble & Idaho Green Quartzite 1, 2013. All photos in slide show © Eric Stoner, courtesy of the artist and Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York Home (left), made from marble and Northern California redwood, and Marble & Baja Beach Stone 11, both 2015 Marble & Idaho Green Quartzite 2, 2013 Evaporated River, 2015, made from limestone and Vermont black marble Marble & Idaho Green Quartzite 4, 2013 Restart Slideshow Return to Story
When I met up with Turk, she was finishing the sculptures and videos that will appear in her show “Tensions,” at Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York from September 17 through October 24. These latest works blend sculpted marble with natural rocks and wood in a way that’s both harmonious and, well, tense. “All the pieces in the show are about the tension between the beauty of nature and that crazy human desire to control everything,” she says. “So you’ll have something that’s naturally carved and something that’s just insanely over carved.” You can see this juxtaposition in her new series “Marble and Baja Beach Stone,” with each piece featuring a big gray beach rock that’s been sliced in half and used as a bookend for intricately intertwined swirls of white marble.
The marble yard has computers and a big 3-D milling machine that can carve stone into almost any shape. If you want a marble bowling ball, the miller can make one lickety-split. “It’s like a 3-D Xerox machine,” Turk says. “In a lot of ways, that’s why I started pushing my works to be about the undercuts and the emptiness. It’s sort of a combination of trying to use the new technology — the grinding and the diamond tools — and then bringing in a little bit of the old hand work. I use the machine as a tool to get to a certain point and then try to push the sculpture further by hand.”
Turk’s output moves across various media, but she says she’s aware that — just like Jackson Pollock is known for his splatters and William Wegman for his Weimaraners — she is “the marble lady.” This label might be reductive, but within it is the acknowledgment that she has led a one-woman Renaissance of marble as a medium. And her mastery of classical form and technique, combined with her use of 3-D milling, places her at the leading edge of a tradition dominated by men.
“That’s all I think about with my work: ‘If I cut it here, will it still hold up? Or will it just go snap?’”
Back in the air-conditioned confines of her office space, Turk plays with the arrangement of some rocks, roughing up the shiny piece of metal on which she will attach her formations with magnets. She says she met short-story writer and fellow MacArthur “genius” George Saunders shortly after receiving her award in 2010, and they powwowed about process. “He kept talking about all the years he spent — at his lunch break, after work, an hour here, forty-five minutes there — just editing the paragraph he wrote the night before, trying to get it tighter and tighter, and I love that,” she says. “That’s all I was thinking about with my work: ‘If I cut it here, will it still hold up? Will that line still work? … Or will it just go snap?’” Being called a genius put Turk under a lot pressure, but that was several shows and rave reviews ago. Her 2012 exhibition at Hirschl & Adler featured a series of undulating “Cages” that took years to create and appeared in the pages of ARTnews, Art+Auction and Elle Decor. Another milestone occurred last year, when the Laguna Art Museum mounted a mini retrospective of her work in the county where she grew up. Turk’s post-MacArthur creative path has not been linear, but it never was. She majored in international relations at Scripps College and even worked for a while in Washington, D.C., before chucking it all to become an artist, getting her MFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. The plan was to try it for a year. Maybe longer. “I’ve been working like a crazy person, but for me it was the only choice,” she says. “I guess I could be a dentist. I have all the right tools. Except people’s teeth would come out weird. I’d have to be the dentist next to the tattoo parlor.”
Elizabeth Turk Has a Genius for Marble 1 / 4
Email Elizabeth Turk Has a Genius for Marble At the 2014 edition of Masterpiece London, Hirschl & Adler dedicated its entire booth to Turk’s work. All photos in slide show courtesy of the artist and Hirschl & Adler, New York Last year, the Laguna Art Museum mounted the survey “Elizabeth Turk: Sentient Forms” in Orange County, California, where the artist grew up. An installation view of the critically lauded “Cages” at Hirschl & Adler in 2012 Turk’s fabric-like sculptures in “The Collars” at Hirschl & Adler in 2006 Restart Slideshow Return to Story Elizabeth Turk Has a Genius for Marble 1/4 View Slideshow
Visit Hirschl & Adler on 1stdibsThe former prime minister’s Wikipedia page was edited from an IP that linked back to a Central government office.
The National Informatics Centre, software solution provider of the government, has withheld information on who altered the Wikipedia page of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and posted scandalous information about him on the grounds it may have “security implications”.
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In response to a RTI application, the software solution provider said it was withholding the information based on the input received from the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)-IN. The reply, however, does not cite any exemption clauses given in the transparency law,
[related-post]
“Based on the input from CERT.IN, it is seen that there may be security implications in sharing the information. Thus the same may not be shared,” the response from CPIO of National Informatics Centre Swarup Dutta said.
The RTI applicant had sought from the Department of Electronic and Information Technology the details of IP address 164.100.41.28 which was allegedly used to alter the Wikipedia page on prime ministers of India in which malicious information about Nehru was posted on it.
The NIC was also asked to provide the names of the officers who used the IP address at the time of content of Wikipedia being edited. The applicant had also sought to know if any inquiry was initiated in the matter.
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Surprisingly, the NIC did not cite any of the 10 subsections of Section eight of the Right to Information Act for withholding information which is mandatory under the Act.I’m not gonna lie, i don’t actually like sitting in. I never feel the urge to get up and hijack someone else’s gig. It’s a thankless task. So much can go wrong. Maybe you train wreck a tune you don’t know. Maybe you play great and upstage the drummer. YUCK, neither situation is for me. But there are situations where it can be a good thing to do.
Maybe you want to fill in for the band at some point? The band really respect you and just want some fun to spice up the night? The drummer knows you and wants a break or a chance to chat to the girl at the bar? Maybe you’re new in town and don’t know any musos?
I would classify ‘Sitting In‘ as getting up and jamming in a spontaneous setting. You have no warning and haven’t prepared for the tunes.
‘Filling In‘ you typically get some warning and a set list to prepare with, possibly even a rehearsal or two. You ARE the band’s drummer in this case. For the night at least.
Here’s a cautionary tale to begin with. This actually happened to me at a gig (a very big one). This is about as amateur as it gets. I’m not exaggerating this story and the photo accompanying this post is from that actual night. This is how NOT to sit in!
Backstory: We had just finished our final song and were hi-fiving and having a chat on stage. It was a great night with thousands in the crowd. It was not my kit and there were security everywhere. I had come straight from another gig on the other side of town and didn’t really have a briefing on the plan for the night other than doing a 2 hour set. In short it was a bit chaotic anyway.
A stranger appears on my left invading my personal space…
Punter: Hey… step aside and I’ll show you how it’s done.
Me: (smile… try to fathom what is happening. Is this guy part of the crew? He is joking right?)
Punter: Pass me the sticks.
Me: Who are you? (look at security, look at sound guy for clues…).
Punter: I’m the drum soloist.
Me: What are you talking about? (still keeping it cool and non confrontational).
Punter: I get on after the bands here and do solo’s.
Me: (Security guy looks at me and gives a thumbs up. I look at him and shake my head slowly ‘nooo’).
Security guy grabs a friend and they jump on stage to collect the punter….
Punter: Please man… my girlfriend is in the crowd…
I didn’t get to respond to that before he was whisked away. I wish i was joking. These people ARE out there. And they are allowed to vote!
He had given the security guard a story about doing photos for us and managed to sneak on stage. Anyway, moral of the story… don’t do that.
Some general rules for sitting in like a pro:
1 – Only play when invited. And then always double-check with the drummer (if it wasn’t him who originally asked you).
NEVER ask or harass the drummer like a little kid asking to play with another kid’s fire truck. You will look like an absolute amateur.
2 – If you do get the call… try not to adjust anything. You’re sitting in, not moving in. Respect the other drummers space. Kick pedal is a bit tight? Throne is too high? Too bad I’m afraid.
You may only be there for 1 song. Don’t be a hassle to the band and a drag on the audience who probably just want to dance.
3 – Keep it simple. Don’t go for the million dollar gospel fill into the chorus of the first tune. Maybe the band does a different version of the song…. they might not be going to the chorus!
Motown/80’s rock etc didn’t feature blazing chops. Overplaying just makes you look amateur and threatens to derail the band.
4 – Play great time. Play in the pocket. Easier said than done right? Listen out for the tempo from the dominant member of the group. Adjust accordingly. If the band look up to you (or rely on their regular drummer) dictate the time STRONGLY.
5 – Play style appropriately. You might have thought ‘Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay’ worked great as a ‘one drop reggae’ in the practise room but leave it in the shed. That kind of clever or interpretive stuff will only confuse the band.
6 – Play a decent volume. Not too quiet and NOT TOO LOUD! Take note of where the drummer was sitting in the mix before you got on. Did it sound good? Too heavy on the snare or cymbals? Adjust accordingly. Make it feel great.
7 – Keep your ears and eyes open. Body language will tell you a lot. Are the band smiling and relaxed when you play? Or are they stressed and looking at each other and yelling instructions to you? Watch out for when the leader looks ready to finish a song and follow his axe or head movements to pick up the rit or sharp ending to the song.
8 – Know some good general repertoire and styles that can be adapted to the feel of any tune called. If it’s a jazz gig it’s okay to ask for the form (structure). If you don’t want to ask or the band just takes off with no clues then listen out on the first pass and count bars/bars per section. Make a quick road map in your mind.
You want some styles in your back pocket…. Jazz Ride, 8th Note Rock, 16th Rock, 1/4 Note Rock, All purpose Latin, Reggae etc.
These tips are aimed at non reading gigs. Rule #3 ‘Keep It Simple’ is particularly important if it’s a sight-read. If the band is using charts for whatever reason i would keep it simple and mark sections with a crash. This is reassuring for you and the group to let them know you are keeping up. Don’t panic. If you get lost look out for obvious sign posts and jump back in the fight.
One great anecdote i heard relayed by Matt Chamberlain involved using quarter notes as an emergency holding pattern. He was counted off into a tune on Saturday Night Live, but he didn’t hear what the tune was. The songs were called on the fly and with little warning. He had a second of terror where he HAD to play… it’s live… and he has no idea what the song is. Not only that, he had to come in strong!
Quarters with a backbeat on the snare got him through till he heard what the tune was. Quarter notes are the foundation for rhythm and won’t clash with anything the other musicians play. If in doubt, quarter note it out.
Other than that… HANG ON! Do your best and treat it as the ultimate real life musical challenge. If the band dig what you are doing in a sitting in situation you’ve ‘won’.
Good luck!If only Teddy could talk. Then we would know what he thinks of the politicians and activists and drivers who argue about his future. He could expound on Manhattan traffic, its pollution, the cold, the heat, the hay and the shrieking girls clutching dolls who pet his nose on Grand Army Plaza.
Teddy is 11 years old, a Percheron-cross draft horse from Pennsylvania’s Amish country — a pinto with a coat the color of warm cocoa and whipped cream. He has blinders on. But even those in the know cannot foresee how long it will take for Mayor Bill de Blasio to fulfill his campaign promise to banish the Central Park carriage horses as his first legislative act.
The City Council, now led by the sponsor of a 2010 bill to ban horse-drawn carriages, Melissa Mark-Viverito, has yet to discuss the issue.
Activists who want to end the carriage-horse trade contributed more than $1.3 million to help elect Mr. de Blasio and council members who supported a ban with a solution: Replace all the horses with a fleet of antique-style electric cars to serve tourists, not just in Central Park, but all over the city.DPW(who I work for) would be responsible for the maintenance of pretty much everything in Schenley Park including this trail. The Park Foreman for Schenley Park has tried everything within reason to close the trail to be used for official vehicle use only including constructing new gates as well as installing locks and providing keys to the appropriate personnel including emergency personnel(police and fire/EMS). Again, there is good reason for DPW trucks to be on the trail given that they must check each garbage can along the trail as well as perform a variety of other tasks in that area(the same applies to the EFT). Unfortunately, people have taken it upon themselves to destroy public property in order to access that trail by vehicle which is unbelievably frustrating. I can’t speak to the police policy for patrolling trails though I don’t know how the lighting issue would affect their policy during the day which seems to be when @stefb witnessed them. I would gladly attempt to reach out to the police but that’s also a concern, along with regular vehicles using the trail, that should be voiced directly to Zone 4: 412-422-6520. Additionally, I’m not personally familiar with plans regarding lighting on the JHT but I’ll ask around.Tractor beams, a staple of science fiction, may be moving closer to science fact. In a paper published earlier this spring, physicists have proposed a structure that may enable light to pull objects.
Normally, light pushes on objects, albeit weakly. In the field of optical manipulation optical tweezers employ this pushing force to move microscopic objects from atoms to bacteria. The ability to pull as well would increase the precision and scope of optical manipulation. For spaceflight, engineers have proposed sails to capture the force exerted by light.
Rather than towing space vessels, the newly proposed tractor beam might be more useful in biology or medicine. "If you want to pull something towards you, you just reduce the pressure," says Mordechai Segev, a physicist at Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, who describes his team's idea in an April Optics Express paper. "You make a little bit of vacuum," he adds. The problem is that in sensitive medical applications, such as lung surgery, it is important not to change the pressure or introduce any new gases. "Here, the light will be the suction device," he says, "so the pressure would not change at all. It is just the light."
Previous ideas for a "tractor beam" have often focused on creating new gravitational fields to drag objects, heating air to create pressure differences or inducing electric and magnetic charges in objects so that they move against the direction of an incoming laser beam.
The latest proposal takes advantage of a phenomenon called negative radiation pressure. Russian physicist Victor Veselago first theorized its existence in his 1967 paper about materials with an unusual property called negative refraction index. An index of refraction is a number that describes the way light is bent when it goes into a glass lens or other medium, and at the time of the paper nobody knew if this number could be negative in any material. But in the past couple of decades several teams of researchers proved that negative refraction can occur in specially made substances called metamaterials, which have led to limited invisibility cloaks and distortion-free "super" lenses.
The mechanism of negative radiation pressure depends on two aspects of a light wave: its group and phase velocities. A light wave consists groups of smaller waves; the group velocity is the speed and direction of the overall wave group, the phase velocity refers to the speed and direction of a point on one of the smaller constituent waves. The electromagnetic energy of the light wave goes in the direction of the group velocity whereas the wave's effect on a particle goes in the direction of the phase velocity. If these two velocities point in different directions, then negative radiation pressure can result.
The use of metamaterials to move particles via negative radiation pressure has been hindered by the fact that most of these materials are solid, and introducing a gap for particles would eliminate the negative radiation pressure. Additionally, all current metamaterials contain metals, which absorb electromagnetic energy, rendering the pulling effect on particles negligible.
Instead of using metamaterials, the Technion team proposes a waveguide made of materials with a property called birefringence to create the necessary optical effects. Birefringence, which occurs naturally in crystals such as quartz and calcite, describes materials that have multiple indices of refraction, depending on what direction light enters the material. Place a calcite crystal on a newspaper, and suddenly the image is doubled.
Segev and his group's design uses layers of materials with different types of birefringence, along with specially designed mirrors, to make a practical model for how negative radiation pressure might be achieved. In this waveguide, the group velocity would move in one direction and the phase velocity in the opposite. Most important, it includes a large gap between the layers. This gap, which does not interfere with the optical properties of the material, allows the introduction of particles to be pulled into the waveguide. "It's like a sandwich," Segev says.
The proposed design can use a variety of birefringent materials, which are widely available and contain no metal, so they don't rob light of much energy. Additionally, although the birefringent materials used would be only micrometers thick, the gap could be millimeters wide, enabling fairly large particles to be manipulated by light.
Viktor Podolskiy, a physicist at the University of Massachusetts Lowell who was not part of this research, says that both the metamaterial approach and the birefringence approach address different issues in the creation of negative radiation pressure and have different advantages and drawbacks. "Metamaterials are addressing a set of issues where you try to confine the light to smaller, special spaces," Podolskiy explains. In contrast, the birefringence approach "does the opposite. It brings negative refraction to the level of larger-scale objects." Both approaches could someday find applications.
Jack Ng, a research assistant professor of physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who worked on the tractor beam proposal involving charge induction, says that the study may have some interesting ideas but also some flaws. In particular, he says that although the group showed the energy transfer can be negative, they "did not show that the force can be negative." In other words, the particles may not move.
In any case, the idea of generating negative radiation pressure by any means exists largely on paper; Segev's lab does not even have the resources required to create its proposed waveguide. Segev says, however, that several companies can make the necessary materials, and the researchers hope to find a firm soon so they can test their design experimentally. Until then, particles will just have to wait to experience the feeling of being drawn toward the light.Image caption Many teachers said pupils did not spend enough time reading outside the classroom
More than two-fifths of UK teachers say children are turned off reading for pleasure by the time they finish primary school, a survey reports.
The survey, which questioned 410 secondary school English teachers, found the majority (94%) thought their pupils preferred to spend time online.
Two-thirds of those polled said reading was not seen as "cool" by pupils.
And 97% thought parents could do more to encourage their child to read, the survey for publishers Pearson found.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) warned that pupils did not spend enough time reading outside the classroom.
Some 83% of teachers said boys were likely to be engaged by fantasy novels, while 65% said the same for girls.
And 93% of teachers said that boys were likely to find horror books engaging.
'Worrying'
Children's author Frank Cottrell Boyce said: "It's worrying to think that so many young children are not being inspired to pick up a good book and get lost in a story.
"According to Unesco (the United Nations agency which promotes knowledge), the biggest single indicator of whether a child is going to thrive at school and in work is whether or not they read for pleasure.
"Clearly we need to make sure we are providing our children with the right types of books which stimulate their interest, capture their imagination and make them turn the next page."
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the findings of the survey were "no surprise" and that the government was working to encourage children to develop a love of reading. It would launch a national reading competition for schools for the next academic year, he said.
"In a world of so many distractions for young minds, the place of literature is more important than ever," he said.
"Children need to master the basics of reading as early as possible in primary school so they can then go on to explore magical and powerful books such as Private Peaceful, Harry Potter, and, in good time, books such as Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm and those by Charles Dickens."
The survey was commissioned to mark the launch of a new set of classroom reading books.
The Heroes series includes novels by Bali Rai, Nigel Hinton, Chris Priestley and Cathy Forde.
The books are all in genres that weaker readers tend to prefer - action, crime, fantasy, horror and adventure.
They are made up of short chapters or scenes that include plenty of dialogue and action, as well as cliffhanger endings.Tensions are high as Farrah Abraham is getting ready to head abroad in a new sneak peek from Teen Mom OG. The MTV star is preparing to travel to England for her stint on Celebrity Big Brother UK, and while she’s across the pond, her mother, Debra, is taking care of her daughter, Sophia.
But Farrah isn’t exactly thrilled by the idea that her mother, who she’s had a series of ups and downs with, will be running her home without her supervision.
“So you know, here are rules to my house, you know, cause sometimes you like to put the laundry in there with two things and waste soap,” Farrah tells her mom in the clip. “Sometimes you don’t understand how we wash, we clean.”
“Don’t worry, Farrah. If I need to wash something, I’ll buy the soap,” Debra retorts. “It doesn’t matter to me.”
But Farrah takes offense to her mother’s tone, shooting back, “Oh, I’m not worried about the soap, and if that’s a bitchy comment you should probably hold it back. That’s why nannies get fired.”
Debra tries to remind her daughter that she is not, in fact, a nanny, but rather a close family member who has her best interests at heart, but the porn princess isn’t having it.
“You know what I want? I want my mom to listen to me, and I want her to understand and not be a bitch to me when I say how I like things done,” Farrah shouts as Sophia begins to slap her on the arm. “It’s very serious. It bothers me that I’m away from my daughter. You know how serious it is to me that I let you stay at my house and watch my daughter when I’m gone for a month? It’s so serious that I think of it as if I pass away and I need somebody to watch my daughter for 18 years to get her through life and make her successful that you would do that, and you’d better listen.”
Sophia, 6, doesn’t approve of her mom’s tone, announcing, “You are having a bad attitude!”
But even her daughter’s words aren’t enough to stop Farrah. Watch the clip to see what she says to make Debra cry.
Teen Mom OG premieres Monday, January 4, at 10 p.m. EST on MTV.
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Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!Beards get plenty of love on social media, with beard enthusiasts giving much more than a ‘double-tap’ to show their appreciation.
Some very talented artists are going to great lengths to express their facial fuzz infatuation. Kate from Bernie & Fox is proud to draw inspiration from bearded men for her ever growing collection of watercolour artworks.
“A beard can add so much character and texture to a face,” she said. “They make a man look rugged and a young man look handsome.”
Using a combination of water colour paints and waterproof pens for her illustrations, Kate has given a handful of bearded men the ultimate compliment (me included).
“I like the way the pens bring tightness and detail, whilst the water colour brings looseness and texture,” said Kate.
A Finnish-Australian who completed a Bachelor of Design at QCA, Griffith University 5 years ago, Kate has found illustration to be her true passion.
Kate has found her community of followers on Instagram to be very supportive and she has thoroughly enjoyed connecting with people from all over the world.
Prints and cards of Kate’s work will soon be on sale as she prepares to launch bernieandfox.com.au and transform her passion into a small business.
I was incredibly flattered after Kate and I got talking on Instagram and she offered to do a portrait of me (above). As a lover of rosy cheeks, they’ve quickly become her trademark. “They bring some warmth and a pop of colour,” she said.
If you like beards and can appreciate the amount of effort that goes into works like these, then make sure you follow @bernieandfox on Instagram.
Join the conversation on Facebook: What’s the most flattering gesture your beard has received?By Deane Lewis
World Owl Mythology
Abyssinia: the Hamites held the Owl to be sacred.
Afghanistan: the Owl gave Man flint and iron to make fire - in exchange, Man gave the Owl his feathers.
Africa, Central: the Owl is the familiar of wizards to the Bantu.
Africa, East: the Swahili believe the Owl brings illness to children.
Africa, Southern: Zulus know the Owl as the sorcerers' bird.
Africa, West: the messenger of wizards and witches, the Owl's cry presages evil.
Algeria: place the right eye of an Eagle Owl in the hand of a sleeping woman and she will tell all.
Arabia: the Owl is a bird of ill omen, the embodiment of evil spirits that carries off children at night.
According to an ancient Arabic treatise, from each female Owl supposedly came two eggs, one held the power to cause hair fall out and one held the power to restore it.
Arabs used to believe that the spirit of a murdered man continues to wail and weep until his death is avenged. They believed that a bird that they called "al Sada" (or the death-owl) would continue to hoot over the grave of a slain man whose death had not been avenged. The bird would continue to hoot endlessly until the slain man's death was avenged.
Arctic Circle: a little girl was turned into a bird with a long beak by magic, but was so frightened she flapped about madly and flew into a wall, flattening her face and beak. So the Owl was created.
Australia: Aborigines believe bats represent the souls of men and Owls the souls of women. Owls are therefore sacred, because your sister is an Owl - and the Owl is your sister.
Aztecs: one of their evil gods wore a Screech Owl on his head.
Babylon: Owl amulets protected women during childbirth.
Belgium: legend has it that a priest offered the Owl his church tower to live in if the bird would get rid of the rats and mice that plagued his church |
America and whose place in the cannon of Islamic literature had been assured after he swung from the Egyptian gallows. Mohammad Qutb was one of the University’s many Syrian or Egyptian members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who gained popularity from the Saudi students because they challenged old ideas of the dry Saudi professors. Additionally, Mohammad Qutb also got the added credibility that came from actually having been imprisoned for his views. Well, not really his views, but those he had adopted because of the writings of his older brother, Sayid. And, as you’d expect from someone who was willing to go to jail for the very beliefs that had led to his brother’s execution, Mohammad Qutb passionately made the appeal to the students that being a Muslim was much more than a simple profession of faith.
At the core of Sayid Qutb’s writings was the argument that being a Muslim meant being willing to fight and die in the course of establishing the just and right order that God had ascribed for mankind. The conventional Muslim establishment countered this by insisting that the only requirement necessary to belong to the community of Muslims was – just like the established Christian orders now formally demand – a profession of the faith.
For Sayid Qutb, you didn’t get to consider yourself a Muslim if all you did was say a short phrase. You had to demonstrate that you truly believed in what that conviction meant, that you were willing to go to battle against those who would keep you and those in your community from being able to live the path God, in his grace and wisdom, had set before you. Sayid Qutb’s writings resonated with Osama bin Ladin, who adopted his views after seeing that so much was wrong with the world that he lived in. Bin Ladin, inspired by Qutb’s views, decided that violence was the only possible way to bring justice to the world. To strip the corrupt of their riches. To stop the manipulation of religious faith for soulless political power. To end the persecution of the innocent. And to free the oppressed.
Then on Christmas Day 1979 Soviet forces invaded, the small, poor, Muslim nation of Afghanistan, and it began.
i i i
John Brown started small.
His upbringing had imbued him with a sensitivity to the black experience that was “ever-present and instinctive.”.”11 Living in Ohio with his young family, he quickly established his home as a stop on the Underground Railroad by building a secret room in the family barn. For John Brown helping a run-away slave make a safe escape was as much his civic duty as helping to catch a horse-thief. Brown made sure to pass on the same values of equality he was raised with on to his children, as one of his daughters distinctly remembered him telling her that it might someday be necessary for some poor black slave-children come and live with them, and that she should seek not simply to be kind to them – but to be friends with them as well.
Activism for John Brown at first consisted only of ushering the black family he’d hired to work for him from their expected place at the back of the town church to sit with him and his family in the pews at the front. But then a murder changed this and awoke the convictions that had laid dormant with John Brown – convictions he would come to believe he was destined by God to fulfill.
Elijah Lovejoy had been an antislavery editor for an Illinois newspaper, the Alton Observer, which wasn’t exactly respected by some of the locals. Three times the Observer had its printing presses thrown into the Mississippi River, and each time Lovejoy was forced to keep himself from the same fate by brandishing a rifle in front of his attackers. The ruffians who’d sent his presses to swim with the fishes soon sought to formalize their disdain for his newspaper at a town meeting, where they brought forth a petition to have the paper suspended.
At this, Lovejoy stood in front of the mob of proslavery activists assembled at the town meeting and “invited antislavery martyrdom.” He referred to a black man from Missouri who had recently been burnt alive by a white mob, and declared that, “you can burn me at the stake as they did McIntosh at St. Louis, or you may tar and feather me, or throw me into the Mississippi as you have often threatened to do – but you cannot disgrace me.”12
Elijah Lovejoy invoked the name of Jesus Christ, a man he said “died for me, and I were most unworthy to bear his name should I refuse to die for him.”13
A short while later, as they so often do, the mob took up that challenge. Elijah Lovejoy was fatally hit with the blast from a shotgun wielded by an anonymous member of the mob that had formed to once again destroy the Alton Observer’s presses. John Quincy Adams said that his murder sent “a shock as of an earthquake through this country.” The sitting president, Abraham Lincoln, later said that the murder of Elijah Lovejoy was “the most important single event that ever happened in the new world.”14 And, perhaps most importantly of all, it inspired John Brown to stand at a prayer meeting formed to memorialize Elijah Lovejoy and declare, with his father Owen at his side, that: “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.”15
This in and of itself wasn’t terribly noteworthy. But what was noteworthy was just how John Brown planned to destroy slavery. Noteworthy, but not entirely novel.
i i i
At the core of John Brown’s plan was mimicry – mimicry of the indigenous slave rebellions that had sporadically flared up in the American South around the West Indies. These rebellions had proven to be more than pan-flashes, as many of them resulted in the creation of permanent communities of maroons – a word linked to both to the French word for “flight” and the Spanish one for “unruly” and “wild.” So by inciting self-sustaining slave rebellions John Brown planned “to weaken the institution of slavery by terrorizing slaveholders” with indigenous mutualistic violence.16 Jamaica served as a prime example of maroons using terror to win freedom for the oppressed slaves, as the black population there managed to break the yoke of British slavery used the kindred tactics of guerilla warfare and Tactical Terror to win their freedom and autonomy.
Haiti had also famously seen similar events occur, there under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture. And the Carolinas, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi had all seen communities of maroons arise in some level of insurrection against slaveholders.
These examples settled for John Brown the question of “negro capacity,” which some claimed God had limited to “the sun and the banana.” Whether or not a supposedly inferior black race could in fact sustain a strategic guerrilla campaign against a white America, and sustain “a black community in the wilderness forged and maintained by unconventional military action.”17 - they had once, John Brown saw, and he planned for them to do it again.
But this time there would be one difference.
Instead of being led from within, as was the case in the previous examples and in the most recent insurrection of the time – Nat Turner’s bloody five-week rebellion – the movement would be catalyzed from without. By John Brown, when he struck at the heart of slavery with a commando raid at the confluence of river-borne transportation, a primary hub of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad which linked the east coast to the western territories, a federal arsenal that made a large percentage of the munitions and weaponry of the American military, a town so logistically and symbolically crucial to the government that it would later change hands nearly fifteen times during the Civil War.
John Brown planned to take Harper’s Ferry, terrorize the state of Virginia from its proslavery stance, capture the arms there and give them to newly freed slaves, and then destroy the gun-making machinery before fleeing into the Alleghany Mountains. And although the Alleghenies aren’t quite as imposing as the mountains of Tora Bora, bin Ladin likely would’ve nodded in approval at the plan to seek refuge in mountainous terrain after carrying out a devastating act of terrorism so expertly balanced between Symbolic and Tactical.
From these crags Brown would build a force of guerrilla soldiers who would use asymmetric warfare against any pursuit that might come, and stage further commando raids against other Southern slaveholding provinces that would, in time, terrify the South into abandoning their slaves altogether. With the strength of his convictions he brought together a disparate group of men, some black and some white, some rich and some poor.
But all believers in the justice of their actions. They answered John Brown’s call from every nook of America, all willing to die for a cause they believed in.
i i i
John Brown, a man whose soul Fredrick Douglas said was “pierced with the iron of slavery,” had a goal. It was “to create terror in the South and bring about political change in the North that would lead to the emancipation of the slaves.”18 To force the cycle of Political Terror into action through the strength of his will and through the force of his arms. Following John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, “anti-Northern violence took on a new virulence” and the “shock and fear John Brown had instigated fueled widespread panic among Southerners. Panic, in turn, fed into a paranoia vented in aggressive acts, ranging from imprisonment to torture to murder.”19
The Civil War would likely still have eventually happened had John Brown never been born. But the fallout from John Brown’s raid dictated both the timing and the character of the events that culminated as the Civil War. If nothing else, John Brown pushed the tension that led the Civil War to and past its Tipping Point, at which point it became an unstoppable social epidemic.
Soon “everywhere the South looked, it seemed to see another John Brown, prepared with pikes and guns to launch a midnight raid and steal slaves.” The New York Times wrote that “panic pervades all classes of citizens… suspicion and distrust are abroad… The country is in fact one degree removed from anarchy.”20
It was only within these thunderheads of civil unrest – at a time when slavery was growing more and more profitable, and more and more morally justified – that the secession movement, harnessing the imagery and symbolism of the Harpers Ferry raid, gained the organization and momentum it needed to burst free of the Union’s pull and trigger the start of the American Civil War.21 Fredrick Douglass summed it up best: “If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did, at least, begin the war that ended slavery.” By patterning himself after the original Puritan warrior, Oliver Cromwell, John Brown intended to end another abomination against God’s will. Slavery, rather than Irish Catholicism, would be scoured from the land with blood in a time when what it meant to be a Christian was again in question. John Brown offered an answer to that question.
After being captured following the Harper’s Ferry raid he was held in custody as plans to put him on trial were formalized. During this time many of America’s brightest minds spoke out in support of him, including Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and, most memorably, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was Emerson who had coined the phrase “the shot heard round the world” to enshrine the moment the first round of American Independence was fired at Lexington. When Emerson spoke, America listened.22
Lecturing at the Boston Music Hall a few weeks before John Brown was to be hanged, Emerson praised John Brown’s bravery and held him up as a saint. Who, if hanged, would make “gallows glorious like the cross.” This phrase more than any other has preserved through the calamity of the Civil War and is the best-known literary term associated with John Brown. And at the time it was coined, it “sped through newspaper North and South like a ricocheting bullet,” fueling the tensions that would lead to the Civil War.23
By invoking the cross, the preeminent symbol of the Christian faith, Emerson legitimized John Brown’s argument that his actions were carried out in the name and tradition of Jesus Christ.
For millions of Americans, the gallows that John Brown swung from became the Cross. And so, at a time when Christian Protestantism was being pulled in dozens of directions, the weight of a doomed John Brown’s words pulled it decisively towards his interpretation of heavenly-justified violence. Leading up to his execution the media was seized with a frenzy to cover John Brown’s time in prison. His letters and statements from jail were circulated widely, and a rallied support to the abolitionist cause. Although the raid on Harper’s Ferry failed to give slaves the means to their own freedom, it still brought about the original ends it had intended.
As the hour of his hanging approached, there was hardly a soul alive in the Western world who had not been made aware – either from the writings of the New York Times, Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, and even Victor Hugo – of what was about to happen.
i i i
The television in the sparse German flat served the same function it does in many families: to bring everyone together with its lure of vacuum-tube entertainment. But this family was an unusual one. All of them had been raised with traditional values that stressed the importance of respecting your elders and living a life that was pious and devoted to God. None of them were particularly remarkable as children or teenagers, and if there was a shared aspect of notoriety it was that, overall, they were more withdrawn from society than most of their peers.
Their leader embodied this trait particularly well. He’d been raised in a neighborhood which lay sloppily somewhere on the line between slum and congested inner-city. But surroundings don’t really matter all that much when all your time is devoted to studying and you aren’t allowed to play outside of your dense stone apartment. The closest he got to playing with other kids was whispering to them out of his room’s back window, which stared emptily out over the endless tangle of chipped city streets.
Even during the holiest days of the year, when everyone tries to forget the oppressive dust that grinds and weighs on their clothing and their hopes, and everyone gathers together to celebrate the faith they all share in a brighter future, his family remained “like a set of rings interlocked with one another” and no one else.24 So it made sense that when he moved away from the country of his birth and into a culture he was never at home in he would attempt to reproduce this exclusive interlocked construction. The foreign nature of the German culture brought him and the men like him that he met together, and “almost everything the core members did, they did with the others.” This new family was “seldom seen outside and when they were they seemed to be moving in a pack.”25 And a pack they were.
Night and day, the blinds of their flat were drawn tight against the German atmosphere outside. The men followed their leader as members of a pack do – grudgingly at times. Especially the times when they were instructed not to even look at pretty girls they’d see on the street. But following nonetheless.
They didn’t always take themselves as seriously as their leader did. They shared chuckles about the fact that despite all of their outward piety, none of them actually knew how to properly prepare a religious holiday meal. But they always held hands, tightly, when they prayed together.
What struck them most about their leader wasn’t the “complete, almost aggressive insularity” that kept them in a world to themselves.26 It was the fact that they could hardly ever remember him laughing. If it wasn’t for the television in their flat, there might not ever have been a moment he did. And you wouldn’t expect a television documentary about suicide bombers in the Occupied Territories to have many light moments.
It was a special program put on by the local network about a would-be suicide bomber who set off his charge prematurely, managing only to knock himself unconscious among the stunned Israelis he’d intended to kill. One of the would-be victims took it upon himself to call for an ambulance, which rushed the clumsy bomber to the nearest hospital for treatment. Coming to on the operating table, the failed suicide-bomber found himself looking up at a bright light and surrounded by imposing figures clothed only in white.
“So,” he asked in a daze, “is this heaven?”
The head trauma surgeon, well-aware of who the man was and how he’d been injured replied, “well, do you think there will be Jews in Heaven?”
The bomber replied that he didn’t.
“Then,” the surgeon who had just saved the young Palestine’s life shot back, “I guess you’re not there yet.”27
Gathered around their television, every member of the family – even their stern leader – was bound together in a chorus of laughter. It was the spring of 1998. Two seasons later, men following Osama bin Ladin’s orders would take hundreds of African lives in their suicide bombing of the American Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
As the dust from those attacks was still settling onto African streets now coursing with blood, bin Ladin issued his first rallying cry to the world’s Muslims. Bin Ladin sought to redefine what it meant to be a Muslim, to renew the Muslim faith from its lull into apathy and inaction by pitting it against the unbridled oppression of Western subjugation.
Osama bin Ladin, inspired by the words of Sayid Qutb, whose time in jail was ended only with his hanging, justified violence in the name of his religion by arguing that it was the only way to end the wanton oppression and evil now being directed against his people. The family in that German flat that had been bound together in a chorus of laughter, the kind that can only shared by a group of men living in a strange and threatening society, would answer his call. And three years later they would bind all of our families together in front of the television in a different sort of chorus.
One of horror.
Like the men led by John Brown in his raid on Harper’s Ferry who hung from the gallows for their crimes, the terrorists who died hundreds of feet above the ground against the sides of the World Trade Center towers willingly gave their lives at the altar of a cause they believed in. They saw brutality, oppression, and injustice visited upon innocent lives. Upon those who had no way of fighting back, of freeing themselves from the heavy and inevitably hopelessness of a cruel and inescapable system run by wealth and violence.
Neither the abolitionists who followed the teachings of John Brown nor the terrorists who followed Osama bin Ladin were afraid of death. Those men all knew how their lives would end. And they welcomed the fate that waited for them between the heavens and the earth.
i i i
No one would argue that John Brown alone caused the Civil War. That is not at all the point. The Civil War was an angry confluence of forces: imbalances of trade and market, political failings and shortsightedness, cultural shortcomings and misconceptions. And Martin Luther didn’t summon Protestantism out of thin air. He envisioned it through the incense-choked air of a religion that had grown corrupt with the corpulence of gentry and greed, gathering, molding, and shaping its tenets from the thick discontent around him.
But the Civil War would not have begun when and how it did without John Brown. American society was thick with the currents of instability and fear needed to bring about a massive upheaval, and it was John Brown who saw a way to wrench open the unspoken floodgates that had been holding them back. The Protestant Reformation too has all the hallmarks of inevitability.
Many others agreed with Martin Luther’s message – it just happened to be Martin Luther who first took dramatic action. The strikes of his hammer found a note of resonance throughout European society that helped crumble the old walls of the Catholic Church. As the explosive shockwaves of John Brown’s powder were carried, gaining amplitude as they traveled across the American streets, homesteads, and fields that were so ready for change. Their lives were their message, their actions set a cadence for others to follow, and their conviction burnt brightly enough to light the path for those who would come in their wake.
And so although Osama bin Ladin will be remembered for the twin torches he lit afire – and who history may give most of the credit to – he alone is helpless in the face of the massive swelling wave of defiance, anger, and pride that is still ripping across the collective Muslim conscious. What happens to bin Ladin now does not matter.
The hunger of the creature rising from the ashes he created is well beyond his control. It will burn, it will fight, and it will kill. We will not be able to escape it, not so long as we refuse to see where it comes from and what causes its rage. It will seem a force of salvation for some and of unforgettable evil for others. It will be called a group, an ideology, and a movement.
It is all and none of these. And it is coming. We have already felt its first nightmarish breaths, urgent and biting, against our necks.
- continue on to the Next chapter below, or click here to get a copy of the book -Amira is a medical professional from Texas. As a bibliophile and science enthusiast, she’s passionate about the pursuit of knowledge. This is her first publication as an Ex-Muslim.
Greetings,
As an ex-Muslim, the first action I would like to extend is an offering of peace, or salaam. Apostasy from Islam is a thorny topic within Islamic theology and within Muslim communities. As such, I present my delicate passage from devout Muslim to firm atheist in all of its emotional, cathartic glory to shed light on the difficult spiritual transition apostates like myself, have made. This letter is an intimate account of that process; the slow shattering of my Muslim identity and the reinvention of my identity anew.
I liken my own spiritual transition to the phases of the moon; just as the lunar cycle reveals different faces of the moon at certain times of the month, leaving an observer with partial images that cumulate into a full moon, I have pieced together the multiple aspects of my own research and soul-searching to draw a full picture of Islam, faith, and what religion means to me. It is also no coincidence that I chose the moon for its symbolic relationship to Islam.
New Crescent: Putting the “I” in Islam
I was ashamed to harbor secret frustrations with Islam that I could not reconcile. In fact, I regularly dismissed them as part of my “test”.
As a born and raised Muslim in a moderately practicing household, Islam was my manual for life. When the terrorist attacks occurred on 9/11, I proudly integrated the hijab into my wardrobe to counter the rhetoric towards Muslims brought about by the terrorist attacks. There was even a brief period of time that I donned the niqab as an adamant Salafist (ultra-conservative Muslim).
As an adult, I was obsessed with my faith and enrolled in an intensive Alima program to fulfill my dreams of becoming a scholar of Islam. Whatever knowledge I gained, I shared it with my Muslim community by teaching a Quran and tajweed class, as well as leading a Ramadan program for women and leading an ahadith series focused on Nawawi’s 40 ahadith.
Islam was my existence and to be the best Muslim was my only goal in life.
Despite my devotion to lead a life that would please Allah so that he grants me Jannah (heaven), I was ashamed to harbor secret frustrations with Islam that I could not reconcile. In fact, I regularly dismissed them as part of my “test”. The Quran warns that we will be tested in faith through wealth, loss, health, etc. I was convinced my test was psychological because of my covertly shaky spirituality and nagging questions.
There were scientific concepts, moral views, and uncomfortable ethics within the faith that gnawed at my sanity. These thoughts made me wonder if I understood the faith as it is meant to be. Muslims are taught that if something about Islam does not make sense to an individual, the fault lies in that individual’s understanding, and not with Islam itself.
For several years, it was a vicious, exasperating cycle. I tried to silence the voice of reason in my mind, yet that voice only got louder.
Once it was clear to me that my beliefs were no longer on a solid footing, I began relearning Islam from scratch in a desperate effort to find the beauty masked by so much controversy. I began relearning Islam so that I could rebuild my faith on firmer foundation.
My efforts were exhaustive. They left me burned out as I tried to not let the actions of Muslims ruin the religion for me. Inevitably I took a break when my frustrations boiled over.
In early 2015, I decided to start from scratch yet again. This time, I took a different approach from the previous reboot focused on reason. This time around, my focus was on increasing the frequency, depth and devotion of my prayers. Increasing the number of voluntary fasts I would keep. I would wake up for tahajjud (the supererogatory early morning prayer) to beg for answers and peace of heart.
I read and discussed various materials by past and modern scholars to try to see where Islam came from and what it is today. I lived as piously as I could and spoke to Alims, sheikhs, imams, popular speakers, and many friends about things that disturbed me. When their answers did not address my questions, didn’t make sense, or were contradictory, I was told to let things go. I was told to stop over-analyzing, to leave it to Allah. I was even told that shaytaan (the devil) was hindering my understanding.
Throughout this time, I experienced a spectrum of emotions from frustration, to anger, to sadness, and to desperation. I tried to accept things that went against every fiber of my being and every neuron of logic in my brain. Most of all, I was deeply pained by the way Allah apparently set things up. Specifically, regarding women’s roles.
I felt hopeless in alleviating my psychological struggles with Islam. People with unwavering belief, who took things at face value, or didn’t question the many troublesome aspects of Islam thoroughly baffled me.
It was not that “we hear and we obey” was problematic. It was about making sense of the rules that govern our lives because they have real consequences. I wanted to be genuinely confident in my decisions beyond god telling me do something that does not make sense or would impact my life in a certain way.
In a last ditch effort, I decided to practice Islam in a way that I could tolerate, even if it was not “right”. However, those around me opposed even that effort. It was infuriating at the time. In retrospect, I’m glad they did not give me the freedom to practice Islam my way because it propelled me to confront my honest realizations and fears regarding this religion.
I explained my background to illustrate that I am not going through a phase, but am someone who has lived, struggled with, fought for, and dug deep into her beliefs with her entire being. I am a woman who was living to die for a god to guide me on the straight path. Despite being in heavy opposition to much of this faith, I was worried about the afterlife and my place in it. Eternity is a long time.
However, I am not someone who takes things blindly. If something is going to dictate every aspect of my life, then I demand indisputable perfection and sensibility in it. I don’t want to believe in Islam because I’m told to or was raised to, but because I have analyzed it and it passes every test. In fact, the Qur’an encourages us to critically analyze the religion. So I took my religion and my efforts to understand it very seriously.
Please remember that as you read the rest of this letter.
The Tip of the Iceberg
To quell my shaky faith, I often looked to the Qur’an for confirmation, but was repeatedly irritated by its contradictions and vagueness, not only in scripture, but also in its history (short link / long link). And the serious issue of abrogation, which is worrisome as a concept in a divine book as it is, but when I investigated the abrogation concept, it led me back to the frustrating contradictions I began my inquiry with.
I was also perplexed by the fact that the Quran adopted ancient legends and myths in its stories, including the biggest lie of all time.
The numerous scientific “miracles” in the Qur’an? These claims were either already known information at the time or flat out wrong.
No matter how one tries to justify or explain things, the Quran allows for domestic violence. The Qur’an allows for pedophilia. The Qur’an allows for a general injustice towards women. Worst of all, the Qur’an is extremely vulnerable to perversion because of how vague it is, among countless other issues with this book. And all this, for a book which is supposed to be perfect.
The deceptive commentaries and explanations scholars project onto the Qur’an were also troublesome and made me wonder why so much clarification was needed to understand a supposedly clear message, as Allah Himself states about the Quran.
I used to think that extremists that interpreted the Qur’an were ruining the religion and that their Islam was not the real Islam, until I realized that their Islam is just as valid as anyone else’s because the Qur’an’s vagueness justifies their actions. The way people manifest the teachings of Islam and the many versions it takes are all “real” Islam. Of course, these versions contradict one another when one version claims Islam is peaceful and another declares that Islam needs to take over the world. Nothing so holy and so divine should be vulnerable to such distortion.
Furthermore, Muslims are not the only ones who claim that their book is perfect and divinely inspired. We can compare what other religions say about their perfect books with the same passion and certainty as Muslims: No Man Could Have Written This.
Such writings made me question what makes the Qur’an any more special than that of other religions. As a Muslim I was very skeptical of other religious books and obviously did not believe them because Muslims are already indoctrinated to favor the supremacy claims of the Qur’an. Yet those other religions feel the same way about the Qur’an. Looking at things objectively, the Qur’an has as much value as it is given. Just like any other book.
When these fundamental issues with the Qur’an surfaced, I had to question its authenticity. How can it be preserved scripture if it was orally transmitted for 18 years after Muhammad’s death before being compiled into a book? That’s a long time.
What’s even worse is that the Sunnah and Ahadith are the second go-to Islamic sources to explain the Qur’an, yet they were written by men who lived at least 200 years after Muhammad’s death; many of them did not even live in Arabia. That’s a really, really long time after, and too far removed. They are neither second, third, or even fifth-hand accounts, nor are they from the land of the man that they wrote so extensively about. They simply lived too long after him and too far away from him. This leaves ample room for error, deceit, and corruption. Not to mention, these men also lived in extremely misogynic cultures. These views seeped into Islamic philosophy. For example, the concept of women being evil, disgusting creatures. Sadly, these same works are still referenced by Muslims today.
Piecing together these facts helped me realize that the revelations that shaped Islam as we know it are most likely fabricated by Muhammad and the compilation of the Qur’an was a convoluted process; written down by his followers long after his death. The Ahadith and Sunnah were written by other men, long after Muhammad’s death.
These are the worst conditions for preserving anything, much less the words of a god. Then there’s this interesting tidbit that drives the point home: Original Qur’an vs Modern Qur’an. The implications are disastrous.
Yet all of this pales in comparison to the Qur’an plagiarizing other works. Consider Imru’al-Qais’ poem and the Qur’an’s Chapter 54. The Qur’an – this supposed book of god’s literal words – has included lines of poetry from a poet that immediately predates Muhammad.
Furthermore, academic William St. Clair Tisdall wrote a thorough and well-cited book proving the Qur’an to be a compilation of pagan legends and mythologies, not divine revelations. As if the aforementioned issues with the Quran, ahadith, and sunnah were not devastating enough, this last fact struck the final blow for me.
I could never trust the Qur’an as a holy source again.
Full Moon: Truth is Illuminated
In light of this information, my entire belief in Islam began to deteriorate. I had anxiety attacks whenever I pondered the greater implications of what I was learning – that the Qur’an cannot be divine, truthful, or even original – and what that means about Muhammad and Islam.
I had anxiety attacks whenever I pondered the greater implications of what I was learning – that the Qur’an cannot be divine, truthful, or even original.
I began to reexamine my faith and went through a nauseating roller coaster of emotions in the process. Given the time, energy, and soul that I poured into living out this religion and calling others to it, I was deeply hurt and enraged in realizing the fact that Islam is not the truth. It is not even close to any idea of the truth. I felt manipulated and conned for having lived my life under this myth.
It was then that I began to see Islam objectively and not through the rose-colored lens that Muslims are trained to do. I gave the muffled rationality in my head a megaphone and let it rip.
Given that Muhammad was well versed in poetry and stories of the past and other religions of his day, it is completely plausible for an illiterate man to design his own book or even religion with enough effort and dedication. You do not have to know how to read or write to tell a story. Illiterate children can tell a story and an illiterate adult can tell an even better one. All one has to do is orate what they know or want to be known in a new way and have it written by someone else. In fact, being illiterate only credits him the excuse of not having to document anything himself.
With the Qur’an, ahadith, sunnah and the prophet as major disappointments, I was able to confront the questionable dichotomies of Islam without feeling like there was a problem in my understanding, as I have often been told.
For instance, I was simply shocked to learn that Islam did not abolish slavery. Besides the obvious problem with this fact, it is quite significant in the Islamic context because according to shari’ah law you are allowed to own another human being, but you are not allowed to eat a ham sandwich. These messed-up priorities boggle the mind.
Currently, half of the top ten countries that practice slavery or near-slavery are Muslim-majority countries. I would think that a religion that came for the betterment of humanity would put a complete end to such an establishment, and not be content to supposedly “phase it out”, as Muslim scholars boast. For something that is supposed to be phased out, it is still being practiced centuries later and the countries that have near-completely eliminated the practice altogether did so without any influence from Islam.
Beyond these questionable moral positions within Islam, there lie deeply superstitious beliefs.
For example, if you don’t wake up for fajr (the morning prayer), shaytan (the devil) urinates in your ear or nose (Bhukhari, Book 54, Hadith 492), but you can spit three times over your left shoulder to drive shaytan away from you in salah (prayer). How are prayer or spitting and shaytan’s bodily fluids related? Frankly, how does that even sound sane? Unfortunately, it is one of the many superstitions that play on one’s imagination as a Muslim.
You may be familiar with the Qur’anic description of shooting stars as devils being chased away from the heavenly assembly by angels or Muhammad’s ascension to heaven on a flying horse-like creature called the buraq.
Hearing these tales a child was the very first time I became suspicious of my beliefs. However, I clung to the popular apologetic explanations to these stories as an adult, although they required a great deal of mental gymnastics to even understand much less explain to someone else.
One evening, while watching the rebooted documentary series Cosmos, I learned that Halley’s Comet is seen from Earth every 75 years. The Islamic story of devils being chased away by angels when one sees a “falling star” like phenomenon immediately came to mind. I felt a pang in my stomach as I asked myself “Is a devil or jinn being chased every 75 years?”
At the time, I just defaulted to the usual “science will eventually confirm Islam” shtick, but it became impossible to continue lying to myself.
Now, I ask you, even if you ignore Halley’s Comet and only consider random meteors, doesn’t it sound like a primitive explanation of the natural world by attaching superstitions to natural phenomena? Even if it is meant metaphorically, why is it not stated metaphorically? It is stated as fact in the Qur’an and many ahadith.
None of my concerns were alleviated until I learned that the “shooting stars are devils” and “ascension to heaven on a horse-like creature” stories are rooted in pagan beliefs.
This is but a small sample of countless odd and superstitious attributes of Islam. They make much more sense when you trace them to their pagan roots because they are simply stories and not facts. We no longer need to mind-bendingly prove the “science confirming Qur’an” as Muslims try to do. As I used to do.
At this point, I had to stop making excuses and accept that Islam is no different than Christianity, Judaism, or any of the thousands of world religions, both living and extinct. They all claim to be right while everyone else is wrong. Yet none can claim indisputable perfection for all of mankind.
Muslims criticize the other Abrahamic faiths, but Islam has similar and sometimes more troubling issues to deal with. The Abrahamic faiths are the most confident while also the worst. And they provide the least evidence.
Out of the thousands of world religions that have been practiced and 2,870 known gods that have been worshiped throughout time, what are the chances that Islam is the ultimate truth? I asked myself what made me so confident that Allah is the real god and not Ra, Vishnu, Thor, or even Zeus, especially when the basis of my and other Muslim’s convictions are exactly the same as the followers of Ra, Vishnu, Thor, Zeus, and the other 2,865 gods’ followers. I had to be honest with myself and realistically crunch the numbers.
Cutting the Last Strings
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With anthem protests proving to be an impactful way to stir engagement on issues of racial inequality and police brutality, NBA players like Thunder guard Victor Oladipo believe the approach will carry over to the NBA season. Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert has already indicated he will be kneeling for the anthem, and with training camps starting up soon, we’ll undoubtedly hear more players address the issue.
In the event that NBA players do start some form of protest before games this season, how should commissioner Adam Silver handle it?
An anthem protest in this socially conscious time for the NBA would close a circle of sorts. In 1996, then-Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refused to stand for the anthem, saying the song conflicted with his Muslim beliefs. The NBA actually suspended Abdul-Rauf for a game because of his protest, and eventually convinced him to stand. Abdul-Rauf was out of the league a couple years after his protest, with his career being cut short sooner than it probably should have been.
Under Silver’s tenure, the NBA has shown a much greater social awareness, which is somewhat refreshing for a sports league or major corporation. Silver properly handled both the Donald Sterling and North Carolina HB2 situations, while the league’s players have spoken out more than ever before, whether it was rebuking Sterling, wearing hoodies for Trayvon Martin or sporting “I Can’t Breathe” shirts during warmups. (Contrast those happenings with the previous NBA regime, during which David Stern started a dress code and policed what players could wear to games.)
Though the league has come a long way socially, no NBA player has had a message as pinpointed as Kaepernick’s.
Noah Graham/Getty Images
While LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade showed a level of courage in their national address to end violence at the ESPYs, they also didn’t reach as far out as Kaepernick, who took a definitive stance against police violence, and has explained clearly and concisely how he hopes to begin a conversation about oppression.
What remains to be seen is how the NBA would deal with its players if they began to specifically call out the police or other institutions with a visible protest. The “I Can’t Breathe” shirts were the closest NBA players came to a protest on Kaepernick’s level, but wearing different shirts in warmups is far less disruptive than sitting during the anthem, which to many—as Kaepernick has proven—has been conflated with what it means to be a patriot.
How should the NBA handle a potential anthem protest? They should let the players do whatever they want, and if the NBA truly fashions itself as the progressive sports league, the Association should go beyond tacit support, it should actively work to help bring resolutions to the issues players could raise.
By the time the season starts, the NBA will have had months to decide how it wants to react to anthem protests. With 82 games on the schedule as opposed to 16 in the NFL, the NBA actually has a chance to normalize these protests, to show that it’s okay to use every single game as a platform for peaceful demonstration.
A blanket statement reinforcing the players’ rights and supporting the military is not enough, especially since Silver has been a commissioner known for taking action. In a league that’s nearly three-quarters black, Silver should follow the lead of his players, who are far more affected by the issues they bring to light than Silver could ever know.
Ultimately, both the NBA front office and its players could be tested in a way once the season starts. Will the league’s star players be willing to go out on the same branch as Kaepernick? And will Silver handle the situation in a way that satisfies the protesters?
The fact that those questions can even be asked—20 years after Abdul-Rauf was suspended for sitting for the anthem—at least suggests (and creates hope for more) progress.Parents of adult kids with autism are creating jobs that play to their strengths — like starting a T-shirt silk-screening shop if they are artistic, or organic farms if they like to work outdoors.
Aaron Winston, of Dallas, joined the nonPareil program three years ago. He has learned so much that the company promoted him to full time. (Photo: Dalynn Montgomery) Story Highlights Those with autism may struggle with communication but don't mind repetitive tasks
Non-profit group is going on road with its message about employing those with autism
Employment rate lower for those with autism than for those with other disabilities
Lori Ireland and a handful of other parents in Chapel Hill, N.C., had a simple dream: They wanted their teenage children to be able to have jobs someday. Sitting around with nothing productive to do would be unsatisfying and frustrating for their kids, not to mention expensive.
But they also knew the dismal truth: It's tough for someone with autism to get a job.
So, like an increasing number of parents with children on the autism spectrum, Ireland and her peers set out to employ them themselves. Their non-profit Extraordinary Ventures businesses, including one cleaning city buses and another making candles and other gifts, now employs 40 people with developmental disabilities in the Chapel Hill area.
Ireland recently told her story to a group of autism parents and advocates as part of a nationwide effort by the advocacy group Autism Speaks to inspire more parents to follow her lead. (The group has also developed a digital tool kit to help people with autism get and keep jobs.)
Ireland and others will bring their tales to more cities this fall, including Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Miami, St. Louis and Scottsdale, Ariz.
Slightly more than half of young people with autism have ever worked for pay since leaving high school, according to a survey published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Roughly 85% of those who were least disabled had worked, compared with just 12% of those most severely disabled.
By comparison, young people with emotional disturbances, learning disabilities or impaired speech and language were roughly five times more likely to have held a job. And people with intellectual disabilities were twice as likely to have been employed since high school, the survey found.
Paul Shattuck, an associate professor at Drexel University's Autism Institute in Philadelphia, helped conduct the research. He says it's not entirely clear why people with autism are so much more disadvantaged. But he thinks that the social and communications challenges that define autism put them at a particular deficit.
"More and more jobs in our economy require that you successfully interact with other people as part of your job — that is your job," he says. This "is uniquely disabling for people on the autism spectrum."
Though many people still think of autism as a childhood condition, its effects are mostly lifelong. Beginning in the late 1980s, autism diagnoses began to skyrocket, and children diagnosed then are now young adults. About 50,000 kids on the autism spectrum turn 18 every year.
Their parents began advocating for better diagnosis and better care back in the '90s and 2000s. Many of those same parents are now turning their advocacy skills to the needs of young adults on the spectrum.
People with autism may be as good or better at a particular job than someone who is not on the spectrum, says Lisa Goring, vice president of family services at Autism Speaks, though they will likely need special accommodations to be able to work to their potential. Some mainstream businesses such as Walgreens are known for accommodating people on the spectrum, but there aren't nearly enough opportunities, Goring says. So parents are increasingly filling the void.
Ireland's son Vinnie doesn't mind repetitive tasks, like cleaning rows of bus seats or mowing lawns day after day. But someone else must handle the communications aspects of the work, because Vinnie doesn't speak more than a few words.
Other parents play to their adult children's strengths, perhaps opening a T-shirt silk-screening shop if their child has artistic skills, or starting organic farms if they like to work outdoors.
The nonPareil Institute in Plano, Texas, was begun five years ago to take advantage of the founders' children's love of technology. The non-profit trains adults on the spectrum to develop digital games and apps. They have released five apps and a couple of games, with many more on the way, according to Dan Selec, nonPareil's CEO.
The training program, which costs $675 a month, has now grown to 130 students and is in talks to expand to seven more cities, Selec says.
Vinnie Ireland and supported employment specialist Christine Denny fold EV Laundry customers' clothes. (Photo: Paige Morrow)
Aaron Winston of Dallas joined the program three years ago after graduating from high school and briefly attempting community college. Though he had no technical skills at the beginning, he has now learned so much that the company recently promoted him to a full-time employee, one of four full-time staffers on the spectrum.
"If it wasn't for nonPareil, I'd probably be struggling through college or doing some type of job I'm overqualified for," he says.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/19Isb9vby Terry Bisson
Author spotlight
I was driving with my brother, the preacher, and my nephew, the preacher’s son, on I-65 just north of Bowling Green when we got a flat. It was Sunday night and we had been to visit Mother at the Home. We were in my car. The flat caused what you might call knowing groans since, as the old-fashioned one in my family (so they tell me), I fix my own tires, and my brother is always telling me to get radials and quit buying old tires.
But if you know how to mount and fix tires yourself, you can pick them up for almost nothing.
Since it was a left rear tire, I pulled over to the left, onto the median grass. The way my Caddy stumbled to a stop, I figured the tire was ruined. “I guess there’s no need asking if you have any of that FlatFix in the trunk,” said Wallace.
“Here, son, hold the light,” I said to Wallace Jr. He’s old enough to want to help and not old enough (yet) to think he knows it all. If I’d married and had kids, he’s the kind I’d have wanted.
An old Caddy has a big trunk that tends to fill up like a shed. Mine’s a ’56. Wallace was wearing his Sunday shirt, so he didn’t offer to help while I pulled magazines, fishing tackle, a wooden tool box, some old clothes, a come-along wrapped in a grass sack, and a tobacco sprayer out of the way, looking for my jack. The spare looked a little soft.
The light went out. “Shake it, son,” I said.
It went back on. The bumper jack was long gone, but I carry a little 1/4-ton hydraulic. I found it under Mother’s old Southern Livings, 1978-1986. I had been meaning to drop them at the dump. If Wallace hadn’t been along, I’d have let Wallace Jr. position the jack under the axle, but I got on my knees and did it myself. There’s nothing wrong with a boy learning to change a tire. Even if you’re not going to fix and mount them, you’re still going to have to change a few in this life. The light went off again before I had the wheel off the ground. I was surprised at how dark the night was already. It was late October and beginning to get cool. “Shake it again, son,” I said.
It went back on but it was weak. Flickery.
“With radials you just don’t have flats,” Wallace explained in that voice he uses when he’s talking to a number of people at once; in this case, Wallace Jr. and myself. “And even when you do, you just squirt them with this stuff called FlatFix and you just drive on. $3.95 the can.”
“Uncle Bobby can fix a tire hisself,” said Wallace Jr., out of loyalty I presume.
“Himself,” I said from halfway under the car. If it was up to Wallace, the boy would talk like what Mother used to call “a helot from the gorges of the mountains.” But drive on radials.
“Shake that light again,” I said. It was about gone. I spun the lugs off into the hubcap and pulled the wheel. The tire had blown out along the sidewall. “Won’t be fixing this one,” I said. Not that I cared. I have a pile as tall as a man out by the barn.
The light went out again, then came back better than ever as I was fitting the spare over the lugs. “Much better,” I said. There was a flood of dim orange flickery light. But when I turned to find the lug nuts, I was surprised to see that the flashlight the boy was holding was dead. The light was coming from two bears at the edge of the trees, holding torches. They were big, three hundred pounders, standing about five feet tall. Wallace Jr. and his father had seen them and were standing perfectly still. It’s best not to alarm bears.
I fished the lug nuts out of the hubcap and spun them on. I usually like to put a little oil on them, but this time I let it go. I reached under the car and let the jack down and pulled it out. I was relieved to see that the spare was high enough to drive on. I put the jack and the lug wrench and the flat into the trunk. Instead of replacing the hubcap, I put it in there too. All this time, the bears never made a move. They just held the torches, whether out of curiosity or helpfulness, there was no way of knowing. It looked like there may have been more bears behind them, in the trees.
Opening three doors at once, we got into the car and drove off. Wallace was the first to speak. “Looks like bears have discovered fire,” he said.
* * * *
When we first took Mother to the Home almost four years (forty-seven months) ago, she told Wallace and me she was ready to die. “Don’t worry about me, boys,” she whispered, pulling us both down so the nurse wouldn’t hear. “I’ve drove a million miles and I’m ready to pass over to the other shore. I won’t have long to linger here.” She drove a consolidated school bus for thirty-nine years. Later, after Wallace left, she told me about her dream. A bunch of doctors were sitting around in a circle discussing her case. One said, “We’ve done all we can for her, boys, let’s let her go.” They all turned their hands up and smiled. When she didn’t die that Fall she seemed disappointed, though as Spring came she forgot about it, as old people will.
In addition to taking Wallace and Wallace Jr. to see Mother on Sunday nights, I go myself on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I usually find her sitting in front of the TV, even though she doesn’t watch it. The nurses keep it on all the time. They say the old folks like the flickering. It soothes them down.
“What’s this I hear about bears discovering fire?” she said on Tuesday. “It’s true,” I told her as I combed her long white hair with the shell comb Wallace had brought her from Florida. Monday there had been a story in the Louisville Courier-Journal, and Tuesday one on NBC or CBS Nightly News. People were seeing bears all over the state, and in Virginia as well. They had quit hibernating, and were apparently planning to spend the winter in the medians of the interstates. There have always been bears in the mountains of Virginia, but not here in western Kentucky, not for almost a hundred years. The last one was killed when Mother was a girl. The theory in the Courier-Journal was that they were following 1-65 down from the forests of Michigan and Canada, but one old man from Allen County (interviewed on nationwide TV) said that there had always been a few bears left back in the hills, and they had come out to join the others now that they had discovered fire.
“They don’t hibernate anymore,” I said. “They make a fire and keep it going all winter.”
“I declare,” Mother said. “What’ll they think of next!”
The nurse came to take her tobacco away, which is the signal for bedtime.
* * * *
Every October, Wallace Jr. stays with me while his parents go to camp. I realize how backward that sounds, but there it is. My brother is a Minister (House of the Righteous Way, Reformed) but he makes two-thirds of his living in real estate. He and Elizabeth go to a Christian Success Retreat in South Carolina, where people from all over the country practice selling things to one another. I know what it’s like not because they’ve ever bothered to tell me, but because I’ve seen the Revolving Equity Success Plan ads late at night on TV.
The school bus let Wallace Jr. off at my house on Wednesday, the day they left. The boy doesn’t have to pack much of a bag when he stays with me. He has his own room here. As the eldest of our family, I hung onto the old home place near Smiths Grove. It’s getting run down, but Wallace Jr. and I don’t mind. He has his own room in Bowling Green, too, but since Wallace and Elizabeth move to a different house every year (part of the Plan), he keeps his.22 and his comics, the stuff that’s important to a boy his age, in his room here at the home place. It’s the room his dad and I used to share.
Wallace Jr. is twelve. I found him sitting on the back porch that overlooks the interstate when I got home from work. I sell crop insurance.
After I changed clothes I showed him how to break the bead on a tire two ways, with a hammer, and by backing a car over it. Like making sorghum, fixing tires by hand is a dying art. The boy caught on fast, though. “Tomorrow I’ll show you how to mount your tire with the hammer and a tire iron,” I said.
“What I wish is I could see the bears,” he said. He was looking across the field to I-65, where the northbound lanes cut off the corner of our field. From the house at night, sometimes the traffic sounds like a waterfall.
“Can’t see their fire in the daytime,” I said. “But wait till tonight.” That night CBS or NBC (I forget which is which) did a special on the bears, which were becoming a story of nationwide interest. They were seen in Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, Illinois (southern), and, of course, Virginia. There have always been bears in Virginia. Some characters there were even talking about hunting them. A scientist said they were heading into the states where there is some snow but not too much, and where there is enough timber in the medians for firewood. He had gone in with a video camera, but his shots were just blurry figures sitting around a fire. Another scientist said the bears were attracted by the berries on a new bush that grew only in the medians of the interstates. He claimed this berry was the first new species in recent history, brought about by the mixing of seeds along the highway. He ate one on TV, making a face, and called it a “newberry.” A climatic ecologist said that the warm winters (there was no snow last winter in Nashville, and only one flurry in Louisville) had changed the bears’ hibernation cycle, and now they were able to remember things from year to year. “Bears may have discovered fire centuries ago,” he said, “but forgot it.” Another theory was that they had discovered (or remembered) fire when Yellowstone burned, several years ago.
The TV showed more guys talking about bears than it showed bears, and Wallace Jr. and I lost interest. After the supper dishes were done I took the boy out behind the house and down to our fence. Across the interstate and through the trees, we could see the light of the bears’ fire. Wallace Jr. wanted to go back to the house and get his.22 and go shoot one, and I explained why that would be wrong. “Besides,” I said, “a.22 wouldn’t do much more to a bear than make it mad.
“Besides,” I added, “it’s illegal to hunt in the medians.”
* * * *
The only trick to mounting a tire by hand, once you have beaten or pried it onto the rim, is setting the bead. You do this by setting the tire upright, sitting on it, and bouncing it up and down between your legs while the air goes in. When the bead sets on the rim, it makes a satisfying “pop.” On Thursday, I kept Wallace Jr. home from school and showed him how to do this until he got it right. Then we climbed our fence and crossed the field to get a look at the bears.
In northern Virginia, according to Good Morning America, the bears were keeping their fires going all day long. Here in western Kentucky, though, it was still warm for late October and they only stayed around the fires at night. Where they went and what they did in the daytime, I don’t know. Maybe they were watching from the newberry bushes as Wallace Jr. and I climbed the government fence and crossed the northbound lanes. I carried an axe and Wallace Jr. brought his.22, not because he wanted to kill a bear but because a boy likes to carry some kind of a gun. The median was all tangled with brush and vines under the maples, oaks and sycamores. Even though we were only a hundred yards from the house, I had never been there, and neither had anyone else that I knew of. It was like a created country. We found a path in the center and followed it down across a slow, short stream that flowed out of one grate and into another. The tracks in the gray mud were the first bear signs we saw. There was a musty, but not really unpleasant smell. In a clearing under a big hollow beech, where the fire had been, we found nothing but ashes. Logs were drawn up in a rough circle and the smell was stronger. I stirred the ashes and found enough coals to start a new flame, so I banked them back the way they had been left.
I cut a little firewood and stacked it to one side, just to be neighborly.
Maybe the bears were watching us from the bushes even then. There’s no way to know. I tasted one of the newberries and spit it out. It was so sweet it was sour, just the sort of thing you would imagine a bear would like.
* * * *
That evening after supper I asked Wallace Jr. if he might want to go with me to visit Mother. I wasn’t surprised when he said “yes.” Kids have more consideration than folks give them credit for. We found her sitting on the concrete front porch of the Home, watching the cars go by on I-65. The nurse said she had been agitated all day. I wasn’t surprised by that, either. Every Fall as the leaves change, she gets restless, maybe the word is hopeful, again. I brought her into the dayroom and combed her long white hair. “Nothing but bears on TV anymore,” the nurse complained, flipping the channels. Wallace Jr. picked up the remote after the nurse left, and we watched a CBS or NBC Special Report about some hunters in Virginia who had gotten their houses torched. The TV interviewed a hunter and his wife whose $117,500 Shenandoah Valley home had burned. She blamed the bears. He didn’t blame the bears, but he was suing for compensation from the state since he had a valid hunting license. The state hunting commissioner came on and said that possession of a hunting license didn’t prohibit (enjoin, I think, was the word he used) the hunted from striking back. I thought that was a pretty liberal view for a state commissioner. Of course, he had a vested interest in not paying off. I’m not a hunter myself.
“Don’t bother coming on Sunday,” Mother told Wallace Jr. with a wink. “I’ve drove a million miles and I’ve got one hand on the gate.” I’m used to her saying stuff like that, especially in the Fall, but I was afraid it would upset the boy. In fact, he looked worried after we left and I asked him what was wrong.
“How could she have drove a million miles?” he asked. She had told him forty-eight miles a day for thirty-nine years, and he had worked it out on his calculator to be 336,960 miles.
“Have driven,” I said. “And it’s forty-eight in the morning and forty-eight in the afternoon. Plus there were the football trips. Plus, old folks exaggerate a little.” Mother was the first woman school bus driver in the state. She did it every day and raised a family, too. Dad just farmed.
* * * *
I usually get off the interstate at Smiths Grove, but that night I drove north all the way to Horse Cave and doubled back so Wallace Jr. and I could see the bears’ fires. There were not as many as you would think from the TV—one every six or seven miles, hidden back in a clump of trees or under a rocky ledge. Probably they look for water as well as wood. Wallace Jr. wanted to stop, but it’s against the law to stop on the interstate and I was afraid the state police would run us off.
There was a card from Wallace in the mailbox. He and Elizabeth were doing fine and having a wonderful time. Not a word about Wallace Jr., but the boy didn’t seem to mind. Like most kids his age, he doesn’t really enjoy going places with his parents.
* * * *
On Saturday afternoon the Home called my office (Burley Belt Drought & Hail) and left word that Mother was gone. I was on the road. I work Saturdays. It’s the only day a lot of part-time farmers are home. My heart literally missed a beat when I called in and got the message, but only a beat. I had long been prepared. “It’s a blessing,” I said when I got the nurse on the phone.
“You don’t understand,” the nurse said. “Not passed away, gone. Ran away, gone. Your mother has escaped.” Mother had gone through the door at the end of the corridor when no one was looking, wedging the door with her comb and taking a bedspread which belonged to the Home. What about her tobacco? I asked. It was gone. That was a sure sign she was planning to stay away. I was in Franklin, and it took me less than an hour to get to the Home on I-65. The nurse told me that Mother had been acting more and more confused lately. Of course they are going to say that. We looked around the grounds, which is only a half-acre with no trees between the interstate and a soybean field. Then they had me leave a message at the Sheriff’s office. I would have to keep paying for her care until she was officially listed as Missing, which would be Monday.
It was dark by the time I got back to the house, and Wallace Jr. was fixing supper. This just involves opening a few cans, already selected and grouped together with a rubber band. I told him his grandmother had gone, and he nodded, saying, “She told us she would be.” I called South Carolina and left a message. There was nothing more to be done. I sat down and tried to watch TV, but there was nothing on. Then, I looked out the back door, and saw the firelight twinkling through the trees across the northbound lane of I-65, and realized I just might know where to find her.
* * * *
It was definitely getting colder, so I got my jacket. I told the boy to wait by the phone in case the Sheriff called, but when I looked back, halfway across the field, there he was behind me. He didn’t have a jacket. I let him catch up. He was carrying his.22 and I made him leave it leaning against our fence. It was harder climbing the government fence in the dark, at my age, than it had been in the daylight. I am sixty-one. The highway was busy with cars heading south and trucks heading north.
Crossing the shoulder, I got my pants cuffs wet on the long grass, already wet with dew. It is actually bluegrass.
The first few feet into the trees it was pitch black and the boy grabbed my hand. Then it got lighter. At first I thought it was the moon, but it was the high beams shining like moonlight into the treetops, allowing Wallace Jr. and me to pick our way through the brush. We soon found the path and its familiar bear smell.
I was wary of approaching the bears at night. If we stayed on the path we might run into one in the dark, but if we went through the bushes we might be seen as intruders. I wondered if maybe we shouldn’t have brought the gun.
We stayed on the path. The light seemed to drip down from the canopy of the woods like rain. The going was easy, especially if we didn’t try to look at the path but let our feet find their own way.
Then through the trees I saw their fire.
* * * *
The fire was mostly of sycamore and beech branches, the kind that puts out very little heat or light and lots of smoke. The bears hadn’t learned the ins and outs of wood yet. They did okay at tending it, though. A large cinnamon brown northern-looking bear was poking the fire with a stick, adding a branch now and then from a pile at his side. The others sat around in a loose circle on the logs. Most were smaller black or honey bears, one was a mother with cubs. Some were eating berries from a hubcap. Not eating, but just watching the fire, my mother sat among them with the bedspread from the Home around her shoulders.
If the bears noticed us, they didn’t let on. Mother patted a spot right next to her on the log and I sat down. A bear moved over to let Wallace Jr. sit on her other side.
The bear smell is rank but not unpleasant, once you get used to it. It’s not like a barn smell, but wilder. I leaned over to whisper something to Mother and she shook her head. It would be rude to whisper around these creatures that don’t possess the power of speech, she let me know without speaking. Wallace Jr. was silent too. Mother shared the bedspread with us and we sat for what seemed hours, looking into the fire.
The big bear tended the fire, breaking up the dry branches by holding one end and stepping on them, like people do. He was good at keeping it going at the same level. Another bear poked the fire from time to time but the others left it alone. It looked like only a few of the bears knew how to use fire and were carrying the others along. But isn’t that how it is with everything? Every once in a while, a smaller bear walked into the circle of firelight with an armload of wood and dropped it onto the pile. Median wood has a silvery cast, like driftwood.
Wallace Jr. isn’t fidgety like a lot of kids. I found it pleasant to sit and stare into the fire. I took a little piece of Mother’s Red Man, though I don’t generally chew. It was no different from visiting her at the Home, only more interesting, because of the bears. There were about eight or ten of them. Inside the fire itself, things weren’t so dull, either: Little dramas were being played out as fiery chambers were created and then destroyed in a crashing of sparks. My imagination ran wild. I looked around the circle at the bears and wondered what they saw. Some had their eyes closed. Though they were gathered together, their spirits still seemed solitary, as if each bear was sitting along in front of its own fire.
The hubcap came around and we all took some newberries. I don’t know about Mother, but I just pretended to eat mine. Wallace Jr. made a face and spit his out. When he went to sleep, I wrapped the bedspread around all three of us. It was getting colder and we were not provided, like the bears, with fur. I was ready to go home, but not Mother. She pointed up toward the canopy of trees, where a light was spreading, and then pointed to herself. Did she think it was angels approaching from on high? It was only the high beams of some southbound truck, but she seemed mighty pleased. Holding her hand, I felt it grow colder and colder in mine.
* * * *
Wallace Jr. woke me up by tapping on my knee. It was past dawn, and his grandmother had died sitting on the log between us. The fire was banked up and the bears were gone and someone was crashing straight through the woods, ignoring the path. It was Wallace. Two state troopers were right behind him. He was wearing a white shirt, and I realized it was Sunday morning. Underneath his sadness on learning of Mother’s death, he looked peeved.
The troopers were sniffing the air and nodding. The bear smell was still strong. Wallace and I wrapped Mother in the bedspread and started with her body back out to the highway. The troopers stayed behind and scattered the bears’ fire ashes and flung their firewood away into the bushes. It seemed a petty thing to do. They were like bears themselves, each one solitary in his own uniform.
There was Wallace’s Olds 98 on the median, with its radial tires looking squashed on the grass. In front of it there was a police car with a trooper standing beside it, and behind it a funeral home hearse, also an Olds 98.
“First report we’ve had of them bothering old folks,” the trooper said to Wallace. “That’s not hardly what happened at all,” I said, but nobody asked me to explain. They have their own procedures. Two men in suits got out of the hearse and opened the rear door. That to me was the point at which Mother departed this life. After we put her in, I put my arms around the boy. He was shivering even though it wasn’t that cold. Sometimes death will do that, especially at dawn, with the police around and the grass wet, even when it comes as a friend.
We stood for a minute watching the cars and trucks pass. “It’s a blessing,” Wallace said. It’s surprising how much traffic there is at 6:22 a.m.
* * * *
That afternoon, I went back to the median and cut a little firewood to replace what the troopers had flung away. I could see the fire through the trees that night.
I went back two nights later, after the funeral. The fire was going and it was the same bunch of bears, as far as I could tell. I sat around with them a while but it seemed to make them nervous, so I went home. I had taken a handful of newberries from the hubcap, and on Sunday I went with the boy and arranged them on Mother’s grave. I tried again, but it’s no use, you can’t eat them.
Unless you’re a bear.
© 1990 by Terry Bisson.
Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of the author.British Electro post hard-core nu-metal band Enter Shikari made their much anticipated return last week with their new album ‘A Flash Flood of Colour’.
Following 2009’s Common Dreads, Enter Shikari had a big challenge, they had to not only beat it but also make a statement which would appeal to their dedicated fan base. For many bands this would mean playing it safe and sticking to what you know. For Enter Shikari this meant packing up all you have and moving to Thailand to begin recording where they experimented with their sound and were free to say whatever they wanted.
From the opening song of ‘A Flash Flood of Colour’ cleverly entitled ‘System…’ the political element of the band are evident. The lyrics being a criticism of governments and countries, with a backing of strings and screaming vocals is followed immediately without break by ‘…meltdown’ where your ears are bombarded by a scream of “This is gonna change everything”. The heaviness of this track, mixed beautifully with Electro and the political shouts are everything Enter Shikari have become known for and for the most part of the album this simple arrangement is followed.
However on the sixth track ‘Stalemate’ and the albums closer ‘Constellations’ a softer side to Enter Shikari, unseen before is shown, while the twinge of dissatisfaction at the world today is kept, the heavy guitar and electro beats are replaced with Rou Reynolds singing softly with his acoustic guitar. A contrast to all other Shikari tracks, a welcome contrast for the hearing of those listening.
‘A Flash Flood of Colour’ is a triumph from Enter Shikari, an album that is sure to take them to higher places, and maybe finally break mainstream America which just eluded them on their last offering. The album sees their hard-core-dub-rave mash-up flirt with stadium rock wonderfully and from start to end is a truly exhilarating ride for old and new fans alike. The political side of the album is worded perfectly on a call to bankers in ‘Arguing with Thermometers’ with the line “Back to the drawing-board boys/Accept nothing more than complete reversal!” The closer of the Album, which describes a pretty bleak world, shows us that despite how bad things are there is Hope. Hope is something which Enter Shikari have tried to create more than anything with the lines “if we stand for nothing we will fall for anything” and “don’t tell us a small group of friends can’t change the world,” resonating in two songs respectively. Basically ya things are bad, but stick with what you believe and all will be okay. With Enter Shikari poised to lead our generation musically, yes we’ll be slightly deafened, but if ‘A Flash Flood’ is anything to go by, all shall work out alright
****
Guys, this was a review I had to do for college, but i also wanted to share it here and get opinions 🙂 hope ye enjoyed it. Comments please..
Ben 🙂
Advertisements(CBS) As he recovers from a vicious punch to the face from Bobby Portis, Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic hasn’t returned text messages from teammates, according to reports. He suffered multiple facial fractures and a concussion in the skirmish at practice last week, and his ongoing silence undermines the team’s chosen narrative of “These things happen.”
That’s what executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson said when he announced an eight-game suspension for Portis, during which he’s still allowed to practice. Coach Fred Hoiberg played along, |
little bit more each time I think of it, is the moment that this theme first became clear to me.
A little less than halfway through Chrono Cross, your quest takes you to a location called “The Dead Sea.” Unlike the vast majority of the game’s map, you can’t see the Dead Sea from a bird’s eye view, it is nestled in an obscuring fog. Opening the gate to this region is a big to-do; it requires you to fetch a McGuffin and fight some nasty enemies. And then, when you finally arrive, you understand why.
The Dead Sea turns out to be an apocalypse in microcosm. It contains a city from the future, trapped mid-implosion amidst time-frozen waves. Shattered skyscrapers preside over crumbling freeway overpasses. It is unlike anything else in the game’s world. As you walk across water to reach the heart of the haunted place, you can examine artifacts from this unfortunate cataclysm: discarded robots, the remnants of storefronts, half-working computer systems that hint at the nature of the world’s end.
When you finally arrive at the center of the ruins, you meet a very conveniently-placed storyteller, who explains that the Dead Sea is an alternate future of your planet— an apocalypse averted — that was, through an unknown process, preserved. It was condensed into a tiny inlet of a minor archipelago, an unimportant corner of the world, and sealed away. He calls it “Time Crash Ground Zero.”
This armageddon was prevented, he explains, by a group of determined adventurers not unlike the one you are now controlling, as the player! These headstrong individuals traveled through time and rewrote the history books, seeking out the nature of the apocalypse and destroying the destroyer. They saved (have saved, will save, are saving) the future, and the detritus has gathered in the Dead Sea.
And this is it: the bit that gets me, a little bit harder each time:
This one. This part right here.
“They realized,” says the storyteller, speaking of these adventurers, “they could not turn their backs on our planet, even if its death would not be anywhere near their lifetime.”
From the very first time I ever played Chrono Cross, this felt like an accusation.
As a young man on the verge of adulthood, I could quite clearly see a future in which the world was threatened by destruction — not by a monstrous, alien parasite which would punch through the Earth’s crust and rain brimstone down upon shining, domed cities, but at our own hands, a result of our poor stewardship of our pale blue dot. And, controller in hand, I found myself asking: Though its death would not be anywhere near my lifetime, could I turn my back on our planet?
Chrono Cross began development in 1998, which was by far the hottest year ever recorded at the time. (When you hear that “nine out of the ten hottest years in the historical record have occurred this century,” 1998 is the tenth.) 1998 also saw the tail end of a particularly strong El Niño, which caused unusual weather patterns and unseasonably high temperatures around the globe. That same year, Japan signed the Kyoto Protocol.
Environmentalism and conservationism were themes that had started to bleed into pop culture in the mid-’90s (think Captain Planet or the games of the Sega Genesis). Square itself, a few years earlier, had released Final Fantasy VII, a game in which a mega-corporation’s exploitation of the planet’s life force is one of the central conflicts. But Chrono Cross is a step above. It is very nearly a manifesto.
Like most role-playing games, Chrono Cross is about saving the world, and by extension, saving humanity. Except Chrono Cross, more than just about any of its contemporaries, wants to ask the question: “Is saving humanity the same thing as saving the world, or are these two concepts opposed?”
The game’s first “dungeon.”
The world of Chrono Cross is the kind of setting one might concoct if one imagined the rosiest possible outcome of global climate change: a beautiful island chain, tucked away from the world, where the denizens wear light, colorful clothing and the only travel possible is by boat. In the El Nido Archipelago, the ocean is omnipresent, the sun glittering off the waves in the background of nearly every outdoor location. Indeed, in many places, the ocean seems to be creeping out of its watery bounds and onto land: forests of coral overlook white shores, and primeval cycads provide a Devonian backdrop to the game’s first battles.
As you leave your home village and begin to explore El Nido more fully, however, it becomes evident that even among the lush, verdant islands of the archipelago, humanity has begun to alter its environment — with a negative effect on the archipelago’s non-human inhabitants.
An explorer researching the ruins of Sky Dragon Isle comments that “A hundred years before humans from the continent came here, the Dragonians and demi-humans still existed in great numbers.” These demi-humans have been exiled from their home in Marbule, which has become haunted in their absence.
When your companion Kid is poisoned and the only means of saving her is by obtaining a substance called Hydra Humour, Serge finds himself out of luck — because humans have hunted the Hydra to extinction in El Nido.
In one of the game’s two parallel worlds, the flowing pools of water that cover Water Dragon Isle have run dry, and in the other world, a group of dwarves are slaughtering the island’s natural inhabitants, the fairies. When Serge and company try to intervene, the dwarves malign the whole human species, calling us “heretics of evolution,” “destroyers of the planet.”
When you encounter the Blue Dragon after the dwarves have been defeated, the creature asks: “Wilt thou live on with thy mother planet… Or wilt thou turn thy back on the planet and tread another path?” This question, too, feels like an accusation: Player, wilt thou turn thy back on the planet?
Chrono Cross builds its examination of this question by means of a deft, three-act structure — which, while not made explicit to the player, nevertheless is focused around a series of deliberately escalating existential quandaries.
Standing at your own grave.
The game begins as a story about an individual confronted by a reality in which he does not exist, a parallel world in which he has died a decade ago. As the player takes on the role of Serge, they are confronted with issues of identity, loss, and consequence. The first act of the game is an exploration of the question “What would change in a world without you?” The player explores Serge’s hometown to discover that no one recognizes him, and a trip just outside the village sees Serge standing over his own grave on a promontory overlooking the ocean.
Lynx — the face of the enemy.
Later, Serge finds himself stripped of his body, trapped in the guise of his former antagonist, a demi-human called Lynx. This second act of the story (in which you journey to the Dead Sea and are subjected to the gut-punch line that still needles me) asks the player to consider the question: “What would it be like to be the enemy of all you meet?” As you interact with townsfolk, shopkeepers, and even former allies, everyone seems to loathe you. You’re greeted with distrust, hostility, and even threats of violence by people who once fought by your side (when you were Serge). This experience of wearing the face of the villain primes the player for the game’s third act, which combines and expands the questions asked by the first two:
“Are we the enemy of the planet? What would the world be like without humanity?”
Lavos’s plans revealed.
Chrono Cross is the follow-up to an SNES game called Chrono Trigger. In the midst of the final battle of Chrono Trigger, it is revealed that the alien parasite Lavos has been harvesting — and shepherding — all life on the planet in order to further its own designs. Your group of determined adventurers — the ones who could not turn their backs on the planet — has traveled back and forth through time in order to prevent Lavos from rising in the year 1999 and destroying all human civilization. This revelation — that Lavos is partially responsible for humanity’s ascent — is meant as a final barb, one more incentive to destroy the miserable leech before it can destroy the world. Not only are you saving the future, but you’re also shrugging off the yoke of your invisible puppetmaster. It’s a pretty effective moment, but it comes at the very end of the game and isn’t meant to be explored further.
The final third of Chrono Cross, on the other hand, is built expressly for this purpose: to delve into what it means for humanity to be the “Children of Lavos.” After Serge regains his body, he learns that humanity rose to prominence — and gained its destructive tendencies — through contact with the alien parasite. (A comparison to the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey seems apt.)
Terra Tower.
In the lead-up to the game’s final climax, Serge and his allies must confront a world in which our species never ascended to the world stage. The final area, “Terra Tower,” is a floating fortress which has been pulled back in time from a future in which the extinction of the dinosaurs never occurred, a future in which they were able to evolve “more closely with the planet,” as the game explains, to become an intelligent species in the place of humanity.
What might the denizens of such a world say about human interlopers? As you make your way through Terra Tower, you fight several avatars of the elements — the voices of the planet. Here’s what they have to say to you:
THE-OCHRE-LANDS-HAVE-DRIED-UP-AND-WITHERED… IS-IT-YOUR-WILL-TO-CHOOSE-DESTRUCTION…?
MANY-HAVE-BLED-SUFFERED-AND-PERISHED… IT-IS-YOUR-TIME-TO-DIE.
RETURN-OUR-TREES… GIVE-BACK-OUR-GREEN-FORESTS…
DISRESPECTING-THE-ORIGINS-OF-LIFE… MOTHER-SEA-SUFFERS… YOU-MUST-PAY-THE-PRICE.
And then, of course, you destroy them.
There is definitely a sense in the final battles of Chrono Cross that yes, these avatars of sea and earth and sky have a point. As Serge and his companions, you’ve witnessed first-hand that the humans of the world have put their own interests above that of the planet — sometimes violently. When the great Dragon God — the planet’s ultimate weapon against its violent oppressors — asks you “Must one kill other living things in order to survive? Must one destroy another world in order to allow one’s own world to continue?”, it’s easy to read it as the typical pseudo-philosophical posturing of a villain before the final battle commences. But as forests continue to be clear-cut, the ocean becomes increasingly acidic, and dry lands become deserts, these questions start to sound less philosophical and more practical. If we destroy another world, can our own world continue?
The very final battle of Chrono Cross, once the Dragon God has been defeated and Terra Tower crumbles into the sea, is a fight against Lavos, humanity’s progenitor and erstwhile destructor. Serge and his friends step into a space outside of time and find that Lavos has merged itself with a girl called Schala, the last great loose end left untied by Chrono Trigger.
Serge, Schala, and the Devourer of Time.
There are two ways to engage this enemy, this human/alien hybrid which the game calls the Devourer of Time: You can meet it with blind aggression, bombarding it with your strongest spells and techniques, until it is destroyed.
Or you can attempt to summon each of the game’s six elemental types in turn: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Darkness, and Light, and unite them with a special element called the Chrono Cross. If you can achieve this symbolic harmony of the natural elements, Schala is safely extracted from Lavos, who dissolves into the ether.
One more time: To earn the “true” ending of Chrono Cross, you must bring the elements of the natural world into harmony, freeing humanity from the grasp of the thing which makes it prolific, which makes it destructive, which causes it to devour.
This process is abstract — the game essentially asks you to cast six spells in sequence without being interrupted — but the symbolic suggestion is obvious: if we want to avoid becoming that which destroys the world, then we must exorcise whatever part of ourselves consumes the planet to further our own growth.
Even as an adolescent, I was deeply affected by this. That barb that lodged in my chest at the game’s earlier accusation abated, and I was filled with a sense of catharsis and purpose. This is what we have to do, I thought.
And now, “Can we do it?” is the question.
In one of the game’s final scenes, Serge awakens on the beach to find his friend Leena standing over him. She doesn’t understand his mumbling about the world without humanity and the great oppressive forces that he’s overthrown. She thinks it’s all been a bad dream. She tells him: “Come on, Serge. Our summer’s just started.”
It is a uniquely hopeful and forward-looking moment, and one that I still cling to, which seems to hover before me on the horizon like the sun glittering on the waves.
“Our summer’s just started.”
It’s a nice thing to think about, anyway.During both of his presidential campaigns, former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt stuck to the theme that defined his 28 years in Congress. Free trade deals, the Missouri Democrat said, were destroying America’s middle class. He aired ads with the tagline: “ I'm Dick Gephardt. I approve this message because it's time we change America's trade policies.”
Gephardt, who served from 1977 to 2005, may have been best known for trying to block President Bill Clinton’s push for the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. Yet, 10 years after leaving Congress, Gephardt now runs a lobbying firm that has backed the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a still-secret trade accord that critics say would extend the NAFTA free trade model to 40 percent of the world’s economy.
He is not alone: An International Business Times review of federal lobbying records shows that at least three other former lawmakers who voted against NAFTA have lobbied for organizations that are demanding passage of the TPP -- or have sought to influence it to their benefit.
Taiwan paid Gephardt’s firm to press U.S. lawmakers to allow the foreign nation to be included the TPP agreement. [The effort was not successful.] The Gephardt Group has also worked for aircraft-maker Boeing to persuade lawmakers to pass a bill granting the White House “fast-track” trade promotion authority -- paving the way for passage of the TPP in Congress by limiting amendments and allowing only up-or-down votes on the trade deal. The company’s work for Boeing puts Gephardt in direct conflict with the powerful Machinists Union, which endorsed him for president in 2003 and has opposed both the TPP and fast-track.
In 1993, then-Rep. Ron Klink, D-Pa., stood side-by-side with Gephardt in opposing NAFTA. Klink said on the House floor that the agreement was “probably the most important issue that this Congress will take up,” and he warned that the deal could threaten U.S. labor and environmental laws.
As a senior policy adviser at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, though, Klink has lobbied Congress for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America -- or PhRMA, the industry’s top trade group -- to “protect patent protections for pharmaceutical companies domestically and abroad through trade agreements.”
Klink lobbied for PhRMA as the group has sought longer exclusivity on drug patents under the TPP. Klink’s former colleague, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. -- who endorsed Klink in his failed 2000 senate bid -- wrote to President Barack Obama in March, asking his administration to fight for 12 years of exclusivity for biologics in the TPP deal, as is standard in the United States. [The final figure in the deal appears to be lower.]
Former Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., has lobbied Congress on the TPP for the pharmaceutical company Bayer, as well as for the coal giant Peabody Energy. A decade before he became a senior director at Greenberg Traurig LLP, Wynn voted against NAFTA after expressing concerns about the potential for job losses in the United States.
Dirk Kempthorne, a former Republican governor from Idaho, opposed NAFTA as a senator. He’s now president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers, and lobbied Congress to pass the fast-track bill. Kempthorne’s group said in April that the legislation “will help the overall insurance industry surpass its goal of contributing $200 billion to U.S. exports by the end of the decade.”
Lobbying over the upcoming congressional votes on the TPP is expected to be fierce. Already, a pro-TPP coalition has spent almost $400 million lobbying Congress in just the last year.
Those corporate groups may have an advantage: Eighty-five percent of the members of the Obama administration’s 28 trade advisory committees are from corporations and trade associations, the Washington Post reported in 2014. Those members, the paper wrote, “attend private meetings with administration officials and get access to documents that the public cannot see.”A few years ago I received a phone call from the current Energy and Resources minister, Josh Frydenberg. He called me in response to an email I had sent only hours earlier on behalf of Jews for Refugees (JFR), drawing his attention to the case of the MV Struma. The Struma was a ship carrying 781 Jewish refugees from Romania that, on 23 February 1942, was towed from the harbour in Istanbul to the Black Sea, leaving the ship adrift. The next day the Struma was torpedoed and sunk by a Russian submarine. There was only one survivor. When Frydenburg called, the story of the Struma was being referenced in synagogues and the Jewish media, a warning against the Liberals policy of ‘turning back the boats’.
The majority of Jews in Australia have a refugee background; usually, they, their parents or grandparents came in the late thirties from Germany or Austria, or as Holocaust survivors escaping a devastated Europe in the decade following the Second World War. In 2012, I was involved in restarting the then dormant activist group JFR. We tried to campaign within the Jewish community and to get young Jews along to pro-refugee rallies. Most people we talked to were sympathetic, but some were not. One time, we were run off Glen Eira Road by over-eager council workers acting on complaints they had received about postering.
We retreated to the western suburbs to re-assess our strategy. Why were we Jews for refugees? How did the struggles of our parents or grandparents inform who we were and how we wanted to shape the world? We were wary of calling on people morally, of arguing that because Jews have suffered in history we somehow had more of an obligation to speak out against injustice and suffering now.
In her book Landscapes of Memory: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, Ruth Klüger recounts a discussion with some German PhD students:
One [student] reports how in Jerusalem he made the acquaintance of an old Hungarian Jew who was a survivor of Auschwitz, and yet this man cursed the Arabs and held them all in contempt. How can someone who comes from Auschwitz talk like that? the German asks. I get into the act and argue, perhaps more hotly than need be. What did he expect? Auschwitz was no instructional institution … You learned nothing there, and least of all humanity and tolerance. Absolutely nothing good came out of the concentration camps, I hear myself saying, with my voice rising, and he expects catharsis, purgation, the sort of thing you go to the theatre for? They were the most useless, pointless establishments imaginable.
I often think of something my friend Jem said at the time we were organising JFR: ‘I don’t see history as a series of discrete events from which we can learn moral lessons. It’s about seeing history not as something that is past. History is continuous.’
We can demystify the present by historicising it. In the case of Australia’s migration history, we can understand that in the thirties, and in some senses up until the early fifties when restrictions on Jewish migration were finally abolished, Jews were marked as unwanted others. Our current refugee policy is in line with a long history of violence at the borders of a putatively ‘White Australia’.
Walter Benjamin, in his Theses on the Philosophy of History, famously referred to the struggle for the ‘oppressed past’ – a concept with a double meaning. First, the history and memory of oppressed peoples; second, the fact that very past has been oppressed and suppressed. For Benjamin, history as it is currently constituted is the history of the dominant. ‘Only that historian will have the gift of fanning the spark of hope in the past who is firmly convinced that even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins,’ Benjamin wrote. ‘And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.’ How, then, do we go about fanning the spark?
In an interview on the recent accusations of anti-Semitism in the UK Labour party, Norman Finkelstein discussed the ethics of making comparisons to the Holocaust, referencing his mother who was a Holocaust survivor and a Communist:
When she saw the segregation of African-Americans, whether at a lunch counter or in the school system, that was, for her, like the prologue to the Nazi holocaust. Whereas many Jews now say, Never compare … my mother’s credo was, Always compare. She gladly and generously made the imaginative leap to those who were suffering, wrapping and shielding them in the embrace of her own suffering …When she saw Vietnamese being bombed during the Vietnam War, it was the Nazi holocaust. It was the bombing, the death, the horror, the terror, that she herself had passed through. When she saw the distended bellies of starving children in Biafra, it was also the Nazi holocaust, because she remembered her own pangs of hunger in the Warsaw Ghetto.
This is a paradigmatic case of what academic Michael Rothberg calls ‘multidirectional memory’, a concept for thinking collective memory against the framework of ‘competitive memory – as a zero-sum struggle over scarce resources’. Multidirectional memory is ‘subject to ongoing negotiation, cross-referencing, and borrowing; [it is] productive and not privative.’ In my own research on the history of the discourse of the Australian Jewish Left, I have found frequent comparisons of the Holocaust with struggles against colonialism, the dispossession of Indigenous peoples and the Vietnam War.
How then do we balance Klüger’s suggestion of the ultimate meaninglessness of the Holocaust and Finkelstein’s mother’s comparisons? Memory by itself can only take us so far. Surviving a genocide does not make you a better person, trauma does not make you more insightful or empathetic, experiencing oppression does not mean you should be held to a higher moral or ethical standard.
Political struggle, however, has the capacity to remake and redeem these pasts, to make them move, slip, and tussle, backward, forward and across, opening new lines of solidarity, and presaging Benjamin’s ‘revolutionary chance in the fight for the oppressed past’.
My conversation with Frydenberg was fairly unremarkable. He repeated Liberal Party talking points on the need to ‘stop the boats’ and I disputed them. We agreed to disagree and I hung up. I have wondered since why he called so quickly after receiving the email. It seems to me he rang so as to try and arrest the moment – to not let the memory of the MV Struma slip any further; to dispute its multidirectional capacity; to make sure that the dead stayed dead.
Image actually of Jewish refugees aboard the St Louis (via Wikipedia).
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If you liked this article, please subscribe or donate.Running a Kickstarter is more or less a full-time job. Interacting with the fans, spreading the word to the press and managing all aspects of a campaign is both time-consuming and often emotionally draining, so what does one do when a troll sinks a months worth of work?
One developer is, sadly, trying to figure that out.
2Awesome Studio was trying to raise €30,000 for its game Dimension Drive, and the campaign seemed to be all but saved by a €7,000 pledge during the final day of the campaign. You can see the team's reaction on the livestream; a long, hard campaign was successful, and they would be able to make their game.
Kickstarter caught on to the fact that the pledge was fraudulent, but the timing was perfect in the worst way. The campaign was sunk.
What happened
"What we know for sure now is that someone made a fraudulent pledge in our campaign, that got removed by the Kickstarter guys 31 min before the end," David Jiminez told Polygon.
So with less than an hour to go, in the middle of night, the team suddenly had to come up with €7,000, a nearly impossible task. The celebration turned to panic as the deadline passed and the campaign wasn't funded.
"Honestly speaking it has been a exhausting month for us," Jiminez said "We have been working really hard to make our campaign a success, and right now we are speechless, demoralized, you name it.
"Honestly, starting from scratch is something that we don't consider now we are too exhausted. We have contacted Kickstarter to see if we can get some extra days or some kind of extension to fix this. Still waiting for a reply."
We reached out to Kickstarter, but they didn't have much to say that would be comforting to the team.
"We work hard to keep Kickstarter a safe and trusted platform. Our Integrity Team actively monitors the system with a range of tools, and acts on reports from our community," a Kickstarter spokesperson told Polygon. "We don’t tolerate abuse of our system, and when we identify users who are acting in bad faith, we don’t hesitate to take action. We've suspended this user's account and are canceling any pledges they've made."
Kickstarter continues to look into the situation, and the company is trying to find ways to prevent this from happening again.
That's a good step, but it doesn't help the affected campaign.
This should be impossible
The Kickstarter terms of use actually make it rather difficult to troll campaigns in this way. The sort of thing this person pulled shouldn't have this negative, and immediate, a reaction. These are the rules designed to stop people from ruining campaigns by pulling support at the last minute.
You can change or cancel your pledge at any time before the project’s funding deadline (with one exception). You can increase, decrease, or cancel your pledge at any time during the campaign, with one exception. During the last 24 hours of the campaign, you can’t decrease or cancel your pledge without contacting customer support first — if that action would drop the project below its funding goal. Once the project has been funded, you can only cancel or change your pledge by making special arrangements directly with the creator.
Here's the problem: This mystery backer didn't try to pull the total. The Kickstarter system itself detected fraudulent activity and yanked the pledge, but it did so at the worst possible time for this particular campaign.
So while Kickstarter has good rules to prevent trolling, the terms of use were more or less beaten by Kickstarter's own automated system. It's a very strange, and likely rare, edge case in terms of a pledge being removed, but that's cold comfort to the team impacted by the issue.
This is, in many ways, the perfect troll. There's little anyone could have done to stop it, and the timing of the pledge coming in and ultimately being removed sunk the campaign completely. It seems like the perfect combination of malice and terrible luck, and it did the maximum possible damage.
The rules forbid you from pulling a pledge in the last 24 hours if it would hurt the campaign, but by using a fraudulent payment method, either by accident or design, Kickstarter's own systems did the troll's work for them.
"We agree that Kickstarter did exactly what they had to," Jiminez told Polygon. "It's just that in our case the timing was brutal. We were funded and we get nothing now. We are of course not blaming Kickstarter. Only this troll."The long-gestured sequel to Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers is finally happening. There’s no going back now as the cast has been assembled and shooting is scheduled to begin May 30 in L.A.
The first casting news is already exciting as Emmy-nominated Christina Hendricks has joined the cast. While she’s best known as Joan on “Mad Men”, she’s also starred in Refn’s Drive and The Neon Demon.
Bloody Disgusting learned that the cast also consists of Bailee Madison, who starred in the Guillermo del Toro-produce Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, and Lewis Pullman (Aftermath).
Johannes Roberts, director of this summer’s excellent 47 Meters Down, as well as The Other Side of the Door, is directing from a script by Bertino and Ben Ketai.
‘The Strangers 2’ follows a family whose road trip takes a turn when they arrive at a secluded mobile home park and after the power goes out they decide to hunker down for the night in a borrowed trailer. Under the cover of darkness three familiar masked psychopaths pay them a visit to test their every limit.
BLOOM, which first introduced the project at the Berlin International Film Festival, will continue selling it in Cannes.
The Fyzz Facility Pictures’ Wayne Marc Godfrey (Wind River), Robert Jones (Centurion), Mark Lane & James Harris (47 Meters Down) are producing, in association with Relativity Media. The Fyzz Facility are also serving as financiers on the project. Aviron was already announced as the North American distributor.
Intrepid Pictures’ Trevor Macy, who produced 2008’s The Strangers as well as genre titles The Bye Bye Man, Ouija: Origin of Evil and Oculus will serve as executive producer.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A surprising country has topped Google’s rankings for searching for pictures of gay sex.
Anti-gay laws and strong social stigma appear to be doing nothing to abate the curiosity of everyday people – with Kenya’s searches for gay sex outranking those of all Western countries.
Kenya tops the Google trends rankings for both ‘gay sex pics‘ and ‘gay porn pics‘, with an extraordinarily high search index.
South Africa came second, follow by Nigeria and Pakistan – with the US and UK ranking a distant seventh and eighth.
92% of the Kenyan population agree that homosexuality is ‘unacceptable’, while having sex “against the order of nature” in the country can carry a prison sentence of up to 21 years.
MPs in the country recently discussed a new anti-gay bill that would see gay people sentenced to death by stoning.
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill would introduce harsh punishments for homosexuality, with life imprisonment or the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’.
The bill’s author, Edward Onwong’a Nyakeriga, said: “The petition aims at providing a comprehensive and enhanced legislation to protect the cherished culture of the people of Kenya, legal, religious and traditional family values against the attempts of sexual rights activists seeking to impose their values of sexual promiscuity on the people of Kenya.
“There is need to protect children and youth who are vulnerable to sexual abuse and deviation as a result of cultural changes, uncensored information technology, parentless child developmental settings and increasing attempts by homosexuals to raise children in homosexual relationships through adoption, foster care or otherwise.”The prosecution has been having a hard time so far in case against George Zimmerman, the man who shot teen Trayvon Martin during a heated exchange in Sanford, FL last year.
Roseanne Barr long ago decided the case on her own, and now she’s wishing Trayvon had shot and killed Zimmerman first.
“Arm all teen-agers,” the socialist sitcom star says in one of many tweets today on the subject.
too bad trayvon was unnarmed, or GZ would be the dead one. ARM ALL TEENAGERS!
The comedian stands to the far left on most issues but is a Second Amendment advocate.
Barr, who has struggled with weight issues for decades, also called Zimmerman, who has gained significant weight since the day of the shooting, “a big fat assed person.”MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The Wisconsin Senate has adjourned for the day after minority Democrats failed to show up for a vote on a contentious collective bargaining bill.
The Republican proposal would strip most public sector workers of almost all their collective bargaining rights. The bill has sparked a protest at the state Capitol that has stretched on for three days and shows no sign of ending.
Republicans who control the Senate had scheduled a vote on the bill Thursday morning. Debate was supposed to begin around midday, but the body's 14 Democrats never showed up. Without a quorum, Republicans could not vote.
Senate President Mike Ellis, a Neenah Republican, called an end to Thursday's floor session around 4:45 p.m. Republicans planned to return to the floor on Friday.Collage by James Martin/CNET
In 1947, Harry Truman wanted Congress to vote for $400 million in aid to support Greece and Turkey against the threat of communist takeover.
That was a lot of money back then. What's more, Truman had to win over a Republican-led Congress dominated by isolationists. But Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, an influential Republican who also chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered the president a sage piece of advice: Make a personal appearance before Congress, play up the threat of Soviet expansionism, "and scare the hell out of the American people."
Which is exactly what Truman did. (Click here for the text of Truman's March 12, 1947 speech.) And it worked. Congress allocated the funds, and the United States embarked upon a half-century battle against communism which resulted in the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is familiar with that history, borrowed the Truman-Vandenberg playbook as he stumped on behalf of new cybersecurity legislation, warning of a possible "cyber-Pearl Harbor" in a speech last week.
I know that when people think of cybersecurity today, they worry about hackers and criminals who prowl the Internet, steal people's identities, steal sensitive business information, steal even national security secrets. Those threats are real and they exist today. But the even greater danger -- the greater danger facing us in cyberspace goes beyond crime and it goes beyond harassment. A cyberattack perpetrated by nation states are violent extremists groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack on 9/11. Such a destructive cyber-terrorist attack could virtually paralyze the nation.
That's a big statement. Yet Panetta was only getting started.
An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber tools to gain control of critical switches. They could, for example, derail passenger trains or even more dangerous, derail trains loaded with lethal chemicals. They could contaminate the water supply in major cities or shutdown the power grid across large parts of the country. The most destructive scenarios involve cyber actors launching several attacks on our critical infrastructure at one time, in combination with a physical attack on our country. Attackers could also seek to disable or degrade critical military systems and communication networks. The collective result of these kinds of attacks could be a cyber-Pearl Harbor; an attack that would cause physical destruction and the loss of life. In fact, it would paralyze and shock the nation and create a new, profound sense of vulnerability.
Batten down the hatches?
Scary stuff. Should we believe it?
To be fair, it's not as if Panetta pulled this one entirely out thin air. If hackers were able to exploit security holes in control software, they could wreak havoc at U.S. water and power plants and that would be a disaster. (In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security released footage of the after-effects of an experimental cyberattack that caused a generator to self-destruct.) Historically, managers of water and power systems have been far less rigorous about applying security patches than their opposite numbers in the IT industry. Chris Blask, the CEO of ICS Cybersecurity, told MIT Technology Review that the traditional focus on "stability and reliability" among power and water systems managers has left many vulnerabilities unpatched, and so with more plants allowing engineers to log in remotely, the door is theoretically open for hackers to do the same.
Theory is one thing; practice is quite another. To date, the government hasn't released convincing evidence that the threat is anything as dire as advertised. But that hasn't stopped the flow of hyperbole.
In July, President Obama published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal making many of the same arguments offered up by his Defense Secretary. All this is taking place as the U.S. is rethinking the concept of cyber defense. Panetta's speech came close to offering the first public declaration by the U.S. that it has launched cyberattacks:
Potential aggressors should be aware that the United States has the capacity to locate them and to hold them accountable for their actions that may try to harm America. But we won't succeed in preventing a cyber attack through improved defenses alone. If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant, physical destruction in the United States or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action against those who would attack us to defend this nation when directed by the president. For these kinds of scenarios, the department has developed that capability to conduct effective operations to counter threats to our national interests in cyberspace.
Given that newly aggressive posture, you can understand why the generals might want to make sure the homeland is locked down tight if and when a country or terrorist group attempts to pay us back. With the administration hoping to overcome GOP opposition to new cybersecurity legislation, scaring the hell out of people might be just the ticket. Arthur Vandenberg would have approved.The Hubble Space Telescope has found another type 1a supernova candidate. The new observations for the Hubble telescope has gave hope to scientists for a new supernova.
Tycho's supernova SN 1572 was the last known Type 1a supernova in our own galaxy. Forbes has reported that recurring stellar nova "M31N 2008-12a" is the closest candidate for a type 1a supernova. It is in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (M31). The scientists are predicting that there is going to be a larger type 1a of supernova explosions after the discovery of M31N |
Republican Presidential Debate, hosted by CNN, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK / AFP / ROBYN BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) LAS VEGAS, NV - DECEMBER 15: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the CNN Republican presidential debate on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the last GOP debate of the year, with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) gaining in the polls in Iowa and other early voting states and Donald Trump rising in national polls. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) MANCHESTER, NH - FEBRUARY 06: Republican presidential candidates New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (L) and Donald Trump visit during a commercial break in the Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm College February 6, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Sponsored by ABC News and the Independent Journal Review, this is the final televised debate before voters go to the polls for the New Hampshire primary on February 9. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) FORT WORTH, TX - FEBRUARY 26: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announces that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie officially supports the Trump campaign during a rally at the Fort Worth Convention Center on February 26, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Trump is campaigning in Texas, days ahead of the Super Tuesday primary. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump (L) and Chris Christie (R) confer during a break in the Republican Presidential Candidates Debate February 6, 2016 at St. Anselm's College Institute of Politics in Manchester, New Hampshire. Seven Republicans campaigning to be US president are in a fight for survival in their last debate Saturday before the New Hampshire primary, battling to win over a significant number of undecided voters. / AFP / Jewel Samad (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) FORT WORTH, TX - FEBRUARY 26: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announces his support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Fort Worth Convention Center on February 26, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Trump is campaigning in Texas, days ahead of the Super Tuesday primary. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) Chris Christie, New Jersey governor, watches as Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the convention center in Fort Worth, Texas, on February 26, 2016. / AFP / Laura BUCKMAN (Photo credit should read LAURA BUCKMAN/AFP/Getty Images) MANCHESTER, NH - FEBRUARY 06: Republican presidential candidates New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (L) and Donald Trump share a laugh during a commercial break in the Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm College February 6, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Sponsored by ABC News and the Independent Journal Review, this is the final televised debate before voters go to the polls for the New Hampshire primary on February 9. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump get the endorsement of former candidate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during a rally at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Texas is the big prize in the upcoming Super Tuesday primary on March 2. (Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) campaigns for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) during a rally at Millington Regional Jetport on February 27, 2016 in Millington, Tennessee. / AFP / Michael B. Thomas (Photo credit should read MICHAEL B. THOMAS/AFP/Getty Images) MILLINGTON, TN - FEBRUARY 27: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walk up to speak during a campaign event in Millington, TN on Saturday Feb. 27, 2016. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) campaigns for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) during a rally at Millington Regional Jetport on February 27, 2016 in Millington, Tennessee. / AFP / Michael B. Thomas (Photo credit should read MICHAEL B. THOMAS/AFP/Getty Images) BENTONVILLE, AR - FEBRUARY27: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie introduces Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in an airplane hanger at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport on February 27, 2016 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Georgians will vote on Super Tuesday, March 1, for their candidates for president. (Photo by Benjamin Krain/Getty Images) BENTONVILLE, AR - FEBRUARY27: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie introduces Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in an airplane hanger at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport on February 27, 2016 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Georgians will vote on Super Tuesday, March 1, for their candidates for president. (Photo by Benjamin Krain/Getty Images) Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, left, and Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, wave to attendees during a campaign rally at the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., on Tuesday, March 1, 2016. State officials were reporting strong turnout for Super Tuesday balloting, the closest thing yet to a national referendum on Trump, the brash New York billionaire who has thrown out the traditional rules of campaigning. Photographer: Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, right, speaks on stage with Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, during a Super Tuesday night event in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., on Monday, March 1, 2016. Trump is poised to collect enough delegates in 11 Super Tuesday contests nationwide tonight to give him a firmer grip on the party's presidential nomination that would be difficult for rivals to break. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, right, and Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, arrive for a campaign rally at the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, U.S., on Tuesday, March 1, 2016. State officials were reporting strong turnout for Super Tuesday balloting, the closest thing yet to a national referendum on Trump, the brash New York billionaire who has thrown out the traditional rules of campaigning. Photographer: Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images LOUISVILLE, KY - MARCH, 1: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie introduces Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Kentucky International Convention Center March 1, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky. Trump is campaigning nationwide on Super Tuesday, the single largest primary voting day. (Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images) HICKORY, NC - MARCH 14: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, wave to the crowd during a campaign rally at Lenoir-Rhyne University March 14, 2016 in Hickory, North Carolina. The North Carolina Republican primary will be held March 15. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie shake hands as supporters cheer at Lenoir-Rhyne University on March 14, 2016 in Hickory, N.C. (Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/TNS via Getty Images) HICKORY, NC - MARCH 14: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, acknowledge the crowd during a campaign rally at Lenoir-Rhyne University March 14, 2016 in Hickory, North Carolina. The North Carolina Republican primary will be held March 15. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) HICKORY, NC - MARCH 14: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, addresses the crowd during a campaign rally with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, at Lenoir-Rhyne University March 14, 2016 in Hickory, North Carolina. The North Carolina Republican primary will be held March 15. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (L) and US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump (R) depart a rally March 14, 2016 in Vienna Center, Ohio. The six remaining White House hopefuls made a frantic push for votes March 14, 2016 on the eve of make-or-break nominating contests, with Donald Trump's Republican rivals desperate to bar his path after a weekend of violence on the campaign trail. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) VIENNA, OHIO - MARCH 14: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walk out to speak during a campaign event at Winner Aviation in Vienna, Ohio on Monday March 14, 2016. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) VIENNA, OHIO - MARCH 14: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is introduced by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during a campaign event at Winner Aviation in Vienna, Ohio on Monday March 14, 2016. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) introduces US presidential hopeful Donald Trump during a rally March 14, 2016 in Vienna Center, Ohio. The six remaining White House hopefuls made a frantic push for votes March 14, 2016 on the eve of make-or-break nominating contests, with Donald Trump's Republican rivals desperate to bar his path after a weekend of violence on the campaign trail. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) US Republican frontrunner Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York on April 26,2016 after winning primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware. Second from left is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. / AFP / KENA BETANCUR (Photo credit should read KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 26: Donald Trump speaks at a press conference with his wife Melania Trump and Governor Chris Christie announcing his primary victory in 5 states: Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Delaware on April 26, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Steve Sands/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 26: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters and the media with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie behind him at Trump Towers following the conclusion of primaries Tuesday in northeastern states on April 26, 2016 in New York, New York. Trump again gained more delegates to move him closer to the Republican presidential nomination. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ - MAY 19: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hugs New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at the Lawrenceville National Guard Armory in Trump's first public campaign appearance in New Jersey on May 19, 2016 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The appearance with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a $200 per head event with proceeds going towards helping Christie, a Trump ally, pay off debt from his own presidential campaign. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) and New Jersey governor Chris Christie greet the crowd at a fundraising event in Lawrenceville, New Jersey on May 19, 2016. / AFP / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ (Photo credit should read EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 11: Republican presidental nominee Donald Trump (L) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) attend the September 11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on September 11, 2016 in New York City. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump attended the September 11 Commemoration Ceremony. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (L), Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (C) and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) stand together during a memorial service at the National 9/11 Memorial September 11, 2016 in New York. The United States on Sunday commemorated the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) U.S. President-elect Donald Trump stands with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie before their meeting at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S., November 20, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar U.S. President Donald Trump (R) thanks New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (2nd L) for joining him for an opioid and drug abuse listening session at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner (L-R) and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie join U.S. President Donald Trump for an opioid and drug abuse listening session at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE
"This is what it's like to be with Trump," Christie said. "He says, 'There's the menu, you guys order whatever you want.' And then he says, 'Chris, you and I are going to have the meatloaf.'"
Christie said their conversation was about the opioid epidemic, but did not discuss jobs.
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A history of Trump starring in commercialsReplacing LOS: Experts Debate How CA Should Measure Transpo Impacts
California planning experts continue to debate how to most effectively measure transportation impacts in a way that will foster smarter growth, after the state abandoned the car-centric metric known as Level of Service (LOS).
The acronym-laden process of measuring transportation under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) may be complex and wonky, but it’s certainly important. In creating a replacement for LOS, the CA Office and Planning and Research (OPR) will shape the future of development in California for many years to come.
SB 743, passed last year, mandated that the state create a replacement metric for LOS to measure the transportation impacts of developments under CEQA. The Office of Planning and Research has proposed a metric called Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), which would measure the amount of driving developments would generate, instead of focusing solely on minimizing delays for drivers.
OPR has made several other suggestions in their proposed guidelines, and are seeking public input to help them refine the changes. Specifically, they are asking for help on the following questions:
Under the proposed guidelines, any project built within a half mile of transit with frequent service (running at least every 15 minutes) would be deemed to have no significant impact on travel, and wouldn’t have to undergo a VMT review. Is this an appropriate rule? Are there other factors that should be considered? What amount of vehicle miles generated by a development should be considered significant, and thus require an environmental impact report (EIR)? Who should decide what those levels are? What kinds of strategies should be used to mitigate increases in vehicle miles generated by a project?
Two expert panels were held this week to address these questions. A panel including planners, engineers, attorneys, consultants, and an infill developer came together at a Sacramento forum to discuss the proposed guidelines at the first event. The next evening, the University of San Francisco’s Environmental Law Society invited several attorneys with opposing viewpoints to discuss CEQA, state climate change laws, and the proposed guidelines.
Although there has been some public sparring over the change, and not all of the feedback OPR has received on its proposed guidelines has been positive, there was more agreement than not at both panel discussions. For example, panelists agreed that Level of Service is not the right way to measure the environmental effects of a project.
OPR staff maintains that eliminating Level of Service would make it simpler and cheaper to develop infill projects, which can help the state meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals by reducing driving and encouraging transit, walking, and bicycling. A large part of that cost savings would come from eliminating the need for an environmental impact report.
Michael Schwartz, senior planner at the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and a participant in the university panel, said LOS was “the only reason [San Francisco] had to complete an environmental impact report for the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project.”
“By no other measure would the project have impacted the environment negatively,” he said. “Without LOS, we would have saved millions of dollars and several years of delay.”
But the details of how to apply the new measure still need to be worked out.
Several panelists at the Sacramento meeting took issue with the proposal to automatically exempt projects built near transit. “Different factors affect mode split — not just proximity to transit,” said Viktoriya Wise of the San Francisco Planning Department. “There’s the density and diversity of a project. You also have to take into account transit reliability. And where does the transit go? Destinations are important, not just how often it runs.”
She pointed out that almost all of San Francisco is “within a half mile of transit,” yet there are plenty of projects being built there that are “not particularly transportation efficient, and that under this proposed criteria would get a free pass.”
“We’re uncomfortable that, by virtue of one single factor, we would presume a less than significant impact,” said Amanda Eakin of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “At a minimum, you would want to add in an examination of the amount of parking provided at a project. And, ideally, you would also include density, diversity, and some measure of job access.”
“I recognize there’s a tension here, that we’re trying to make this a simple, clear process,” she said, “but we also want to make sure these projects are actually going to reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled.”
Eakin also questioned the draft guideline’s proposal suggesting that the threshold of miles traveled beyond which some mitigation would be required could be set at current average regional levels.
“It’s clear that we need to lower vehicle miles traveled,” she said. “If the guidelines say ‘average is good enough,’ we’ll do nothing to lower the average. On what science is that ‘average’ based? The message is also problematic. California is looked to for leadership on climate change. Should we strive for mediocrity?”
Jeff Tumlin, senior planner with the transportation planning firm Nelson\Nygaard, pointed out that local planning agencies use VMT baselines that differ widely throughout the state. “As planners, we are routinely called upon to reduce vehicle miles traveled by up to forty percent,” he said. “Why not set a threshold of fifteen percent below any of the local baselines, including General Plans, county or regional averages, and Sustainable Communities Strategies?” he asked. “This way local jurisdictions can set their own thresholds, as long as they meet that fifteen percent reduction.”
At the meeting the next evening in San Francisco, a panel of attorneys discussed legal ramifications of replacing Level of Service with a different metric.
“Why would you give another tool to the litigant that just wants to fight the projects [the state wants to encourage]?” asked Jennifer Hernandez of the law firm Holland & Knight.
“We have to make the rules clearer,” she said. “CEQA is fabulous. But we only get it right half the time. The overwhelming remedy for CEQA, as practiced, is to undo the entire project, rather than fixing the issues” under litigation.
Ethan Elkind, professor of law at UC Berkeley and UCLA, said that it’s easy to blame CEQA for preventing good development. “There are other factors that make infill development difficult, including zoning, height restrictions, parking requirements — and you have to throw Prop. 13 in there too,” he said.
The purpose of adding a measure of vehicle miles traveled to CEQA, said Elkind, is to encourage more infill development where there is good transit, thus reducing miles of travel and greenhouse gas emissions.
“VMT is the one metric that separates infill from sprawl,” said Elkind. By measuring and mitigating the vehicle miles induced by development projects, “We’re more likely to see mixed developments, transit connections, transit passes — the kinds of things that reduce vehicle miles traveled.”
“This puts the ‘E’ back in CEQA,” he said.
Comments can be submitted to the Office of Planning and Research until November 21 here.Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images An attendee wears an Oculus Rift HD virtual reality head-mounted display at he plays EVE: Valkyrie, a multiplayer virtual reality dogfighting shooter game.
Well this is bold: Icelandic developer CCP is making its upcoming space dogfighter EVE: Valkyrie exclusive to Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset you’ve been hearing about for years while probably wondering when it’ll stop being a thing you’re always hearing about and become an actual thing you can buy (and no, the $300 developer kits don’t count).
Not soon, unless you consider late 2014 (or early 2015) soon enough. I suspect we’ll know more when E3 rolls around, unless Oculus VR stages its own here-we-go press event. For all the developer and media accolades the headset gets, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how the company rolls.
In the meantime, Oculus VR says EVE: Valkyrie is its first Oculus Rift co-publishing project — so in other words, a huge feather in CCP’s cap. Oculus Rift isn’t a sure thing, but if it catches with consumers and CCP’s dogfighter turns out to be any good, it could propel the beloved-if-niche MMO developer from semi-obscure status to mainstream darling (CCP could surely do with the latter, after first-person shooter Dust 514‘s ho-hum reception).
I’m skeptical about Oculus’ technology, because I hate the idea that I have to basically hoodwink my eyeballs with a giant, kludgy-looking pair of goggles (head-jack, please). I’ll say this: CCP is one-thousand percent correct when it says, “We strongly believe the best VR experiences are going to be the ones built from the ground up for VR, and we’ve kept that in mind whilst developing Valkyrie.” I have no interest in playing games that haven’t been designed from the ground up for VR, any more than I want to go see movies not filmed explicitly for 3D in 3D.
“We wanted people to really feel like they were there – to sense the vastness of space, feel the confined area of the cockpit and get that adrenaline rush as you see an exploding fighter whizz past your head,” writes CCP. Will I be able to snap my head around, whip-fast, to follow that exploding fighter? Will the virtual imagery be as crystal-clear as a 1080p display? (I realize the final version can output at 1080p — I’m talking about overall image clarity, because if it’s even a trifle blurry or there’s a fish-eye aspect to the output, I’m not interested.)
But I am interested, because I’d love a VR product to work the way I’ve been hoping one might since William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Brett Leonard’s The Lawnmower Man and Nintendo’s Virtual Boy and Looking Glass Studio’s System Shock. The question’s whether workarounds like head-mounted goggles, however spiffy, are going to be any more appealing now than they’ve been for decades, as we wait for the inevitable holy-holy direct computer-brain interface.
MORE: The History of Video Game Consoles – FullThe emoticon (a portmanteau of emotion and icon) is a pictorial representation of one’s apparent current facial expression by using punctuation marks and letters. It was first typed in a message on September 19, 1982. As a result, the emoticon turns 30 years old today. Happy Birthday!
The emoticon was born on the World Wide Web but is now used on devices that aren’t even connected to the Internet. As many things in our society today, it was invented by nerds, and more specifically, as a geeky joke.
Are you ready for a history lesson? Too bad, you’re getting one anyway. Emoticons were actually used as far back as the 19th century as part of casual and humorous writing. The digital form, however, was first included in a proposal by Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 30 years ago today.
As a result, CMU is celebrating the milestone over at cs.cmu.edu/smiley. The celebration page leads to the full conversation in which the smiley emoticon was first used.
As I already noted, it all started with a joke, or at least trying to figure out how label a humor online, where text-based communication doesn’t have the body language or tone-of-voice cues we are used to in face-to-face and telephone conversations.
Check out this brainstorming session:
17-Sep-82 14:59 Joseph Ginder at CMU-10A (*%)
I believe that the joke character should be % rather than *. 17-Sep-82 15:15 Anthony Stentz at CMU-780G (*%)
How about using * for good jokes and % for bad jokes? We could even use *% for jokes that are so bad, they’re funny. 17-Sep-82 17:40 Keith Wright at CMU-10A *%&#$ Jokes!
No, no, no! Surely everyone will agree that “&” is the funniest character on the keyboard. It looks funny (like a jolly fat man in convulsions of laughter). It sounds funny (say it loud and fast three times). I just know if I could get my nose into the vacuum of the CRT it would even smell funny! 17-Sep-82 17:42 Leonard Hamey at CMU-10A {#} (previously *)
A detailed (i.e. > 1 minute) study of the aesthetic and pictographic effects of the characters available in the ASCII set has led to the following suggestion:
I think that the joke character should be the sequence {#} because it looks like two lips with teeth showing between them. This is the expected result if someone actually laughs their head off. An obvious abbreviation of this sequence would be the hash character itself (which can also be read as the sharp character and suggests a quality which may be lacking in those too obtuse to appreciate the joke.) 17-Sep-82 18:52 Jim Crowley at CMU-10A BB Jokes
BB jokes are fine and should not require a marker. But jokes should not be malicious, obscene, or such that they appear to resemble real warnings to all but a few. Last nights elevator hoax was a borderline case of this last type. 18-Sep-82 20:40 Guy Steele at CMU-10A! Joke markers again
I hope everyone realized that my previous remark about non-use of joke markers was a joke, and was flagged as such by the absence of a marker. This message is not a joke, as indicated by the exclamation point.
The next day, here’s what happened:
19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman
I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use
:-(
The proposal quickly caught on with board users at CMU and soon spread to other universities and research labs that were using the earliest of computer networks. Fahlman of course had no idea his marker would become so frequently used as it is today. In fact, he didn’t even keep a copy of the original thread. Thankfully, Microsoft saved the day:
Unfortunately, I didn’t keep a copy of my original post. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. By the time I realized that this smiley-face phenomenon was going to be long-lasting and that it would spread around the world as the Internet grew, it was too late to easily retrieve the post, and the original message was lost for many years. Several attempts to find the post on old backup tapes were unsuccessful. But recently Mike Jones of Microsoft sponsored a more serious “archeological dig” through our ancient backup tapes. Jeff Baird and the CMU CS facilities staff put in a heroic effort with the support and encouragement of Howard Wactlar, Bob Cosgrove, and David Livingston. They found the proper tapes, located a working tape drive that could read the ancient media, decoded the old formats, and did a lot of searching to find the actual posts. I am most grateful to all who participated in this successful quest, which I call the “Digital Coelacanth Project.”
As a result, you can read the whole discussion here: Original Bboard Thread in which :-) was proposed.
Now that deserves a :-)
Image credit: stock.xchng
Read next: SingTel snaps up'mobile photo inbox' app Pixable for $26.5 millionInterview Sarah Harrison, the British WikiLeaks journalist who successfully spirited Edward Snowden from Hong Kong to safe(ish) asylum in Russia, has told The Register how she did it – and what’s next for the NSA whistleblower, and for Julian Assange. She spoke to us a week before the Oliver Stone film Snowden is released*, although she hasn't actually seen the movie herself.
Back in May 2013, Snowden was based in Hawaii, working as a sysadmin on contract to the US National Security Agency. He had already contacted journalists with information he felt needed to be made public, among it classified documents pertaining to the US's PRISM surveillance programme. Shortly after stories from the archive he had taken from the firm were starting to surface, he told his employer that he was heading to the US mainland for medical treatment, but instead he flew to Hong Kong.
On June 10, with the world+dog looking for him, Snowden moved out of his hotel, hid among Hong Kong refugees and sought help from WikiLeaks. The classified doc-leaking org sent Harrison – a close colleague of its director, Julian Assange, and a member of the group's legal and editorial teams – to get him out.
Time was tight. The US had already begun proceedings to have the Hong Kong authorities extradite Snowden as soon as he was found. But the local officials said that the US government had filled out the forms incorrectly – and allowed Snowden to leave the country on a flight to Russia on June 23.
Harrison explained that Russia wasn't the first choice of locale, but they had to be sure that they were flying to locations where US influence couldn't be exerted to bring Snowden in and Russia did not have an extradition treaty with America. The country was also large enough to resist US pressure for cooperation**.
Life in the transit lane
Once they arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, Snowden found out that the US government had cancelled his passport, effectively restricting him in the airport's Arrivals transit area – since he was unable to officially leave the country, or enter it.
“With the airport officials, to be honest, there was an element of this being the most exciting thing that had happened to them in a long time, and they were very kind,” she said.
"The transit area, which is enclosed but they were able to find us a room, not the most pleasant of rooms - it didn't have a window or anything - but it did allow us to shut the door and stay in there with very little outgoings."
Fugitive... Ed Snowden (Credit: GongTo / Shutterstock)
They were allowed out for a few hours a day to scavenge for food in the next door airport hotel, and Harrison said they grew heartily sick of Burger King food and having to wash their clothes in the room's sink. In the mean time, a more permanent home was being sorted out.
The two were contacted by Russian intelligence services to discuss the archive of information that Snowden had purloined, but no deal for asylum was made. It couldn't have been possible, Harrison explained, since Snowden had handed the entire collection off to a group of journalists and didn't have a copy himself.
Outside the room, the rest of the world was going slightly dotty trying to find Snowden. A rumored flight to Cuba turned out to be a red herring, while the offer of a private jet to Iceland wasn't taken up, wisely as it later turned out.
Fly the unfriendly skies
On June 27, President Obama told a press conference that the US government would not scramble jets to bring Snowden to justice if he flew out of Russia. Less than a week later it was proved that he'd been somewhat economical with the truth.
As the Snowden furore raged, Bolivian president Evo Morales was in Russia attending an energy conference. On July 3, he boarded his presidential jet for the flight home. However, the US had received a tip-off that the whistle-blowing sysadmin was also on board.
While jets weren't scrambled, the presidential aircraft was informed mid-flight that France, Spain and Portugal were denying it permission to either enter their respective airspace or land there to refuel. The jet had no choice but to land in Vienna.
Austrian officials boarded the aircraft and ascertained that everyone on board had Bolivian passports. The aircraft was grounded overnight and in the morning, Austrian president Heinz Fischer popped by for breakfast, presumably with an apology.
According to a later interview with WikiLeaker-in-chief Julian Assange, it turned out that the WikiLeaks team had been discussing getting Snowden out on a presidential jet to another South American country, but had substituted Bolivia for the actual country involved. He surmised that the US had picked this up by communication with WikiLeaks lawyers and initiated the action against Morales.
Some Latin American countries had said that they could be interested in helping shelter Snowden, but the downing of the presidential jet caused outrage in Latin America and within five days Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia all offered Snowden sanctuary.
"He really had not wanted to remain in Russia at all and would have preferred other countries, but it was impossible to get safe passage to any of the countries that had offered positive asylum requests," Harrison said.
“Obviously he’d like to be able to go back to the United States, he’d like to know that he could have a fair trial there, although it would be even better if he didn’t even have to go through a trial of course. It would be amazing to go to other European countries if they would give him asylum as well.”
Snowden has been indicted in the United States on charges under the 1917 Espionage Act, including theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person. If found guilty, he faces 30 years in jail and additional fines.
Given the broad nature of the 1917 Act, a public interest or whistleblower defence would not be permissible; the judge would only have to prove that the information had been stolen and shared. Other whistleblower laws would also provide no defence, and the American government is free to add on more charges at will.
As the airport visit dragged on, the US government contacted Snowden's father to try to enlist his son's support for coming back in from the cold. Harrison said Snowden's dad was promised that the death penalty would not be sought and was told that America does not torture people. Snowden senior was not impressed and refused to cooperate.
Forty days after landing in Russia, the whistle-blower was granted temporary political asylum in Russia, where he remains to this day. After getting Snowden set up in a safe location and reuniting him with his girlfriend, Harrison left Russia.
"As things go, this is someone who assumed he'd either be dead or in prison for the rest of [his] life so it's all a bit of a gift for them and to be living there with his girlfriend is excellent for him," she said. "He's still a very large patriot, in some ways to my amazement."Parents from San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood gathered around school cafeteria tables and listened as administrators delivered a hopeful message: Their children, who all attend Charles R. Drew Preparatory Academy, one of the city’s few schools serving mostly black students, were already on track to do better on next year’s state tests.
But the staff didn’t tell the parents about this year’s results, even though the recent meeting had been billed as a forum to discuss the scores, which the state published online several weeks ago. Those results present a much different picture. Nine out of 10 black students at the school had failed reading and math exams.
“Really? That’s surprising,” said parent Ashley Wysinger, 31, when a reporter shared the results with her afterward.
And Drew isn’t the only place in the city with lackluster scores among black students. Across the district, 19 percent of them passed the state test in reading, compared to 31 percent of black students statewide. The result: San Francisco, a progressive enclave and beacon for technological innovation, has the worst black student achievement of any county in California.
“We’ve been tilling the field and cultivating the soil, trying to create conditions that will translate into gains on our standardized tests,” Landon Dickey, the district’s special assistant for African-American achievement and leadership, said in an interview. “But those gains haven’t materialized yet.”
The problem in San Francisco may be severe, but it’s not unique. Huge gaps between black kids’ scores and those of their white peers have existed in California for decades. And average reading test scores statewide show the problem persists, even as districts make progress narrowing the achievement gap between Latino and white students.
State education officials say schools must work diligently to close those gaps, but some in San Francisco are taking a more aggressive stance. Next month, the local NAACP, some faith leaders and parents plan to call on the district to declare the city’s black student achievement problem a state of emergency—a symbolic effort intended to trigger a more urgent response and infusion of district resources.
“He who’s behind must run faster in order to catch up,” said Rev. Amos C. Brown, president of the NAACP’s San Francisco branch. “We have not done enough running fast on achievement challenges for black kids in the state of California. It’s an abysmal situation.”
San Francisco’s challenges are escalating even as its black population and share of young residents are shrinking. Soaring housing costs have been driving lower- and middle-income families out for decades, and it now has a lower percentage of children than any other major city in America.
Many of the black families who remain are concentrated in public housing in the city’s industrial Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhoods near the toxic naval shipyard whose jobs drew black laborers there around World |
did not have any alcohol consumption, while one control and two THC(−) marijuana subjects had regular alcohol use (>3 days/week). However, none of the subjects were dependent on these drugs (except for nicotine) according to the DSM-IV criteria, and marijuana was the primary drug of choice and was the only illicit drug used on a regular basis by all marijuana subjects. All subjects had negative urine toxicology for other drugs covered by the screening test (see Methods), and only the 12 current marijuana users had positive THC urine assays.
Addiction severity and neuropsychological function
As a group, the marijuana use affected their general function minimally as evaluated on the ASI. THC(+) subjects had the following composite ASI scores: medical, 0.03 ± 0.03; economic, 0.37 ± 0.05; alcohol, 0.07 ± 0.02; drug, 0.08 ± 0.01; legal, 0.01 ± 0.01; family, 0.14 ± 0.04; and psychological 0.08 ± 0.04, while the THC(−) marijuana users had composite ASI scores of medical, 0.01 ± 0.01; economic, 0.37 ± 0.09; alcohol, 0.07 ± 0.02; drug, 0.04 ± 0.01; legal, 0.00 ± 0.00; family, 0.06 ± 0.03; and psychological 0.06 ± 0.03. As expected, only the drug score was significantly different between these two groups (current users greater than past users; P = 0.002).
All three groups had similar performance on neuropsychological tests (Tables 1 and 2). The THC(−) marijuana users showed only trends for better performance on one of the verbal memory tests (AVLT after interference), while the THC(+) marijuana user group showed better performance on the response reversal/visual scanning tests and a trend for faster reaction times on the choice reaction task (Table 2). However, no significant differences were observed on any of these tests after corrections for multiple comparisons.
Table 2 Tasks Control (n = 19) Marijuana, THC negative (n = 12) Marijuana, THC positive (n = 12) ANOVA P-values for reaction times Reaction times (ms) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Simple reaction 295 ± 13 n.a. n.a. 331 ± 33 (+12) n.a. n.a. 294 ± 25 (0) n.a. n.a. n.s. Choice reaction (‘7’) Single digit recognition 393 ± 6 99.6 ± 0.4 0.5 ± 0.2 381 ± 9 (−3) 99.4 ± 0.6 0.5 ± 0.2 371 ± 9 (−6) 100 ± 0 0.4 ± 0.3 0.13 1-back cued response (‘X’ only after ‘A’) 387 ± 13 97.4 ± 1.1 1.0 ± 0.3 373 ± 15 (−4) 96.7 ± 1.3 1.0 ± 0.3 368 ± 24 (−5) 97.9 ± 1.0 1.0 ± 0.3 n.s. Sequential # (1-back) 543 ± 20 88.7 ± 2.7 1.5 ± 0.3 524 ± 21 (−4) 92.1 ± 3.6 0.7 ± 0.3 494 ± 23 (−9) 94.6 ± 1.9 1.4 ± 0.4 n.s. Sequential # (1-increment) 618 ± 24 67.1 ± 3.1 4.1 ± 0.5 592 ± 36 (−4) 67.5 ± 7.0 2.8 ± 0.8 586 ± 40 (−5) 72.5 ± 5.3 3.2 ± 0.8 n.s. Sequential # (2-back) 720 ± 26 78.2 ± 2.9 2.7 ± 0.6 622 ± 31 (−13) 89.2 ± 2.9 1.5 ± 0.5 677 ± 56 (−6) 79.2 ± 5.7 2.3 ± 0.4 n.s. Degraded words with distracters 504 ± 10 99.6 ± 0.4 2.2 ± 0.7 495 ± 14 (−2) 98.3 ± 1.7 1.1 ± 0.3 476 ± 15 (−5) 98.3 ± 1.2 1.2 ± 0.3 n.s. Response reversal/visual scanning** 597 ± 13 91.9 ± 1.7 1.2 ± 0.5 628 ± 29 (+5) 82.8 ± 4.5 0.3 ± 0.2 573 ± 24 (−4) 95.6 ± 2.4 0.7 ± 0.4 n.s. Form discrimination 662 ± 21 83.2 ± 3.2 4.5 ± 1.1 682 ± 21 (+3) 80.4 ± 2.1 3.9 ± 0.9 630 ± 34 (−5) 84.6 ± 4.7 4.1 ± 1.4 n.s. Tasks Control (n = 19) Marijuana, THC negative (n = 12) Marijuana, THC positive (n = 12) ANOVA P-values for reaction times Reaction times (ms) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Simple reaction 295 ± 13 n.a. n.a. 331 ± 33 (+12) n.a. n.a. 294 ± 25 (0) n.a. n.a. n.s. Choice reaction (‘7’) Single digit recognition 393 ± 6 99.6 ± 0.4 0.5 ± 0.2 381 ± 9 (−3) 99.4 ± 0.6 0.5 ± 0.2 371 ± 9 (−6) 100 ± 0 0.4 ± 0.3 0.13 1-back cued response (‘X’ only after ‘A’) 387 ± 13 97.4 ± 1.1 1.0 ± 0.3 373 ± 15 (−4) 96.7 ± 1.3 1.0 ± 0.3 368 ± 24 (−5) 97.9 ± 1.0 1.0 ± 0.3 n.s. Sequential # (1-back) 543 ± 20 88.7 ± 2.7 1.5 ± 0.3 524 ± 21 (−4) 92.1 ± 3.6 0.7 ± 0.3 494 ± 23 (−9) 94.6 ± 1.9 1.4 ± 0.4 n.s. Sequential # (1-increment) 618 ± 24 67.1 ± 3.1 4.1 ± 0.5 592 ± 36 (−4) 67.5 ± 7.0 2.8 ± 0.8 586 ± 40 (−5) 72.5 ± 5.3 3.2 ± 0.8 n.s. Sequential # (2-back) 720 ± 26 78.2 ± 2.9 2.7 ± 0.6 622 ± 31 (−13) 89.2 ± 2.9 1.5 ± 0.5 677 ± 56 (−6) 79.2 ± 5.7 2.3 ± 0.4 n.s. Degraded words with distracters 504 ± 10 99.6 ± 0.4 2.2 ± 0.7 495 ± 14 (−2) 98.3 ± 1.7 1.1 ± 0.3 476 ± 15 (−5) 98.3 ± 1.2 1.2 ± 0.3 n.s. Response reversal/visual scanning** 597 ± 13 91.9 ± 1.7 1.2 ± 0.5 628 ± 29 (+5) 82.8 ± 4.5 0.3 ± 0.2 573 ± 24 (−4) 95.6 ± 2.4 0.7 ± 0.4 n.s. Form discrimination 662 ± 21 83.2 ± 3.2 4.5 ± 1.1 682 ± 21 (+3) 80.4 ± 2.1 3.9 ± 0.9 630 ± 34 (−5) 84.6 ± 4.7 4.1 ± 1.4 n.s. View Large
Table 2 Tasks Control (n = 19) Marijuana, THC negative (n = 12) Marijuana, THC positive (n = 12) ANOVA P-values for reaction times Reaction times (ms) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Simple reaction 295 ± 13 n.a. n.a. 331 ± 33 (+12) n.a. n.a. 294 ± 25 (0) n.a. n.a. n.s. Choice reaction (‘7’) Single digit recognition 393 ± 6 99.6 ± 0.4 0.5 ± 0.2 381 ± 9 (−3) 99.4 ± 0.6 0.5 ± 0.2 371 ± 9 (−6) 100 ± 0 0.4 ± 0.3 0.13 1-back cued response (‘X’ only after ‘A’) 387 ± 13 97.4 ± 1.1 1.0 ± 0.3 373 ± 15 (−4) 96.7 ± 1.3 1.0 ± 0.3 368 ± 24 (−5) 97.9 ± 1.0 1.0 ± 0.3 n.s. Sequential # (1-back) 543 ± 20 88.7 ± 2.7 1.5 ± 0.3 524 ± 21 (−4) 92.1 ± 3.6 0.7 ± 0.3 494 ± 23 (−9) 94.6 ± 1.9 1.4 ± 0.4 n.s. Sequential # (1-increment) 618 ± 24 67.1 ± 3.1 4.1 ± 0.5 592 ± 36 (−4) 67.5 ± 7.0 2.8 ± 0.8 586 ± 40 (−5) 72.5 ± 5.3 3.2 ± 0.8 n.s. Sequential # (2-back) 720 ± 26 78.2 ± 2.9 2.7 ± 0.6 622 ± 31 (−13) 89.2 ± 2.9 1.5 ± 0.5 677 ± 56 (−6) 79.2 ± 5.7 2.3 ± 0.4 n.s. Degraded words with distracters 504 ± 10 99.6 ± 0.4 2.2 ± 0.7 495 ± 14 (−2) 98.3 ± 1.7 1.1 ± 0.3 476 ± 15 (−5) 98.3 ± 1.2 1.2 ± 0.3 n.s. Response reversal/visual scanning** 597 ± 13 91.9 ± 1.7 1.2 ± 0.5 628 ± 29 (+5) 82.8 ± 4.5 0.3 ± 0.2 573 ± 24 (−4) 95.6 ± 2.4 0.7 ± 0.4 n.s. Form discrimination 662 ± 21 83.2 ± 3.2 4.5 ± 1.1 682 ± 21 (+3) 80.4 ± 2.1 3.9 ± 0.9 630 ± 34 (−5) 84.6 ± 4.7 4.1 ± 1.4 n.s. Tasks Control (n = 19) Marijuana, THC negative (n = 12) Marijuana, THC positive (n = 12) ANOVA P-values for reaction times Reaction times (ms) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Reaction times (ms) (% difference) True positives (%) False positives (%) Simple reaction 295 ± 13 n.a. n.a. 331 ± 33 (+12) n.a. n.a. 294 ± 25 (0) n.a. n.a. n.s. Choice reaction (‘7’) Single digit recognition 393 ± 6 99.6 ± 0.4 0.5 ± 0.2 381 ± 9 (−3) 99.4 ± 0.6 0.5 ± 0.2 371 ± 9 (−6) 100 ± 0 0.4 ± 0.3 0.13 1-back cued response (‘X’ only after ‘A’) 387 ± 13 97.4 ± 1.1 1.0 ± 0.3 373 ± 15 (−4) 96.7 ± 1.3 1.0 ± 0.3 368 ± 24 (−5) 97.9 ± 1.0 1.0 ± 0.3 n.s. Sequential # (1-back) 543 ± 20 88.7 ± 2.7 1.5 ± 0.3 524 ± 21 (−4) 92.1 ± 3.6 0.7 ± 0.3 494 ± 23 (−9) 94.6 ± 1.9 1.4 ± 0.4 n.s. Sequential # (1-increment) 618 ± 24 67.1 ± 3.1 4.1 ± 0.5 592 ± 36 (−4) 67.5 ± 7.0 2.8 ± 0.8 586 ± 40 (−5) 72.5 ± 5.3 3.2 ± 0.8 n.s. Sequential # (2-back) 720 ± 26 78.2 ± 2.9 2.7 ± 0.6 622 ± 31 (−13) 89.2 ± 2.9 1.5 ± 0.5 677 ± 56 (−6) 79.2 ± 5.7 2.3 ± 0.4 n.s. Degraded words with distracters 504 ± 10 99.6 ± 0.4 2.2 ± 0.7 495 ± 14 (−2) 98.3 ± 1.7 1.1 ± 0.3 476 ± 15 (−5) 98.3 ± 1.2 1.2 ± 0.3 n.s. Response reversal/visual scanning** 597 ± 13 91.9 ± 1.7 1.2 ± 0.5 628 ± 29 (+5) 82.8 ± 4.5 0.3 ± 0.2 573 ± 24 (−4) 95.6 ± 2.4 0.7 ± 0.4 n.s. Form discrimination 662 ± 21 83.2 ± 3.2 4.5 ± 1.1 682 ± 21 (+3) 80.4 ± 2.1 3.9 ± 0.9 630 ± 34 (−5) 84.6 ± 4.7 4.1 ± 1.4 n.s. View Large
fMRI
Subject performance
Marijuana users performed better while tracking 2 balls [ANOVA P = 0.04; THC(−) 99.5 ± 0.5%, THC(+) 98.9 ± 0.7%] than comparison subjects (95.2 ± 1.6%) but there were no significant differences in accuracy for tracking 3 balls [THC(−) 93.7 ± 2.7%, THC(+) 94.6 ± 2.1%, comparison subjects 97.4 ± 0.9%] or 4 balls [THC(−) 93.7 ± 2.7%, THC(+) 94.6 ± 2.1%, comparison subjects 92.2 ± 1.6%]. There were no significant differences between groups on reaction times [THC(+) users: tracking 2 balls 836 ± 79 ms; 3 balls 913 ± 62 ms; 4 balls 948 ± 124 ms; THC(−) users: tracking 2 balls 789 ± 118; 3 balls 687 ± 93; 4 balls 893 ± 76; comparison subjects: tracking 2 balls 951 ± 71 ms, 3 balls 938 ± 72 ms, 4 balls 847 ± 72 ms].
Attention effect in abstinent or active marijuana users and non-drug users
The ball-tracking tasks produced robust (T-scores ranged from 7 to 30 or corrected-P ≤ 6.8 × 10−9 to P < 10−16) and characteristic activation in the visual-attention network in all three groups (Fig. 2). Brain regions that were activated across all three ball-tracking tasks (‘attention effect’) include a network comprising bilateral (right greater than left) dorsal medial and lateral prefrontal cortices (PFC), the parietal cortices, occipital regions and the cerebellum (Fig. 2, left). Furthermore, some regions within the attention network, including dorsal and lateral parietal and dorsal prefrontal regions, showed increased activation with increasing number of balls tracked (‘load effect’) (Fig. 2, right).
Fig. 2 View largeDownload slide Statistical parametric maps of BOLD signals in abstinent marijuana users (THC−), active marijuana users (THC+) and non-drug user comparison subjects. Surface maps demonstrate the effect of attention (independent of load, left) and the effect of attentional load (increasing difficulty from tracking 2 to 3 to 4 balls, right) on repeated measures ANOVA (random-effects analyses) for each group. See Table 3 for P-values and T-scores for brain regions with attention effects, and Table 4 for regions with load effects. DLPFC: dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex; IFG: inferior frontal gyrus; MFG: middle frontal gyrus; SFG: superior frontal gyrus; PPC: posterior parietal cortices; DMPL: dorsomedial parietal lobule; MT/V5: motion detection area.
Fig. 2 View largeDownload slide Statistical parametric maps of BOLD signals in abstinent marijuana users (THC−), active marijuana users (THC+) and non-drug user comparison subjects. Surface maps demonstrate the effect of attention (independent of load, left) and the effect of attentional load (increasing difficulty from tracking 2 to 3 to 4 balls, right) on repeated measures ANOVA (random-effects analyses) for each group. See Table 3 for P-values and T-scores for brain regions with attention effects, and Table 4 for regions with load effects. DLPFC: dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex; IFG: inferior frontal gyrus; MFG: middle frontal gyrus; SFG: superior frontal gyrus; PPC: posterior parietal cortices; DMPL: dorsomedial parietal lobule; MT/V5: motion detection area.
Compared with control subjects, both abstinent and active marijuana users showed less activation in significant portions of the attention network (Fig. 3, red clusters; Table 3). Abstinent marijuana users showed less activation (attention effect) in large regions in the right prefrontal [middle frontal gyrus (MFG)] and left prefrontal cortex [superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)], the right dorsal medial parietal (DMP) lobe and the cerebellum (declive), totaling 5350 voxels (Fig. 3, top left; Table 3), but greater attention effect in several small regions spanning the frontal, parietal, temporal [superior temporal gyrus (STG)] and occipital brain regions, totaling only 207 voxels (Fig. 3, blue clusters in top left; Table 3).
Fig. 3 View largeDownload slide Left: Surface rendered maps showing significant group differences on the attention effect (cluster level: P-corrected < 0.005, cluster size ≥ 25 voxels; voxel level T-scores > 4.72; (P-uncorrected < 0.0001 within the significant clusters). Both marijuana groups activate less within the normal attention network, especially in the dorsal parietal regions, right dorsal and inferior lateral PFC and the medial cerebellum (red regions). Instead, the marijuana users activate more than non-drug users in several small brain regions outside the normal attention network (blue areas for the abstinent subjects and green for the active users). See also Table 3 for P-values, T-scores and coordinates in the cluster maximum of these regions. Right: Bar graphs showing ROI measurements (group mean ± SEM) in brain regions that showed group differences (P < 0.05) in attention effect on both the SPM and ROI analyses (repeated measure ANOVA, with number of balls tracked as a within-subject measure and the group status as a between-subject variable). In each bar graph, the first three sets show regions where marijuana (MJ) users (blue or green bars) have less activation than controls (red bars) while the last three sets show regions where the MJ users have greater activation than controls. 2b, 3b, and 4b denote tracking 2, 3, or 4 balls; R = right; L = left; MFG: middle frontal gyrus; IFG: inferior frontal gyrus; Cere: cerebellum (posterior declive); PCG: post-central gyrus; SFG: superior frontal gyrus; OL: occipital lingual; PSG: parietal subgyral; DMP: dorsal medial parietal; Prec: precuneus; DPC: dorsal parietal cortex; LimU: limbic uncus; FSG: frontal subgyral; STG: superior temporal gyrus.
Fig. 3 View largeDownload slide Left: Surface rendered maps showing significant group differences on the attention effect (cluster level: P-corrected < 0.005, cluster size ≥ 25 voxels; voxel level T-scores > 4.72; (P-uncorrected < 0.0001 within the significant clusters). Both marijuana groups activate less within the normal attention network, especially in the dorsal parietal regions, right dorsal and inferior lateral PFC and the medial cerebellum (red regions). Instead, the marijuana users activate more than non-drug users in several small brain regions outside the normal attention network (blue areas for the abstinent subjects and green for the active users). See also Table 3 for P-values, T-scores and coordinates in the cluster maximum of these regions. Right: Bar graphs showing ROI measurements (group mean ± SEM) in brain regions that showed group differences (P < 0.05) in attention effect on both the SPM and ROI analyses (repeated measure ANOVA, with number of balls tracked as a within-subject measure and the group status as a between-subject variable). In each bar graph, the first three sets show regions where marijuana (MJ) users (blue or green bars) have less activation than controls (red bars) while the last three sets show regions where the MJ users have greater activation than controls. 2b, 3b, and 4b denote tracking 2, 3, or 4 balls; R = right; L = left; MFG: middle frontal gyrus; IFG: inferior frontal gyrus; Cere: cerebellum (posterior declive); PCG: post-central gyrus; SFG: superior frontal gyrus; OL: occipital lingual; PSG: parietal subgyral; DMP: dorsal medial parietal; Prec: precuneus; DPC: dorsal parietal cortex; LimU: limbic uncus; FSG: frontal subgyral; STG: superior temporal gyrus.
Table 3 Brain region(s) in cluster Talairach coordinatea Cluster level Voxel level T-score x, y, z (mm) Corrected P-value No. of voxels Attention effect differences: Controls > THC− L Superior frontal gyrus −21, −3, 63 6.80E−09 159 7.00 L Inferior frontal gyrus −36, 21, −3 3.33E−06 83 6.76 R Middle frontal gyrus 27, 3, 51 <E−16 1766 13.60 R Dorsal medial parietal lobe 3, −48, 69 <E−16 999 13.16 R Cerebellum (posterior declive) 30, −60, −18 <E−16 2343 9.09 Attention effect differences: THC− > Controls L Frontal subgyral −27, −6, 30 7.15E−04 32 5.77 R Parietal subgyral 30, −48, 33 1.38E−05 68 7.02 R Superior temporal gyrus 39, 15, −27 4.18E−05 57 8.25 L Occipital lingual gyrus (BA 18) −18, −78, −6 8.79E−05 50 9.31 Attention effect differences: Controls > THC+ R Superior frontal gyrus 12, 60, 9 <E−16 1322 10.93 Left dorsal parietal cortex −27, −54, 63 <E−16 698 10.84 R cerebellum 27, −54, −51 <E−16 1262 9.52 L Parietal post-central gyrus (BA 40) −39, −33, 54 2.71E−04 40 5.69 Attention effect differences: THC+ > Controls L Parietal precuneus −21, −75, 36 2.26E−05 63 8.24 L Occipital lingual gyrus −15, −75, −6 1.85E−05 65 7.62 L Limbic uncus −21, 0, −24 3.40E−05 59 6.18 Attention effect differences: THC− > THC+ R Parietal subgyral 24, −42, 42 1.68E−04 105 6.38 L Medial frontal gyrus −12, 60, 9 5.21E−04 87 5.56 Attention effect differences: THC+ > THC− R Superior frontal gyrus 6, 12, 51 <E−16 876 10.09 Dorsal medial parietal cortex 6, −54, 66 1.22E−05 151 8.25 L Parietal precuneus −18, −75, 36 7.32E−05 119 6.78 R Posterior cerebellum (declive) 21, −66, −12 1.95E−08 285 6.36 Brain region(s) in cluster Talairach coordinatea Cluster level Voxel level T-score x, y, z (mm) Corrected P-value No. of voxels Attention effect differences: Controls > THC− L Superior frontal gyrus −21, −3, 63 6.80E−09 159 7.00 L Inferior frontal gyrus −36, 21, −3 3.33E−06 83 6.76 R Middle frontal gyrus 27, 3, 51 <E−16 1766 13.60 R Dorsal medial parietal lobe 3, −48, 69 <E−16 999 13.16 R Cerebellum (posterior declive) 30, −60, −18 <E−16 2343 9.09 Attention effect differences: THC− > Controls L Frontal subgyral −27, −6, 30 7.15E−04 32 5.77 R Parietal subgyral 30, −48, 33 1.38E−05 68 7.02 R Superior temporal gyrus 39, 15, −27 4.18E−05 57 8.25 L Occipital lingual gyrus (BA 18) −18, −78, −6 8.79E−05 50 9.31 Attention effect differences: Controls > THC+ R Superior frontal gyrus 12, 60, 9 <E−16 1322 10.93 Left dorsal parietal cortex −27, −54, 63 <E−16 698 10.84 R cerebellum 27, −54, −51 <E−16 1262 9.52 L Parietal post-central gyrus (BA 40) −39, −33, 54 2.71E−04 40 5.69 Attention effect differences: THC+ > Controls L Parietal precuneus −21, −75, 36 2.26E−05 63 8.24 L Occipital lingual gyrus −15, −75, −6 1.85E−05 65 7.62 L Limbic uncus −21, 0, −24 3.40E−05 59 6.18 Attention effect differences: THC− > THC+ R Parietal subgyral 24, −42, 42 1.68E−04 105 6.38 L Medial frontal gyrus −12, 60, 9 5.21E−04 87 5.56 Attention effect differences: THC+ > THC− R Superior frontal gyrus 6, 12, 51 <E−16 876 10.09 Dorsal medial parietal cortex 6, −54, 66 1.22E−05 151 8.25 L Parietal precuneus −18, −75, 36 7.32E−05 119 6.78 R Posterior cerebellum (declive) 21, −66, −12 1.95E−08 285 6.36 View Large
Table 3 Brain region(s) in cluster Talairach coordinatea Cluster level Voxel level T-score x, y, z (mm) Corrected P-value No. of voxels Attention effect differences: Controls > THC− L Superior frontal gyrus −21, −3, 63 6.80E−09 159 7.00 L Inferior frontal gyrus −36, 21, −3 3.33E−06 83 6.76 R Middle frontal gyrus 27, 3, 51 <E−16 1766 13.60 R Dorsal medial parietal lobe 3, −48, 69 <E−16 999 13.16 R Cerebellum (posterior declive) 30, −60, −18 <E−16 2343 9.09 Attention effect differences: THC− > Controls L Frontal subgyral −27, −6, 30 7.15E−04 32 5.77 R Parietal subgyral 30, −48, 33 1.38E−05 68 7.02 R Superior temporal gyrus 39, 15, −27 4.18E−05 57 8.25 L Occipital lingual gyrus (BA 18) −18, −78, −6 8.79E−05 50 9.31 Attention effect differences: Controls > THC+ R Superior frontal gyrus 12, 60, 9 <E−16 1322 10.93 Left dorsal parietal cortex −27, −54, 63 <E−16 698 10.84 R cerebellum 27, −54, −51 <E−16 1262 9.52 L Parietal post-central gyrus (BA 40) −39, −33, 54 2.71E−04 40 5.69 Attention effect differences: THC+ > Controls L Parietal precuneus −21, −75, 36 2.26E−05 63 8.24 L Occipital lingual gyrus −15, −75, −6 1.85E−05 65 7.62 L Limbic uncus −21, 0, −24 3.40E−05 59 6.18 Attention effect differences: THC− > THC+ R Parietal subgyral 24, −42, 42 1.68E−04 105 6.38 L Medial frontal gyrus −12, 60, 9 5.21E−04 87 5.56 Attention effect differences: THC+ > THC− R Superior frontal gyrus 6, 12, 51 <E−16 876 10.09 Dorsal medial parietal cortex 6, −54, 66 1.22E−05 151 8.25 L Parietal precuneus −18, −75, 36 7.32E−05 119 6.78 R Posterior cerebellum (declive) 21, −66, −12 1.95E−08 285 6.36 Brain region(s) in cluster Talairach coordinatea Cluster level Voxel level T-score x, y, z (mm) Corrected P-value No. of voxels Attention effect differences: Controls > THC− L Superior frontal gyrus −21, −3, 63 6.80E−09 159 7.00 L Inferior frontal gyrus −36, 21, −3 3.33E−06 83 6.76 R Middle frontal gyrus 27, 3, 51 <E−16 1766 13.60 R Dorsal medial parietal lobe 3, −48, 69 <E−16 999 13.16 R Cerebellum (posterior declive) 30, −60, −18 <E−16 2343 9.09 Attention effect differences: THC− > Controls L Frontal subgyral −27, −6, 30 7.15E−04 32 5.77 R Parietal subgyral 30, −48, 33 1.38E−05 68 7.02 R Superior temporal gyrus 39, 15, −27 4.18E−05 57 8.25 L Occipital lingual gyrus (BA 18) −18, −78, −6 8.79E−05 50 9.31 Attention effect differences: Controls > THC+ R Superior frontal gyrus 12, 60, 9 <E−16 1322 10.93 Left dorsal parietal cortex −27, −54, 63 <E−16 698 10.84 R cerebellum 27, −54, −51 <E−16 1262 9.52 L Parietal post-central gyrus (BA 40) −39, −33, 54 2.71E−04 40 5.69 Attention effect differences: THC+ > Controls L Parietal precuneus −21, −75, 36 2.26E−05 63 8.24 L Occipital lingual gyrus −15, −75, −6 1.85E−05 65 7.62 L Limbic uncus −21, 0, −24 3.40E−05 59 6.18 Attention effect differences: THC− > |
be attributed to the gross misdeclaration or undervaluation of goods in terms of either volume or weight.
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Also, Lapeña said the discrepancy in trade figures was due to “the possible use of ’consignees for hire,’ which leads to goods released to ’hidden’ traders and not to the consignees on record.”
The hiring of consignees and hidden traders allowed the importer to evade the scrutiny of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, according to Lapeña.
“In both instances—misdeclaration or undervaluation and the use of consignees for hire—“benchmarking” and the submission of fake documents allow traders to get away with these underhanded schemes,” he added.
Lapeña said he would go to China this month to personally look into this matter and check the Philippine export records of the BOC’s Chinese counterpart agency.
For his part, Dominguez ordered Lapeña to focus on China’s trade records and arrange a meeting with the Customs chief of that country to discuss and find possible solutions to bridge the massive trade gap.
Lapeña said that under his watch, the BOC was gradually doing away with the practice of benchmarking, which allows traders to expedite the processing of their imports without the required inspections, so that the correct valuation of goods at the ports could be done.
Lapeña already directed Customs officers to ensure a five-day processing period for imports to cut the usual time of one to two months.
Last year, Dominguez said the DOF wanted to sharpen its teeth against smugglers as the government lost about P231 billion yearly to technical smuggling.
Dominguez had said that the foregone revenue, which was reflected by discrepancies between the import volume reported by local traders and actual figures recorded by their overseas suppliers, accounted for 2 percent of the gross domestic product, highlighting the need to improve Customs and the tax systems’ efficiencies.
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The Finance chief had also cited UN Comtrade data showing a P1.8-trillion gap in 2014 between the value of importers’ shipments and those reported by the exporting countries.
Dominguez had acknowledged that part of such gap could be the result of timing issues and the inclusion and exclusion of particular commodities in reporting, and not outright evidence of smuggling.
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MOST READI provided my usual answers: I was wearing nothing (“I just got out of the shower and like to cool my body naturally”). I liked doing it on every surface of the house and particularly in public places. All the yoga I did made me incredibly flexible, and I loved being lifted up and twisted into adventurous sexual positions.
But then he began to talk about what he hoped to find on the site: namely, a relationship that was real and meaningful. I agreed I was tired of sleeping around too. Usually I blocked a man once he began to insist on meeting in person, but Jussi was patient and sweet. I wanted to continue talking to him.
We logged in at the same time, day after day. I adjusted the schedule around my school days by saying, “I’ll need to drop off the kids first, so I won’t be home until 3 p.m. tomorrow.” He worked night shifts as a security guard, so he was always online when I needed him to be.
After a few weeks, he said: “Can we meet already? Please Charlotta.” He told me that he was tired of chatting and that if I didn’t say yes, he wouldn’t believe I was a real person.
What we had was real to me, and I didn’t want to disappoint him. So I agreed.
We set a date for 7 p.m. a week later. We agreed to meet on a street corner in the center of Helsinki, mere blocks from where I lived. I hoped we would recognize each other simply because we had been talking for so long and had such a strong connection.
As the days passed, however, the impossibility of it began to dawn on me. Even if I were to go meet him and get past the initial explanations, I could never become what he imagined me to be. And something else dawned on me as well: I was starting to realize I might be gay, and that’s why I was different from everyone else.
At 7 p.m. that evening, my mother put sausages and French fries on the table for dinner. I sat in silence, answering her questions with an absent-minded yes or no. Looking at the clock, it hit me: Jussi was now standing out in the cold night, alone.The Komodo team has been hard at work, and some of that work you can feast your eyes upon today with the release of Komodo IDE 10.2. This release is focussed primarily on two features: unit testing and Slack sharing, but it’s not just about the features; we’ve fixed roughly 100 bugs and made quite a few improvements and enhancements. We hope you enjoy this iteration of Komodo IDE and look forward to your feedback!
All New Unit Testing
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We’ve rebuilt unit testing from the ground up to support a wider variety of frameworks and facilitate more productivity. You can run tests for major frameworks including PHPUnit (PHP), pytest (Python 2 and 3), Prove (Perl), Mocha (Node.js), RSPec (Ruby) and Go, as well as any frameworks that output in TAP or TeamCity compatible formatting.
New functionality enables you to filter test results, jump to test definitions and place breakpoints directly in your test for easy debugging – all with a new and improved UX. With Komodo 10.2, you can run tests more efficiently than before, and enhance your Test Driven Development processes.
Slack Sharing
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If your team lives on Slack, sharing a code snippet is a quick way to get problems solved. Now you can share snippets, diffs and all kinds of code directly from Komodo to your team on Slack. Give your ctrl+c and ctrl+v a break.
Yarn Support (New Package Manager for Node.js)
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Get the performance and reliability of Yarn without having to leave your IDE. Komodo integrates with Yarn in the same way it does with npm. You can run commands in the “Go To Anything” search field or through a dynamic toolbar button, helping to speed up your Node.js workflow.
Django and Flask Toolboxes
Step up your Django or Flask development with new toolboxes based on open-source contributions. Save time writing boilerplate code by just double-clicking a snippet to insert it directly into your file. Doesn’t get easier than that.
(Credit to Djaneiro, Flask-Sublime and flask-snippets.)
Ruby on Rails Updates
Komodo has supported Ruby on Rails for years now, but our tools had gotten a little bit dated for those of you using the latest and greatest Rails version. With Komodo 10.2.0 we’ve brought everything up to date again.
Tutorials for Catalyst, Django, Flask, Pyramid and Rails
We’ve added a bunch of new tutorials that will help you get started developing for the given frameworks in Komodo. They will walk you through setting up your projects and configuring codeintel for optimal use for each framework. You can access them through your Toolbox > Tutorials or “Go To Anything” using the tutorial name (eg. “Django Setup Tutorial”).
Improved Shell Scope
Komodo has had a “Shell Scope” for its “Go to Anything” feature for quite a while now. It’s incredibly useful for running terminal commands from within Komodo as it provides you with auto completions and argument hints. Unfortunately, the feature has always been a bit hidden and awkward to use as you had to navigate down to the scope just to be able to use it. With 10.2.0 you can now just type your commands in “Go to Anything” and Komodo will provide you completions then and there.
And much moreThe assault on US workers’ wages
19 August 2010
An article published in Wednesday’s Financial Times under the headline “US Matches Indian Call Centre Costs” gives some indication of the impact on American workers of a coordinated and escalating wage-cutting drive by big business, backed by the Obama administration.
The article begins: “Call centre workers are becoming as cheap to hire in the US as they are in India, according to the head of the country’s largest business process outsourcing company. High unemployment levels have driven down wages for some low-skilled outsourcing services in some parts of the US, particularly among the Hispanic population.”
According to the article, a number of Indian outsourcing firms are shifting operations to the US to take advantage of low labor costs, a reversal from the 1990s when many call centers and software firms shuttered American operations to exploit educated but low-paid workers in India.
“We need to be very aware as people [in the US] are open to working at home and working at lower salaries than they were used to,” commented Pramod Bhasin, CEO of Indian firm Genpact. The company, which already outsources work to Chicago, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and New York, intends to triple the size of its US workforce over the next year.
The Financial Times article is a stark indication that the corporate-government campaign to narrow the wage differential between American workers and super-exploited workers in Asia and other “emerging economies” is meeting with considerable success. The breakdown of American and world capitalism is being utilized by the ruling class to carry through a drastic and permanent reduction in American workers’ wages and living standards and raise the level of exploitation.
This is a calculated policy of class war. It is being ruthlessly pursued by taking advantage of the misery and desperation caused by mass unemployment and the spread of home foreclosures, utility shutoffs, hunger and homelessness.
The Obama White House gave the signal for corporations to use layoffs and the threat of plant closures to slash wages by forcing General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy last year and insisting that the wages of newly hired workers be cut in half as the precondition for a government bailout of the auto companies.
Now, new workers at the auto companies are making the near-poverty wage of $14 an hour. And this is just the beginning, as the auto companies prepare to demand even deeper cuts in wages and benefits and the lifting of all restrictions on speedup. Similar demands are being made in every sector of the US economy.
The lowering of labor costs in the US toward the levels that exist in Asia is at the heart of the Obama administration’s so-called “jobs” program. Having ruled out any government job-creation programs and abandoned even its own paltry stimulus proposals, and having refused to provide aid to bankrupt state and local governments, the White House and congressional Democrats are touting a pledge to double US exports in five years as their plan to reduce the highest levels of unemployment since the Great Depression.
At the heart of this strategy is slashing the cost of American labor and on this basis reviving US manufacturing as a cheap-labor platform for exports to global markets. The shifting of operations from India to the US is undoubtedly being celebrated both in Washington and on Wall Street as evidence of the initial success of this ruthless policy.
Wage and benefit-cutting has hit every part of the US working class: factory workers, teachers, government employees, and service workers; whites, blacks, Hispanics; US-born and immigrants; women and men; teenagers and workers with decades of experience. Last week the Commerce Department reported that private sector wages fell 6 percent in 2009.
It is on this basis that corporations are again reporting fat profits and CEOs are continuing to reward themselves with seven and eight-digit compensation packages.
The success the corporate elite has so far enjoyed in implementing this policy is above all due to the collaboration of the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win union federations. Every union, whether it claims to represent teachers, auto workers, mine workers or government employees, seeks to impose employers’ demands for wage cuts in the name of “saving jobs.”
This assault on wages, and the complicity of the trade unions, is not simply an American, but rather an international phenomenon. The Financial Times article noted that the Indian-based IT outsourcing company Wipro Technologies has “started to recruit workers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the global economic downturn.”
Anger is mounting among US workers, who are beginning to identify the capitalist system itself as the source of their oppression and are increasingly recognizing that their so-called “unions” are instruments of the bosses.
On Sunday, auto workers employed at a GM stamping plant in Indianapolis shouted down and chased out UAW officials who demanded that they take a 50 percent pay cut as part of a deal to sell the factory. This follows Ford workers’ rejection of a concessions contract late last year that culminated in Bob King, the newly installed UAW president, being shouted down at a meeting of Rouge workers in Dearborn, Michigan.
Another struggle against wage-cutting, a strike of 305 workers at a food processing plant in upstate New York, is about to enter its fourth month. Workers at Mott’s, a subsidiary of the conglomerate Dr Pepper Snapple, voted to strike when the firm demanded they accept pay cuts of $3,000 per year, a freeze on pensions, the ending of pensions for new-hires, and increased out-of-pocket health insurance fees.
A New York Times article on the strike published Tuesday provided insight into the attitude of the US corporate elite—and its political servants in both big business parties—toward American workers. The article quoted a worker who described statements by the plant manager during negotiations: “He said we’re a commodity like soybeans and oil, and the price of commodities go up and down… He said there are thousands of people in this area out of jobs, and they could hire any one of them for $14 an hour.”
What the manager failed to take into account is the difference between soybeans and workers. Workers can fight, and they will!
American workers, having been betrayed and their struggles sabotaged by the unions for the past three decades, are about to enter into colossal class battles. It is critical the lessons of past defeats be learned and the coming struggles be guided by a new industrial and political strategy.
The first prerequisite is that the workers break from the official unions. Independent factory committees, genuinely popular and democratic organs of the rank-and-file, should be formed to plan occupations and strikes. These struggles must rally behind them the broadest possible support under the working class principle—long abandoned by the unions—that an injury to one is an injury to all.
The movement of low-wage Indian outsourcing firms to the US teaches another lesson. The capitalists’ scouring of the globe for ever-cheaper wages requires a global response by the working class. The recent surge in strike activity in China, Europe, Bangladesh, India and the US must become the starting point for a global working class counteroffensive against wage-cutting and layoffs.
This is a political struggle against the entire ruling class, the Obama administration and both parties of big business. A mass socialist movement must be built to fight for workers’ power and the reorganization of economic life to promote social equality and meet social needs, not corporate profits.
Tom Eley and Barry Grey
Tom Eley and Barry GreyReady to get paid to lose weight? Enter your info into the Prize Calculator and see how much money you’ll win!
“I feel alive. I have my confidence back. More than anything it’s given me a ton of energy,” says Jennie, describing the recent transformation in her life.
Prior to losing 51 pounds this year, she says, “I totally hated taking pictures. I would always be the one with the camera to make sure everybody else was in the photos and not me. We even skipped family photos last year because I didn’t want to do them.”
In January of 2016, Jennie weighed almost 200 pounds – and knew it was time for a change
Being overweight robbed her of her self-confidence. “You don’t feel like yourself. I felt like people treated me differently when I was overweight, they didn’t take me as seriously or respect me,” she explains.
Jennie was an avid runner prior to having her children, but then things changed — she gained weight and could not get rid of it. “I just told myself I would snack less and run more, but it never really stuck.”
Then, last year, she saw the winners of a HealthyWage weight loss contest featured on Good Morning America and became very curious. Large cash prizes for losing weight sounded too good to be true, but, after investigating, she knew she had to give this a try. That is how she discovered HealthyWage.
Nine months later in September, Jennie weighed in at about 138 pounds, below her target of 140! She’s lost 51 pounds!
What was different this time around that really pushed her to succeed? Through HealthyWage, Jennie placed a bet on her weight loss, and she won big.
She bet $60 a month for 8 months that she would lose at least 40 pounds. Her final weigh-in confirmed that she had succeeded, and she received her winning prize of $886.92 (basically doubling her money).
Since winning her bet, Jennie has taken those family photos and is going on a trip to Cancun with her husband!
Get Paid to Lose Weight – We’re not joking
Maybe you’ve heard of this concept before and figured it was a scam; that’s the first thing that ran through my mind as well. I thought that there would absolutely be some sort of catch that would rain on our parade after hearing of this amazing idea, but I haven’t found one.
Lose the weight you agreed to lose and they’ll pay you for it. Everyone I have spoken with says it’s as simple as that.
Anastasia W. bet $167 per month for 18 months that she could lose 41 pounds in that time. At the deadline, she weighed in and she nailed it! She lost the 41 pounds and gained $10,000!
Karen J., who discovered HealthyWage after seeing it featured on an ABC News segment, lost 50 pounds in six months and won $1,764!
For Olga, getting paid to lose weight meant being able to reward herself for all of her hard work
Since discovering HealthyWage at her job, where she’s completed numerous challenges with her coworkers (HealthyWage runs corporate challenges for big companies, but you can participate on your own), Olga has lost 100 pounds! She recently completed a HealthyWage bet where she wagered $20 a month for 7 months that she would lose 30 of those pounds. She crushed it, earning $606.40!
The past few months with HealthyWage have changed Olga’s life and brought her back to her old self. “I’ve gotten back into doing things that I loved to do when I was younger. I’m hiking a lot, I’m picking up tennis again, which I used to play in high school 16 years ago…Shopping is fun now! I’ve made it out of the plus size stores which has opened up oodles and oodles of opportunities for self-expression through clothes.”
Gather your weight loss motivation
For Olga, the money provided accountability, but it was not the only source of motivation. Her family always encouraged her, and so did her real estate agent (who had lost 80 pounds), and a certain patient at her job that was struggling with obesity-related diseases.
“I would say that overall I really became the person I envisioned me to be,” explaining that it’s about more than just the financial incentive; she’s felt an improvement in her overall well-being.
With that inspiration, Olga says it started to get easier and easier for her
A former athlete and now mother to a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Olga is now back in touch with her old self playing sports she used to play in high school, like tennis, going hiking and participating in athletic events.
“I actually just did my first triathlon! It’s a personal victory that I succeeded, and now I’m training for a 5k… I’m inspired to live more of an active, healthier lifestyle, which I wouldn’t have been able to do before because of all of the aches and pains.”
For Darchelle W., knowing she put her own money on the line really woke her up and forced her to take control of her life, “By investing in myself each month for the wager, something within me shifted toward caring for myself, valuing myself, and fighting for me in ways that have gotten me back to my true self, my true figure, my internal freedom and yep, I’m even my running to some degree.”
And she’s stuck to her weight loss journey since collecting her winnings.
“I just have no idea where I would be if it weren’t for my sister who reached out to me in my pit, and HealthyWage who reached into my mess and helped me make some beauty.”
That’s what is great about HealthyWage. It’s not meant to be your diet plan, and although you can absolutely benefit from their community and tips, their main drive is to provide you with the incentive to lose the weight on your own.
It’s all up to you. You place the bet, you weigh in, and you decide the time frame and the amount of weight you want to lose.
There’s nothing about HealthyWage that literally makes you lose weight, it just pays you for your success.
For Kristen, controlling her diet and exercise plan on her own comes naturally to her.
“After starting down a path to a healthy lifestyle, I now get asked to “play run” with my nieces and love every second of the fact that I can keep up! I am so excited to be feeling great and being able to call myself a runner.”
How HealthyWager works
Starting with the HealthyWage Prize Calculator, you’ll submit how much weight you want to lose (10-150 pounds, at least 10% of your current weight), how long you believe it will take you to lose the weight (6-18 months) and how much you want to wager ($20-$150 per month).
Based on that information, the calculator will provide you with your prize amount, up to $10,000.
You can play with the calculator until you get the numbers you’re looking for.
Sign up and lay down your bet. You agree to pay the monthly amount for the duration of the challenge. Succeed at losing the weight and win your prize!
At the start of the challenge and at the end, you’ll submit a video weigh-in to depict your weight loss via the HealthyWage app, only taking about 30 seconds to complete.
You’ll start and end your challenge with a video-recorded weigh-in to demonstrate your weight loss.
If you do not achieve your goal, your money goes to support HealthyWage, including prizes for those who achieve their goals.
Ready to get paid to lose weight? Enter your info into the Prize Calculator and see how much money you’ll win!
Share your story: What has helped you with your weight loss?NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways has replaced bulky, multi-lingual question booklets with online tests for its recruitment process, resulting in a green initiative that has helped saved four lakh trees and 319 crore paper sheets.The three-phase online examination covering preliminary, written and aptitude and typing skill test is a first of its kind for the state-run transporter.Aiming at eliminating the scope for malpractices in its recruitment process, Railways had conducted the world's largest online examination at 351 centres for 92 lakh candidates to fill up over 14,000 vacancies in various categories as part of the ambitious recruitment reforms.Out of the 92 lakh candidates, 2.73 lakh qualified the preliminary exam and were called for online written test for Assistant Station Masters and clerical jobs on January 17-19 this year.Now about 45,000 candidates, qualified for the third and final test, appeared for psychological and typing skill test on June 29 and 30, said a senior Railway Ministry official.Because of the digital transformation, both these tests could be completed in a day each whereas in conventional mode these would have taken about two months time.The online test has resulted in substantial saving of time and resources while at the same time bringing transparency in the recruitment process.Earlier, recruitment examinations used to be conducted manually, but the railways had to abandon the manual system and opt for online mode after a few alleged incidents of question paper leak.Describing it as the "largest online examination in the world", the official said that in order to ensure complete transparency, the railways have introduced the system of showing answer papers online to examinees one week after the examination.About 14,000 selected candidates would be called for documents verification in September and finally they would be joining duties before Diwali this year.Figure 1 A 21-year-old dental assistant attempted suicide by injecting 10 ml (135 g) of elemental mercury (quicksilver) intravenously. She presented to the emergency room with tachypnea, a dry cough, and bloody sputum. While breathing room air, she had a partial pressure of oxygen of 86 mm Hg. A chest radiograph showed that the mercury was distributed in the lungs in a vascular pattern that was more pronounced at the bases. The patient was discharged after one week, with improvement in her pulmonary symptoms. Oral chelation therapy with dimercaprol was given for nine months, until the patient stopped the treatment; the urinary mercury level did not change during this period. At follow-up at 10 months, she was healthy, with none of the renal, gastrointestinal, or neurologic effects that can result from the oxidation of mercury in the blood and consequent exposure of these organ systems. The abnormalities on the chest radiograph were still apparent. Although these abnormalities are striking, the absence of clinical toxicity in this patient illustrates the differences in the acute and chronic effects of exposure to elemental mercury, inorganic mercury (e.g., mercuric chloride), and organic mercury (e.g., dimethylmercury). Inorganic and organic mercury are much more toxic than elemental mercury; for example, a dose of 400 mg of mercury in the form of dimethylmercury is usually lethal.Privacy-conscious users have sounded the alarm after it emerged the "New Tab" thumbnail feature in Firefox 13 is "taking snapshots of the user's HTTPS session content".
Reg reader Chris discovered the feature after opening a new tab only to be "greeted by my earlier online banking and webmail sessions complete with account numbers, balances, subject lines etc.
"This content is behind a secure login for a reason," Chris added.
In response to queries on the matter prompted by Chris's experience, Mozilla acknowledged that the behaviour was undesirable and promised a patch. In the meantime, the browser and email client firm points privacy-conscious users towards various workarounds, as a statement (below) explains.
We are aware of the concern and have a fix that will be released in a future version of Firefox. Mozilla remains resolute in its commitment to privacy and user control. The new tab thumbnail feature within Firefox does not transmit nor store personal information outside the user's direct control. The new tab thumbnails are based on users' browsing history. All information is contained within the browser and can be deleted at any time. Users can also switch back to using blank new tab screens by clicking the square icon in the top right corner of the browser. That will change the default preference to show a blank page, rather than the most visited websites when a new tab is opened. Users who share their computer or use Firefox on a public computer should follow best practices for protecting their privacy by utilizing the built-in privacy tools in in Firefox, such as Private Browsing Mode.
Firefox 13 was released on 5 June, adding new features including updated new tab and home tab pages. The updated new tab page feature is broadly akin to the Speed Dial feature already present in other browsers and displays cached copies of a user's most visited websites. ®Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing: "Business leaders say foreign companies operating in China have never faced a tougher time"
Chinese authorities looking into alleged bribery by GlaxoSmithKline have banned the UK drugmaker's British head of finance from leaving China.
The travel ban was imposed on Steve Nechelput at the end of June, said a company spokesperson.
On Monday, police in China said GSK had transferred 3bn yuan ($489m; £321m) to travel agencies and consultancies to facilitate bribes to doctors.
GSK has said it is deeply "concerned and disappointed" by the allegations.
The company said Mr Nechelput had not been questioned, arrested or detained by police.
The BBC understands that the British embassy in Beijing is providing consular assistance.
'Abide by law'
Chinese authorities have taken into custody four Chinese executives at GSK in connection with the allegations.
They accuse GSK of using travel agencies to bribe government officials, doctors and hospitals in order to boost sales and prices of their drugs. The investigation began at the end of June, police said.
One of the four executives, vice-president and operations manager Liang Hong, appeared on state television on 16 July and said he had funnelled money through travel agencies for arranged conferences, some of which were never held.
Martin Patience, BBC's correspondent in Beijing, said the reputation of the drugs giant has taken a huge hit in China where it has been widely condemned in the state media
An article on the China Daily website said: "This case should serve as a warning to other Chinese companies and their transnational counterparts that they must abide by the law when promoting their products".
GSK's general manager for China, Mark Reilly, is said to have left the country for Britain last month.
On Monday, Gao Feng, head of the economic crimes investigation unit, said similar transfers had been made by other pharmaceutical multinationals. He did not name any other foreign companies.
GSK has said it is taking immediate action, including terminating links with the travel agencies that the Chinese authorities have identified, and conducting a review of its transactions related to the travel agencies.Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamHouse to push back at Trump on border Trump pressures GOP senators ahead of emergency declaration vote: 'Be strong and smart' This week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration MORE (R-S.C.) tweeted about golfing with President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE at one of Trump’s courses shortly after the pair wrapped up their round.
“Trump International Golf Club is a spectacular golf course,” Graham tweeted.
“Great day of fun playing with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump.”
Trump International Golf Club is a spectacular golf course.
Great day of fun playing with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/92Xjk8d8B2 — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 10, 2017
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The pair golfed at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday.
"The president is playing a round of golf with Sen. Lindsey Graham, where the two are discussing the tax cuts and reform legislation and the importance of fully funding our national security needs in upcoming government spending negotiations," said White House spokesman Raj Shah.
Walter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, quickly replied to Graham's tweet promoting Trump's for-profit business.
Et tu, @LindseyGrahamSC? Et tu? It's ok that you had fun golfing, but the presidency's not supposed to be for profit (so.. ix-nay on the pectactular-say, kay-oay?) — Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 10, 2017
Graham and Trump have golfed together before at Trump’s course in Virginia.
Graham told GOLF Magazine that Trump had shot a 73 during their game in October, a score the publication called “unlikely, to say the least.”84 Shares Share Share
Sometimes it seems that life is unfair and the odds are stacked incredibly against us. More than 1 in 3 persons will get cancer. The chance of survival if you get lung, pancreatic or brain tumors is pathetically small. The most common cancer in 20 to 30-year-olds is the deadly beast melanoma. We have no easy or effective early detection for most cancers.
However, there are remarkable stories of hope. Here is one that defies the odds.
In the spring of 1995, when she is 37-years-old, Rachael becomes my patient. Her gynecologist finds a mass in her left breast on a routine exam. When the biopsy shows cancer, she undergoes a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. A lot of stress for a mother of five. Still, she gets through and the cancer never comes back.
Four years later, she complains of sudden pain in her lower abdomen, right above the pelvis. Ultrasound reveals a mass; it appears her appendix has ruptured. They rush Rachael to surgery. As soon as he makes the incision, the general surgeon knows he needs help. A gifted gynecologic oncologist finishes a four-hour operation for cancer of her right fallopian tube. An appendectomy turns into a total hysterectomy with removal of both tubes and ovaries. The cancer never comes back.
A “routine” mammogram shows suspicious calcifications in Rachael’s right breast in 2005. By then genetic testing is available. Rachael carries the high-risk BRCA2 gene, which accounts for her three cancers. Both breasts are removed with plastic surgical reconstruction. The pathologist finds a small previously undetected cancer in her treated left breast. She starts oral hormone suppression. Neither of these cancers ever comes back.
2007. Melanoma of her right forearm. It is excised with wide margins and graft. It is only half a millimeter thick. No further treatment is needed. It never comes back.
Finally, in 2011, she develops bleeding, despite a negative colonoscopy four years before. She has a stage 2 colon carcinoma. This is treated with combined chemotherapy and radiation, and then surgery. Despite requiring a colostomy, she recovers very well. This cancer has not come back.
2012. Rachael has five children, four of them are girls. For each child there is a 50% (one half) chance they have inherited the BRCA2 gene from Rachael. If she gave it to one child, it does not affect the risk for another child. In reverse, even if some of the children did not inherit the gene, it still means a 50% chance for each of the remaining children. Any child receiving the BRCA2 gene from Rachael is very likely to have a life similar to her’s. It is time to test each child.
July 2012: Daughter #1, blood drawn. Test result, 3 weeks later: normal.
November 2012: Son, blood drawn. Test result, Christmas time: normal.
January 2013: Daughter #2, blood drawn. Specimen lost. Blood redrawn. Insurance company delay. March result: normal.
May 2013: Daughter #3, blood drawn. Result back in 8 days: normal.
September 2013: Final test. Fifth and oldest child. Daughter #4. She hates doctors and has delayed genetic testing for years. Normal.
Miraculously, five flips of the coin showed healthy and normal every time and in a 1 in 32 chance Rachael gave the gene to none of her children. They will all live without the shadow, the challenge, and the fear, which has marked her life.
Rachael is the ultimate survivor. Slammed down, she gets up. Again and again. In her own life and in the life of her children she has truly beaten the odds. Hers is a story of triumph, faith and powerful inner strength. We can overcome the monster and tomorrow brings hope.
James C. Salwitz is an oncologist who blogs at Sunrise Rounds.CLOSE North Korea says it launched a missile from a submarine. The country says the launch gives it a fully equipped nuclear attack capability and puts the U.S. mainland within striking distance. (Aug. 25) AP
This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on August 25, 2016 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waving as he inspects a test-fire of strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile at an undisclosed location. (Photo11: KNS, AFP/Getty Images)
The nation is celebrating its first successful test of a submarine-launched missile.
The country's leader — Kim Jong Un — |
Project Files
Now that we have identified our server files we can concentrate on those files relevant to the actual project.
Project files encompass everything relevant to your project and will be checked into Github. These are the site path and the project path in the above image. But there is a further question that needs to be asked: which files are specific to the Django project itself and which files are not?
When deploying your project, there are some files that aren’t necessarily related to the actual Django project but nonetheless are crucical for the project to work. These are things like configuration files, deployment scripts (fabric), documentation, PSDs etc. These non-django files are placed in the site path, while everything specifically related to Django is placed in the enclosed project path (In my previous post, all of these files were all placed together in a single folder which quickly became difficult to maintain.)
The Details
Now that a distinction has been made between the server files and the project files, we can go through each level in detail:
1. Home Path
~/Sites/
This is simply the directory where all sites are kept. I use ‘virtualenvwrapper’ so this directory is my WORKON_HOME. On your production server, this might be the ‘/srv/’ folder.
2. Environment Path
~/Sites/football.com/
This is your local python environment, i.e. your ‘virtualenv’. When using ‘virtualenvwrapper’, my environment is created via mkvirtualenv --no-site-packages football.com and I can easily switch to it using the workon football.com command. If I am using plain ‘virtualenv’, this folder is create by mkdir football.com followed by virtualenv football.com and activated by source football.com/bin/activate.
static folder : this is where Django’s staticfiles app collects and copies your projects static files. It corresponds to your STATIC_ROOT settings.
folder : this is where Django’s app collects and copies your projects static files. It corresponds to your settings. media folder : this is where uploads are saved by the application server. It’s your MEDIA_ROOT setting.
folder : this is where uploads are saved by the application server. It’s your setting. db.sql : during development, this is where your sqlite3 database should go.
: during development, this is where your sqlite3 database should go. bin, lib, share, src : these are all relevant to python and created by virtualenv. For example, when you use pip install it will place those installed libraries in lib/python2.7/site-packages/...
3. Site Path
~/Sites/football.com/football.com/
assets : holds any design files; PSDs, mockups etc.
: holds any design files; PSDs, mockups etc. bin : any 3rd party binaries or scripts that are specific to the project
: any 3rd party binaries or scripts that are specific to the project docs : markdown files, sphinx documentation, text files etc.
: markdown files, sphinx documentation, text files etc. etc : holds all configuration files; apache, nginx, supervisor, uwsgi etc
: holds all configuration files; apache, nginx, supervisor, uwsgi etc lib : any custom libraries that aren’t necessarily Django or Python related.
: any custom libraries that aren’t necessarily Django or Python related. src : our Django project and Project Path
4. Project Path
~/Sites/football.com/football.com/src/
This folder is the heart of your site and encapsulates all of the code relevant to your Django project. It is the folder that is created if you run the django-admin.py startproject command. Its naming is not particularly important but I call it src to convene with the unix folder structure conventions. It’s important to remember that this folder needs to be added to your python path. If you are using virtualenvwrapper you can use the add2virtualenv command. If not you can add it manually
football : the documentation puts it best: “the inner (football)/ directory is the actual Python package for your project. Its name is the Python package name you’ll need to use to import anything inside it (e.g. mysite.urls).”. Essentially, this is the location for files that are relevant to the entire project but not a particular application. You can use this folder to place other files that don’t fit in an app but are relevant to your overall project such as sitemaps.py, humans.txt, robots.txt, extra template tags (as long as you include football as an app) etc. In my previous post, this required a separate common or core app. football/settings : Although it’s outside the scope of this post, splitting your settings into separate files is a good idea.
: the documentation puts it best: “the inner (football)/ directory is the actual Python package for your project. Its name is the Python package name you’ll need to use to import anything inside it (e.g. mysite.urls).”. Essentially, this is the location for files that are relevant to the entire project but not a particular application. appX : these are your custom applications. In my previous post, I placed my applications in a separate folder for clarity. There are two ways to achieve this but I have since found that it leads to complications and a conflict between your folder structure and python path so I now just leave all apps sitting alongside one and other. This works well as this folder is much cleaner now that server-level files have been moved up to the parent directory ( site path ) and django-level files have been moved into the football module.
: these are your custom applications. In my previous post, I placed my applications in a separate folder for clarity. There are two ways to achieve this but I have since found that it leads to complications and a conflict between your folder structure and python path so I now just leave all apps sitting alongside one and other. This works well as this folder is much cleaner now that server-level files have been moved up to the parent directory ( ) and django-level files have been moved into the module. static : not to be confused with the static folder in the environment path, this static folder holds the files that you want collected by Django’s contrib.staticfiles app. I prefer having a single folder in the project path as opposed to individual static folder in each application.
: not to be confused with the static folder in the, this static folder holds the files that you want collected by Django’s app. I prefer having a single folder in the as opposed to individual static folder in each application. utils : a useful folder if you have small functions and modules that don’t fit elsewhere (usually maths functions, string manipulation functions etc.)
: a useful folder if you have small functions and modules that don’t fit elsewhere (usually maths functions, string manipulation functions etc.) manage.py : this is simply a wrapper for django-admin.py that sets the correct settings file path. For that reason, I prefer to set the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variables and make use of django-admin.py directly.
: this is simply a wrapper for that sets the correct settings file path. For that reason, I prefer to set the environment variables and make use of directly. requirements.txt : a list of all installed python libraries generated by pip freeze. I generally use pip-tools. As mentioned in the previous post: “Pip is great, but pip-tools is even better. It makes installing updating and dumping dependancies even easier.”
Extra Notes
Backup: previously I made sure all my source code was also in my Dropbox (symlinking the files to the appropriate virtualenv folder). I’ve since moved off Dropbox for backup (no encryption) and am now using Backblaze, so there is no need to do any symlinking.So a koala walks into a hospital…
Far from being the opening of an Australiana joke, a Victorian hospital emergency department had a different sort of visitor recently when a curious koala wandered in for a sticky beak.
The cuddly incursion happened at Hamilton Base Hospital in western Victoria around 2:30am last month.
The koala is allowed in via the hospital's automatic doors, and proceeds to take a look around the waiting room, presumably sighs with disappointment at the quality of the magazines, then heads back out.
Western District Health Service posted the video to its Facebook page yesterday, where it has been viewed over 22,000 times.
"You never know who's going to stroll through the doors at the Hamilton Base Hospital. Our very own Blinky Bill pays a visit to the ED waiting room," said a hospital spokesman.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019"Many people who like to use the term 'chronic Lyme' feel that there's a hidden persistent infection that is long-term," said Dr. Paul Auwaerter, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. "There's really a scarcity of data to back up that part of the proposition."
But according to the majority of doctors and medical groups, there's no proof chronic Lyme disease is real, and they charge that the so-called "Lyme literate" doctors who diagnose and treat it with years of antibiotics and other unproven therapies are quacks, and that they're taking patients — and their wallets — for a ride.
Gideon Baugher says he also has chronic Lyme, and he spent more than $35,000 on treatments last year alone.
Mavis Kelly was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years ago, but after seeking out a "Lyme literate" doctor, she says she actually has chronic Lyme disease, which the doctor says is an indefinite bacterial infection that hides in the body and must be controlled with antibiotics and other therapies.
Read more
This story is part of a partnership between MedPage Today and VICE News.
Mavis Kelly was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years ago, but after seeking out a "Lyme literate" doctor, she says she actually has chronic Lyme disease, which the doctor says is an indefinite bacterial infection that hides in the body and must be controlled with antibiotics and other therapies.
Gideon Baugher says he also has chronic Lyme, and he spent more than $35,000 on treatments last year alone.
But according to the majority of doctors and medical groups, there's no proof chronic Lyme disease is real, and they charge that the so-called "Lyme literate" doctors who diagnose and treat it with years of antibiotics and other unproven therapies are quacks, and that they're taking patients — and their wallets — for a ride.
"Many people who like to use the term 'chronic Lyme' feel that there's a hidden persistent infection that is long-term," said Dr. Paul Auwaerter, the clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. "There's really a scarcity of data to back up that part of the proposition."
What's more, Auwaerter said he regularly sees patients who've spent $10,000 to $20,000 on antibiotics and herbal supplements prescribed by Lyme literate doctors who charge "concierge-style" prices. He often finds that they never had Lyme and had an entirely different health problem that wasn't being treated.
Related: When Medicines Turn on You: Antibiotics Leave Patients With Psychosis, Stroke-like Symptoms
Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, and it's spread via bites from infected black-legged ticks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 25,359 confirmed Lyme disease cases in 2014, according to the most recent data from the CDC.
The CDC also says the disease is curable. The National Institutes of Health, the American Academy of Neurology, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America all agree. Even if symptoms linger after treatment with antibiotics, the bacteria goes away, and studies have repeatedly shown that continued, long-term antibiotic therapy does nothing to alleviate symptoms. The most recent was published just last month in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A group of mostly primary care physicians, who call themselves "Lyme literate" doctors have bucked these medical institutions, and say that for people with what they call "chronic Lyme disease," the bacterium never really goes away and can cause a range of different symptoms for different people — even if they never test positive for Lyme disease via the standard tests.
Kelly, 46, of Virginia, was diagnosed with MS nearly a decade ago after doctors found lesions in her brain and she experienced double-vision, tingling, numbness, headaches, confusion, and a drop-foot. She sought a Lyme literate doctor after hearing about chronic Lyme on the radio.
Baugher, 77, of Maryland, was diagnosed with Lyme but still felt "sick as a dog" after his antibiotic course ended. After experiencing continued "burning" pain and itchiness, he sought a Lyme literate doctor at the suggestion of people who went to his church.
According to the CDC, early Lyme disease symptoms can include fever, chills, a rash shaped like a bull's eye, a swollen knee, fatigue, and achy muscles and joints. If the illness is left untreated for more than a month, however, its symptoms can include more severe joint pain, drooping on one or both sides of the face, confusion, irregular heartbeat, nerve pain, and severe headaches.
Kelly's Lyme literate doctor was so solidly booked, it took Kelly four months to get an appointment, which cost $700.
"He doesn't need to take insurance," Kelly said, adding that her drug plan covered many of her antibiotics, but not the herbs and other treatments the doctor prescribed. "People are willing to pay whatever the cost... People meandering, trying to figure out what the hell is wrong, are just so happy to have someone who actually gets it."
It took Baugher three months to get an appointment with his Lyme literate doctor, who also did not take insurance.
They've both been on either oral or intravenous antibiotics for years.
"You name it, I've been on it at one point in my life," Kelly said. "All the different medicine just gets to be a little bit like it's taking over your life. For me, it's manageable."
Related: Antibiotic Resistance Is a Public Health Nightmare — And It's Not Going to Stop
Kelly's Lyme literate doctor, Dr. Samuel Shor, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, which has pushed for recognition of chronic Lyme, says the problem is that mainstream doctors don't want to believe in chronic Lyme.
"You've got clinicians who don't want to believe that this is within their rubric of specialty because they can't see the data," Shor said. "Unfortunately, a lot of folks, like myself who were forced to practice the art of medicine, believe what [patients] have to say for the most part, putting things together in a way that isn't rock solid. It's nuanced."
But in addition to being ineffective against symptoms associated with chronic Lyme, long-term antibiotics have been shown to result in various negative health effects, including kidney stones and yeast infections resulting from altered bacterial populations, said infectious disease specialist Dr. William Schaffner, chief of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
In a 2000 case study, a 30-year-old woman died after treating her chronic Lyme with intravenous antibiotics for 27 months. A month after stopping the antibiotics, she suffered a seizure and went to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. There, doctors determined that she had no signs of Lyme. She had developed an infection and died within a day.
Case studies have shown that patients who are diagnosed with chronic Lyme are later found to have other health problems, such as fibromyalgia. A case series published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year included three patients who were prescribed long term antibiotics by "Lyme literate" doctors and actually had cancer, instead. One of them had stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma, which killed him two years later.
Related: Climate Change Is Helping to Spread Deadly Viruses
It's been nearly ten years since Kelly's symptoms began, and she said she still has headaches, tingling skin, and "floaters" in her eye that obstruct her vision. When asked what the neurologist who diagnosed her with MS thought of the chronic Lyme diagnosis, she said he didn't know because she hasn't seen him in seven years.
"I was like, 'I really don't think I have MS, so I just stopped going,'" she said.
Baugher said the fact that he's still alive is proof that the antibiotics and other chronic Lyme treatments helped. Although he still sees his Lyme literate doctor, he's begun to see Auwaerter at Johns Hopkins, who takes his insurance.
"He doesn't have any infectious disease that I can tell but other health problems which we are investigating," Auwaerter said.
But Baugher isn't convinced. Auwerter says that happens about half the time because patients become so invested in their chronic Lyme diagnosis that it's difficult for them to accept that something else may be wrong.
Shor says he's he can prove that chronic Lyme is real, and points to a study he completed that he says measures a substance in urine that is only present when the bacterium that causes Lyme is also present and "burrowed" in the tissue.
"That was proof positive, from my opinion, that chronic Lyme exists," Shor said.
His study, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine in 2015, failed to make waves among mainstream doctors. The medical journal had an impact factor, which is used as a measure of the relative importance of a journal within its field, of 3.930. Two of the most respected medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, have impact factors of 55.873 and 35.289, respectively.
Related: You're Home to Trillions of Microbes That Affect Everything From Digestion to Depression
Most people fighting for the recognition of chronic Lyme are family doctors, not researchers or academics, Shor said. As such, he said, mainstream medical professionals who don't want to believe chronic Lyme is real "influence and suppress research and publications" proving its existence.
But Schaffner said this argument doesn't make sense, because infectious disease doctors are basically turning down the opportunity to make more money by denying chronic Lyme disease exists.
Schaffner said he expects "continuing turbulence" regarding Lyme because of the vague aspects of lingering symptoms, but advocacy groups pushing for recognition of chronic Lyme — and only chronic Lyme — are not the answer.
"What you need is, rather than advocacy, a prospective control trial done in rigorous fashion," he said. "People need to raise questions and do studies and determine the answers and be prepared for positive and negative results."
To date, the best available research debunks chronic Lyme and the use of long-term antibiotics. But for patients desperate for answers about symptoms they don't understand or don't want to understand, a group of doctors, who may mean well, have made that research easy to overlook.
Photo via FlickrLos Angeles, CA – In stark contrast to the countless unrequested penile photographs with which she was previously inundated, local hostess Sarah Halicki was pleasantly surprised to receive an aesthetically pleasing dick-pic Thursday night. “I typically hate dick-pics,” Halicki explained. “They are a gross and offensive manifestation of male privilege and aggression. But I have to admit, this last one was quite fetching.” Witnesses described the dick-pic as both “mysterious” and “regal.” “The use of shadow and hard light was unlike anything I’ve seen before,” reported co-worker Anna McFadden. “Whoever staged that photo is a master of both low-angle high-contrast photography and maintaining an erection for extended periods of time.” “It’s still not okay that he sent it without asking me first,” Halicki insisted. “But I’ll be damned if there isn’t just something pleasant, warm and reassuring about that cock.”Pasir Salak Umno Women chief Datuk Dr Wan Norashikin says making Mandarin a mandatory subject in all government schools is crucial now that Malaysia has made China a top trade partner. ― File pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 ― An Umno Women delegate called on the Ministry of Education today to make Mandarin a mandatory subject in all government schools.
Speaking at the Umno Women annual general assembly here, Datuk Dr Wan Norashikin, the wing's Pasir Salak chief said making Mandarin mandatory was crucial now that Malaysia had made China a top trade partner.
“Make Mandarin mandatory in all government schools. Why not since the schools already have additional language subjects.
“And in line with the government's success in attracting investment from China. This makes Mandarin important for our success,” she said while debating the wing's motion on education.
Wan Norashikin also said making Mandarin mandatory is in line with the government's push for well-rounded world class students.
“We can have a more sophisticated and world class generation students,” she said.
Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently announced several partnership projects with Chinese companies worth RM155 billion.
One of the projects includes the East Coast Rail Link worth close to RM14 billion.Original Airdate: January 28, 2013
Written & Storyboarded by: Tom Herpich & Steve Wolfhard
I was somewhat dreading this one at first. I thought it was a really silly idea to have a fully focused Lemongrab episode coming right after his terrific appearance in the last episode. For that reason, I think I went into this one less enthusiastic at first, and it somewhat dampened my opinion of it for a while. However, looking at it with clear eyes now and not paying attention to the actual episode order has made me really enjoy this one. It’s actually pretty great.
In typical AT fashion, the beginning doesn’t waste any time setting up for the episode’s main story, as only the first minute is used to explain the conflict (loved the Lemongrabs’ letter, especially how they took the time to write out, “mmmmmmn”) and send Finn and Jake on their mission. I also really enjoyed the “date” Jake was having with Cinnamon Bun. It was really sweet to see Jake so committed to dressing up with a bow and humor CB for a couple of hours. You rarely get to see that sort of genuine kindness from Jake aside from the kindness he shows Finn, Lady, and his kids.
The episode glances over that first bit fast, because the main focus of the episode is on the Earldom of Lemongrab. And boy, does it capture my interest. Without it, this would just be a pretty typical dungeon quest for the boys, but the entire atmosphere of the Earldom is just plain zombie-like. The landscape is ugly and an eyesore, but in a self-aware and effectively unnerving way. It’s filled with unwelcoming greens, yellows, and browns that just simply make the episode pop with nausea. There’s already something a bit off and uncomfortable about the Lemongrabs in general, so the fact that there are now dozens of them running around, some with very distinct and creepy features (pretty sure this guy didn’t appear in All Your Fault, but this catlike lemon person is by far the freakiest out of any of ‘em.) Part of the fun is just seeing Finn and Jake’s reactions to all of them, especially Jake’s. I love how absolutely terrified he is, and just simply utters “nope!” before bursting out of the room when he sees the screaming, peeling lemon. That was priceless.
During their expedition, they also encounter the main anti-hero of the episode: Lemonjon. Lemonjon’s probably my favorite aspect of this episode; for some reason, he gives me major Rock Biter vibes from The NeverEnding Story. In fact, this episode in general gives me major Return to Oz vibes. It’s creepy, unsettling, but there’s something really sophisticated and unusual about it. Lemonjon is basically the epitome of dark and whimsical, and the down-pitched Justin Roiland voice actually sounds pretty awesome. I’m impressed he was able to pull off that impressive of a performance for just using his typical Lemongrab voice with slight modifications, but it really works, especially during his ending monologue. But we’ll get to that awesomeness later.
When Finn and Jake finally do reach the Lemograbs, it’s clear that they are not well. This is the first real-time we get to see the Lemongrabs work off of each other, and man, are they fucking creepy together. Not to mention their stomachs have receded greatly and their general appearance has deteriorated, which only adds to their presence of unease. And here, the Lemongrabs’ motivations are pretty well-defined. Their connection with each other, as well as Lemongrab 1’s discovery that there was a method, or in this case a serum, to create more living beings to connect with most likely deeply intrigued him. Having Lemongrab 2 by his side gave the first Lemongrab a sense of belonging and pride. Yet, it’s still only one person. Lemongrab wants to follow in his mother’s footsteps and have a society of citizens, or in this case children, to care for. In this instance, he and his counterpart are actually obsessed with it. They love having other living beings exist in Castle Lemongrab that are like and equivalent to themselves. But their efforts to populate their own kingdom have left them with low amounts of food to serve the entire kingdom. They’d rather just fuck around with the serum and make barfing babies all day. A lot of people have commented about the connections to overpopulation, but I really just think its commentary on how lonely the Lemongrabs are. They’re literally sacrificing their only sources of food to create more living beings, simply because they enjoy doing it so much.
And of course, the continued trend of Lemongrab’s accusations of Princess Bubblegum being the title of the episode returns, this time with Lemongrab blaming PB for the reason why the Lemon People are starving. This one is maybe the most ludicrous accusation of all, but connects back to You Made Me in the sense that anything Lemongrab does wrong, or anytime he feels something is wrong with himself, Princess Bubblegum is the one to blame no matter what because she created him. Again, it’s another pretty interesting mindset that LG perceives, and it really makes me question Lemongrab’s feelings on PB as a whole. He admires who she is, yet detests her for creating him without a properly functioning sense of sociability. It’s pretty somber.
This adds up to the big conclusion where the Lemongrabs decide to infiltrate the Candy Kingdom for more food, against Finn and Jake’s original requests. This is where Lemonjon takes off, and the artwork, as well as the camera angles used, just look terrific. This is one of many instances where Herpich’s boarding looks just superb; his attention to detail on both the characters and their expressions translates very well when it comes to the animation process. So when Finn and Jake decide to target Lemonjon from his lemon heart, Jake accidentally kickstarts the heart, and drives Lemonjon to pronounce a thoughtful soliloquy.
Whoa, hold the phone! What is this powerful new juice coursing fromst my core source? The juice aches. Is this the rumored ache of feeling? The feeling of caring unknown to Lemons? New thoughts emerge! If I act, the Candy People will suffer. If I don’t, the Lemon people will suffer. The greater good demands but one course only: that I dissolve the bonds uniting me and become component to all!
Man, do I love this monologue. I feel like this is what comes to mind when I think of a super heady, long-winded speech from the series, while most probably turn to the Tart Toter’s speech from The Other Tarts. I just think this one is so eloquently and somewhat touchingly put, in the silliest most Adventure Time-y way possible. I think it’s really badass of Lemonjon to practically kill himself in a result for the greater good, by both saving the Candy Kingdom, as well as providing food for the Lemon People. That Lemonjon is alright! The episode is resolved by PB erasing the candy serum formula from the Lemongrabs’ brains, but not changing their hearts, simply because they’re just “like that.” Not sure if that was the most direct answer, but I think it ties more into the idea that, one again, PB doesn’t want to change the Lemongrabs for who they are. Just as Cinnamon Bun is half-baked, the Lemongrabs are socially and mentally inept, but that’s the Lemongrabs for ya, and there isn’t anything that can change that.
Overall, I think this one is quite an enjoyable escapade. I really dig the creepy atmosphere and how much emphasis was placed on Castle Lemongrab being as ugly and disfigured as possible. Lemonjon was also the perfect one-off character story to tie into this one, and it’s a story I think was pulled off exceptionally well. Add a perfectly enjoyable Finn and Jake quest to those aspects and you get a really enticing adventure-themed episode. After two Lemongrabs in a row, however, I’ll need some time for my juices to sit for a while.
Favorite line: “Fix the door? What?! What? Fix the door? Fix–what? What’s goin’ on here? Fix the door! Finn, what’s goin’ on? Fix the door!”
AdvertisementsRoskam meets with Republicans in Palatine, ignores 400 protesters
hello
Palatine police arrest a protester Saturday outside the Palatine Township Republican Organization office in Palatine while U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam was inside the office talking to organization members. COURTESY OF SANFORD MORGANSTEIN
About 400 protesters jeered U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton outside in freezing temperatures on Saturday while he met with about 100 members inside the Palatine Township Republican Organization office in Palatine.
Palatine police made one arrest but declined to provide the protester's name or details of any charges.
The six-term Republican, who has been supporting President Donald Trump on repeal-replace of the Affordable Care Act, the immigration executive order, taxes and other issues, did not go outside by the protesters and instead mingled with his party members.
"We're trying to get Roskam to listen to us," said Laina Stilwell of Wheaton and a member of the Indivisible DuPage group against Trump.
"We've called Roskam several times and filled out the online forms, but they tell us that he's not taking appointments," said protester Lisa Siemer of Wheaton. "He holds these town-hall meetings where he talks on the phone to constituents who submit their questions in advance. We want him to hold a meeting face-to-face with us, where we can talk to him."
The 6th District congressman talked to the Republican organization's members and then took questions on index cards read aloud by Republican Palatine Township Committeeman Aaron Del Mar. Roskam reiterated his support of Trump's order to repeal and partially replace the ACA, a 60-day look-back at legislation signed in the last 60 days of President Obama's term, and the likely reduction of business regulations and taxes, among other issues.
"There are going to be really substantive changes to fix the economy," Roskam said.
Roskam said that what Republicans plan to change in ACA ultimately will be in separate bills.
"We plan to build it from the bottom up," Roskam said. "We don't want one big bill. It's not going to be in one whole perfect thing. That's an illusion, a unicorn. We see the ACA replacement in a number of things we'll introduce."
As for sanctuary cities, where local officials don't cooperate with federal law officers on immigration, Roskam said that such cities cannot continue to defy the federal government and still expect funding.
"Their life is going to change," he said to group applause.
During the meeting, protesters continued to chant outside, asking Roskam to talk with them.
The groups included 6th District of Illinois -- Holding Peter Roskam Accountable, Action 6th District Illinois, Palatine After March Action Group, and Indivisible DuPage of Wheaton, among others. Most chants were anti-Roskam, anti-Trump and for democracy, while some held the rainbow flag representing all sexual orientations or signs against banning Muslims.
After the meeting, Roskam left through the back door.Even some of her enemies hated the way Mrs. Clinton was treated by the press. Here, when reporters pry into Elaine’s private life, the secretary of state lets them have it.
“I’m curious, what is it like launching your career by stepping on the throat of someone else’s marriage?” Elaine asks Susan Berg (Carla Gugino), a journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for writing about Mr. Hammond’s infidelities.
Ms. Weaver is subtle and believable as she channels Mrs. Clinton’s improbable biography and even some of her real-life dialogue. After losing the Democratic nomination to a younger, more charismatic candidate, Paul Garcetti (Adrian Pasdar), Elaine gives a never-say-die speech to her supporters, then accepts a cabinet post, echoing the explanation Mrs. Clinton gave at the time, “When the president asks you to serve, you serve.”
Elaine faces many daunting diplomatic challenges in the job, but one of the biggest is her ex-husband, Bud Hammond, who, since the divorce, has taken up with a bosomy television star half his age.
Unfortunately, Ciaran Hinds plays this make-believe version of former President Bill Clinton so broadly, and with such a cartoonish southern accent, that Bud barely seems qualified to be sheriff of Mayberry, let alone commander in chief.
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It doesn’t help that the writers strain for Aaron Sorkinish wit and sometimes badly overreach. “I’m the most popular Democrat since Kennedy had his brains spattered across the Dallas concrete,” Bud tells Elaine. “Baby, I’m the meat in the Big Mac.”
Elaine’s other headache is Susan, who was banished from the Hammond White House for her caustic columns and is still obsessed with finding out the true story behind Elaine’s facade of dignity and public service.
Elaine deserves a more compelling opposite number. Ms. Gugino is pretty and appealing, but her character’s a bit underwhelming as the secretary of state’s Public Frenemy No. 1.
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Susan is scornful of the ethics of a sexy younger colleague, saying that if Eve Harrington were around today, “she would bake cupcakes and write a blog.” But Susan’s own code of honor is pretty threadbare: She digs up dirt on one of the Hammonds’ children to blackmail Elaine into granting her an exclusive interview.
Elaine doesn’t have a daughter like Chelsea Clinton, she has twin sons: the good one, Douglas (James Wolk), is her chief of staff, and the other is Thomas (Sebastian Stan), known as T. J., who is the first openly gay child of a president and the family’s black sheep, with lots of charm but a serious drug problem. The brothers’ careers and love lives are entwined in the continuing Hammond soap opera.
But the more entertaining moments are not family disputes but Elaine’s dealings with the president and his cabinet, a “team of rivals” that seems united in putting the popular secretary of state in her in her place.
Hollywood is usually ahead of Washington when it comes to Oval Office casting. The Fox thriller “24” posited a black president long before Barack Obama first spoke at the Democratic National Convention; “24” had a female president taking the oath of office around the time Mrs. Clinton’s supporters were selling souvenir campaign buttons on eBay. But Mrs. Clinton’s life, with all its political triumphs and private torments, turned out to be juicier than any script a movie or television studio could conjure.
And the writers, at least, don’t want that to end. “Can you keep a secret?” Elaine asks a Secret Service agent at her side. “I’m going to run for president again, and this time I’m going to win.”We never get things right, especially when no real games have been played yet.
Last year, we whiffed on the Portland Trail Blazers, ranking them 25th to start the season, and had two teams that failed to make the playoffs — New Orleans and Chicago — in the preseason top 10. Two years ago, it was the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks who surpassed expectations, while it was hard to see how hard the Phoenix Suns would fall when the three-point-guard thing didn’t work out.
This year, there are sure to be some rankings below that look silly six months from now. After the top three teams in each conference, there’s potential volatility all over the place. Changes could work or backfire. Old guys will start to look old and young guys will step up. Injuries will happen, of course. And some teams will be greater than the sum of their parts, while others will be much worse.
That’s what makes sports so fun.
It would be really fun to predict something other than Cavs-Warriors in The Finals again. But how do you envision that without an injury to the guy who’s played 6,000 more minutes than anybody else over the course of his career without missing just a few games here or there, or without at least two injuries to the Warriors’ star quartet?
In the 70-year history of the NBA, we’ve never had the same Finals matchup three seasons in row. But we never had a team come back from a 3-1 deficit to win The Finals either … until the Cavs did it four months ago.
Anything is possible. It’s just hard to predict anything other than Cleveland and Golden State playing again in June. For now, the Warriors are ahead of the champs in the rankings. The Cavs made history in 2016, but then Bob Myers added Kevin bleeping Durant to the team that won 73 games.
This time last year: Warriors No. 1, and for good reason — Luke Walton was the Warriors’ (temporary) coach and the Cavs began the season with Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert on the shelf. The Pacers were trying to play small, the Pelicans already had injuries, Kyle Lowry was the preseason MVP, and Mikhail Prokhorov showed off his skills.
Hero team of the preseason: Golden State (6-1) — Preseason doesn’t count, but that doesn’t mean that the Warriors weren’t going to look like the best team in the league.
Zero team of the preseason |
. PE, prediction equation; PI, prediction interval; SM, skeletal muscle mass; VPE, validation of prediction equation.
FIGURE 2. View largeDownload slide View largeDownload slide Women: Panels A, C, E, G, I, and K show scatterplots of MRI-measured SM values (y-axis) against estimated SM values from prediction equations, whereas panels B, D, F, H, J, and L show Bland-Altman plots of difference between predicted and MRI-measured SM values (y-axis) against their mean (x-axis). Plots A and B and C and D represent results from the derivation of our PE without race (PE1w) and with race (PE1Rw), respectively. Plots E and F and G and H represent results from the validation of our equation without race (VPE1w) and with race (VPE1Rw), respectively. Plots I and J represent validation of Lee et al’s equation (11) for women (VPELw), and plots K and L represent validation of Lee et al’s equation for men and women combined (VPELm+w). For the plots with no significant slope, Bland-Altman plots show the mean difference with limits of agreement around the mean difference as a test for bias (mean difference significantly different from 0) with the use of the 1-sample t test. For the plots with a significant slope, Bland-Altman plots show the PI around the regression line. P values represent a test of significance of the slope. PE, prediction equation; PI, prediction interval; SM, skeletal muscle mass; VPE, validation of prediction equation.
As in men, higher R2 values for equations both with and without race (Figure 2, E and G) were seen after validation (R2 = 0.67 and 0.59, respectively), whereas the SEE decreased to 2.1 kg and the CV remained the same (11%, 10%) in both equations (significant slopes were still observed; P < 0.01) in Bland-Altman plots (Figure 2, F and H). In women, validation analysis had a clear negative relation (P = 0.000; for values of 15 and 25 kg, CVs were 15% and 9%, respectively). Validation with the Lee et al (11) equation (Figure 2I), with the use of the same validation sample we used in our equations, had lower correlations than our equation with race and higher correlation than our equation without race (R2 = 0.63). Nevertheless, our validation analysis of Lee et al’s equation showed SEE and CV values that were almost the same (SEEs: 2.1, 1.9, and 2.2 kg; CVs: 10%, 10%, and 11%; significant slope P < 0.001) and our equations with and without race, respectively. However, there was no negative relation in the Bland-Altman plot (Figure 2J) (P = 0.236), and mean difference was 2.6 kg in the validation of Lee et al’s equation (95% limits of agreement: 7.2, −2). The 1-sample t test was significant, with limits of agreement calculated by using SDs.
To improve the agreement between our predictions and the MRI measurements for women we performed 2 forms of calibration. First, as suggested by Bland-Altman (18), logarithmic transformations of both the predicted measure and MRI measure were plotted in the Bland-Altman plot (data not shown). However, this did not account for the negative relation between the mean and difference in the Bland-Altman plot. Second, we performed a calibration of our equations. This involved regressing the predicted values against the MRI values and adjusting the new equation to remove the negative relation seen in the Bland-Altman plots for the derivation analysis. The calibration was successful in the Bland-Altman plot for the derivation analysis in which the negative relation between the mean and difference of the measures no longer existed. However, the use of the calibrated equation did not account for the negative relation in the Bland-Altman plot for the validation data set. Therefore, for women with SM in the lower part of the range, the prediction equations tend to overestimate SM by 8 kg on average, whereas they underestimate SM for women at the higher end of the range by 8 kg on average.
Combining men and women, the Lee et al (11) equation (Figure 2K) increased the R2 to 0.85 (SEE = 2.6 kg). Bland-Altman plots (Figure 2L) did not have a significant slope (P = 0.229), although there was evidence of slight bias (mean difference: 2.77; 95% limits of agreement: 8, −2.4).
DISCUSSION
The aim of this study was to develop and validate simple equations for the estimation of SM that are sufficiently practical for use in epidemiologic settings. Although computed tomography scanning was used in the past (19), MRI is now established as the preferred reference method to measure SM (20). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scanning has been used as a screening tool for low muscle mass (21). However, it is a relatively expensive method, only an indirect estimate of MRI measurement, and impractical for whole-body muscle mass estimation for large-scale health surveys or routine clinical work.
Because whole-body MRI is time-consuming and expensive, a number of studies have focused on single limbs and produced anthropometric prediction equations for regional muscle volumes on the basis of single MRI slices of limb-muscle areas (22–24). Although single-slice–based estimates may relate to physical function and possibly identify malnutrition, regional muscle masses have not been established to relate in a direct way to whole-body muscle mass. Lee et al (25) compared MRI-measured regional and whole-body muscle mass and found that skeletal muscle values obtained from a single scan of the thigh region were a reasonably good indicator of whole-body muscle mass (R2 = 0.77, 0.79; SEE = 7.4%, 5.4%) in men and women, respectively. The use of 7 consecutive images of the thigh region was only marginally better (R2 = 0.84, 0.90; SEE = 5.4%, 5.1%), respectively. No existing study provides a method to convert limb SM to whole-body SM, although one study had correlations between regional and whole-body SM by using MRI measurements (25). In attempts to improve the prediction of regional muscle mass, several studies have adjusted limb circumferences with the overlying skinfold thickness (11,, 22, 26,, 27). The incorporation of skinfold thickness appears to improve estimation of regional muscle mass—for example, in the context of malnutrition—and thus potentially the prediction of whole-body muscle mass. However, skinfold-thickness measurement takes time, requires training, and may introduce high individual variability (28,, 29). Skinfold thickness measurements are not made routinely in most population health surveys.
We explored the potential to use the type of anthropometric measurements made routinely in large-scale health surveys to predict SM as measured by MRI. There appears to have been only one published study in which this was attempted (11). Our validation of Lee et al’s equation concurs with the original publication, which showed R2 = 0.75 (SEE = 2.3) in men and R2 = 0.63 (SEE = 2.2) in women (R2 = 0.86 and SEE = 2.8 kg for both men and women). Combining men and women, as Lee et al (11) did, will increase the number of adults studied and the range in body composition. This increased the R2 to 0.85 but without improving the prediction of individual SM, as shown by the errors on Bland-Altman plots (Figure 2, K and L). The SD of 3.4 kg indicates the spread of measurements of SM for women, which is less than that for men at 5.5 kg (Table 1). The combined group (Figures 1I and Figure 2, I and K) SD was 8.9 kg. The relative proportion of variation (ie, the R2 value) explained by the prediction equation was greater for men (0.75) and the combined group (0.85) than for women (0.63). This does not necessarily mean that the prediction equation was less accurate for women than for men; it may simply reflect that the relative amount of variation that could be explained in women was less.
The validations of our new equation gave higher R2 and SEE values for men compared with our validation of the Lee et al equation (11). On the other hand, in women, our validation of Lee et al’s equation (Table 4) gave higher R2 and SEE values than did our new equation. Our new equations included only anthropometric variables, whereas Lee et al (11) used race as a variable. Incorporating a term for race increased R2 of our validations by only 0.1% in men and by 7.9% in women, indicating that most of the variance associated with race was accounted for by simple anthropometric measurements, especially in men. Attributing race to individuals in mixed populations can be potentially difficult and misleading, so there is a practical advantage for equations that do not require this term.
TABLE 4 Men Women Equation R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 kg % kg kg % kg Derivation Prediction equation 1 0.76 2.7 8 NA 0.58 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.77 2.6 8 NA 0.61 2.1 10 NA Validation Prediction equation 1 0.79 2.7 9 1.7 ± 2.7 0.59 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.79 2.7 9 1.3 ± 2.7 0.67 2.0 10 NA Prediction equation of Lee et al (11) 0.75 2.9 9 NA 0.63 2.1 10 2.6 ± 2.3 Prediction equation of Lee et al (11), men + women 0.85 2.6 10 2.8 ± 2.6 Men Women Equation R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 kg % kg kg % kg Derivation Prediction equation 1 0.76 2.7 8 NA 0.58 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.77 2.6 8 NA 0.61 2.1 10 NA Validation Prediction equation 1 0.79 2.7 9 1.7 ± 2.7 0.59 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.79 2.7 9 1.3 ± 2.7 0.67 2.0 10 NA Prediction equation of Lee et al (11) 0.75 2.9 9 NA 0.63 2.1 10 2.6 ± 2.3 Prediction equation of Lee et al (11), men + women 0.85 2.6 10 2.8 ± 2.6 View Large
TABLE 4 Men Women Equation R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 kg % kg kg % kg Derivation Prediction equation 1 0.76 2.7 8 NA 0.58 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.77 2.6 8 NA 0.61 2.1 10 NA Validation Prediction equation 1 0.79 2.7 9 1.7 ± 2.7 0.59 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.79 2.7 9 1.3 ± 2.7 0.67 2.0 10 NA Prediction equation of Lee et al (11) 0.75 2.9 9 NA 0.63 2.1 10 2.6 ± 2.3 Prediction equation of Lee et al (11), men + women 0.85 2.6 10 2.8 ± 2.6 Men Women Equation R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 R2 SEE CV for mean Difference2 kg % kg kg % kg Derivation Prediction equation 1 0.76 2.7 8 NA 0.58 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.77 2.6 8 NA 0.61 2.1 10 NA Validation Prediction equation 1 0.79 2.7 9 1.7 ± 2.7 0.59 2.2 11 NA Prediction equation 1 with race 0.79 2.7 9 1.3 ± 2.7 0.67 2.0 10 NA Prediction equation of Lee et al (11) 0.75 2.9 9 NA 0.63 2.1 10 2.6 ± 2.3 Prediction equation of Lee et al (11), men + women 0.85 2.6 10 2.8 ± 2.6 View Large
Our equations all used simple measurements, which can be made quickly with modest training in epidemiologic settings. Indeed, these measurements are already being made routinely in most national population health surveys. A consistent finding in the equations (Table 4) we examined is that the prediction of SM was substantially less accurate for women than for men. This was also the case for the published equations to predict lean body mass (30) and SM (11). This sex difference probably reflects the much smaller muscle mass of women and a greater range of variability in other tissues, particularly fat mass. Ross et al (30) found that BW and hip circumferences contributed strongly to predictions of MRI whole-body–measured lean tissue in obese android women. In men, a combination of thigh and waist circumferences and BW gave the strongest prediction. Among our derived equations from stepwise regression, those with the highest correlations with SM (R2 = 0.73–0.76 for men and R2 = 0.54–0.58 for women) all included hip circumference as a variable. This finding supports previous reports suggesting that variance in hip circumference may reflect differences in muscle mass (31,, 32), thereby explaining some of the health associations of “waist:hip ratio.” Waist:hip ratio is not a useful indicator of total body fat or fat distribution (33, 34), but it does predict type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, and coronary artery disease in cross-sectional studies (35). The explanation may, therefore, be that reduced SM through illness or inactivity (eg, in persons who develop type 2 diabetes) results in a lower hip circumference and thus a greater waist:hip ratio, rather than a greater body fat content with increased waist circumference.
The present study allows a degree of confidence that is greater for men than for women for the estimation of total body muscle mass from simple measures that can be collected in analysis surveys (Table 4). Our equations had moderate to high correlations with MRI-measured whole-body SM and moderate SEEs and CVs. However, there are limitations to the study. From our published systematic review (10), SEEs were within the ranges seen in other SM anthropometric prediction studies, but we found few studies that used simple anthropometric measurements to estimate total body muscle mass using whole-body MRI as the reference method, which limited our capacity to compare equations. In general, our equation seemed to be more sensitive in men, and the Lee et al equation (11) was more sensitive for women. There is a significant negative relation between the mean difference and the average value in the Bland-Altman plots in women. The negative relation crosses over the zero line, meaning that the mean difference will be pulled more toward zero (ie, lower values are positive whereas upper values are negative), suggesting a better agreement than actually exists. The samples for derivation and validation studies were drawn in different years—2000–2004 for the derivation study subjects and 2001–2011 for the validation study subjects—which give some confidence for the validity of the equations when applied in other groups. However, wider application must be made with caution, because subject numbers are always restricted in studies that use whole-body MRI, and our population samples were also of mixed racial types in North America. Confirmation is needed that our prediction equations do not give rise to systematic errors if applied to groups of subjects with restricted ranges of ages or BMIs or of a single racial type. In particular, it is possible that the different body compositions of some Asian and Pacific Islander groups will demand specific prediction equations for muscle mass, as they do for body fat (36, 37). The difference in R2 from adding ethnicity to our prediction equations was minimal, so for general use in mixed populations, in which an individual’s ethnicity is often mixed and hard to verify, we favor the use of a simpler equation without ethnicity. Our samples included few subjects who were obese or severely obese, in particular elderly obese among whom relative paucity of muscle (sarcopenic obesity) is an emerging health concern (38). Data to confirm anthropometric estimation of muscle mass in obese and elderly groups are therefore needed. It will also be valuable to establish the effects of factors such as illness and weight change on the reliability of anthropometric SM estimation in longitudinal studies. Finally, although our equations have been validated and appear to offer value for epidemiology and in groups, their predictive power is insufficient for clinical use or among individuals. The R2 values for predicting muscle mass in this study are similar to those models that use BMI to predict fat mass (39).
In conclusion, anthropometric prediction equations for whole-body muscle mass were derived and externally validated by using separate populations. Predictions had greater predictive power and less error for men than for women. Predictive equations with the greatest R2 all included hip circumference, which emerged as a consistent predictor of SM. Two equations (including for men, body weight, waist, hip, and age, and for women, body weight, hip, age, and height) were identified as offering high practicality. They lack predictive power for use in individuals or for clinical purposes but have sufficient accuracy for use to estimate SM in groups and for research and survey purposes within mixed populations, without the need to adjust for race.
We thank Martin Hoefler for data collection and Maureen McNee for her secretarial assistance.
The authors’ responsibilities were as follows—YYA-G: designed the study, carried out the data analysis, and contributed to the manuscript; CH: designed the study and contributed to the manuscript; LG: designed the study, reviewed the statistical analysis, and contributed to the manuscript; DG and SBH: contributed to the data collection; and MEJL: designed the study, reviewed the statistical analysis, and contributed to the manuscript; and all authors: critically revised and approved the final manuscript. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
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ABBREVIATIONS
BW body weight
PI prediction interval
SM skeletal muscle mass
© 2014 American Society for NutritionThe D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development has a newly established $10 million public-private fund dedicated to preserving affordable housing and is seeking a fund manager to manage the money.
The preservation fund, approved by the D.C. Council for the 2018 fiscal year, is in addition to the $100 million in taxpayer money dedicated to the District's Housing Production Trust Fund, the city's biggest pot of money to encourage development of affordable housing.
"We know the needs are great... we know where properties are at risk," said Polly Donaldson, the director of DHCD. "We are working to identify those in need immediately and have the [fund] manager be able to start up immediately on that."
The goal of the preservation fund, Donaldson explained, is to preserve, acquire and rehabilitate the city's existing affordable housing stock.
According to the DHCD, the city lost at least 1,000 units of subsidized housing between 2006 and 2014. Another 1,750 units are at risk of being lost, according to the D.C. Preservation Network, a group of government agencies and community-based organizations working to preserve affordable housing in the city. A further 13,700 units have subsidies that will expire in 2020 and are at risk of loss.
"The fund is an important step toward saving D.C.'s disappearing low-cost housing," said Claire Zippel, a housing policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
The new fund will help to increase the amount of public funds available, which has been the biggest constraint in the city's push to preserve affordable housing, she added.
"In recent years, there's been a lot of pressure on D.C.'s Housing Production Trust Fund to meet the full spectrum of affordable housing needs that the city has... so it's great news that there's now another tool in the city's affordable housing toolbox," Zippel said.
Creating the preservation fund is one of six recommendations made by the Housing Preservation Strike Force created by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser in 2015. The strike force set the goal of preserving 100 percent of the District's existing federally- and city-assisted affordable rental homes. Establishing the preservation fund is part of a multipronged approach to that objective.
Also included in the recommendations was creating a preservation unit tasked to identify affordable housing at risk of being lost and to deploy resources to preserve them. The preservation unit would have preferential access to money from the fund, according to the strike force's final report. The DHCD is currently in the process of hiring someone to head the unit.
In researching similar funds across the country, the strike force looked at successful examples in New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle and the San Francisco area. They found the funds all started with an initial government investment, which was used to leverage private investment.
San Francisco, for example, launched a public-private fund in February to preserve and produce affordable housing in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the United States. Like the District's preservation fund, San Francisco's Housing Accelerator Fund aims to use initial city funding to leverage private investment.
The goal in the District is to use the initial $10 million to leverage an additional $30 million in private or philanthropic resources.
But the D.C. government has been faulted for mismanagement of the Housing Production Trust Fund, the city's biggest affordable housing program. In a report in March, the Office of the D.C. Auditor found that millions of dollars in loan repayments had likely gone uncollected from developers, and that many low-cost apartments in the program are occupied by tenants who may not be income-eligible. The auditor also criticized the DHCD, which oversees the fund, for "unreliable" records related to the fund.
The DHCD has laid out general guidelines regarding the new preservation fund's structure and the types of projects it will finance, but details on the fund's design will emerge from the competitive application process.
"We want the fund manager to have strong knowledge of the District and to develop the fund in relation to some of the unique characteristics of the District," including the city's geographic limitations, its high cost of living, its growing population, and the overlapping of state, local and county functions, said Donaldson.
Donaldson said the department expects to finalize arrangements with one or more of the selected fund managers and to have the first project funded by the first quarter of 2018. The fund manager will report quarterly to DHCD.
An advantage of this kind of public-private fund is its flexibility, said Danilo Pelletiere, a senior policy adviser at DHCD.
"A fund like this can move more quickly," making it an apt tool to preserve affordable housing in a fast-changing real estate market, he said.NBC Universal
Nene Leakes: "Why, God, why did Gregg beat me to the punch of this divorce"
How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Did you eat their body weight in dead fowl, only to feel horrible about your self-image the rest of the weekend? Great! My holiday was wonderful, thanks for asking, but I have a feeling some of our Housewives had less than festive Thanksgivings. Namely, Nene Leakes, whose marriage problems escalated in last night's episode of "Real Housewives of Atlanta." You know, it's amazing that human society has been able to function this long given how terribly males and females communicate together. With such different modes of rationale and emotional reactions, it seems like the universe was predestined to have men versus women. I'm amazed anyone has babies at all. The men on last night's episode really lost one for the team, and great, just what we need—another entitled prick named Prince Ayden Adonis Parks on the scene.
Dr. Tiy-E Mohammad has become the scourge of my life, and Sheree's as well. After briefly dating, it finally came out that the "Love Doctor" is no doctor at all—gasp! All my ENT medical professionals and surgeons introduce themselves with nicknames like "Love Doctor" or "Dr. Feel Good." I have a check-up with Dr. Happy Pills pretty regularly. But Tiy-E's fraudulent resume finally broke the straw on the camel's back. In her defense, Sheree tried to have an open mind when dating Tiy-E, as much as she could. When he mentioned he was staying in a Holiday Inn, she held the vomit in her mouth, letting it rot her teeth, instead of spewing all over him. That's sweet. And when he made a crappy dinner instead of taking her out to a five-star meal, she tried to convince herself it was endearing. But this lying about a doctor thing has got her twisted.
Meeting at local favorite Highland Bakery, she went for it: "You say you’re a 'doctor,'" Sheree says, to which he quickly comes back with "You say you're a 'woman.'" In Tiy-E's masculine, defensive mind, proving you're a doctor is as impossible as proving your women. But actually, it's really easy to tell. See, if you have a vagina (powdered-sugared or not), you're a woman. And if you have a PhD, you're a doctor. Easy peezy. Sheree begrudges that "not once" did Tiy-E invite her to breakfast, lunch or dinner since he had been back in town, to which he replied "Why does a man have to feed you to talk to you?" But Tiy-E, wait. Wasn't your whole spiel to let a man feel like the man, opening ketchup bottles and all? That's what you probably wrote your whole "PhD thesis" on! So what happened to that theory? Sheree pointed out that Tiy-E is very "tit-for-tat" and that's exactly right. If I buy you dinner, what are you going to do for me? If I spend $15 on you, you owe me. I hate people like that because they're so not fun to go out to dinner with, plus they resent you your whole natural life.
Finally, Tiy-E pulled out his "PhD papers," otherwise known to actual doctors as a diploma, folded up on cheap white printer paper from his pocket, but he wouldn't show it to Sheree. Finally, after the acerbic break-up was complete, Tiy-E told her "peace and love" with the sleaziest grimace, did a kiss-peace sign (gross!!!) and walked off. You have to hand it Sheree, I would have punched him in the face. Okay, I take it back, men may be from Mars, but Tiy-E is straight up Uranus. Zing!THE marvel of Lost for Words does not lie in the fact its pleasure-per-page quotient beats that of any other novel I have read this year. Nor does it have to do with the accuracy of the author’s swipes at everything from current British politics to the Gallic addiction to theory.
What Edward St Aubyn has done is tougher than that: he has written a contemporary satire about a literary prize that touches on universal problems of culture and value. It is a work whose cleverness never declines into cynicism, whose wickedness never departs from some baseline decency. It walks the razor’s edge without dulling the blade.
Present-day London remains a world capital of publishing even if, as some characters moan, little else these days. And it is here that Malcolm Craig MP, an obscure Scottish backbencher whose ambition exceeds his intelligence and political nous by some measure, accepts an offer made by an old mentor, a Foreign Office knight of advanced years, to chair the Elysian Prize: the Commonwealth’s grandest and richest award for literature.
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Any resemblance between the Elys |
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The libertarian reliance on pure self-interest is nowhere more clear than in the ideas of Ludwig von Mises, who developed Praxeology, the idea that all human action can be explained by self-interest. Milton Friedman accepts this proposition, stating in "Free to Choose," “The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.” The problem is that greed and self-interest are not the exclusive, or even primary, human motivation. We know that soldiers jump on grenades to protect other soldiers. We know that John McCain chose to spend four years in the Hilton Hanoi rather than violate the Code of Conduct for Prisoners of War. We know that Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire rather than face the harassment of police.
Of course, we’ve all heard the inevitable response: They’re upholding some other value, they hope for gain in a future life, etc. The problem with this response is that eventually, once you keep pressing, libertarians provide a tautology: self-interest is whatever motivates us to act. Well, then, we are clearly really bad at defining our own self-interest. Libertarians face a double bind: Either their definition of self-interest is wrong (because people act for things other than self) or it’s tautological (because every action is self-interested). Either way, they severely confine human motivation for action.
The only way to solve these problems is to understand the individual within her society and her society’s mores. But libertarians have to reject the most important forms of community because these organizations -- familial, local, national, religious -- are not voluntary organizations, but are considered coercive. In a day and age when the rich live a life separate from the rest of us and when our use of fossil fuels endangers the lives of poor people across the globe, such an individualistic mode of thinking is not only wrong, but dangerous.
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It’s important to recognize that some libertarian populists engage in a core hypocrisy: capitalism for the poor, socialism for the rich. They want to block-grant Medicaid and cut taxes for the wealthy. They want to cut food stamps but not necessarily farm subsidies. They’ll cut the minimum wage but extend the carried-interest deduction. And they say things like, “keep the government’s hands off of my Medicare.”
While Friedman was at least consistent enough to despise all government programs, the Tea Party wants to protect a few: the ones they benefit from. They excitedly adopt his “starve the beast” approach to government spending, but also gobble up government resources. Libertarian populism is the old supply-side garbage, as John Kenneth Galbraith noted, “that the work habits of the American people are tied irrevocably to their income, though in a curiously perverse way. The poor do not work because they have too much income; the rich do not work because they do not have enough income. You expand and revitalize the economy by giving the poor less, the rich more.” The Tea Party is selfishness embodied: “Government should help me, but not you! I’m a maker, you are a taker!” Some of us still envision a society where compassion and cooperation are valued, rather than callous competition -- alas, that seems as far away as ever.Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman Sheila Bair said the fund it uses to protect customer deposits at U.S. banks could dry up amid a surge in bank failures, as she responded to an industry outcry against new fees approved by the agency.
“Without these assessments, the deposit insurance fund could become insolvent this year,” Bair wrote in a March 2 letter to the industry.
U.S. community banks plan to flood the FDIC with about 5,000 letters in protest of the fees, according to a trade group.
“A large number” of bank failures may occur through 2010 because of “rapidly deteriorating economic conditions,” Bair said in the letter. “Without substantial amounts of additional assessment revenue in the near future, current projections indicate that the fund balance will approach zero or even become negative.”
The FDIC last week approved a one-time “emergency” fee and other assessment increases on the industry to rebuild a fund to repay customers for deposits of as much as $250,000 when a bank fails. The fees, opposed by the industry, may generate $27 billion this year after the fund fell to $18.9 billion in the fourth quarter from $34.6 billion in the previous period, the FDIC said.
The fund, which lost $33.5 billion in 2008, was drained by 25 bank failures last year. Sixteen banks have failed so far this year, further straining the fund.
Smaller banks are outraged over the one-time fee, which could wipe out 50 percent to 100 percent of a bank’s 2009 earnings, Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said Tuesday in a telephone interview.Mauricio “Veto” Iragorri and Steve Baughman are two of the most in-demand and accomplished sound engineers in all of urban music, and with several Dre-associated projects under their belts throughout their lengthy careers they are more than qualified to assess Dr. Dre’s engineering prowess.
Speaking live from the confines of their state-of-the-art Next Level Mastering studio in Sherman Oaks, CA, the men responsible for the sonic texture of numerous insta-classic projects from the likes of 50 Cent, Eminem, Game, Busta Rhymes and the Good Doctor himself speak candidly about their process and what it’s like to have been behind the boards for some of the biggest artists in the music industry.
Baughman and Iragorri Explain Their Rise
As a trumpet –playing music aficionado growing up in Northern California, Steve Baughman (who sometimes goes by “Steve B”, a nickname afforded to him during a recording session with Snoop Dogg once upon a time) spent much of his formative years digging through the crates at Amoeba Music in San Francisco, sometimes non-stop for entire weekends at a time. And although he loved the thrill of live music performance, it was the behind-the-scenes aspect of music that interested him most.
Upon graduating from a recording arts program close to home at Chico State, Steve moved to Los Angeles and landed a gig as an assistant engineer at Larrabee Studios, a now-legendary house of hits that, at that time, was also a house that many Death Row Records recording sessions called home. “I eventually ended up at Aftermath with Game and 50 Cent,” Steve says, “but it was at Death Row where I got my start.”
The late great Tupac Shakur was infamous for being heavily under the influence during his recording sessions, and it was amazing to Steve that Pac could deliver such outstanding vocal performances during these moments of heavy intoxication.
“I recorded plenty of vocals with Tupac. He was the most prolific writer I’ve ever seen. A guy that could write so many songs in one day” Steve reflects. “And what was incredible was how inebriated he could get and still be able to perform at the maximum level – and maybe he was just acting, who knows – but he would get in the booth and it would all just go away. He was phenomenal”.
Mauricio “Veto” Iragorri, now known to many as being Dr. Dre’s right-hand man in the studio (it was Dre that gave him his “Veto” nickname), started off as a DJ – albeit one that always had a fascination with how music was made. It was through a chance encounter while spinning at a friend’s house party that eventually led to Mauricio commencing a 15-year relationship with the Aftermath CEO.
“My friend was assisting at Encore Studios at the time,” says Mauricio. “He got me in the door and I ended up being a runner for about four years. Most people don’t run for that long, but I really wanted to be there,” Mauricio continues. “I finally got a break with Tom Lord-Alge and assisted him for about five years. Eventually I got put in the back room, and that’s when I first met Dre.”
While simultaneously attending a recording arts program at Loyola Marymount University, Mauricio dedicated himself and ended up being brought on as an assistant engineer during the Chronic 2001 sessions. “Dre’s engineer left the session one day, and Dre asked to try me out,” Mauricio smiles. “I’ve been with him ever since.”
Steve and Mauricio would rise through the ranks (which, Steve informs me, are: assisting-recording-engineering-mixing) and would eventually cross paths through mutual clients, forming a close friendship. It was through this friendship and mutual trust in one another’s ears – along with a little frustration – that eventually lead to the formation of Next Level Mastering in 2014.
“There was this war on loudness that was happening,” Steve reflects on the so called ‘loudness wars’ that received substantial attention from music publications in the mid to late 2000’s. “And everyone was trying to edge each other out on who could be louder. And that was ruining the art of mastering.”
Another aspect they wanted to improve, Mauricio tells me, was efficiency: “By consolidating and keeping everything in-house – where the both of us can mix and master a project – we’re able to meet our client’s needs more effectively and get a song out to radio as quickly as possible.”
Since its opening, Next Level Mastering has worked with 50 Cent, Game, Dom Kennedy, in-demand songwriting collective The New Royales, the Southpaw soundtrack, and an upcoming project with A$AP Ferg, in addition to several Rock and Jazz albums.
What Exactly Is A Mix Engineer’s Responsibility
Though most music fans would have a difficult time describing the sometimes mysterious process of mixing and mastering, Steve describes the key elements that separate the differences between the two art forms. “My job as the mixer is to take a micro approach in ultimately balancing and blending all of the individual tracks – bass, kicks, snares, synths, guitars, et cetera – into a stereo spectrum. The vocals need to sit in the right place. Distortion, cloudiness and a muffled sound are the elements that I’m trying to eliminate.”
Steve further elaborates on his responsibilities as the mix engineer: “The artist and producer gives us the rough mix. And then It’s my job to find out what it is that they loved about this mix, keep it, and enhance it to the next level. I’m basically painting a picture.”
And, as Mauricio can attest to, the differences between the rough mix and the final product can be pleasantly startling. “I’ve seen mixes go from nothing to, ‘oh my god – this is crazy!’”
Once the mix has been completed, however, Steve says that doesn’t necessarily mean the work is over. “After I send out my final mix of a track, I’ll then have the artist, the producer and the label all offering their opinions on it – not loud enough, not big enough, not impactful enough. This is one of the reasons why it can take anywhere from eight hours to three days to mix even one song.”
Though the same complaints and feedback can affect the next step in the process, a song’s mastering can usually be wrapped up within an hour. This is due in large part to the fact that when mastering you are only dealing with two channels, instead of the individual tracks that must be accounted for during the mixing phase. As Steve mentions, “Mastering is a macro approach in which you are ensuring that everything is consistent. When the listener is going from song to song on an album you want to make sure that the overall shine and EQ is similar. Mastering adds that extra ‘oomph’ to the project.”
In rare instances, a project’s mastering can be conducted by two separate specialists. In the case of Jay-Z’s Kingdom Come album, these duties were split between Brian “Big Bass” Gardner from Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles and Tony Dawsey from Masterdisk in New York City. Mauricio, having handled the engineering for the Dre-helmed productions on that album, points out that the decision is formed largely out of convenience. “Dre, being based out of LA, can easily drive over to Bernie Grundman’s and listen to those masters. And Jay, being based out of New York, can do the same thing with Tony at Masterdisk.”
In addition to geographical accessibility, which is becoming less and less an issue with the advancement of technology and internet speeds, it’s also a matter of comfort. Much like the trust that Steve and Mauricio have established with each other over the years, trust is also ingrained in the mastering engineer/artist relationship: There’s a reason that Dr. Dre and Jay-Z are well into their careers and are still utilizing the mastering engineers.
For an example of what a great mix and master sounds like, Dr. Dre and his Chronic 2001 album are praised once again. “Dre’s mixes are so punchy, and so clean,” Steve continues, “and that album is a great example of that. Amazing highs, luscious lows, and middles that aren’t so harsh that they’re killing you. Dre nailed that one.”
Mauricio and Steve also list G-Unit’s Beg For Mercy, Eminem’s Relapse, Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, Snoop’s Doggystyle, Busta Rhymes’ Big Bang Theory, and Tupac’s All Eyez On Me as being highly regarded for their sonic qualities.
Both Talk Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit’s Early To Late 2000 Run
During the early to late 2000’s, the Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit family of artists embarked on one of the most dominant runs that the genre had ever seen. From magazine covers and sold-out arenas, to #1 albums and films that topped the box office, it was a golden era of incredible success for all parties involved. Sharing in this success were two of the main sound engineers during this period, Mauricio and Steve – and they got to witness the craziness from a front row seat.
“It was a blur,” Mauricio tells me excitedly. “We were so fortunate to be around while all these huge hits were being made. And they were coming so quickly that I’d be busy making sure the next project sounded right and I’d look up and go, ‘Whoa, was that just a hit? It felt like I was just working on that thing yesterday!’”
Perhaps the seminal track from that era, 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” was an infectious, swaggering monster of a song that commenced a blistering run for the Queens MC turned businessman. However, it’s a moment that almost never happened. Not for 50 Cent at least – the track was initially intended for another successful act from that era: D12.
“’In Da Club’ was another blur,” Mauricio reflects. “50 was walking down the hallways at Encore Studios and heard the basic drum track playing,” says Mauricio of the Dr.Dre and Mike Elizondo production. “He pops his head in and starts humming a melody – ‘Go shawty, it’s your birthday’. Dre liked it, and told 50 to hop in the booth to see what he could do.” Though the members of D12 had also recorded to the track while at work on their D12 World album, it became clear that it was a much better fit for 50 Cent. Steve sums up how quickly the stars aligned: “I was supposed to be working with 50 in the front room. He had left [to ultimately record “In Da Club”]. He was back in an hour and a half.”
A decade later, and after a handful of successful collaborations in between, Mauricio and the Good Doctor recently linked up to share liner note space yet again.
“Dre got inspired by being on the set of the movie,” says Mauricio about Straight Outta Compton and the accompanying Compton soundtrack/album that followed. “He got all these people together – new artists, up-and-coming producers – and he started liking stuff.” Mauricio adds that the album’s final track, the autobiographical “Talking To My Diary”, was essentially the only song leftover from the Detox sessions. “There’s a lot of potential hits that ended up in the vault,” Mauricio says wistfully. “And as a huge fan of Dre’s it’s a tad disheartening. But it was fun working on the Compton soundtrack. I did a lot of the recording [author’s note: he’s also credited with co-mixing two songs]. I’m proud to be on that album – it was a great experience.”
Both Talk The Different Phases Of “The Documentary 2”
Another project the men of Next Level Mastering took on was the complete mixing and mastering of the Game’s brand new double album, The Documentary 2.
“It went through a bunch of different phases,” Steve says of the tracklist that ended up spanning 37 songs. “Game kept telling me was gonna get me the tracks to mix but month after month I never got anything. It was only later that I found out why – he was making a double album.”
With a robust guest list that includes features from Hip Hop heavyweights (Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Ice Cube, Nas) and beats from some of the biggest producers in the game (DJ Mustard, Will.i.am, Mike Will Made It), The Documentary 2 is perhaps the most star-studded event of the year. Nevertheless, the album’s overall flow was never compromised.
“There’s a ton of people on this album but you’ll find that it blends together nicely.” Steve says. “And what shines most are Game’s vocals – they’re always commanding. He never sounds small and always cuts through on the track.”
Speaking on the album’s cohesiveness, Game recently sat down with HipHopDX and echoed these sentiments: “Sonically, I don’t care if you like the music or not, sonically it flows straight through…I got the formula and I did it twice. Disc One: all the way through. Disc Two: same thing. You might not like every fucking song, but you’re gonna love the way that it flows through.”
In that same interview, Game also explained his contrasting approach for each disc, stating that Disc One was for the fans while Disc Two was more for himself. Steve further describes the unique sonic qualities of the album’s two halves, as well as his goal when tackling a project of this magnitude.
“I’m the type of mixer that doesn’t impose my ‘sound’ on the mix. Rather, I listen to the music and let it dictate where the vibe should go,” Steve continues. “For the Game album, Disc one is more of a modern Hip Hop sound, and Disc two is super West Coast. Both need to bang but the approach is slightly different – the newer stuff may be more concerned with the sub bass, whereas the West Coast joints would be more concerned with the punchiness of the kick drums.”
Disc One of The Documentary 2 debuted at #1 on the iTunes albums chart.
As to the sound of today’s current musical landscape, Steve and Mauricio point out that it’s a lot like the U.S. economy.
“There’s a disparity between the haves and the have nots,” says Steve, alluding to the industry’s elite engineers compared to the burgeoning ones working out of their bedrooms on laptops. “The top shelf guys are doing great, but a lot of the other stuff is wallowing in mediocrity.” Mauricio agrees: “A lot of songs now are going straight from the bedroom to the radio…low quality MP3’s and such. And unfortunately this is the sound a whole generation is getting used to.”
Given this notion, and despite shrinking CD aisles and a plummeting of album sales, Mauricio and Steve are optimistic about the future of their industry.
“This is high-end, expensive gear,” says Mauricio, pointing to the racks and racks of mad scientist equipment that fills up nearly every inch of Next Level Mastering’s main control room. “The demand for that big studio sound remains high. And there’s a reason nearly every major album still goes through the big mastering houses – it’s a sound that people have fallen in love with, and that love likely isn’t going anywhere.”
Mauricio “Veto” Iragorri and Steve “Steve B” Baughman are the co-owners of Next Level Mastering in Sherman Oaks, CA. They can be reached at www.nextlevelmastering.com.
Ryan Redding is a freelance music journalist and has previously written about Drake and Lil Wayne for HipHopDX. Follow him on Twitter @RyanRedding11.In past elections, it has been mainly Zimbabwe’s women who have voted. That may change in the African country’s elections expected at the end of this month. A female government minister is calling on women to withhold sex from their partners unless they register to vote.
Leading this campaign to ensure Zimbabwean men vote in the country’s elections, expected on July 31, is Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, the country’s minister of regional integration and international cooperation.
She said Zimbabwean women must deny their partners sex until they register to vote.
“You are basically saying to your partners, we are all suffering the same way. We need to make a difference. I am not asking you to go to war. I am asking you to go and vote," said Misihairabwi-Mushonga. "You have a responsibility. For years, we have seen that the majority of people that go to register to vote have been women. And this call is to say, we as women can't be taking this struggle alone. We need to take our men on board. And if we can't bring them on board by talking to them nicely, we will deny them something that we know they certainly would want. ”
Misihairabwi-Mushonga is from a small faction of the Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC), one of the three parties fielding a presidential candidate to lock horns with perennial rivals President Robert Mugabe of the ZANU-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC.
Mugabe set July 31 as the date Zimbabwe holds national elections. But that date has been challenged. A ruling on that is expected this week.
The legal battle aside, Zimbabwe’s finance minister said treasury does not have enough money to conduct the election.
The voting, if it takes place, would like end the power sharing government of Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed in 2009 following a disputed election.
Currently, there is voter registration going on and Minister Misihairabwi-Mushonga thinks Zimbabwean men will participate if they are starved for sex.
“Sex strike is not a new concept. It has been used to stop wars," she said. "It has been used to ask for developmental things in the areas and has been very successful. So this is not a revolutionary concept that I am coming up with. It is a concept that has been use the world over.”
The world will find out if playing the "sex card" gets the men of Zimbabwe to the polls.Almost exactly a decade ago, Steve Jobs was accompanied on stage by U2 when he introduced an odd-sounding device called the iPod and a marketplace for music called iTunes. Even now, every time a listener presses the artist button on iTunes, their thumb lands on a silhouette of Bono’s head.
I assume it has been a profitable relationship that has burnished the image of both, until now. To my mind, the bigger hair shirt should belong to Apple. Given the context, the company should have been more sensitive to the consumer’s right to be left alone — after all, the company is fresh off a hack that allowed strangers to steal, view and share nude photos of famous actresses from iCloud accounts. If the introduction of a new phone left Apple feeling a sense of largess, it could have offered music fans dozens of options of bands that they could download if they felt like it.
Bono, a singer who often takes a knee when he wants to amp up the drama in an arena, has stood tall on business matters from the beginning. Back then, the band chose a letter and a number for its name “because we could make it really big on posters.”
“We’ve always worried about the marketing, even before people thought of bands as brands,” Bono said as he nursed a Heineken backstage after a panel at the event.
U2 saw its chance with Apple and grabbed with both hands. But in this instance, Bono’s fervent desire that a passion project be heard by the masses may have gotten the best of him. We live in a time when music is meant to be pulled by consumers, not pushed on them by big rock music acts and an even bigger company.
As savvy as he is, Bono probably knew this was one U2 caper that would not go unpunished. Still, it’s surprising to see him strike a sour note, because as Jay Z might say, Bono’s not just a businessman, he’s a business, man. Bono is an investor in Elevation Partners, a venture capital firm with a futuristic bent, and he is hardly nostalgic for the good old days in the music business. From the stage, he railed against the lack of transparency in music label accounting. And even as he handed me one of the deluxe editions of U2’s new record at his house, I asked him if he felt that a physical artifact was necessary to validate the work of the artist.
“Absolutely not,” he said.
Last week, Taylor Swift, one of the biggest musical acts on the planet, withdrew her work from Spotify in part to protest the challenging economics of streaming for artists. But Bono defended the streaming model.The Weather Prediction Center
College Park, MD
Storm Summary Message
Storm Summary Number 15 for Northern U.S. Winter Storm and Central U.S. Heavy Rain NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 1000 PM EST Wed Feb 13 2019...Lake-effect snow and snow showers continue across the Northeast... Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories are in effect east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in western New York. Scattered Flood Warnings and Advisories are in effect across the Middle/Lower Mississippi Valley, the Tennessee Valley, and the Ohio Valley. For a detailed graphical depiction of the latest watches, warnings and advisories, please see www.weather.gov At 900 PM EST...A low pressure system with an estimated central pressure of 992 mb had pushed into the north end of the Bay of Fundy. National Weather Service radars and station observations identified light to moderate snow showers east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, with more widely scattered snow showers across the Northeast....Selected preliminary Storm Total Snowfall in inches from 600 AM EST Fri Feb 08 through 900 PM EST Wed Feb 13......MAINE... HOULTON 2 ESE 15.0 PRESQUE ISLE 1 W 13.5 ORIENT 1 ENE 13.0 NWS CARIBOU 12.9 PERHAM 12.5 JACKMAN 12.0 MAPLETON 12.0 VIENNA 12.0 WILTON 12.0 LEE 11.4 ELLSWORTH 4 NW 9.5 JONESPORT 9.5 BLAINE 1 WSW 9.0 NEW LIMERICK 8.5 PORTLAND INTL JETPORT 7.7...MASSACHUSETTS... LEYDEN 5.5 NEW SALEM 5.5 FITCHBURG 5.1 STERLING 5.1 LOWELL 5.0 WESTMINSTER 5.0 BLANDFORD 4.8 CHESTER 4.5 LEICCESTER 4.5 DEERFIELD 4.3 WAKEFIELD 4.1 SPRINGFIELD 4.0 WORCESTER 4.0 BOSTON 2.7...NEW HAMPSHIRE... JACKSON 3 NW 9.5 RANDOLPH 1 NE 9.0 MILAN 8.0 WAKEFIELD 3 NE 8.0 FIRST CONNECTICUT LAKE 7.0 UNITY 3 W 6.0 ENFIELD 4.5 STRATHAM 2 ENE 4.5 STRAFFORD 2 SSE 4.0...NEW YORK... MINETTO 19.3 FULTON 17.5 WELLS 11.5 OSWEGO 5 ESE 11.4 POINT ROCK 1 SE 10.6 CHAZY 2 N 10.0 WEST CHAZY 9.8 BEEKMANTOWN 9.3 NORTH HUDSON 9.0 PLATTSBURGH 9.0 MORRISONVILLE 8.7 PHOENIX 7 NNE 8.2 LAKE LUZERNE 7.2 HICKEYS CORNERS 7.0 CAPE VINCENT 6 ENE 6.8 ALBANY 1 W 4.1...PENNSYLVANIA... WINDBER 7 SE 7.0 CASHTOWN 6.2 PORT MATILDA 2 ESE 5.9 HIDDEN VALLEY 5.7 STATE COLLEGE 3 NW 5.5 WESLEYVILLE 4 S 5.0 SWEDE HILL 4.0 UPPER STRASBURG 4.0 BELLEVUE 1 SSE 3.5 CANONSBURG 3.0 KNOB 3.0 LANDENBERG 3.0 PHILADELPHIA INTL ARPT 2.3...VERMONT... MARSHFIELD 4 ESE 13.0 ST. ALBANS 2 NE 12.5 GREENSBORO 4 NNE 12.0 GROTON 12.0 MANCHESTER 10.3 TURNBRIDGE 10.3 WOODFORD 9.5 BRAINTREE 8.8 EAST BURKE 8.0 ST JOHNSBURY 1 SSW 7.9 WILLIAMSTOWN 7.8 WHEELOCK 7.5 STOWE 1 NW 7.4 COLCHESTER 7.0 JOHNSON 7.0 SOUTH BURLINGTON 2 E 7.0...Selected preliminary Peak Wind gusts in miles per hour earlier in the event......IDAHO... FORT HALL 2 E 53 POCATELLO ARPT 1 N 51 TWIN FALLS 51...MONTANA... KALISPELL GLACIER ARPT 51 LIVINGSTON 6 ENE 51...NEW YORK... BUFFALO AIRPORT 59...NORTH CAROLINA... WAGONER 3 NNW 61...OREGON... BENTON CITY 10 NW 77 WEST RICHLAND 19 NNW 63 UMATILLA 55 SELAH 6 ENE 51...SOUTH CAROLINA... AUGUSTA 6 SSE 56 SPRINGDALE 54...TENNESSEE... COVE MOUNTAIN 67...TEXAS... DALHART 3 SW 61...WASHINGTON... MARIETTA 2 ENE 64...WEST VIRGINIA... BRUCETON MILLS 3 SSE 71...WYOMING... CHEYENNE 14 WSW 67...Selected preliminary Storm Total Snowfall in inches where the event has ended......CALIFORNIA... SODA SPRINGS 3 NNE 60.0 SUGAR PINE POINT 2 S 48.0 SQUAW VALLEY 46.0 SOUTH LAKE TAHOE 3 ESE 42.0 NORTHSTAR 37.0 INCLINE VILLAGE 34.0 HOMEWOOD 32.0 KYBURZ 27.0 KINGS BEACH 25.0 JUNE LAKE 24.0 MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN 24.0 DOS RIOS 9 NW 18.0 DINSMORE 4 WSW 17.0 PACIFIC HOUSE 17.0 EL PORTAL 4 ESE 14.0 CEDAR RIDGE 12.5...CONNECTICUT... SOMERS 4.5 STAFFORDVILLE 4.4 WINSTED 5 NNW 4.3 KILLINGWORTH 4.0 CANAAN 3.5 MOOSUP 3.5 SOUTHINGTON 3.2 AVON 3.0 BOLTON 3.0 TOLLAND 3.0...DELAWARE... NEWARK 3.9 SSW 5.0 PORT PENN 4.5 NEW CASTLE COUNTY AIRPORT 4.1 BEAR 4.0 ODESSA 3.5 PIKE CREEK 3.5 HOCKESSIN 3.4 WILMINGTON 3.6 N 3.0 SMYRNA 2.5...IDAHO... MACKAY 17 SW 32.4 KETCHUM 3 SW 29.0 SMOKY DOME 2 E 25.4 CAT CREEK SUMMIT 3 SSW 22.0 STURGILL PEAK 2 WSW 22.0 TRINITY LAKES 22.0 ISLAND PARK 18.0 HAILEY 15.0 BELLEVUE 13.5 MANN CREEK RESERVOIR 10.0 COEUR D'ALENE 6.6 SSW 9.0 IDAHO CITY 9.0 GARDEN VALLEY 7.0 COEUR D'ALENE 4.0 SE 6.5...ILLINOIS... DAKOTA 4.8 NW 7.1 NORA 6.3 STOCKTON 3.4 NNE 6.3 FREEPORT 1.2 E 6.0 WINSLOW 4.3 ESE 4.8 LINCOLN 1.6 HEYWORTH 1 E 1.5 MOKENA 1.1 CHAMPAIGN 2 SW 1.0 JOLIET 1.0 OGDEN 1.0...INDIANA... BLUFFTON 1 SE 3.0 INDIAN HEIGHTS 3.6 W 3.0 TIPTON 1.3 NW 2.8 ATLANTA 4.4 W 2.5 MUNCIE 1 S 2.3 COUNTRY CLUB HEIGHT 2 N 2.1 MILLERSBURG 1 SW 2.0 RICHMOND 2 NE 2.0 RIVER FOREST 3 NNW 2.0 NAPPANEE 1.6 EAGLE CREEK RESERVOIR 1.5 NORTH LIBERTY 3 NE 1.5 FORT WAYNE 3 NW 1.2 INDIANAPOLIS INTL ARPT 1.1...IOWA... DORCHESTER 2 N 11.5 WATERLOO 2 SSE 11.3 CEDAR FALLS 11.0 DECORAH 8 ENE 10.9 LANSING 10.0 STRAWBERRY POINT 9.6 SPILLVILLE 9.0 CEDAR RAPDS 3 WSW 8.5 RANDALIA 3 ENE 8.5 SHELLSBURG 8.5 CLUTIER 8.2 INDEPENDENCE 1 E 8.2 DES MOINES 4 N 8.1 JESUP 8.0 CEDAR RAPIDS 7.8...MARYLAND... BEL AIR 2 W 7.0 FALLSTON 1 NW 6.6 SABILLASVILLE 1 NNW 6.0 LONG GREEN 1 SW 5.4 KINGSVILLE 3 NNE 5.2 NORRISVILLE 1 WSW 5.0 NORTH EAST 5.0 THURMONT 3 N 4.9 MANCHESTER 1 SSW 4.6 PERRYVILLE 4.5 FAIR HILL 4.4 CHARLESTOWN 4.0 TANEYTOWN 7 ENE 4.0 BENTLEY SPRINGS 5 SSW 3.5 ABINGDON 3 WNW 3.3...MICHIGAN... NEGAUNEE 4 N 26.5 LITTLE LAKE 3 NNW 19.3 CALUMET 1 W 16.7 CHAMPION 6 E 16.5 MARQUETTE 1 W 16.0 ROGERS CITY 15.5 DOLLAR BAY 14.5 NEGAUNEE 14.0 SANDS 14.0 HOUGHTON 3 SSW 13.9 ESCANABA 2 ESE 12.8 OSHTEMO 12.5 ALPENA 12.0 ESCANABA 12.0 GLADSTONE 1 SW 12.0 HARVEY 3 SE 12.0...MINNESOTA... CALENDONIA 14.5 SPRING GROVE 13.8 GOODVIEW 1 E 12.3 LEWISTON 12.0 BROWNSVILLE 1 W 10.0 TWO HARBORS 2 SW 9.0 KASSON 1 S 8.5 SILVER BAY 1 E 8.2 FINLAND 8.0 WABASHA 5 S 8.0 CASTLE DANGER 6 WNW 7.5 LAKE LILLIAN 7.0 COTTAGE GROVE 6.5 NWS DULUTH 6.1 MINNEAPOLIS ST. PAUL INTL ARPT 5.9...MONTANA... ISLAND PARK 25 WNW 15.4 BIGFORK 8.0 COLUMBIA FALLS 1 WSW 7.0 OLNEY 6.5 KALISPELL 1 ENE 6.2 LIBBY 6.0 BIGFORK 3.5 ESE 5.2 ARLEE 16.7 WNW 5.0...NEBRASKA... BELLEVUE 4 WNW 6.0 OMAHA 3 W 5.3 AUBURN 3.0 LA VISTA 1 SSW 3.0 OMAHA 2 ESE 2.5...NEVADA... INCLINE VILLAGE 20.0 VERDI 3 E 16.2 COLD SPRINGS VALLEY 12.0 BRIDGEPORT RESERVOIR 6 WNW 11.0 GRANITE PEAK 10.0 LAKEVIEW 2 S 9 |
from Aleppo – Lavrov https://t.co/hg40Yt3FYA — RT (@RT_com) December 5, 2016
Taking the floor, Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi said Rycroft was “poisoning” the atmosphere and “abusing” the forum with his remarks.
“I would like to ask the representative of the UK, what right does he have to distort positions of other countries? The Security Council is a solemn forum. it is not a place where groundless attacks can be made on other countries positions,” Liu said.
“I would like the UK representative to put an end to such practice of poisoning the atmosphere of the security council and abusing the solemn forum of the council. This is not the first time that he did this and I hope that such abuse will not repeat in the future,” the Chinese envoy said.
Lavrov: Kerry finally presented proposals on Aleppo in line with Russia’s stance
Before the vote, Russia’s UN envoy said that the country would vote against the document, informing UNSC members of Moscow’s decision.
Churkin said that Egypt, New Zealand and Spain “were shamelessly pressured by the trio of permanent western members,” which insisted on the draft being put to a vote as soon as possible.
Moscow regards such actions are “provocative.” They undermine the “peace efforts of the co-chairs of the Syria Support Group [Russia and the US],” he added.
На встрече с #Керри#Лавров вновь указал на то, что ключевым условием урегулирования в Сирии является борьба против группировок террористов pic.twitter.com/DCUgvz0Npg — МИД России 🇷🇺 (@MID_RF) December 2, 2016
Moscow and Damascus have long maintained that humanitarian pauses have been used by fighters to resupply ammunition and to strengthen their positions which only worsens the suffering of civilians.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the resolution ran counter to a solution that the US and Russia are trying to agree on for Aleppo.
“Taking into consideration the outcome of the previous pauses [in the conflict], there is absolutely no doubt that the 10-day ceasefire, which backers of the draft resolution generously want to provide the militants with, would surely be used for regrouping and rearming the extremists and would slow down the liberation of eastern Aleppo from them,” Lavrov said.
Intention to put to a vote draft UNSC resolution on humanitarian situation in #Aleppo - provocation https://t.co/gNTWyzBxT1#StandWithAleppopic.twitter.com/OLAeteO68B — MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) December 5, 2016
Prior to the UN vote, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russian and US experts should soon start work aimed at “complete the withdrawal of all militants from the eastern part of the city.”
“The sides will also have to coordinate the routes and time for the complete withdrawal of all militants. Once this is done a ceasefire will be announced with a view to their evacuation,” the ministry said in a statement.Mr. Beasley's proposal set off an incendiary political debate that has brought both flag-supporting Klansmen and flag-opposing clergymen to demonstrations at the Capitol in the early days of the 1997 legislative session. Legislators complain that the rest of their agenda, including efforts to improve schools and roads, has been paralyzed by the public's preoccupation with the flag issue.
At a Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, racial sensitivities were rubbed raw.
State Representative John Graham Altman, a Republican from Charleston, told his colleagues that he would lower the flag himself if doing so ''would solve any of the pathology that infects some segments of the black population.
''Quit looking at the symbols,'' Mr. Altman said. ''Get out and get a job. Quit shooting each other. Quit having illegitimate babies.''
His comments provoked angry reactions from black legislators.
''This type of comment is an insult to me, to my wife and to my grandchildren,'' said State Representative Kenneth Kennedy, a black Democrat from Greeleyville.
Even the House Speaker, David H. Wilkins, a Republican from Greenville, gently chastised his colleague, saying, ''I think any comment that raises the emotional level on this issue, which is already at a high pitch, is something we should refrain from doing.''
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The referendum bill, which passed by 85 to 32 after more than four hours of debate, would allow voters in November to decide whether the flag should be lowered. The House voted 72 to 45 to kill an amendment that would have substituted Mr. Beasley's proposal for the referendum.
The referendum would not offer the option of removing the flag to a Confederate monument, a limitation that many assume would diminish its chances of success. A poll taken last month by Mason-Dixon Opinion/ Research showed that 48 percent of state respondents favored lowering the flag while 41 percent wanted it to continue to fly.
Mr. Beasley said today that he continued to believe that the General Assembly should decide the issue. But he said he was pleased that the House had kept the issue alive.
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''To use a sports metaphor, this ends the first inning of a nine-inning ball game,'' he said.
Democratic leaders in the Senate said they were not likely to support a referendum and predicted that they would pass Mr. Beasley's proposal.
''I'm totally opposed to a referendum and I'll do anything I can to stop it,'' said the Senate majority leader, John C. Land 3d, Democrat of Manning.
One thing that Democrats and Republicans seemed to agree on today was that the vote represented a significant setback for Mr. Beasley, who faces re-election in 1998.
''There's obviously a rift, a difference of opinion among the Republicans, and it remains to be seen how much political capital the Governor will lose because of this initiative,'' said State Representative Jerry N. Govan Jr., Democrat of Orangeburg.
State Senator Glenn F. McConnell, a Republican from Charleston, noted that the worst outcome for Mr. Beasley would be to propose an initiative that offends much of his political base, and then lose the fight to pass it. That happened in Georgia in 1993, when Gov. Zell Miller proposed removing the Stars and Bars from his state's flag and then failed to push the bill through the Legislature. Mr. Miller barely won re-election the next year, and the closeness of the race was attributed at least partly to his position on the flag.
Referring to Governor Beasley, Senator McConnell said, ''I think he's suffering grave political damage out of this.''Abstract
Hypothesis: The light/dark oscillation produced by the sun and rotating earth and the change in the period of that oscillation have played a more pivotal role in the evolution of life than the absolute passage of time. The diel theory of evolution suggests that non-organismal chemical evolution may explain much of what has been regarded as organismal biology heretofore. The diel theory may explain the origin of first life, the strict separation of mitosis from sex, the trend in evolution toward complexity, and the trend in evolution toward bigger body size. It also suggests reasons for the great oxygenation event, the evolution of multicellularity, the Cambrian Explosion, and the Sabbath. If true, every study ever done in biology and in chemical evolution more generally needs to be reconsidered in a new light (that keeps going off and on).
It Got Late Early
Every organism, probably every cell, and perhaps every chemical reaction inside of every cell has a diurnal rhythm. I suggest that a similar diurnal rhythm existed at the surface of the ocean where I imagine life first evolved. A similar case can be made if life began in a tide pool or lake (1) but perhaps not if we can trace our lineage all the way back to a hydrothermal vent (2). Serious questions have arisen and remain unanswered for the latter hypothesis (3).
A rich organic layer on top of the ocean, which started in part from methane and other molecules seeping from vents and then building up by redox reactions occurring between the gaseous atmosphere and the liquid ocean, may have existed very early on (4). Together with light, and perhaps especially UV light, mineral catalysis from rocks in near-shore waters may have produced an increase in the complexity of early organic molecules (5,6,7). From there Prigogine’s autocatalysis ideas seem compelling (8). A variety of plausible steps have been proposed for prebiotic evolution of specific metabolic pathways (9,10,11).
What has not been much appreciated however is that the prebiotic reaction mixture must have fluctuated between day and night (12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19, but see 20!). Drying cycles, temperature gradients, and temperature fluctuations have been studied, for example, early types of polymerization may have occurred in the intertidal due to drying cycles (21).
The composition of the air at the ocean’s surface is in flux as chemical reactions in the ocean produce an exchange of gases with the atmosphere. Heat produces more mixing of air, so this localized exchange would not be expected to slow chemical reactions as much during the day as at night. Wave-producing wind also follows a diurnal cycle, especially near coastlines where chemical inputs come from rivers and rainwater runoff (22).
Chemical reactions occur about twice as fast for every increase of 10 degrees centigrade, so even if most reactions were common to both day and night near the beginning of earth time, these reactions would have occurred more quickly during the day as the temperature fluctuated. Light and temperature gradients at the surface of the prebiotic ocean would have also formed during the day (23). It is worth noting in this context that temperature fluctuations would have gotten more dramatic as the days got longer, from perhaps five hours at the beginning to our current 24 (24).
Further along in time, but still before any organisms evolved, light-dependent reactions appeared and probably came to dominate the prebiotic ocean. UV and visible light reactions would have helped warm the prebiotic organic layer and made the temperature fluctuation between day and night even greater (25).
Thus, whatever was happening in the ocean during the day must have been very different from what was happening at night. The modern migration of organisms that takes place up and down the water column near the surface of the ocean each day reflects this history (26).
If the evolution of life was driven by the diurnal cycle, then its history may be better measured in the number of days that pass (diel time) rather than in absolute earth time. Diel time suggests that more of our evolutionary history took place when days were shorter. Although much accounting for changes in day length over time still needs to be done (27), the first half-billion years was 11% of absolute earth time but perhaps 20% of the total number of earth days. The change in the length of the day was also more rapid early in earth’s history.
There was also a long period of time before the great oxygenation event during which organismal and non-organismal chemical evolution probably cannot be distinguished by genetic methods. It may be difficult to determine exactly when organismal evolution began to dominate inheritance, but the passing of days and the lengthening rotation of the earth may continue to play a role in evolution in ways we are only beginning to understand (28,29). The diel hypothesis also has implications for space travel and the probability of extraterrestrial life (30).
Organisms Are the Clock
Diurnal rhythms in metabolism and ontogeny are ubiquitous (31,32). However, the earliest organisms had no clocking mechanism to mark the days (33,34). They still had diurnal rhythms, but these rhythms were driven by metabolic reactions that occurred during the day. Endogenous timers evolved numerous times, perhaps being lost and regained in some lines.
I argue that these endogenous timers are diel in nature rather than circadian because they do not schedule anything during the course of the day so much as predict the passing of a single day and perhaps more specifically the passing of a single night. The functions of the diel timer apart from a morning wakeup call are derived (35,36,37).
Gene knockout or knockdown experiments, including those that target multiple genes, suggest that diel timers are not all that critical for normal ontogeny, especially if organisms are kept on a proper light/dark cycle (38,39,40,41). A nematode worm that has evolved in the dark does not appear to have a diel timer as such but nevertheless has not escaped its diel origins (42,43).
Organisms that evolved under the constraints of a diel ocean and atmosphere do not need a circadian clock because they are the circadian clock. Everything about our biology is based on the light/dark cycle, and to recapitulate that in an internal clock would be to remake the organism inside the organism. This may be compared to a search for the homunculus in the brain. There is no more need to have a circadian clock inside a circadian clock than there is to have a controller inside a controller. A body may have needed help resetting once in a while, for example on a cloudy winter day, especially as organisms evolved away from a dependence on the prebiotic ocean, and hence endogenous diel timers (44).
Orgasmal Evolution
Most or all organisms react to an artificial dose of UV light by having sex some hours later even in cases where artificial mutagens or energetic stressors will not cause such a response (45,46). This may be a direct reflection of chemical reactions already present in the prebiotic ocean (hereinafter “soup” though the atmosphere was also part of the reaction mixture). The vast array of biological molecules that interact with UV light also suggests its importance in our history (47,48).
Nucleic acid polymers (strings of nucleotides and perhaps other molecules; NAPs) found a stable place in the soup for many reasons, including for example the ability to capture light and store energy, but I want to emphasize two in particular: First, they could store information to direct their own replication and second, together with UV light, there was an efficient way to generate sequence diversity (49). The metaphor in this dichotomy between identity and diversity for the evolution of modern forms is quite powerful. Diversity-generating mechanisms and replication mechanisms are always present together but also are always separated in space and time.
At the molecular level, replication of NAPs and recombination of NAPs always occur independently. A pattern of mitosis to preserve identity and homologous recombination (transformation in archaea and bacteria and meiosis in eukaryotes; see also “sex”) to generate diversity is common to all organisms (50,51). For example, multicellular organisms use mitosis to generate multiple cells but rather alternative splicing and other types of recombination to generate cell diversity. Mitosis has its roots in the synthesis and replication of complex molecules during the day while sex began as degradation, especially at night. A French phrase calls orgasm “the little death.”
When double stranded DNA cells produce gametes, replication precedes recombination as life precedes death and night follows day. In fertilization, replication follows recombination so that a return to order follows a randomization step. It occurs that if replication and the generation of diversity could somehow proceed as one on the molecular level, then cells would probably generate only two gametes—similar to the mitosis pattern--instead of four.
The primordial diversity generator probably used UV light to cause changes in NAPs, which in turn led to their partial degradation (49). Degradation products then formed a new sequence in large part due to the chemistry of the NAP polymers themselves. Homologous recombination evolved from this milieu of already-reorganizing polymers. There may have also been a time in evolution when single celled organisms simply lysed on competence in order to undergo homologous recombination in a manner somewhat reminiscent of, and for the same purpose as, spawning. This may have given way to clustering of like organisms, and this step may have distinguished the first of what we call a species derived by organismal evolution (52,53). Clustering apparently then gave way to transformation as the primary mode of sex in early forms.
The primordial replicator also used light but more likely to preserve identity than to change it (54).
Mitosis and sex do have one feature in common: They both tend to happen after dark. Asexual reproduction most often occurs at night (55,56). Even complex animals that take many days to develop to maturity do mitosis in a dark egg or womb. Our branch of mammals lost the ability to correct replication errors with light while evolving an exaggerated placenta (54,57).
Accumulating chemical bonds from UV light could only happen during the day, but modern recombination of nucleic acid strands may be more easily done in the dark away from interfering light. One type of modern bacteria reaches competence six to eight hours after UV exposure (58). The more complex, derived protists probably needed at least one entire energy-gathering day to have a proper ontogeny anyway, and sex at night may have been more advantageous because it did not interfere with the rest of the day’s activities. Morning would also appear to be an ideal time to perform the sex act if homologous recombination occurs overnight (59).
The evolution of identity generation and the evolution of diversity generation must be told as one story. It may not be possible to tell that story with organismal evolution because both identity and diversity generation imply multiple individuals. The evolution of identity and diversity may be better left to explain observations at the species level (60). This suggests, unfortunately, much of evolutionary theory to this point has been about trying to determine which came first, the chicken or the egg.
A Just-Sol Story
An evolutionary hypothesis or theory often comes with a compelling but errant just-so story that receives more attention than the theory itself, even when the theory does not really hinge on the details of that story (61). For example, I choose to highlight the possible role of indoles because that is what stimulated my interest in early evolution (62,63). However, if most of what I say about indoles proves to be wrong, it would not seem to change much about the diel theory of evolution. I could use another of the many light-gathering molecules at an organism’s disposal to tell essentially the same tale. My just-sol story does turn on the idea that fluctuations in light and temperature occurred in the prebiotic ocean and atmosphere. It strongly suggests a rich proto-metabolic soup full of complex, organic proto-biological molecules.
In the beginning, the earth was spinning quickly. Days lasted only a few hours. Early chemical evolution consisted of simple reactions whose energy barriers were not high compared to ambient heat. Fluctuations in heat and light were already occurring in the oceans and atmosphere due to the solar day, but geochemistry was also driven by non-diurnal heat leftover from earth’s accretion. As days got longer, they also got hotter, and nights were increasingly cold.
As the more spontaneous reactions played out, daytime chemistry began to dominate. Simple light-dependent reactions evolved early on and would soon come to be the energy source for all proto-metabolic activity in the ocean. Boundary layers and chemical gradients formed at the surface of the ocean. During the day there was a gradient of light strongest at the surface and weaker with depth.
A myriad of light reactions occurred during the day near the surface while at night less happened, and what did happen was based primarily on the leftovers from the daytime because that’s what dominated the soup. Some substrates diffused to the top, where they were used, and products diffused down after being produced in the light. Also, as the soup began to take on a hydrophobic character, an aqueous/organic boundary layer emerged.
As the complexity of reaction products, and therefore reaction substrates, increased, so too did their interconnectedness. The product of one reaction served as the substrate for another. These interconnected light and dark reactions were the earliest version of what we might now call anabolic and catabolic metabolism, respectively. However, only simple polymers were present. Among the molecules that found a stable position in the soup were indole rings that gathered light, and even these were simple compared to modern biological indoles.
Dark reactions initially occurred during both the day and the night and both at the surface and at depth. In some cases, as the complexity and interdependence of reactions grew, the dark reactions--dependent already on light reactions for substrates--started to use indoles and other light-sensitive molecules in situations where light actually did not favor the reaction.
Then indoles and other molecules started to became catalysts somewhere in their own chemical cascades. Other types of molecules began to catalyze their own polymerization, and self-replicating molecules soon dominated the soup. However, the vast interdependence of the reactions did not change. Light-gathering molecules still harnessed all the energy, which was used by both types of reactions in the form of a proto-ATP that had become a plentiful product of one common type of light reaction. Still, even the more complex, self-replicating molecules that had been formed after a long day of light reactions were degraded at night.
As the days got longer, longer polymers and increasingly complex aggregations of molecules formed. Compartmentalization protected polymerization from interference from UV light and so became a ubiquitous innovation. Free radicals became more of a problem in a compartmentalized space, and indoles came into their own as free-radical scavengers.
What we might call life emerged during this time. Proto-cells of various types even had rudimentary kinds of competition and symbiosis. Of course they were all degraded at night by proto-viruses anyway, entering back into the vast interdependent soup. Who won and who lost was as much determined by resulting breakdown and recombination of products as this new kind of organismal competition that happened during the day. DNA began to replace RNA as the primary polymer used for information storage, replication, and recombination.
As the days got longer, organisms started to live through the night by sinking and spreading in the water column. Positive phototaxis in the morning made this possible. Proteins first evolved to move the chemistry of indole rings inside the cell, and many modern proteins still use light to do their work, reflecting this history (64,65,66). Tryptophan embedded in an amino acid polymer came to be the modern way to do the work of prebiotic indole rings. And there was life by anyone’s definition.
Organisms began using the nighttime soup to prepare for morning. However, they still tended to die at night for lack of energy, and life was still arranged around an even number of days, just not always one day anymore.
Exchange between organisms and the soup evolved toward increasingly simple substrates. Metabolism moved from the prebiotic ocean into the organism. Lines dependent on the soup for complex products went extinct. Some organisms used the circadian pattern of one indole’s formation in order to predict the length of the night and wake up on time (67). Achaea carpeted the intertidal. And the days got longer. And hotter.
On the Lack of Positive Feedback
The origin of the great oxygenation event is unknown (68). The most popular theory has it that oxygen from photosynthetic bacteria slowly rusted most of the iron out of the ocean, which then caused a population explosion. However, this theory has empirical difficulties, and the usual emphasis on light reactions seems unwarranted (69).
Another possibility is that when the same organisms producing oxygen also began to fix carbon in a unique way, a positive feedback loop was created, and perhaps this feedback system is already known. The crucial step may have come when carbon and/or nitrogen fixation became directly regulated by--as opposed to just dependent on--light reactions (70). This simple hypothesis about one or a few gene mutations makes sense in the strobe light of evolution if organisms are incorporating more and more of a metabolic soup already on a diurnal rhythm. When one or a small number of species could use the most important dark reactions for their own agenda instead of the general welfare of all photosynthetic organisms, other photosynthetic species were transformed by this newly minted genetic material or went extinct.
And Eukaryotes emerged. And there was not much soup left (71). And the nights got longer. And colder.
Sweet Spots in Diel Time
There were bottlenecks and extinctions to be sure, but also an increase in diversity.
The intertidal zone was a harsh place where it was difficult to string together successful mutations to make it a habitable niche. However those organisms that did overcome this hurdle found a big advantage because they could live there, or hide there, or eat there.
Besides the most important oscillation in the intertidal, waves crashing ashore on top and undertow beneath, slower oscillations occur. High and low tides happen regularly, in most places twice in just over a day. Any organism that could predict these highs and lows could gain a clear advantage. However circadian clocks were unable to evolve into a niche based on a different time. They count to one, not 1.04.
There is another, even slower oscillation in the changing tides. Every one-fourth of a lunar month or lunar week, the tides change from getting more extreme to getting less extreme or vice versa. The lunar week has changed over time mostly due to tidal locking between the moon and earth. Days have gotten longer but so have the weeks as the moon’s orbit gets longer.
During most of evolution, including today, the lunar week has not correlated with the solar day except perhaps at some very long time scale. However, at times during the procession of the moon’s orbit, sweet spots occurred such that the lunar week could be predicted by the solar day. It is possible that a four day sweet spot occurred early in earth’s history, perhaps before watery oceans. In a four day sweet spot, the tides would have gotten more extreme one day and less extreme the next. On some shorelines, this diurnal change in tides might have even synchronized with morning or evening. An organism could conceivably evolve a diurnal lifestyle in the intertidal during such a sweet spot. However, it seems likely that eight, twelve, and perhaps other sweet spots would have passed very early on in history. It becomes more difficult to see how simple organisms could evolve a diurnal lifestyle in the intertidal even during such sweet spots as the number of days per lunar week increased. Nevertheless, the many sweet spots that followed could have added a kind of saltatory nature to evolution.
But where were we? Ah yes, eukaryotes. The tides remained inconsequential in biological-circadian-clock evolution for almost another billion years. Then, 1.5 billion years ago, plus or minus, eight solar days came very close to the lunar week. If an organism could count to eight, a rich unexploited food source would become available. Single-celled circadian clocks could not do it; it was just too many days. However, organisms with a clonal cluster stage in their life cycle fared better.
Multicellular eukaryotes may have emerged under this selective environment. They found success exploiting the intertidal as a source of food during high tide and retreating toward or into the subtidal during low tide. They simply changed their behavior once per week. One of their first adaptations, positive phototaxis, mirrored that of early life (72). Multicellular creatures thus acquired a synodic pattern, and most modern forms retain some vestige of this pattern. The Sabbath may be a zeitgeiber for the ancient, internalized human synodic week (73).
(It will be of interest to see how diel rhythms (and endogenous diel timers) and synodic rhythms (and endogenous synodic timers if any) interact in modern organisms, including those that still exploit the intertidal, since the tides no longer align with the days (74,75,76).)
But diel time still plodded along. In as little as 25 million years the strategy of exploiting the intertidal started to fail because the two clocks were no longer in synch. Weeks lasted between seven and eight solar days as they do now. Multicellularity persisted in many forms, but you would not say flourished.
Another 800 million years or so passed, and another sweet spot occurred. This time there was no alignment of the tides with the solar day but rather seven solar days came to be as long as the old eight-day cycle. Thus, many ontogenetic cycles of multicelled creatures came to once again align with the day. There is usually pressure that favors faster ontogeny, so shortening the week from eight to closer to seven days happened easily.
The main advantage of the new sweet spot was simply that the new seven-day week matched up well with circadian ontogeny, which benefited many multicelled creatures in and out of the intertidal. And the Cambrian blew up.
Size and Complexity Matter
The story of evolution has always been about energy from the sun creating order in a non-equilibrium system. However, non-equilibrium systems need fluctuations and perturbations to drive them away from steady states. The diel hypothesis highlights the most important fluctuation in the environment, the light/dark cycle produced by the sun and rotating earth. The lengthening rotation of the earth also provided a perturbation to the system, albeit a slow one.
The premise is that longer days facilitated the presence of an increasingly complex set of metabolic reactions in the soup both during the day and at night. Thus, the diel theory of evolution suggests a possible explanation for the apparent increase in complexity during evolution. Life emerged when the day got long enough to construct entire individual organisms. Meiosis emerged when the day was long enough to eat, find conspecifics, and reproduce. It even seems possible that the recent emergence of Homo sapiens happened more or less as soon as the days were of sufficient length. A similar line of reasoning suggests a partial explanation for increases in body size over time (77).
Together these observations suggest an important role for the lengthening day in speciation. Organismal evolution happens quickly compared to changes in day length. However, changes in day length still drive the overall size and complexity of organisms in derived niches. Lamarckian evolution occurs since the characters that get used are the same ones increasing in complexity, and this change is not due to organismal evolution in the following sense: The organisms evolving may have tried the same innovation many times, but that innovation only succeeded when the days got long enough (78). Thus, the diel theory of evolution unifies Darwin and Lamarck (79).
References
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4.https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7397/9db5c53ffae92e1d262f971581208a29c4d4.pdf see also 10.1146/annurev-micro-102215-095521 and Haldane, J. B. S. (1929). The origin of life. Rationalist Annual, 148, 3-10.
5.https://webfiles.gl.ciw.edu/Users/dpapineau/Public/Papineau_Website/Papineau_files/Haz
en_Papineau_et_al_2008_AmMin.pdf see also 10.1126/science.663639
6.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4568310/
7.http://rnajournal.cshlp.org/content/22/12/1893.full
8.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Prigogine#Publications especially (1977) “Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems”
9.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4128644/ see also 10.1126/science.583625
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11.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amith_R_Devireddy2/publication/309187814_The_evol
ution_of_reactive_oxygen_species_metabolism/links/5805006508aef87fbf3babb5.pdf
12.http://www.its.caltech.edu/~bch176/Joyce1989.pdf
13.http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/5/1/872/htm
14.http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?pid=S0025-76802016000400001&script=sci_arttext&tln
g=en
15.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Russell5/publication/303827542_Thermodyna
mics_Disequilibrium_Evolution_Far-From-Equilibrium_Geological_and_Chemical_Considerations_for_Origin-Of-Life_Research/links/5798f82308aec89db7bb9193.pdf
16.http://www.pubs.iscience.in/journal/index.php/cbl/article/viewFile/395/268
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18.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Judit_Sponer/publication/309492437_New_evolutiona
ry_insights_into_the_non-enzymatic_origin_of_RNA_oligomers/links/5818680608ae90acb243bb9e.pdf
19.http://physwww.mcmaster.ca/~higgsp/756/HiggsLehman2014.pdf
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20of%20the%20Earth-Moon%20System.pdf?sequence=1
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eceptive_circadian_clocks_throughout_Drosophila/links/0912f507f03a374598000000.pdf
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ression_of_the_core_clock_gene_Bmal1_influences_its_effects_on_aging_and_survival/links/571e3fa808aefa6488999c7a.pdf
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mistry_to_nanomedicine.pdf
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50.http://www.intechopen.com/books/meiosis/evolutionary-origin-and-adaptive-function-of-m
eiosis
51.http://symposium.cshlp.org/content/74/187.long
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anyone in the majors since 2010. He is due. Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys China NFL Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys'' 'Remember ‘Bring Back Our Girls’? Obviously not.
You care… long enough to shoot off a hashtag, or wave a sign for an hour or two.
And then you go back to your little self-absorbed lives. Life as a social justice warrior must be really tough.
Does THIS sign ring a bell?
Trending: WATCH: People Eat Out Of Garbage Trucks In Socialist Venezuela – Someone Show This To Occasional-Cortex
You know what happens to girls like that?
Forced to convert from Christianity to Islam. Used for sex. Some were sold. Starved. Those who found their way back to freedom were skeletal when they were released.
But you feel the need to march. One day after an inauguration. To tell us what democracy ‘looks like’.
Maybe you could speak up about REAL women’s rights. What about the gender-selective abortion meaning that in many countries girls never even get to take their first breath… for no other reason than they are less valued than sons.
Maybe you could speak up about girls who have their clitoris forcibly and painfully removed…
Typically carried out by a traditional circumciser using a blade, FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half the countries for which national figures are available, most girls are cut before the age of five.[5] Procedures differ according to the country or ethnic group. They include removal of the clitoral hood and clitoral glans; removal of the inner labia; and removal of the inner and outer labia and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure (known as infibulation), a small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid; the vagina is opened for intercourse and opened further for childbirth.[6] The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women’s sexuality, and ideas about purity, modesty and beauty. It is usually initiated and carried out by women, who see it as a source of honour, and who fear that failing to have their daughters and granddaughters cut will expose the girls to social exclusion.[a] The health effects depend on the procedure; they can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding.[6] There are no known health benefits.[9]
What about this article stating that 3,000 girls are being sold on ISIS sex slave market (and a market only works when there are buyers).
The UN confirms it, too.
In fact, in Syria, women were committing suicide rather than fall in to the rape-y hands of Assad’s troops.
The freedoms we enjoy in America are the envy of most every other country in the world.Barbour breaks with rivals on Afghanistan, defense spending
Here's a major moment in the nascent Republican presidential primary: Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour tonight became the first among the leading Republican candidates to suggest that the United States reduce its presence in Afghanistan and its spending on defense.
Barbour echoed the concerns of critics of the Afghan war effort when asked by reporters in Iowa about American involvement in the conflict:
He also said that the U.S. should consider reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan. "I think we need to look at that," he said when asked if the U.S. should scale back its presence. But he said his reasoning isn't financial. "What is our mission?" Barbour said. "How many Al Qaeda are in Afghanistan.... Is that a 100,000-man Army mission?" "I don't think our mission should be to think we're going to make Afghanistan an Ireland or an Italy" or a Western-style democracy, he said.
Barbour's leading Republican rivals have positioned themselves to President Obama's hawkish right on a range of foreign policy issues. They've also resisted calls from some associated with the Tea Party movement for deep cuts to federal spending that would include defense cuts. In fact, two of the candidates -- Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich -- have in the past backed the Heritage Foundation's "4 percent for Freedom" initiative, which would actually raise baseline defense spending.
"Anybody who says you can't save money at the Pentagon has never been to the Pentagon," Barbour said. "We can save money on defense and if we Republicans don't propose saving money on defense, we'll have no credibility on anything else."The Navy has selected two Dayton area firms among 11 nationally for a combined contract worth up to $92 million over five years for information technology support at military education facilities.
Beavercreek-headquartered Creek Technologies Co. and Riverside-based Evanhoe & Associates, Inc., were part of the group of companies awarded a $17.2 million contract with options for four additional years.
RELATED: Wright-Patterson job fair seeks to recruit veterans
The work will provide information technology support to the Naval Higher Education Information Technology Consortium, which includes the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, Calif., and the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., according to the Defense Department
The work was expected to include additional sites in California, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., according to Evanhoe & Associates.
RELATED: Wright-Patt reaches 100th anniversary in 2017
The company will work with several subcontracts on the contract, the company said.
Under all options, the contract could be extended through July 2022.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Jan. 13, 2017, 12:42 PM GMT / Updated Jan. 13, 2017, 12:42 PM GMT By Paul A. Eisenstein
Wrecking the North American Free Trade Agreement deal could scuttle many of the job gains the U.S. auto industry has experienced since emerging from the Great Recession, and lead to job losses by many of the blue-collar workers who helped President-elect Donald Trump win in November.
That's the message from a new study by the Center for Automotive Research.
After entering the presidential race in 2015, then-candidate Trump began targeting NAFTA as a major factor behind the loss of American manufacturing jobs. He has repeatedly called out automakers, including Ford, General Motors and Toyota, for importing Mexican-made vehicles, and threatened to either end or modify the trade deal or, alternatively, to enact a 35 percent tariff on goods brought in from the country.
Related: Trump Blasts GM on 'Mexico-Made' Chevy
“Counter to the incoming Trump administration’s goal of creating manufacturing jobs, the withdrawal from NAFTA or the implementation of punitive tariffs could result in the loss of 31,000 U.S. jobs,” said CAR, a highly respected automotive research firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Blue Collar Workers Could Lose Bigly
That conclusion runs counter to what Trump and his transition team have made a bedrock position in their economic and manufacturing policies. And it could come as a big surprise to GOP voters in the American heartland who helped the maverick New York businessman win the election. He was able to narrowly nudge past Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in key automotive bases including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during the November election, clinching the Electoral College vote.
Related: Trump Threatens Toyota Over Mexico Plans
Trump’s position on NAFTA and, more specifically, Mexican imports, has been underscored by a series of tweets he has posted since winning the election. Since the beginning of this month, he has called out General Motors for importing some of its Chevrolet Cruze Hatchbacks, and last week added Toyota to his list of companies who need to move back production from Mexico.
“Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax,” the businessman-turned politician declared in a January 3 tweet.
Playing Nice
Auto industry executives gathered at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past week went out of their way to promote their investments in the U.S. market and sing the incoming president’s praises. But whether his threats will actually result in changes to their manufacturing strategy is another matter.
General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra at the auto show in Detroit. Rebecca Cook / Reuters
Mary Barra, the Chairman and CEO of General Motors, said the country’s biggest domestic manufacturer will stick with existing plans that include extensive Mexican operations.
One week before, Ford CEO Mark Fields did announce plans to scrub a new Mexican plant, but that move was due to revised sales projections, not any issues with NAFTA. The number two automaker still intends to move its small car production to Mexico.
Related: Ford Cancels Mexico Plant but is Still Moving Small Cars to Mexico
Not an Overnight Move
Industry officials emphasized at the Detroit show that they simply can’t shut down their Mexican operations which are part of tightly integrated global manufacturing plans. Such moves would have consequences beyond what the Trump transition team has indicated, according to the new CAR report and other experts.
“The prospect of trying to put some trade barriers up between those countries is extremely troubling,” said Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar Corp. The Ontario-based firm is Canada’s second-largest auto parts supplier.
The average automotive part crosses a border seven times in North America before it ends up in a consumer’s driveway, said Hasenfratz, during a speech at this week’s Automotive News World Congress. That could mean that any tax the Trump administration might impose would actually be multiplied repeatedly.
“It would add enormous cost that no one can bear,” she said, noting that consumers would ultimately be hit in the pocketbook. It could price some vehicles out of the market and ultimately limit consumer choice.
The CAR study notes that after a generation under NAFTA, it would be no easy feat to restructure the auto industry’s manufacturing footprint. And, even then, the results would likely not be what the Trump Administration has promised.
If not Mexico, then China?
Unless the new president and a GOP-controlled Congress were to enact tough new barriers and tariffs on other trade partners, in fact, automakers would simply shift “near-shore” operations to manufacturing bases further away, notably China.
Meanwhile, reducing trade with Mexico would have a two-way impact. Mexico has rapidly expanded as a vehicle manufacturing center over the last decade, but the new study points out that factories like the older Ford plant in Hermosillo, and the all-new Audi plant in the state of Chiapa are exporting vehicles to markets all over the world. That recently opened Audi factory, for example, is the sole production site for the all-new Q5 SUV.
And many of the parts — and much of the engineering work — for those plants come from the U.S., Michigan in particular. Mexico and Canada, in fact, “are the top foreign markets for Detroit exports,” the CAR report noted.With one BMW M6 GT3 and four of the best BMW drivers from around the world, Turner Motorsport is geared up for the 55th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona to kick off the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in just over one week. The 2017 Rolex 24 of Daytona will mark the team’s 354th professional race with BMW.
Less than two weeks ago, the team tested their BMW M6 GT3 at the Roar Before the 24 on the 3.56 mile, 12-turn Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the team’s eighth consecutive Rolex 24 at Daytona.
As years past, the seven time championship winning BMW team’s driver lineup includes some familiar faces as well as some of the best BMW works drivers from around the globe. Turner welcomes Justin Marks back to the blue and yellow for the first time since the 2005.
Marks comes from a long history of racing dating back to the early 2000s as a factory supported BMW driver racing with BMW of North America. Mark’s racing pursuits quickly grew as he drove for Turner Motorsport in 2004 and 2005 in both World Challenge and Grand Am as well as in other series including the American Le Mans Series, the ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR. Marks also recorded a Rolex 24 GT class win in 2009.
Marks will be joined behind the wheel by drivers Jens Klingmann, Maxime Martin and Jesse Krohn. All three return to Daytona with Turner after an impressive fifth place finish last year in the M6 GT3’s world race premier with Michael Marsal. Jens Klingmann will be sharing driving duties in the Turner Motorsport car for the season.
Klingmann returns back behind the wheel of the M6 GT3 after recording two race wins in the 2016 WeatherTech Championship with co-driver Bret Curtis as well as a second place finish in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
“We are looking forward to being back at Daytona for our eighth race start for the Rolex 24,” Will Turner said. “Although we had a strong finish last year, Daytona has still remained that one race that we dream about winning. I think that with a full season under our belts with the M6 GT3, we have enough experience and familiarity with the car to do really well if we can avoid trouble and any mechanical issues. Here goes another Rolex 24 and to another year with the M6 GT3.”
Turner welcomes some new and returning partners for the 2017 season including Katerra, IHG Rewards Club, H&R Springs, aFe Power, Motul Lubricants, Borla Exhaust, The Hilliard Group and Pagid Brakes.
On track action begins on Thursday January 26th with practice and then qualifying. Visit IMSA.come to view live timing and scoring from each session.
The 55th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona will take the green flag at 2:40pm ET on January 28th, 2017 and will be televised LIVE from Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida on Fox Sports 1.
Follow Turner Motorsport on social media for all the unique behind the scenes look into the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Driver Quotes:
Justin Marks – No. 96 BMW M6 GT3
"This is a program I'm really excited about. I have a lot of fond memories with Turner Motorsport from earlier in my career so to kind of come home to one of the teams that is familiar is going to be a lot of fun. The IMSA GTD class is quickly becoming one of the most competitive and diverse in all worldwide GT racing. Turner and BMW have had a lot of success in North America so I think we'll be very good so I'm very much looking forward to driving the M6 GT3."
Jens Klingmann – No. 96 BMW M6 GT3
"I'm really excited coming back to Daytona with Turner Motorsport. We are going into our second season with our BMW M6 GTD and after scoring 2 victories last season the expectation are high. We've got a strong package including a very strong driver line up and strategy for the Rolex 24 I can't wait for the race to start and hope to see many, many BMW and Turner fans supporting us on and off track!"
Jesse Krohn – No. 96 BMW M6 GT3
"I am really looking forward to going back to Daytona. Last year was the first for me in the Rolex 24h and it was the first year for the BMW M6 GT3. Since then everyone has learned a lot more about the car and I am sure we have taken a step forward. I am also very happy to share a car with Maxime Martin, Jens Klingmann and Justin Marks. We all have experience from the Rolex 24h and I could not wish for a better lineup for the next weeks race."
Maxime Martin – No. 96 BMW M6 GT3
“Daytona is one of the races that I always look forward to competing in each year. Last year, Jesse (Krohn), Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala had a great run so I look forward to repeating a strong race again behind the wheel of our BMW M6 GT3.”A short preface: The following story was written in near real-time, and put online – unedited – as the events unfolded between 2003 and 2005. It's now 2014, and while I'd love nothing more than to dive back in with a good rewrite that streamlines the ramblings of my nineteen-year-old self, I think it's important to keep the original intact for posterity. What I can do, though, is congratulate you ahead of time for making your way through it, and give my guarantee that every one of the following words is true. –Kolin
August, 2003
My name is Kolin Pope. I am the savior of the future. Like most with the title of savior, I never went out looking for it. No, adventure found me.
It began on a very unremarkable evening in August 2003. I was nineteen at the time and in my room, when the evening silence was suddenly broken by the sound of my dog barking from downstairs. Moments later, my Mom strolled in, telling me calmly,“There’s someone at the door for you. He says he’s from the future.”
Confused yet intrigued, I hurried downstairs to find a man of about twenty that I had never seen before in my life standing on my front porch. He offered me his hand and said, “Hello, my name is Zane Figiam. I am from the future. This is a package for you.”
Playing along, I replied, “Is this plans for a time machine?”
“No,” he responded, with a tone in his voice suggesting that I was the one making ridiculous statements. He held up his package; a small, flat object wrapped in newspaper. I pondered it for a moment, then put on my best “important face” and told him, “I accept the responsibility of the future.” Zane shook my hand as he hurriedly handed off the package. He said a quick goodbye, turned, then fled out my front gate and out of sight.
I rushed back upstairs, eager to discover the contents of the package. Peeling back the newspaper, plastic gemstones and glitter sparkled as I fished a scrapbook out of the makeshift wrapping paper. Ornate decoration surrounded the title, “Gem Missile: A Tribute to Velocity Gnome”. I was startled by its contents as I flipped through the pages. It seemed to be an entire scrapbook devoted to my internet alias “Velocity Gnome”, as well as my friends, family, and dealings in cyberspace. As I delved further, I realized some of the information contained within was nearly half a year old, proving the scrapbook wasn’t thrown together overnight as its look would have you believe. The final oddity was a paper CD sleeve affixed to the back cover. “Open in case of future” was written on it, which I blatantly disobeyed. Track after track of unfamiliar 80s music from the CD played as I spent the rest of the night thumbing through the book.
No clues had been hinted at, no explanations left. The ordeal was effectively open and shut with no information on why I had been chosen for such a thing. I answered questions here and there about it for the next few weeks, and as things began to calm down, the entire incident slowly slipped from memory.Narcotics Anonymous (NA) is a twelve-step program adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous describing itself as a "fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem."
Quotes [ edit ]
Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. From the book Narcotics Anonymous, which is referred to within the Narcotics Anonymous fellowship as "the basic text". The quotation was not in the "grey book" version of the basic text distributed for editing by the fellowship at large in 1980, but was in the approval version released in November, 1981. A pdf scan of the 1981 approval version can be found here, with the quote appearing on p. 11 (p. 25 of the pdf), at the end of the fourth paragraph (which begins "We have a disease; progressive, incurable and fatal"). It might have originated in some other part of the addiction recovery community, since it seems to have been in oral use prior to 1981, being cited in a 1980 text from Alcoholics Anonymous (though the link on google books is to a 1992 revised edition, so confirmation is needed that it appeared in the original 1980 version): “When I came into the program, I heard that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” [1] Variant: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results." Rita Mae Brown, Sudden Death (Bantam Books, New York, 1983, p. 68). Note: This quote and variants including "The definition of insanity..." or "One definition of..." have been attributed to Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin, Confucius, and an old Chinese proverb, but this is its first known appearance in print.
See Also [ edit ]
George Kelly (psychologist)
References [ edit ]jocelyngoldstein
It's been quite awhile since we've seen some serious subway tagging, but it seems we've found our first colorful casualty of 2013. This photo, taken by Jocelyn Goldstein, was snapped at the W 4th Street Station in Manhattan this week; it's hard to tell what train it is, but obviously we can narrow it down to... B/D/F/M or A/C/E. We've contacted the MTA for comment, but it's a safe bet that the train has probably been identified and scrubbed by now.
Some graffiti enthusiasts speculate that this tag was done by Europeans, although it's unclear why they think so. Our own resident graffiti expert Jake Dobkin said he didn't recognize the handiwork, but agrees it could be out-of-towners: "Europeans do love to come to NYC and try to get up on a train. Most New York writers don't, because they know how quickly the trains will get buffed."
A few years ago, a Daily News report found that 70% of elaborate subway car graffiti is created by Europeans. And at the end of 2011, a 25-year-old French graffiti artist named Maxime Bezat was charged for tagging subway cars and stations in both NYC and Boston.
While Dobkin appreciates their moxie, he has some criticism for their form: "I find it kind of weird that we exported this art form to Europe, and it comes all the way back to write on our trains looking exactly the same. Why can't Germans come up with their own style of vandalism?"
Update: An MTA spokesman got back to us to confirm that the graffiti is already gone: "Trains with graffiti are taken out of service after it completes a run and the graffiti is removed within 24 hours. NYPD is also notified of the incident."
Update: The MTA spokesman did a little more digging about the graffiti incident for us: "This train was hit in an area outside of a yard. It was removed from service at 59th Street and the photo was taken as it was heading down to Coney Island Yard to be cleaned. It took three hours to remove the graffiti from the car." And for the record: it was a B train.Fighting Irish-Hurricanes and Crimson Tide-Bulldogs Ranks Among Top 10 Highest Games of the Season
ABC and ESPN Air Two of Three Highest Games of the Week; Beat Fox Head-to-Head in Prime Time by 114% and 81%
Miami, Fla. Delivers for ABC and ESPN: ABC’s Saturday Night Football Draws Big Local Rating in Miami; College GameDay From University of Miami Draws Show’s Highest Rating of the Season
ABC and ESPN led the way in prime time in week 11 across all networks, as Saturday Night Football featuring Notre Dame at Miami set the pace and Alabama at Mississippi State provided a new cable rating season high. The two games were among the three highest-rated games of the week across all networks and beat Fox head-to-head in prime time. Across the entire 2017 season, both games rank among the top 10 highest-rated games.
Notre Dame at Miami Among Season’s Highest-Rated Games; Saturday Night Football Window Up 13% Year-Over-Year
ABC’s Saturday Night Football featuring Notre Dame at Miami (8 p.m.) delivered a 4.5 overnight, the highest-rated prime time game of week 11 across all networks and potentially the most-watched game of the week when viewership numbers are reported later this week. The overnight for the Hurricanes’ convincing victory is the sixth highest overnight of the season across all networks and up 13% year-over-year from SNF’s week 11 telecast last season (Michigan at Iowa). The Fighting Irish-Hurricanes matchup beat Fox’ prime time telecast head-to-head by 114%, also a matchup top 10 ranked teams (TCU at Oklahoma).
Miami, Fla., Draws Impressive Local Interest
Miami, Fla., was the No. 1 local market, earning a 15.6 rating. The rating is the market’s second highest on record for a regular season game on ESPN’s networks*. The complete top 10:
Rank Rating Market 1 15.6 Miami 2 10.0 Columbus 3 9.2 West Palm Beach 4 8.9 Orlando 5 8.4 Jacksonville 6 8.3 Ft. Myers 7 7.7 Greenville 8 7.5 Cincinnati 7.5 Tampa 10 7.4 Indianapolis
Alabama at Mississippi State Thriller is Cable’s Highest-Rated Game of the Season; Second Best SEC vs. SEC Game Across All Networks
ESPN’s prime time telecast of Alabama at Mississippi State (7 p.m.) delivered a 3.8 overnight, the highest-rated game on cable this season and the second highest rated SEC vs. SEC game this season across all networks. ESPN was up a massive 192% year-over-year from last season’s comparable window (LSU at Arkansas), while also beating the aforementioned Fox game by 81%.
Additional highlights:
Birmingham, Al., Leads the Way Among All Markets: Birmingham, Al., was the No. 1 local market, drawing an impressive 44.4 rating. The complete top 10:
Rank Rating Market 1 44.4 Birmingham 2 13.1 Greenville 3 12.7 New Orleans 4 10.7 Memphis 5 9.3 Atlanta 6 9.2 Nashville 7 8.1 Jacksonville 8 8.0 Columbus 9 6.7 Louisville 10 6.5 Knoxville
Late Game Drama Peaks Audience: As Alabama drove and scored a game-winning touchdown, the game peaked at 6.1 rating (10:15-10:30 p.m.)
ABC/ESPN Set the Pace Among All Networks in the 2017 Season
The strong week 11 overnights continue a season trend of the two networks airing the highest-rated games, as ABC has televised the highest-rated game of the season and two networks have combined to air seven of the top 10 across all networks.
Rank Rating Game Network 1 7.3 Florida State at Alabama ABC 2 6.4 Penn State at Ohio State FOX 3 5.3 Oklahoma at Ohio State ABC 4 5.0 Michigan at Florida ABC 5 4.6 Georgia at Auburn CBS 6 4.5 Notre Dame at Miami ABC 7 4.2 Michigan at Penn State ABC 8 3.9 Michigan State at Michigan ABC 9 3.8 Alabama at Mississippi State ESPN 10 3.7 LSU at Alabama CBS
College GameDay Draws Best Rating of the Season
ESPN’s first-ever College GameDay Built by The Home Depot from the campus of the University of Miami drew a 1.5 overnight, the show’s highest-rating of the season.
*Local ratings go back to 2002; Florida State at Miami in 2014 drew a 16.2 local rating and ranks as the markets best on record
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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolnerMulch, Sweat n’ Shears. This Central Florida-based rock band has got to be one of WDW’s best-kept and hidden secrets. Have you caught their act? Well, if not, you can check them out daily in Disney’s Hollywood Studios!
Surprisingly, until earlier this year, Mrs. All in WDW and I had never seen them perform. And, to be honest, we didn’t even know they existed! It just tells you that with each trip you make to Orlando, WDW can reveal …
… new and enjoyable experiences.
According to Touring Plans, also known as “Los Lawn Boys” outside of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, over the Summer, this group of classic rockers will be performing on a stage and in front of the giant Sorcerer’s Hat, nightly, as “Scare Supply”. Their act is part of the Monsters University Homecoming celebration.
In the meantime, click this link to stop by All in WDW TV and see these musicians in action. It’s a short three-minute video and, very much, worth the time!
Have a great day, my friends!Police in riot gear were out in large numbers
Enlarge Image
The measure, signed by President Robert Kocharian, bans public gatherings and imposes restrictions on media reports.
It came after police fired in the air to disperse demonstrators. Some reports suggest a number of casualties.
Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian won the 19 February vote against opposition challenger Levon Ter-Petrosian.
Mr Ter-Petrosian says he is under house arrest.
International observers judged the poll in the ex-Soviet Caucasus republic to be generally democratic.
'Standing firm'
The latest clashes erupted after police cleared Freedom Square of opposition demonstrators who had been camping there since the election. At least 31 people were wounded in the morning stand-off.
Regrouping later, they used buses as barricades. Some cars were set on fire.
Lines of police were deployed to face the protesters.
A witness told Reuters news agency police had fired in the air "to scare us".
We could see red tracer bullet fire being shot in two directions
Alan, witness
Eyewitness: Yerevan violence In pictures: Yerevan protests
"They have fired tear gas. But people are standing firm. There are thousands of people standing here with us."
Some unconfirmed reports said a number of people had been injured as police fired in the air. It was not clear how the injuries were sustained.
Alan, a development consultant in Yerevan, heard a lot of gunfire from his home close to Freedom Square.
"After the shooting, we heard a lot of shouting and saw people running from the scene. We could see red tracer bullet fire being shot in two directions," he told the BBC.
Lori, who lives in the centre of Yerevan, saw a line of tanks roll down her street shortly before the violence erupted.
"About 30 minutes later I saw a flash from my window and then we heard a boom sound," she said.
"We heard shooting and saw red tracer bullets firing in our direction. The shooting was constant and very heavy for more than an hour."
But President Kocharian told a late evening news conference that some of the demonstrators were armed and that police said they had been shot at.
"What's going on now is not a political process. It has gone over the edge," he said.
"I appeal to the people of Armenia to show restraint and understanding."
The state of emergency is to remain in force until 20 March, the presidential decree says. Witnesses say they have seen army lorries carrying soldiers on the main road heading towards the Armenian capital.
The opposition has said it will continue with the protests.
Official results gave Mr Sarkisian 53% of the vote, with Mr Ter-Petrosian, a former president, getting 21.5%.Stuart Karle is a partner and general counsel of North Base Media, a venture capital firm. He was general counsel of the Wall Street Journal from 2004 to 2008.
Silicon Valley drives the future, but at the moment one of its more prominent members is getting attention for dragging us back to Alabama circa 1960.
Peter Thiel, a brilliant entrepreneur in the overlapping worlds of information and technology, hasn’t simply admitted to financing a litigation campaign intended to destroy a widely read news site — Gawker — he’s bragged about it. In an interview with the New York Times, Thiel described underwriting lawsuits alleging defamation and invasion of privacy against Gawker as “one of my greater philanthropic things that I’ve done.”
Thiel’s tactics in fact resemble nothing so much as the legal maneuvers white racists used to threaten the Northern press with ruin if it continued to cover the violent official response to efforts to desegregate the South in the 1950s and ’60s.
Peter Thiel, tech billionaire and co-founder of PayPal, spent $10 million dollars helping Hulk Hogan win his case against Gawker Media. (Daron Taylor,Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)
On March 29, 1960, the Times published an advertisement describing the “unprecedented wave of terror” by Southern officials trying to shut down protests by black students. Although the harsh criticism was accurate, the ad contained a number of factual inaccuracies.
Five Alabama elected officials filed libel actions against the Times over the advertisement, demanding a total of $3 million in damages for the harm it supposedly inflicted. This represented a remarkable sum at a time the newspaper’s own lawyer was told it was barely making a profit.
The Alabama officials sued knowing victory was almost guaranteed. First, they relied on defamation laws that required publishers to prove the literal truth of even minor factual assertions in articles and that presumed damage to reputation without any proof of harm. Second, they sued in state court, counting on judges and jurors invested in maintaining segregation, or at least irritated with the interlopers from the Northern press, to rule for them.
Theirs was not an isolated claim. They were part of a campaign by Southern officials that ultimately sought some $300 million in damages for libel, making coverage of the civil rights movement so expensive that news organizations would have to stop or risk bankruptcy.
In overturning the Alabama courts and ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court established a high bar. It held that public officials could recover damages for false and defamatory statements involving their official duties only if they could prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the media knowingly lied or acted in reckless disregard of the truth.
The justices intended that high bar, later expanded to include public figures, to eliminate the threat of the kind of campaign attempted by Southern officials using the defamation laws to silence the independent press’s coverage of the realities of segregation. As Justice Hugo Black stated in a concurring opinion, “This technique for harassing and punishing a free press — now that it has been shown to be possible... can be used in other fields where public feelings may make local as well as out-of-state newspapers easy prey for libel verdict seekers.”
The justices thereby anticipated Thiel, though not his willingness to spend untold sums — in the sense of both amount and secrecy. With the goal of depriving Gawker of cash to run its business, it doesn’t matter whether Gawker’s money is spent on damages or legal bills. Either way, the money can’t be spent covering the stories that Thiel believes unworthy.
Criticism of Gawker and other media for coverage that is inaccurate or probes too deeply into someone’s private life is fair — even if reasonable minds could differ on both counts. Yet with Thiel secretly footing the bills, the playing field was tilted. His chosen plaintiffs did not have to spend their own money prosecuting their claims, subsidized to the tune of $10 million.
Meanwhile, Gawker and its owners confronted the threat of being bankrupted by legal bills and ensuing damages. Wrestler Hulk Hogan’s $140 million verdict is highly unlikely to hold up on appeal, but even so the damage to Gawker is immense.
For Thiel, anonymity was useful. He didn’t look like an obsessive hunting Gawker as Ahab hunted his whale. Yet that same anonymity prevented the judge overseeing the case from understanding that the scorched-earth litigation tactics unfolding in the case were advancing Thiel’s hidden agenda.
The powerful have always done their best to discourage an independent press from scrutinizing their behavior. Centuries ago libeling the king would lead to drawing and quartering; libel the aristocracy, and you were sure to lose.
One may sympathize with Thiel and Hogan when the media either behaves badly or publishes stories that seem unfair. And the business of Silicon Valley is unlikely to produce the human rights abuses in the South exposed by the Northern press.
But a concerted legal campaign by a powerful man to force a publisher to spend all its money on legal fees explicitly because that man wants to drive that publisher out of business deserves as much scorn when done by a tech mogul as when done by racist officials who embodied one of the more tragic aspects of our history.Doctors have issued a warning about excessive cola consumption after noticing an increase in the number of patients suffering from muscle problems, according to the June issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice.
"We are consuming more soft drinks than ever before and a number of health issues have already been identified including tooth problems, bone demineralisation and the development of metabolic syndrome and diabetes" says Dr Moses Elisaf from the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Ioannina, Greece.
"Evidence is increasing to suggest that excessive cola consumption can also lead to hypokalaemia, in which the blood potassium levels fall, causing an adverse effect
on vital muscle functions."
A research review carried out by Dr Elisaf and his colleagues has shown that symptoms can range from mild weakness to profound paralysis. Luckily all the patients studied made a rapid and full recovery after they stopped drinking cola and took oral or intravenous potassium.
The case studies looked at patients whose consumption ranged from two to nine litres of cola a day.
They included two pregnant women who were admitted with low potassium levels.
The first, a 21 year-old woman, was consuming up to three litres of cola a day and complained of fatigue, appetite loss and persistent vomiting. An electrocardiagram also revealed she had a heart blockage, while blood tests showed she had low potassium levels.
The second also had low potassium levels and was suffering from increasing muscular weakness. It turned out she had been drinking up to seven litres of cola a day for the last 10 months.
In a commentary on the paper, Dr Clifford Packer from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Centre in Ohio relates the strange case of the ostrich farmer who returned from the Australian outback with muscle weakness. He had been drinking four litres of cola a day for the last three years and drank up to 10 litres a day when he was in the outback, causing a rapid reduction in his potassium levels.
He also relates a puzzling case he saw in his own clinical practice, which was solved when the patient turned up at his office with a two-litre bottle |
into a home screen.
Orca & 'Chat Heads'
<string name="chat_heads_first_message_nux">"Welcome to Facebook chat heads! You just received a message, tap on your friend's dhead to view or respond within any app."</string>
<string name="chat_heads_first_expand_nux">Tap again to close the conversation</string>
<string name="chat_heads_title">New! Messenger Chat Heads</string>
<string name="chat_heads_body">Just drag to move or close. [[learn_more_link]].</string>
<string name="chat_heads_learn_more_link">Learn more</string>
"Chat Heads" is a new feature included in both Orca (Facebook Messenger) and Wakizashi. Other than the new name, I'm not sure what exactly is different from the normal Messenger.
<string name="thread_context_menu_show_chat_head">Pop out chat head</string>
<string name="preference_notifications_chat_heads_title">Chat Heads</string>
<string name="preference_notifications_chat_heads_enabled">Access chats when using other apps</string>
<string name="preference_notifications_chat_heads_disabled">Turn on to access chats when using other apps</string>
Chat Heads will run in the background, even when you aren't using it. Is "Pop out chat head" suggesting there will be some kind of floating window? I'm not sure.
This first button is called "orca_chat_head_inbox.png," and the second is "orca_chat_head." My guess is that a profile picture goes in the circle (that would be another stolen G+ design idea).
Facebook messenger shouldn't look too different, at least according to this interstitial screen image.
Developer Stuff
It's always fun to dig through this stuff that wasn't supposed to be released and to see what developer-only goodies are in there.
This is interesting, here are the normal Facebook icons, but with wrenches next to them. They all have "icon_wakizashi" in their names, which might mean that "Wakizashi" is just the development branch of the Facebook app. There are actually still several references to "Katana" in the Facebook app, which suggests Wakizashi will not be a complete replacement of Katana.
More circles: "debug_button" and "kill_button." Facebook is finally allowing you kill people over the internet! Sweet.
Conclusion
According to this rom, the Facebook Phone looks to be a mostly stock, mid-range Sense 4.5 phone that was attacked by a mutant Facebook app. Everything seems to be focused on the Facebook app - they haven't made their own Android Skin, or anything like that. Sadly, we can't get too many more details, because just about everything requires that you have special access to Facebook.
Of course, you should also keep in mind that we're tearing down an unreleased, developer version of Facebook's software, and everything is a work in progress. Facebook should show off the full details April 4th.The official Republican strategy is to challenge Obama’s new climate plan by emphasizing its cost in jobs, rising gas prices and more jobs. Yet a small but vocal Congressional contingent remains insistent on denying the scientific evidence for global warming, Politico reports.
Take, for example, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R.-Calif., who told Politico: “If anything, [CO2] helps people’s health by making plants grow and making more food available.”
Advertisement:
This sort of statement is more or less standard fare from climate change deniers. It’s also exactly what Dems are hoping for more of. As Politico first reported Friday, Congressional Democrats plan to spend the August recess stressing the everyday consequences of climate change within communities. They'll be emphasizing how events like wildfires and droughts have made a noticeable impact on people’s lives. And they’re also ready to go on the offensive, specifically targeting those lawmakers who insist either that global warming isn’t manmade, or that it isn’t occurring at all. (“We’ve had gradual cooling on average since the late ’90s,” Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., recently claimed.)
With Democrats primed to make a mockery of climate change deniers, some in the GOP are expressing concern that the climate change denier caucus will cost the entire party credibility. As former Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., told Politico, “If we could start offering a solution, rather than disputing the problem, then we could be ready to compete on the field of ideas.” As it stands, the Democrats seem to have recognized that by keeping the focus on Republicans' more outlandish claims, they can sidestep a more nuanced conversation about climate policy.Looking for a cheap flight to Europe? WOW Air is now offering flights to eight European cities from BWI-Marshall for just $69.
WASHINGTON — Iceland’s discount airline WOW Air, which launched service at BWI Marshall Airport in 2015, is offering one-way fares to eight European cities for $69, including Paris, Berlin and London from BWI Marshall.
The $69 fares are for flights in September, October and November.
WOW Air’s service to Europe from BWI Marshall includes a stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland.
WOW Air, which says it has one of the world’s youngest fleets, flies with Airbus A320, A321 and A330 models.
The $69 fares are also available at other U.S. airports from which WOW operates, including Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Miami.
Other cities on the $69 list include Brussels, Stockholm, Dublin, Copenhagen and Edinburgh.
WOW Air entered the Washington market with its first BWI Marshall flights in the spring of 2015, with four weekly flights to its hometown Reykjavik.
It now serves 32 destinations across Europe and North America.Mylar
Response to "Breaking web applications built on top of encrypted data" (CCS 2016) by P. Grubbs, R. McPherson, M. Naveed, T. Ristenpart and V. Shmatikov.
People
Publications
Raluca Ada Popa, Emily Stark, Jonas Helfer, Steven Valdez, Nickolai Zeldovich, M. Frans Kaashoek, and Hari Balakrishnan.
Building web applications on top of encrypted data using Mylar.
NSDI'14 (11th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation) [conference paper].
Crypto ePrint Archive, 2016/893 [extended paper].
This is the paper describing Mylar, the system.
Building web applications on top of encrypted data using Mylar. NSDI'14 (11th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation) [conference paper]. Crypto ePrint Archive, 2016/893 [extended paper].
Raluca Ada Popa and Nickolai Zeldovich.
Multi-Key Searchable Encryption.
Cryptology ePrint Archive, 2013/508.
This document presents Mylar's new encryption scheme to perform search over data encrypted with different keys efficiently. It also presents the security properties Mylar claims of the search scheme as well as a proof why the search protocol achieves these properties.
Multi-Key Searchable Encryption. Cryptology ePrint Archive, 2013/508.
Nikolaos Karapanos, Alexandros Filios, Raluca Ada Popa, and Srdjan Capkun.
Verena: End-to-End Integrity Protection for Web Applications.
Oakland/IEEE S&P 2016 (IEEE Symposium of Security and Privacy).
While for code verification and key lookup, Mylar protects against an active attacker, for regular data lookup and for search, Mylar protects only against a passive attacker. Verena is the successor of Mylar; it detects active attacks and was designed with Mylar in mind.
Security guarantees
Mylar provides end-to-end encryption for data fields a developer marks with encrypted. In addition, Mylar provides two defenses against active attacks: an attacker who controls the server cannot tamper with the client software in a way that the client does not detect, and the attacker cannot serve incorrect keys to clients during key distribution. For fields marked as searchable (which allow search on the encrypted data at the server), Mylar provides a different security guarantee, which is common among existing searchable encryption schemes. The Mylar paper elaborates on these guarantees in the section "Security guarantees", explaining concretely what Mylar gives and what it does not give.
A paper by Grubbs et al. (2016) considers three attack scenarios against Mylar: two of these are out of scope for Mylar (as Grubbs et al. acknowledge), and the third is prevented by Mylar. We elaborate on a separate page.
Software
Disclaimer: Mylar's code is an experimental research prototype and not a product. The released version is for a passive attacker (the active attacker version is not ready for release). We do not guarantee that the implementation faithfully implements the system design, and there might be bugs or incompletely implemented features, so please use the paper as a reference. If you notice something is missing or buggy, please contribute and fix it! We are releasing the source code in the hope that the community will contribute to it and take it further.
Play with Mylar! Download it using git, and then follow the instructions in README.md.
git clone -b public git://g.csail.mit.edu/mylar
Our initial software (above) is based on an old version of Meteor, and hasn't been updated to Meteor's latest release. Thomas Steinhauer has ported Mylar to recent Meteor releases, which you can obtain below. Note that we did not validate this version.
Contact
For more information on Mylar, contact mylar AT mit DOT edu.
Applications
Mylar is an experimental research prototype and not a product.
In our evaluation, we tested Mylar using existing applications including a medical application (performing a survey of patients suffering from endometriosis) led by surgeons from Newton-Wellesley hospital. This medical application does not use search, but uses the other features of Mylar. We also tested Mylar on an existing chat application and on a class assignment submission website (for the MIT class 6.858), as well as on experimental prototypes of a calendar, a forum application and a photo sharing application. We found that these applications can be ported to Mylar with minimal annotations and incurs a modest overhead.
Mylar's core has inspired some ideas in a startup PreVeil, but PreVeil aims at a different and simpler problem space, where it provides a more complete set of security properties than Mylar aimed at: it encrypts all the data at the server including metadata, it supports user access revocation, it protects against a broader range of active attacks, it provides user accountability, and does not use Mylar's search.(Nicholas Belton/iStockphoto)
Meeting Jim Greig, you wouldn't guess he's a prominent member of Oregon's medical marijuana activist community.
The 62-year-old suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis, a severe form of arthritis. Greig was diagnosed with the disease in the 1980s when he was 38. At the time he ran an advertising agency, helping to put on more than 150 shows for singers such as Alice Cooper, Tom Petty, and Peter Gabriel. As a self-employed individual, he hadn't bothered to buy health insurance, so when his knee began to give out repeatedly he was forced to pay out-of-pocket to visit emergency rooms.
"It started in my right knee, and in six months it spread to my other knee," he says. "I went from a crutch to a double crutch to a wheelchair within about six to eight months." He's been confined to a wheelchair ever since. He estimates that he is bedridden "80 to 90 percent of the time." Blind in one eye, Greig speaks in a deep, gravely voice, pausing every few moments to catch his breath.
Greig began using marijuana to alleviate his pain sometime around 1995. "It's a great relief," he says. "Cannabis will relax you in ways that no opiate will, and will make it seem like the pain is less intense. Because of it I can do half the amount of opiates and feel better doing it."
He became part of the medical marijuana rights movement when he moved back to Oregon from California in 2004. For the last seven years he has organized the Eugene chapter of the Global Marijuana March, a worldwide event that takes place in hundreds of cities. He's been a board member of the Voter Power Foundation, a medical marijuana activism organization, for about five years. Two years ago, he co-directed a political action committee that advocated for Measure 74, an Oregon ballot initiative that would have permitted the creation of privately-owned, non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries. The measure failed in 2010.
It's no surprise then that Greig knew who Dwight Holton was when Holton announced earlier this year he was running for Oregon Attorney General to replace departing Democrat John Kroger. Holton had been interim U.S. Attorney for Oregon when federal agents executed search warrants on several marijuana farms in the state last fall. That and other actions from his office had irked medical marijuana and pro-legalization activists, including Greig, so Greig posted a message to a listserv of about 300 other activists suggesting that they begin publicly opposing Holton's candidacy.
Other prominent activists quickly reached out to him, and soon afterward they launched a full-scale attack on Holton, one that has gained the attention of national pro-legalization and medical marijuana activists, several of whom are supporting Holton's opponent, Ellen Rosenblum. A former Oregon Court of Appeals judge, Rosenblum will face off against him in the Democratic primary next Tuesday. No Republican has entered the race, so the winner of the primary will determine the November outcome.
Oregon has a long and storied history with marijuana. In 1973, the legislature voted to make possession of less than an ounce of pot an infraction with a maximum fine of $100. The legislature then tried to reclassify simple possession as a misdemeanor in 1997, only for voters to reject it in a 1998 ballot initiative. That same year, a majority of voters approved another ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, making Oregon one of the first states to do so (this initiative became what is now called the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act). Unlike some states—California, for instance—Oregon does not allow the sale of medical marijuana, but rather allows those granted permission to either grow pot for themselves or designate others to grow it for them.
However, those caregivers are allowed to recoup the cost of growing the marijuana, which has created a legal gray area making it difficult for law enforcement to differentiate between caregivers and sellers of pot. "The problem is the law is so vague, there are so many loopholes," Mark McDonnell, a drug prosecutor in Multnomah County, Oregon, told an Oregonian reporter. He referred to medical marijuana dispensaries in his county as "quasi-legal." There are currently about 55,000 medical marijuana patients in the state.
Holton, 46, is the son of Kinwood Holton, a former Republican governor in Virginia, and the brother-in-law of Tim Kaine, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and former Virginia governor. He moved to Oregon in 2002 from New York, where he had served as a federal prosecutor. "[My wife and I] were tired of living in a place where it took an hour to get out of the city when you wanted to go to the ocean or go into the mountains," he says. After moving out west, he began teaching at the Lewis & Clark Law School for a year and a half before joining the U.S. Attorney's office in Oregon (he's still an adjunct professor). In 2010, he was appointed interim U.S. Attorney until October of last year. Holton's candidacy has been endorsed by 56 Oregon sheriffs and district attorneys and two major state teacher's unions.
Holton says he's a firm supporter of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, which he calls a "compassionate" law that he will enforce and protect if he becomes Attorney General. He thinks the campaign against him from activists and Rosenblum is "much ado about nothing." What he opposes, he says, are those who abuse the state law to funnel marijuana into the black market.
Opponents point to three actions when citing reasons for opposing him. The first is a letter he sent to dozens of establishments he suspected were selling pot. "In June of 2011, I joined together with 35 out of 36 district attorneys of the state and the sheriffs and the chiefs of police associations and sent letters not to growers but to the pot stores that said, 'This is not legal under state law.'" he says.
"We thought that was our measured way to let people know. We didn't raid anything. We didn't shut anything down. I called folks I know in the medical marijuana community. I met with them a couple different times to tell them what we were doing and why we were doing it. I tried very much to have an open dialog with them. We sent letters directly to people who were selling marijuana, or people we were concerned were selling marijuana that was not legal under state law."
But many of the activists and Rosenblum claim that these letters were a form of intimidation to scare pot growers who were following state law. "I understand that he sent threatening letters to the places that some call medical marijuana dispensaries—some say clinics, collectives—putting a real chilling effect on those who were trying to follow the law and trying to obtain safe access to their medical marijuana to which they're entitled under the law," Rosenblum says.
The second instance is a series of search warrants executed by federal law enforcement officers against marijuana growers in the state, all of which occurred over a relatively short period of time last fall. Holton describes it as "people running a multi-million dollar drug trafficking organization pretending to be working under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act." He adds, "Let me cut to the chase here. During my tenure, at no time has federal law enforcement prosecuted anyone who was in compliance with state law in Oregon. You can ask them to name one person who was prosecuted who was in compliance with state law. They can't come up with a single person."
There are many who do claim these growers were operating under state law, including the growers themselves (most of the cases have yet to be tried in court). Keith Rogers, an owner of one of the raided properties, told an AP reporter in September that he'd checked with all 20 people permitted to grow medical marijuana on his property to ensure they complied with state law. He claimed that if state authorities had done "a search of us and our papers, they would have happily drove off and did nothing. It was strictly the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration."
Robert Wolfe is one of four directors for Citizens for Sensible Law Enforcement, a pro-legalization organization, and the chief petitioner for IP-24, a ballot initiative that would broadly decriminalize marijuana for adults over 21. Wolfe says that he spoke to "activists on the ground" who said the raids targeted "larger outdoor farms that were fully licensed by the state," but that he couldn't speak personally as to whether they were in compliance with state laws.
He claims to have gathered 115,000 signatures for IP-24 and hopes to secure about 184,000, which would put it well above the number needed to place the initiative on the ballot in November (Holton's campaign was quick to point out that Wolfe was recently fined $65,000 for allegedly paying his workers based on the number of signatures gathered rather than by the hour, the largest fine of its kind ever issued in Oregon).
The third instance occurred during a debate with Rosenblum, in which Holton called the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act a "train wreck." This has led to claims that he has no respect for the state law. Many of his critics leave out the second half of his sentence, however, in which he says the law is "putting marijuana in the hands of people, kids, who are not using it for pain management purposes."
Though there are few statistics or studies on how much marijuana grown for medicinal purposes is funneled into the black market, law enforcement professionals have claimed for years that this occurs with some regularity. Alex Moreno, a police chief in Nebraska, said that he's increasingly seeing surplus medical marijuana grown in Colorado flow into his state. "It's a pattern that is likely to increase here in Nebraska, particularly as it becomes more available and more widespread in Colorado," he told an I-News reporter.
The Oregon election places a spotlight on growing tension between federal and state authorities over the use of medical marijuana, which is illegal under federal law. During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama said that he wouldn't use "Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue." Medical marijuana advocates were heartened when, in Obama's first year in office, the Justice Department issued a memo urging prosecutors not to focus on "individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."
But since then, supporters of medical marijuana laws have watched with heightened concern as federal authorities cracked down on state-sanctioned facilities. In California alone, federal law enforcement officers have shut down over 200 dispensaries, and many say the Obama Administration has initiated raids against medical marijuana growers and sellers at a greater rate than George W. Bush.
When asked about this in a recent Rolling Stone interview, Obama said that he "never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana" and that the raids were conducted on "large-scale, commercial operations that may supply medical marijuana users, but in some cases may also be supplying recreational users." Unsurprisingly, many activists feel betrayed by the current administration.
"We're extremely disappointed," says Kris Hermes, a spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access, a national medical marijuana advocacy organization. "And the medical marijuana community feels betrayed in a lot of ways for how President Obama has dealt with this issue, or rather has failed to deal with this issue... His tactics are unprecedented in this country's history, far worse than his predecessor George W. Bush."
Both Holton and Rosenblum seem surprised that marijuana has become a focus in the race. "This wasn't exactly our major issue in the campaign," says Rosenblum, who has spent much more of her campaign claiming Holton lacks a deep connection to Oregon. "But I guess it's kind of become one." At 61, Rosenblum is a former Oregon Court of Appeals judge. She's lived in Oregon for several decades and graduated from the University of Oregon, where she obtained both her B.S. and law degree. In addition to her stint as a judge, she also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Oregon.
Still, Holton has taken to attacking Rosenblum for comments she has made that, if elected, she would consider enforcement of marijuana laws "low priority." "The thing that I find kind of shocking is that Ellen would go to a special interest group, any special interest group, and say, 'I'm not going to enforce the laws that regulate you,' and then raise money off it, which is exactly what she's done with marijuana legalization advocates," Holton says. "I think it is incredible that a person could put a 30-year legal career on the line by running for a state's highest law enforcement office by promising not to enforce the law."
Nick Kahl, a former member of the Oregon state legislature and a Holton supporter, echoed these sentiments. "Ellen has said publicly that she will not enforce the law against those people who choose to run afoul of the marijuana laws," he says. "That's a huge concern for me... For her to come out and pander to the pro-marijuana legalization advocates, I feel like it's out of line."
Rosenblum defends her comments, saying it is a question of resources and priorities. "I think that the attorney generals and DAs and anyone else in leadership positions in government have to set priorities for the department that's under their watch," she says. "That's what I meant by that."
Holton insists that the opposition from the activists is a "non-issue" and that Rosenblum is using it to raise money from national groups that support legalization of marijuana. And she does have support from such groups. Earlier this week, Drug Policy Action, the advocacy and political arm of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group in favor of reforming the nation's drug laws, announced a contribution of $70,000.
If Holton loses on Tuesday, it won't be the first time marijuana activists will claim they were able to tip the scales of an election. In 2010, activists ran ads against Steve Cooley, a Los Angeles District Attorney they considered hostile to medical marijuana dispensaries, when he ran for attorney general of California. He lost by a slim margin, and activists think it was their ads that cost him the election.
Simon Owens is an Assistant Managing Editor at US News & World Report. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Reach him at sowens@usnews.com
Corrected on May 15, 2012 : An earlier version of this story misidentified Ankylosing Spondylitis as a form of rheumatoid arthritis.Stampede week is usually a pretty jolly event for the oilpatch. Beer for breakfast, half days at work and taking clients to the rodeo are part and parcel of doing business during the Stampede. But this year, there's a cloud hanging over the sector. Oil is bumping along around $45 US a barrel, and in many cases share prices are retesting 2016 lows.
Who knows where the price of oil is going to go? I have no clue. No one should say they have a clue. - Barry Schwartz, Baskin Wealth Management
"In 2016, we felt we were at the bottom, and it was proven out, into the fall and early part of winter, share prices increased, the TSX energy index increased as a result of that and a few transactions were done," said Jim Davidson, co-chairman of GMP FirstEnergy, a longtime investment bank for the energy sector.
"Today if you took a look at a typical oil and gas company share price, it is lower than it was in July 2016, and it is also lower than it was when oil was $36 a barrel."
For the first years of the downturn, there was continual optimism that, in time, things would get better. That optimism has largely faded, and the gloom seems to be pushing investors out of the Canadian market. More international companies are walking away from the sector as OPEC cannot sustain the price of oil above $50 US a barrel and political change in British Columbia has reignited pipeline politics
'Maybe this is fair value for oil'
The fundamental problem with the oilpatch is that no one can quite figure out where the price of oil will settle. Saudi Arabia has been trying to boost the price ahead of its initial public offering of the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco, but U.S. producers have been a spoiler, producing so much oil that energy services company Halliburton is warning that it cannot keep up.
"The price of oil is down here for a reason, and the reason is that everyone is drilling like crazy, said Barry Schwartz, chief investment officer with Baskin Financial.
"If you're in the oil business, you're in the business to drill for oil, you're not in the business to shut down wells and wait for better prices. Maybe this is the fair value for oil?"
Schwartz said that Toronto-based Baskin, which manages private investments, decided to divest itself of energy producers in the early days of the downturn.
"It's not a call on good management, or whether the companies are good or bad, it's just a call on the commodity itself," he said. "We still have pipelines because no matter if oil is 10 bucks or 100 bucks, you have to ship it."
Political challenges
Canadian producers have long faced challenges. Costs are generally higher here, especially in the oilsands, and market access is more limited. But it has always been thus, according to Davidson, and in previous downturns the industry has survived.
"All we can do is play with the hand we are dealt," said Davidson. "And historically we are good at it. We have learned to be very cost conscious and develop new technologies to allow us to access new reservoirs in a very old basin. In previous business cycles we have made a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
Davidson argues that this cycle is different because of political challenges, such as Alberta's price on carbon and the difficulty of pipeline construction, which are not being faced in the United States under the current administration. That, he believes, is chasing away foreign investment and setting the Canadian oilpatch "adrift."
"Canada is hamstrung because it's at the end of the pipe," said U.S. investor Stephen Schork. Without another viable outlet for its production, the most obvious thing is to get infrastructure built in B.C. to get Canadian energy to Asian markets. Short of that, the U.S. does remain a more viable option simply based on geography."
Forecasts for oil are mixed
On the positive side of the ledger, demand for oil has been strengthening and one investment bank is calling for $60 US oil by the end of the year, after the North American summer driving season is done and the final numbers are in. However, another investment bank suggests $40 US is the more likely scenario.
That shows the difficulty of picking a price for the commodity.
"Who knows where the price of oil is going to go? I have no clue. No one should say they have a clue," said Schwartz.
With pipelines, prices and politics all out of the oilpatch's control, it's understandable why this Stampede season is all about drowning sorrows.As the Detroit Red Wings begin to address this offseason of rebuilding on the fly, one issue is not in question:
Henrik Zetterberg is their next captain — period.
It was determined years ago, after Marty Lapointe left for Boston as an unrestricted free agent. Lapointe was and will always be a heart-and-soul Red Wing.
When the Bruins offered him a mega-million-dollar contract in July 2001, the Wings told him he’d be crazy not to take the deal. Lapointe knew that he couldn’t turn the offer down, but instead of jumping for joy, he and his wife cried because they didn’t want to leave Detroit.
Even as a rookie, Lapointe’s locker stall was located next to Steve Yzerman’s. Yzerman had only one stall next to him because the corridor leading in and out of Detroit’s dressing room was on the other side. Whereas all the other Wings had teammates on either side, Lapointe and Yzerman had each other — and it was by design.
A first-round draft pick (10th overall) in 1991, Lapointe was the leader of the next generation of Red Wings. It was common knowledge that when Yzerman retired, Lapointe was the next captain.
After Lapointe departed for Boston, Nick Lidstrom wasn’t even on the radar because many believed he wasn’t interested in being captain.
Obviously, that changed over the course of Lidstrom’s Hall of Fame career, and he deservedly wore the “C” after Yzerman retired in 2006.
The next player to have the coveted spot next to Yzerman wasn’t Lidstrom — usually lockers of a defenseman and forward aren’t next to each other. It was Zetterberg, who became Yzerman’s neighbor.
Zetterberg had been dazzling in Traverse City during the first week of Wings training camp in September 2002. So it didn’t come as surprise that once the team arrived back in Detroit, he was sitting next to Yzerman.
To this day, if you were to mention Yzerman to Zetterberg or Lapointe, they would have a look admiration while telling you how Yzerman taught them the game and guided them on how to conduct themselves as Red Wings.
Detroit is a traditional organization. Being an Original Six franchise means something to everybody associated with the team. There’s a Red Wings code that each player is expected to follow.
Lapointe and Zetterberg were chosen to sit next to Yzerman because they were being groomed to be Detroit’s future captain. It’s the Red Wings way.
Many have speculated that the Red Wings might dangle their captaincy in front of potential offseason acquisitions, such as Zach Parise or Ryan Suter. That’s not going to happen. A new addition to the team might get an “A,” but the “C” already belongs to Zetterberg.
And for those of you wondering who sits next to Zetterberg in the dressing room these days?
It’s Valtteri Filppula, a player the organization views as just scratching the surface of his enormous potential and captain material.Decapitated corpses have turned up in the Ivory Coast after a wave of child murders - with one attacker calmly telling police that God had told him 'to cut off children's heads... and then I would be made king.'
More than 20 children have vanished in the past few months, with their bodies found mutilated.
But one suspected killer was caught after he tried to attack two boys while they were fetching water from a well in in Yopougon, a suburb of Abidjan, on January 25.
Those gathered around the well watched in horror as Cedric, 14, and Souleymane, 10, were attacked by Drissa Coulibaly with a machete.
Decapitated corpses have turned up in the Ivory Coast after a wave of child murders. Pictured, Cedric, 14, survived an attack in Yopougon, a suburb of Abidjan
The attacker was caught after came at Souleymane, pictured, while they were fetching water from a well in in Yopougon, a suburb of Abidjan, on January 25
Souleymane was in shock, but he survived, unlike many victims of a wave of child murders in the Ivory Coast.
He said: 'The man came out with a machete. I fell down. He started to hack at me.'
The would-be killer went after Souleymane, then Cedric, before a soldier from a nearby base saw what was happening and chased the man away.
'I thought he had come to collect water, said Cedric. 'But he pulled out a machete. He tried to cut me up.'
As word spread, soldiers from the nearby base quickly fanned out and tracked down the attacker.
Once in police custody, he reportedly confessed to at least three murders.
Giving his name as Drissa Coulibaly, the suspect wore a red and white robe, filthy after months of living on the street.
Drissa Coulibaly, left, and right, with his machete, was detained in Abidjan after attacking two boys at a well. He told police that God had told him 'to cut off children's heads... and then I would be made king'
Souleymane, a 10-year-old boy, survived an attack, but at least 25 children have not been as lucky
He calmly told police that God had told him 'to cut off children's heads... and then I would be made king.'
'God told me to do this. God told me to cut off children's heads and bring them to him and then I would be made king,' Coulibaby, 38, told AFP from custody.
'I told him that I didn't want to do this but he insisted,' he added.
His goal was to win his'swords' of royalty, and he said he communicated with God by way of 'angels' in the shape of crows.
'Either he is very intelligent (and pretending to be mad) or he is very crazy,' one investigator said.
God told me to do this. God told me to cut off children's heads and bring them to him and then I would be made king Drissa Coulibaly
Cedric's mother, market seller Daniele Kone, was present when the attacker was questioned by troops.
'He's a very confident man. Not a madman,' she said. 'He is used to doing this.'
She told AFP that the suspect'said he had already killed three children' for Internet clients known as 'browsers', a charge Coulibaly has since denied.
Browsers is the term used for delinquents who specialise in Internet scams and are widely regarded as behind the child murders, though proof is scanty.
Father Norbert Abekan, a charismatic Abidjan preacher, charged in an article last week that some browsers sought 'human sacrifices the better to swindle'.
Cedric's mother Danielle Gueu said: 'He's a very confident man. Not a madman. He is used to doing this'
'Fortunately, his machete was not well sharpened,' Corporal Habib Tito said after the search. 'He was determined to get the two children.
'Had it not been for the presence of one of our men, the smallest boy would be dead,' he added.
At least 20 children have not been as lucky as Souleymane and Cedric.
In the last two to three months, police opened 25 unexplained cases of child kidnappings, followed by murders, across the country.
First Lady Dominique Ouattara spoke out Tuesday against 'horrible and inhuman acts that nothing can justify'.
'It isn't right that parents should grow anxious each time their children go out of the front door of their houses,' she said.
Police called the murder toll extremely high, saying it is 'a real and unusual phenomenon', which has shocked Ivorians and spread fears that youngsters have become victims of ritual sacrifices.
Brindou M'Bia, the director general of national police, has said most bodies have been found'mutilated, with their genital parts missing, or decapitated'.
'We know the typology of ritual crimes very well,' Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko added.
Women fetch water from a well near the site where two boys were attacked, in Yopougon, a suburb of Abidjan
'People are led to believe that through these crimes, they can gain power or money.'
He said 1,500 police and troops were being mobilised 'to patrol the areas with a high crime rate'.
The spate of child killings has prompted some hysterical responses, from warnings posted on Facebook to alarmist text messages. Kidnappings are reported on an almost daily basis.
'Thieves of children grab them by force even from grown-ups or kidnap them around schools, or even go into homes pretending to be visitors or census agents,' an SMS sent to an AFP journalist charged.
The impoverished west African nation, which has suffered a decade of political and military crisis, is set to hold a presidential election in October.
The wildest rumours about people disappearing for human sacrifice in rituals, particularly albinos, always circulate in the Ivory Coast in electoral years when politicians seek gains at the polls.
The kidnappings have led to calls for action from the U |
be seen as a “vindication” for the former intelligence analyst.
“The serious and relative recency of the offense, petitioner's minimal acceptance of responsibility, and his lack of complete candor in the petition make executive clemency inappropriate at this time. In particular, given petitioner's continued assertion that his conviction was a misapplication of the law, an opinion apparently shared by others of some prominence, a pardon might well be viewed as a sign of vindication, thereby undermining the deterrent effect of the conviction,” the memo says.
The memo was prepared for the signature of then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. The copy from the Clinton White House files is not signed. Holder, who served as Obama’s attorney general from 2009-2015, did not return a call seeking comment.
One of the mysteries of the Morison pardon is precisely why Clinton granted it. There was no statement from the president of his rationale. The Clinton Library files contain almost no evidence of the deliberations, beyond the letters in support and the Justice Department memo against.
“Advise on these – looks like something we probably should do,” Clinton wrote to a White House lawyer, Meredith McCabe, on Jan. 2, 2001. His words came in a handwritten note on a routing memo from one of his top advisers, Sid Blumenthal.
Blumenthal declined to comment for this story, but a source familiar with the episode said the former New Yorker writer was sympathetic to Morison’s pardon bid.
John Podesta, Clinton’s chief of staff at the time, recalls that Moynihan, the New York senator who died in 2003, was the moving force behind the pardon.
“This proceeded from the very, very active intervention of Moynihan, who thought the conviction was wrong,” Podesta told POLITICO just before he joined the Obama White House in 2014. “He pushed it very hard.”
Podesta, who served on a government secrecy commission Moynihan chaired, recalled that Clinton was persuaded prosecutors should have been required to prove Morison intended to harm the country or help another nation.
“The early, World War I precedents indicated that you had to have intent to cause harm to the national security and so a media leak could [possibly] meet that standard, but that was not the standard under which they prosecuted Morison,” Podesta said. “The question was whether he intended any harm to national security.”
The pardon issue also came to a head as the Clinton White House was highly attuned to concerns about measures aimed at cracking down on leaks. In November 2000, Clinton unexpectedly vetoed an intelligence authorization bill because he said it would impose criminal liability for leaks of classified information, regardless of what harm resulted or was intended.
The veto was a close call. White House lawyers prepared several versions of a signing statement for the bill before Podesta convinced Clinton to veto the measure.
“Although well intentioned, [the anti-leak] provision is overbroad and may unnecessarily chill legitimate activities that are at the heart of a democracy,” Clinton wrote in his official statement on the veto.
“We thought it could reach not just people who violated their oath not to disclose classified information, but was a pretext for prosecuting news organizations and reporters and had the potential to convert the statute into a UK-style Official Secrets Act,” Podesta said. “I argued to the president that he should veto it and he agreed.”
Morison said he never got an official explanation for the pardon, but is sure it stemmed from concerns about the legal standards applied in his case. “I don’t have any doubt at all,” he said.
Nevertheless, he acknowledges that having ties to people like Schlesinger brought attention to his situation. “My name helped, I have to admit,” he said. “I don’t think if I’d been just a random person in my position they’d have paid much attention. I didn’t do anything to exploit it. My name was my name.”
But if the Clinton team thought it had closed the chapter on prosecuting leak cases under the Espionage Act, it was badly mistaken.
The law was dusted off just four years later, in 2005, to indict a Pentagon intelligence analyst and two lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The Pentagon official, Lawrence Franklin, quickly pleaded guilty. However, the charges against the pro-Israel lobbyists lingered for years. They were quietly dropped by Holder at the outset of the Obama administration.
What followed under Obama, however, was not a lull in the pursuit of leak cases, but the most vigorous campaign of prosecution in U.S. history.
One after another, leakers at the FBI, the CIA, the State Department and in the military were charged and convicted. The most severe sentence went to Army Private Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, who received a 35-year sentence following a court martial for disclosing hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and military reports to WikiLeaks.
“Now, there seems to be another one every year or so. The situation keeps coming up,” Morison observed.
The arguments that convinced the commander in chief to nullify Morison’s conviction now seem to hold little sway anywhere in government. There are no advocates of Moynihan’s stature warning against the perils of the Espionage Act.
“That argument is now being made at the margins,” acknowledges Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. “It doesn’t have the same number of voices behind it …These kinds of probes seem natural and unobjectionable to people. That is a new thing and a recent thing and I think Morison pardon perhaps is an indication of how significantly that culture has changed in the last generation.”
First Amendment advocates and other observers point to a variety of developments that may account for the shift. They include the renewed sense of security threat after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and technological changes making it easier for rogue officials to spirit away vast volumes sensitive government information.
Some advocates say the massive online disclosures in the WikiLeaks case and the far-reaching surveillance revelations unleashed by Snowden amounted to game-changers that set the stage for robust use of the Espionage Act as a leak-control measure.
“My instinct is these waters were poisoned by WikiLeaks and the practice of massive disclosures,” said Steven Aftergood, who analyzes classification policy for the Federation of American Scientists. “People thought, ‘Wow, this is not some guy with an axe to grind or a grudge. This is a wholesale penetration of our security….’ The argument that leaks shouldn’t be criminalized lost some of the steam it once had.”
“In some sense, it feels like quainter times,” said Columbia Law Professor David Pozen, who explored the Morison case for a law-review article on leaks.
Some also fault the media, saying the press now does less to protest leak prosecutions, unless reporters are caught up directly in them.
“I’ve wondered for the last four or five years as these cases have taken on a greater prominence, why the media hasn’t been outraged. Sources are your bread and butter,” said Bob Muse, one of Morison’s attorneys. “I guess the outrage of the Morison time frame has come and gone. The media bears some responsibility for that in being complicit.”
Pozen noted Clinton’s grant of the pardon to Morison came as a new administration was about to be sworn in, raising the possibility the outgoing president was trying to set the stage for his successor. The Columbia professor said a similar dynamic could color Obama’s last-minute clemency calls.
“In his pardon and commutation decisions at the end here, President Obama may have in mind the kind of atmosphere that he’ll be bequeathing to Trump and perhaps wanting to again keep the leak channels flowing as Trump comes in, with some symbolic or more-than-symbolic move,” Pozen added.
Still, some of the clemency requests on Obama’s desk could engender massive blowback. Clinton’s pardon of Morison came after he had been convicted and served his time: spending seven months of a two-year sentence at Danbury, Conn. before being paroled.
Snowden, by contrast, has been on the lam in Moscow since 2013. He hasn’t filed an official pardon application, but hundreds of thousands of supporters have signed petitions calling for clemency in light of how his disclosures changed U.S. surveillance policy and led to passage of a law limiting the bulk collection of data.
Manning—considered the most likely candidate for clemency--has been in custody since 2010. Supporters want her 35-year prison term commuted to time served.
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, seeking a pardon, has also served his time. He pleaded guilty in 2012 to disclosing names of undercover CIA officers involved in waterboarding terror suspects. He was sentenced to 30 months and released to home confinement in early 2015.
Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, who pleaded guilty last year to lying in the course of an FBI probe into leaks about U.S. use of the so-called Stuxnet virus against Iran’s nuclear program, is also seeking a pardon. He has not served any time. In fact, he’s not scheduled to be sentenced until Jan. 31. Obama could grant the requested pardon or an advance commutation which would cap the former joint chiefs vice chairman’s possible prison time.
Cartwright’s case shares some similarities with that of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of Staff, Lewis Libby, who was convicted by a jury in 2007 of lying and obstruction of justice in an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity. President George W. Bush commuted the two-and-a-half year prison term Libby faced, but refused to lift the fine or grant a full pardon, despite repeated pleas from Cheney.
In his interview with POLITICO last week, Morison said he’s not familiar with most of those cases, but sees little similarity between himself and Snowden.
“If he wants a pardon, he should stand trial and then ask the president for one,” Morison said. “It’s flagrant. I’m not sympathetic to it….He fled. I wouldn’t have fled if my life depended on it.”
In fact, Morison was arrested at Dulles Airport as he tried to board a flight to London. Prosecutors did call him a flight risk, while defense lawyers said it was clear he was just going on vacation.
While Morison was regarded in some quarters as a First Amendment martyr during the 1980s and 1990s, his story includes a coda that renders it a cautionary tale as Obama considers last-minute pardons and commutations.
In 2014, Morison ran afoul of the law again, charged with stealing original maps and documents from his grandfather’s official files in Navy archives. He later pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft in the same courthouse where he stood trial in the more celebrated case three decades earlier. He was sentenced to probation.
Asked if he was concerned the theft conviction might impair the chances of other clemency hopefuls, Morison said he doubted that would happen.
“That’s a complicated situation. I got hung out to dry on that one,” Morison said. “A case is a case … Nobody’s perfect.”It was standing room only for passengers on the Framingham/Worcester Line from South Station last Thursday.
When thousands of passengers were stranded or delayed at the height of this winter’s storms, Keolis, the French company that operates the MBTA commuter rail, blamed the weather.
But even now — without a flake of snow on the ground — the rail operator is struggling to provide trains that run on time and with the necessary number of seats.
Back in February, about 67 percent of trains ran late, and Keolis pointed its finger at the exceedingly harsh winter. But in May about 14 percent still ran late. And, to commuters’ dismay, the May 2015 performance was worse than the previous year, when the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. was running the system.
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The news does not get better: As summer approaches, Keolis is warning customers that one line may face even more delays — this time because of the heat.
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It is not just a lack of punctuality that is bothering commuters. Longtime riders say they have endured standing-room-only rides during their commutes, a result of trains with fewer passenger cars than normal.
The company has said it usually needs at least 356 coaches for all of its trains to run at regular capacity. But Keolis has fallen behind on getting enough coaches ready: On June 1, the company had only 339 coaches available for the commute that day, according to the MBTA.
It’s wearing out the patience of commuters who, after a winter of crowded and delayed trains, are still standing in the aisles or calling baby sitters to say they’re going to be late.
“I feel like I’m in the Dark Ages on these trains,” said John Carulli, of Southborough, as he stood in the aisle of the 5 p.m. Framingham/Worcester Line train out of South Station last week. “I haven’t sat down in this train for a year.”
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Keolis took over the commuter rail in July, after beating out the longtime operator, Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad, for a $2.68 billion, eight-year contract.
Within months, a combination of extreme weather, leadership failures, and aging trains and tracks swept up the company into a perfect storm of perpetual problems.
Thomas Murray, the president of the local chapter of the Transport Workers Union, said crews normally start inspecting and repairing air conditioning units during the winter. But this year’s snowstorms delayed that schedule, and workers are now scrambling to make sure the units work.
“We know this is frustrating to our passengers and we want them to know that we’re working to put capacity back into the system as rapidly as possible,” said Keolis spokeswoman Leslie Aun.
Aun said the continuing problems have mostly affected lines that run from South Station, particularly the Framingham/Worcester and Franklin lines. By the end of the week, the company plans to add more coaches to those lines, she said.
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Fewer trains are running on time under Keolis management than they were last year, when Mass. Bay was in charge: About 82 percent of trains arrived on time in April, compared with 93 percent last year. About 86 percent arrived on time in May, compared with 89 percent last year, according to a review of statistics from the T.
Those delays cost Keolis money. Under its contract with the T, Keolis can be fined up to $434,425 a month for late and canceled trains. The company has had to pay that maximum penalty in each month since October, the first time the fines were assessed.
Some of the delays aren’t unique to Keolis. On the Framingham/Worcester Line, for example, the company struggles with a problem that dogged the previous operator. The tracks, formerly owned and maintained by private railroad company CSX, are old and expand with the heat, which can make them buckle. During hot weather, trains must slow down to 30 miles per hour to avoid going off the rails. The commute time for some trains can nearly double on hot days.
Keolis has had to make do with the fleet of aging locomotives provided by the MBTA, some of which have been in service since 1974.
Keolis officials were counting on 40 new locomotives when they took over, but many of those had to be repaired as soon as they got to Boston, the Globe reported in January. Murray, the union president, in March referred to the new locomotives as “junk” when he testified in front of the Legislature.
Only 23 of the 40 locomotives are in service. But because the locomotives have components that are new, complex, and unfamiliar to employees, required inspections are taking longer, according to T spokesman Joe Pesaturo.
Harrison Hill for The Boston Globe Boston University students Premsai Nagabhrava (left), Raji Pyda (middle), and Alanna Cote on a commuter rail train in Boston.
In some cases, the older power cables that connect the locomotive to the coaches caused electrical problems that workers were encountering “several times a week,” Pesaturo said.
“With such complex vehicles, some early issues and faults are expected as the vehicles transition into daily service,” Pesaturo wrote in an e-mail. “Procuring a state-of-the-art locomotive is not like going to a car dealership and driving a new vehicle off the lot.”
During the height of the winter storms, the agency sought to address the problem by leasing extra locomotives. One of the leased trains went into service on Monday, according to Pesaturo.
But Keolis’s problems stretch well beyond trains and cables. Beverly Scott, the T’s now-former general manager, also believed absent leadership exacerbated the problems caused by the winter weather.
In a batch of e-mails released by the T last week, she told one of the commuter rail operator’s highest officials that top leadership was “missing in action” during the debilitating winter storms.
Even now, the company is operating without a chief mechanical officer, nearly nine months after David Plumb stepped down. Aun said the company hopes to hire a permanent replacement by the end of the month.
Joseph A. English, who heads the local chapter of the Association of Railroad and Airline Supervisors union, said the chief mechanical officer “is the guy who tells you what needs to be done first, second, and third.”
The chief mechanical officer plays a crucial part in making sure the trains are running — especially with an aging fleet. Every year, the trains and tracks become less and less resilient — and the beating from this winter has not helped.
Keolis replaced its first general manager, Thomas Mulligan, with his deputy, Gerald Francis, but English still believes the company needs its leadership to “step up.”
Murray also said workers are struggling with those in charge.
“There’s a disconnect between the people that they brought in from France and the midlevel managers,” said Murray. “And there’s a disconnect between the MBTA and Keolis itself.”
Nicole Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungca@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ndungcaDoctors who had paid £15 to meet health secretary in Fareham were told reception was cancelled, but it went ahead elsewhere
A meeting of Jeremy Hunt, Conservative activists and junior doctors was never likely to feature cordial conversation over drinks and canapés, scheduled as it was during the fiercest NHS pay and conditions dispute in years.
But when an event on Friday at a hotel in Fareham, Hampshire, was said by local Tories to have been called off, what might have been an uncomfortable couple of hours for the health secretary caused yet more anger.
Doctors who had paid £15 for the pleasure of seeing Hunt later found out that the event had quietly been moved to another location, with those in attendance being checked to ensure that they had no medics in tow.
Junior doctors dispute: why talks with the government failed Read more
Kathryn Carey-Jones wrote on Facebook: “ I could have accepted being told I am not allowed to attend given recent events, but I was lied to, to keep me away... This is dishonesty at its best and would not be accepted from a doctor to a politician. If this is the way the local Conservatives treat their local doctors, what can we expect from the rest? Imagine if we lied to the public like this...”
GP Emma Nash told Portsmouth News that a friend she was going with, who is a Conservative party member, was refused access to the venue until she convinced organisers that there were no doctors with her.
“I feel really disappointed. There is a lack of respect for me, as a professional, to be told as a medic I’m not allowed to go somewhere where my own secretary of state is going to be,” Nash said.
“If they had said ‘no doctors’, then fine. But to tell us it was cancelled and go and have it at Fareham college is deceitful.
“How are we supposed to have any kind of faith in somebody who deliberately manipulates their way out of seeing us?”
'My message is stay and fight': junior doctors weigh up their options Read more
Thomas Fyfe, the chairman of Fareham Conservative Association, was quoted by local media as saying: “Because of the very real threat of disturbance from groups circulating details of our planned reception with Jeremy Hunt, the advertised event was cancelled on security grounds.
“A small party event for party members to meet Mr Hunt was held instead at another location. We regret the inconvenience caused to those who had bought tickets and were unable to attend, all of whom will be offered a full refund.”
Hunt announced last week that the government would impose a new contract on junior doctors that he says is needed to ensure a seven-day NHS. However, the Guardian has established that 152 foundation trusts have the power to come to their own local deals with doctors.It's been eight months since a pair of security researchers proved beyond any doubt that car hacking is more than an action movie plot device when they remotely killed the transmission of a 2014 Jeep Cherokee as I drove it down a St. Louis highway. Now the FBI has caught up with that news, and it's warning Americans to take the risk of vehicular cybersabotage seriously.
In a public service announcement issued together with the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, the FBI on Thursday released a warning to drivers about the threat of over-the-internet attacks on cars and trucks. The announcement doesn't reveal any sign that the agencies have learned about incidents of car hacking that weren't already public. But it cites all of last year's car hacking research to offer a list of tips about how to keep vehicles secure from hackers and recommendations about what to do if you believe your car has been hacked—including a request to notify the FBI.
"Modern motor vehicles often include new connected vehicle technologies that aim to provide benefits such as added safety features, improved fuel economy, and greater overall convenience," the PSA reads. "Aftermarket devices are also providing consumers with new features to monitor the status of their vehicles. However, with this increased connectivity, it is important that consumers and manufacturers maintain awareness of potential cyber security threats."
The FBI and DOT's advice includes keeping automotive software up to date and staying aware of any possible recalls that require manual security patches to your car's code, as well as avoiding any unauthorized changes to a vehicle's software and being careful about plugging insecure gadgets into the car's network. Most of those tips stem directly from last year's research demonstrations: After hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek hacked the Jeep in July, Chrysler issued a 1.4 million vehicle recall and mailed USB drives with software updates to affected drivers. And the next month, researchers from the University of California at San Diego showed that a common insurance dongle plugged into a Corvette's dashboard could be hacked to turn on the car's windshield wipers or disable its brakes.
The announcement also notes that drivers should be careful about offering physical access to their vehicles to strangers. "In much the same way as you would not leave your personal computer or smartphone unlocked, in an unsecure location, or with someone you don’t trust, it is important that you maintain awareness of those who may have access to your vehicle," the announcement reads. (If only the FBI felt quite so strongly about keeping intruders out of your iPhone.)
Not much in the FBI's warning is new information, says Chris Valasek, one of the two Jeep-hacking researchers. But he says the imprimatur of the FBI could make the threat of car hacking real for anyone who hasn't considered the growing risk of digital attacks on connected vehicles. "It seems super delayed," says Valasek. "But it's good advice...people take the FBI seriously."
Valasek says the most significant part of the announcement may be its request that anyone who suspects their car has been hacked to get in contact with the FBI, along with the car manufacturer and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. Until now, Valasek says, he and his fellow Jeep hacker Charlie Miller have themselves been bombarded with messages—credible and not-so-credible—from people who believe they're car hacking victims. "Charlie and I get emails all the time from people who say'my car's been hacked!'" he says. "The FBI is more than welcome to take that over."MPs have called on government to amend the civil service code so that it includes clear constraints on the jobs officials can take when they leave the civil service, as they warn that the public servants now feel “entitled to capitalise on their public sector experience when they move into the private sector”.
Beef up departmental boards to police "revolving door", watchdog suggests
Advisory Committee on Business Appointments beefs up disclosure requirements for top-level departures from government
A report published by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee also said there should be clear rules to prevent conflicts of interest as individuals move into the civil service from the private sector.
“In an age where a certain set of shared values can no longer be assumed to be embedded in our society, the government must set out clear values and a clear set of principles to define how public servants should think about their future career moves and their subsequent career outside of the public sector,” the report stated.
“The key principles should be that no one takes a job for a specified period, currently two years, in which there is a perceived conflict of interest with their past employment in the public service, and no one should have a job in the public service in which there could be a perceived conflict with their past career in the private sector.”
The report sets out some suggested text which MPs want to add to the code, including that civil servants must “take decisions in the public interest alone”, not allow their decisions to be influenced by career expectations and prospects if they leave public service, and “take particular care” in dealings with former colleagues who might want to influence their decisions.
The report, examining the role of watchdog Advisory Committee on Business Appointments watchdog also called for a “comprehensive reform of the whole ACOBA system”.
ACOBA provides advice to former ministers and civil servants at Director General Grade and above about appointments they wish to take up within two years of leaving government, but committee chair Bernard Jenkin said the government must take steps to ensure that the ACOBA system is improved swiftly.
“In the long term, failure do so will lead to an even greater decline in public trust in our democracy and our government," he said.
MPs also raise concerns about the increasing interchange between public and private sectors. The civil service has stated that it wishes to increase the number of secondments into government as well as opening up more posts to external recruitment, as part of the drive to fill skills gaps across government.
“The risk arising from the interchange between the public and private sector is the opportunity it affords to the less scrupulous to conduct themselves in public office in the hope that the people who they are regulating or contracting with, or the relationships they are managing, will somehow prove fruitful to them at a future date,” MPs concluded.
They acknowledge there is “little hard evidence that the movement to the private sector is not conducted appropriately” but say the current ACOBA system provides little reassurance should concerns arise.
The committee urged greater transparency about appointments being given to officials who do not fall under ACOBA’s remit, as well as changes to the civil service code.
Concerns were also raised about the increasing interchange between public and private sectors. The civil service has stated that it wishes to increase the number of secondments into government as well as opening up more posts to external recruitment, as part of the drive to fill skills gaps across government.
“The risk arising from the interchange between the public and private sector is the opportunity it affords to the less scrupulous to conduct themselves in public office in the hope that the people who they are regulating or contracting with, or the relationships they are managing, will somehow prove fruitful to them at a future date,” MPs said.
Information about requests for advice from officials at director and deputy director grades was previously published in ACOBA’s annual reports, but this was stopped in 2010. Departments and agencies are now meant to publish this information on their own websites but PACAC notes that many are not doing so.
“We are aware that, in many situations, civil servants in positions lower down the organisation perform significant roles in respect both of policy formation and commercial relationships, including some senior responsible officers for major projects,” MPs say.
They add that there is a ”clear lack of scrutiny and transparency” about how the business advice rules are being applied to these officials.
Departments should appoint a non-executive director with responsibility to ensure Business Appointment Rules are followed by officials below director general grade, and for aggregated data about officials at this level who move into private sector jobs to be published on the ACOBA website.A prototype of China's J-20 fifth-generation aircraft. Chinese Military Review In a stark assessment, the US Air Force chief-of-staff warned that China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) will be poised to overtake the US Air Force by 2030.
On March 2, General Mark Welsh told the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee that currently it is estimated that the US has a "couple thousand more aircraft" than China, The National Interest reports.
The PLAAF is larger than the US Air Force in terms of personnel, and that size will be represented by the number of aircraft China has in the coming years.
"At the rate they're building, the models they're fielding, by 2030 they will have fielded—they will have made up that 2,000 aircraft gap and they will be at least as big—if not bigger—than our air forces," Welsh told the subcommittee.
More importantly than just the number of aircraft and personnel in the PLAAF, though, is Beijing's trend of acquiring and successfully fielding more and more advanced weapons systems. This drive by the PLAAF will also shrink the commanding technological advantage that the US currently holds over China.
"We are not keeping up with that kind of technology development," Welsh said. "We are still in a position of—we will have the best technology in the battlespace especially if we can continue with our current big three modernization programs."
Welsh also went on to warn that China "will have a lot of technology that's better than the stuff we've had before."
China is currently constructing prototypes for two different fifth-generation fighters that are specifically tailored to different mission sets. It's J-20 is thought to be making quick development progress, while it's J-31 is believed to be the equal of the F-35 due to espionage and Chinese theft of trade secrets.
Additionally, China is also developing a stealth drone as well as seeking to buy Russia's highly capable Su-35S fighter aircraft.
All these measures taken together will cumulatively make China a significantly more capable military force that could project its will against US protest across East Asia.Michael Bay is attached to direct an adaptation of Wesley Chu’s sci-fi novel “Time Salavager” for Paramount, TheWrap has learned.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian will produce the movie, which is set in a future where the human race has abandoned Earth and colonized the stars.
The story follows a convicted criminal named James Griffin-Mars, who is identified as one of a select group ideally suited for time-travel missions that could delay humanity’s demise. He’s sent to Earth’s past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. On a final mission that will secure his retirement, James meets Elise Kim, an intriguing scientist from a previous century, who’s fated to die during the destruction of an ocean rig. James brings Elise back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives.
Also Read: Paramount, Akiva Goldsman Expanding 'Transformers' Movie Universe
Representatives for Paramount and Bay did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but Chu already confirmed the news on his personal blog, though he recently deleted the entry.
“The speed that Mark, the president of Di Bonaventura, pushed for Paramount to close the option, and the enthusiasm Michael Bay showed in attaching to ‘Time Salvager,’ has been nothing short of astounding. Often, getting this far in the process can take months, if not years. This went down in a matter of weeks. It’s still going to be an uphill climb but I have complete confidence in the team that Di Bonaventura and Paramount are assembling to usher ‘Time Salvager’ to the big screen.”
Also Read: John Krasinski Joining Michael Bay's Benghazi Drama '13 Hours'
“Time Salvager” hits bookstores on July 7.
Bay is currently directing the Benghazi siege movie “13 Hours” for Paramount, where he has also directed all four films in the blockbuster “Transformers” franchise, as well as the dark comedy “Pain & Gain.” He’s represented by WME.In North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have released two videos of Tuesday’s police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, one from a police dashboard camera and the other from an officer’s body camera. Police say they have other video that they have not released. The Scott family is asking the police to release all of the videos.
The dashboard camera video shows Scott exiting his vehicle and taking steps backwards with his arms both at his sides. Police fire four shots at Scott and he falls to the ground. The first 11 seconds of this video are silent.
The body camera video shows Scott on the ground after being shot. The first 25 seconds of this video are silent.
On Friday, NBC News obtained cellphone video capturing the shooting, filmed and narrated by Scott’s wife Rakeyia Scott.
While the police claim they tased and then shot Scott because he was armed, Scott’s family says he was not armed—except with a book in hand. They say 43-year-old Scott, an African-American father of seven, had been sitting in his car, waiting to pick up his son after school.
Click here to see the video Scott’s wife Rakeyia Scott filmed during the shooting.Because both of those rules were finalized under existing laws long before Mr. Obama left office, they cannot be simply undone with a stroke of the president’s pen, legal experts in both the Obama and Trump White Houses have said.
“The executive order has no legal significance at all,” said Richard L. Revesz, a professor of environmental law at New York University. “It’s like the president calling Scott Pruitt and telling him to start the legal proceedings. It does the same thing as a phone call or a tweet. It just signals that the president wants it to happen.”
Still, Mr. Pruitt, who was confirmed by the Senate to his new position this month, is expected to enthusiastically dive in to the lengthy task of undoing major environmental rules on clean water, climate change and air pollution. In his former job as attorney general of Oklahoma, Mr. Pruitt led or took part in 14 lawsuits intended to block the E.P.A.’s major regulations, including the clean water and climate rules that he is now charged with dismantling.
Speaking over the weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Pruitt told an audience, to applause, “I think there are some regulations that in the near term need to be rolled back in a very aggressive way,” and he said those rollbacks would probably begin this week.
The clean water rule, completed by the Obama administration in spring 2015, was issued under the 1972 Clean Water Act. It gives the federal government broad authority to limit pollution in major bodies of water, like Chesapeake Bay, the Mississippi River and Puget Sound, as well as in streams and wetlands that drain into those larger waters.Now available from Mehring Books: Russian Revolutionary Posters by David King
By David Walsh
29 November 2012
Mehring Books is proud to offer for sale a new book, Russian Revolutionary Posters: From Civil War to Socialist Realism, From Bolshevism to the End of Stalinism by David King (Tate Publishing).
The volume contains images and descriptions of 150 political and cultural posters, drawn from the David King Collection at the Tate Modern in London, Britain's national gallery of international modern art.
The list of works to which King—artist, designer, editor, researcher, photohistorian and archivist—has contributed as either designer or author, or both, is extraordinary, including Trotsky: A Documentary (1972), Alexander Rodchenko (1979), Trotsky: A Photographic Biography (1986), The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia (1997), Ordinary Citizens: The Victims of Stalin (2003) and Red Star Over Russia: A Visual History of the Soviet Union from the Revolution to the Death of Stalin (2009).
As King noted in a 2008 interview, revealing the truth about the history of the Russian Revolution, Trotsky’s role and the rise of Stalinism “took on a life of its own” for the artist-editor more than forty years ago. “It became an all-consuming passion. It ran my life. Uncovering this history continues to run my life.”
Russian Revolutionary Posters is part of this life-long effort. Many of the images in the new book are breathtaking, but King’s texts considerably add to them. In his introduction, the author-editor notes, “From 1918 to 1921 over two hundred poster artists and designers sympathetic to socialism created an avalanche of political posters, widely considered to be the greatest in history, in defence of the Bolshevik Revolution.”
He explains entertainingly how he tracked down a unique and prized work, The Russian Revolutionary Poster, written and edited by Vyacheslav Polonsky (1925), “a large format Russian album … full of colour reproductions of political posters and photographs of agitational propaganda trains.”
King proceeds to explain something about Polonsky, one of the remarkable generation of Russian socialists and “the Bolsheviks’ creative director.” A man who praised Trotsky’s Literature and Revolution and whose authoritative book on revolutionary posters did not include a single image of Stalin, Polonsky was silenced after Trotsky was sent into exile, accused of “counter-revolutionary activities.” He died of typhus in 1932.
King also discusses several of the artists whose posters, in some cases, are iconic. Dmitrii Moor, for example, painted fifty revolutionary posters in 1919 and 1920, including the famed “Death to World Imperialism” (included in the book), which is staged, King observes, “as if it were the grand finale of some fabulous opera.”
Another deserving figure King discusses is the artist known as Deni, prone to hypochondria and melancholy, who also produced some fifty revolutionary posters during the civil war: “Some of them,” he writes, “once seen are never to be forgotten, like ‘Capital’ and ‘A Pig Trained in Paris’” (also included in the present volume).
There are too many images in the new book to be discussed here, including a reproduction of El Lissitsky’s magnificent 1920 poster, “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge.” The commitment and passion of the artists, inspired by the October Revolution and the cause of world socialism, comes through on every page |
y last night said that US lawyers should try and extradite Assange to the United States for betraying government secrets. "If I was still in charge there would have been an investigation," he told BBC Newsnight, "it would have been done promptly. "This is a crime of a very high order. Julian Assange has been leaking this information. He came into possession of it knowing that it was harmful."
Mukasey also implied that the Swedish sex accusations may only be holding charge. "When one is accused of a very serious crime it's common to hold him in respect of a lesser crime... while you assemble evidence of a second crime."
Once again, Mukasey doesn't say exactly what US law either WikiLeaks or Assange has broken. But if he's right then we will find out soon enough.
11.46pm: The latest revelations about the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi over fears of retribution by Libya draws a swift response from Scotland's first minister (and SNP leader) Alec Salmond:
"The cables confirm what we always said – that our only interest was taking a justice decision based on Scots law without fear or favour, which was exactly what was done, and that our public position was identical to our private one. "They also show that the former UK government were playing false on the issue, with a different public position from their private one - which must be deeply embarrassing for the Labour Party in Scotland - and that the US government was fully aware of the pressure being applied to the UK government."
The Guardian's coverage of the cables notes:
American diplomats were worried "Salmond and the SNP will look for opportunities to exploit the Megrahi case for their own advantage". But when the Scottish justice minister finally announced a "compassionate release" to a storm of protest the following August, the US ambassador said the Scots had got out of their depth. "The Scottish government severely underestimated both US government and UK public reaction to its decision … Alex Salmond has privately indicated that he was'shocked'."
12 midnight: Time to wrap things up for the evening – here's some last links to chew on.
• Reuters has this analysis of the charges against Julian Assange in Sweden:
The two Swedish women who accuse WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sexual misconduct were at first not seeking to bring charges against him. They just wanted to track him down and persuade him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, according to several people in contact with his entourage at the time.
• The Associated Press has this eye-opener from the cables regarding Nicaragua:
US diplomats accuse Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's government of taking bribes from drug traffickers and receiving "suitcases full of cash" from Venezuelan officials, according to confidential documents released this week by WikiLeaks. The leaked documents from the US Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua, allege that Ortega has used drug money to finance campaigns for the Sandinista National Liberation Front. The money from international drug traffickers is "usually in return for ordering Sandinista judges to allow traffickers caught by the police and military to go free," reads a May 5, 2006, cable from an embassy official.
• And finally: the author Naomi Wolf has drawn considerable hostile reaction for her piece in the Huffington Post today.Imagine being attacked by one of your own hands, which repeatedly tries to slap and punch you. Or you go into a shop and when you try to turn right, one of your legs decides it wants to go left, leaving you walking round in circles.
Last summer I met 55-year-old Karen Byrne in New Jersey, who suffers from Alien Hand Syndrome.
Her left hand, and occasionally her left leg, behaves as if it were under the control of an alien intelligence.
Karen's condition is fascinating, not just because it is so strange but because it tells us something surprising about how our own brains work.
It started after Karen had surgery at 27 to control her epilepsy, which had dominated her life since she was 10.
Surgery to cure epilepsy usually involves identifying and then cutting out a small section of the brain, where the abnormal electrical signals originate.
When this does not work, or when the damaged area cannot be identified, patients may be offered something more radical. In Karen's case her surgeon cut her corpus callosum, a band of nervous fibres which keeps the two halves of the brain in constant contact.
It would take things out of my handbag and I wouldn't realise so I would walk away; I lost a lot of things before I realised what was going on Karen Byrne
Cutting the corpus callosum cured Karen's epilepsy, but left her with a completely different problem. Karen told me that initially everything seemed to be fine. Then her doctors noticed some extremely odd behaviour.
"Dr O'Connor said 'Karen what are you doing? Your hand's undressing you'. Until he said that I had no idea that my left hand was opening up the buttons of my shirt.
"So I start rebuttoning with the right hand and, as soon as I stopped, the left hand started unbuttoning them. So he put an emergency call through to one of the other doctors and said, 'Mike you've got to get here right away, we've got a problem'."
Out of control
Karen had emerged from the operation with a left hand that was out of control.
"I'd light a cigarette, balance it on an ashtray, and then my left hand would reach forward and stub it out. It would take things out of my handbag and I wouldn't realise so I would walk away. I lost a lot of things before I realised what was going on."
Image caption Karen said the condition had been brought under control with medication
Karen's problem was caused by a power struggle going on inside her head. A normal brain consists of two hemispheres which communicate with each other via the corpus callosum.
The left hemisphere, which controls the right arm and leg, tends to be where language skills reside. The right hemisphere, which controls the left arm and leg, is largely responsible for spatial awareness and recognising patterns.
Usually the more analytical left hemisphere dominates, having the final say in the actions we perform.
The discovery of hemispherical dominance has its roots in the 1940s, when surgeons first decided to treat epilepsy by cutting the corpus callosum. After they had recovered, the patients appeared normal. But in psychology circles they became legends.
That is because these patients would, in time, reveal something that to me is truly astonishing - the two halves of our brains each contain a kind of separate consciousness. Each hemisphere is capable of its own independent will.
Brain experiments
The man who did many of the experiments that first proved this was neurobiologist, Roger Sperry.
In a particularly striking experiment, which he filmed, we can watch one of the split brain patients trying to solve a puzzle. The puzzle required rearranging blocks so they matched the pattern on a picture.
First the man tried solving it with his left hand (controlled by the right hemisphere), and that hand was pretty good at it.
Then Sperry asked the patient to use his right hand (controlled by the left hemisphere). And this hand clearly did not have a clue what to do. So the left hand tried to help, but the right hand did not want help, so they ended up fighting like two young children.
Experiments like this led Sperry to conclude that "each hemisphere is a conscious system in its own right, perceiving, thinking, remembering, reasoning, willing, and emoting".
In 1981 Sperry received a Nobel prize for his work. But in a cruel twist of fate, by then he was suffering from a fatal degenerative brain disease himself.
Most people who have had their corpus collosum cut appear normal afterwards. You could cross them in the street and you would not know anything had happened.
Karen was unlucky. After the operation, the right side of her brain refused to be dominated by the left.
She has suffered from Alien Hand Syndrome for 18 years, but fortunately for Karen her doctors have now found a medication that seems to have brought the right side of her brain back under some form of control.
Even so I felt it was tactful, when I said goodbye, to give both hands a firm "thank you" shake.
Karen's story features in The Brain: A Secret History - Broken Brains BBC Four, Thu 20 Jan 2100GMT, repeated Tue 25 Jan 2300GMT or online via iPlayer (UK only) at the above link.EVE alpha in 50 words!
Eve is a plug in board for the Raspberry Pi mini computer
A hub that connects your wireless devices to each other and the web.
This is development hardware, we need your help to accelerate development of freely downloadable software.
EVE is something YOU own not a service you rent.
The Raspberry Pi EVE board is the reference hardware for the IoT Toolkit gateway (http://iot-toolkit.com). It's work in progress, but will be available for general use soon. There will be software development on EVE.
The guys behind OpenRemote which is a software integration platform for residential and commercial building automation have code that will already run on the Pi. OR has end-user control interfaces for iOS and Android devices.
EmonCMS which is by the guys at Open Energy Monitor will run on a Pi, John is looking at getting our sensors to log to it.http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/
Project EVE – a background to our idea
We want you to join our mission to try and connect everything you own or may own in the future – regardless of who made them in the first place. This short (21 day) Kickstarter project is to rapidly fund an early production (Alpha) version of our EVE board, get it out to passionate people so we can accelerate software development. Unlike some projects, this will (we promise hand on heart) begin to ship (if funded) this month.
At her heart, EVE is a communicator (between devices), a facilitator (helping you interact with her) and a guardian (a gateway to allow you to see what is going on in your world). EVE is fundamentally about you, your things, your interactions and your data (and sharing that data, of course, only if you want to).
It's probably a surprise to most that many of the pieces to make EVE happen already exist today, bringing them together is the next challenge. Later down you'll find links to a few inspirational ideas. These when "melded" together onto a single box, gives you a taste of just how EVE could be integrated into our lives. We see no reason why (for example) from anywhere in our house's (or indeed almost anywhere in the world) we can't simply talk to her......(We like to think it's like Siri or S Voice on steroids)
EVE...Yes...Has the postman been?....Yes, at 9:13 this morning.
EVE...Yes...When did the cat last come in and has she much food?...23 minutes ago, there's over a quarter of a bowl full left.
EVE...put on the TV the last recorded image of the front gate....(picture on TV)
EVE..can you find out from Grandma's EVE if she's had her pills and if not to remind her.
EVE...can you set the heating to come on half an hour earlier in the mornings.
We hope you get an image of what our expectations are. Sky high maybe, but it's all possible! We just need somewhere to start, we want to start today.
Follow us on twitter or on our blog
What is EVE Alpha?
EVE Alpha is the first baby steps towards EVE. Hardware is the first obstacle and we believe EVE Alpha is the solution. With EVE Alpha funded we hope to accelerate the development of the fabulously exciting software that will make EVE, and with your own board you can help too.
This "Alpha" project is aimed at a developer/tinkerer/hacker audience not consumers (just yet). As an EVE Alpha developer you may need to add the odd green wire as things progress. We have very basic code to talk to our SRF, there's already people working on the RFM12B so we'll have the start of something on day one (won't be pretty mind you). Z-Wave and EnOcean we have very little to go on so far, we don't have the internal "secret" datasheets, here's where we need a little help.
There's larger pictures further down and more technical details.
Why is EVE unique? – she’s individual.... just like you
During the development process we looked at how other people were building the Internet of Things and one thing became clear – we wanted EVE to avoid following the crowd and resist having her head in the Cloud(s) (pun shamelessly intended) for three reasons; Security, Power & Speed:
Security - many people are now discovering their data (music, pictures etc.) once uploaded can become the property of others (iTunes, Flickr etc.). By avoiding the Cloud, You keep your data. All your digital life is stored and processed locally on your own hardware. Would you want a third party knowing that you have left the lights on at home because you are out shopping? We all would rather keep some things to ourselves and for this reason EVE is designed to work on your behalf, not others. It's the only way to be sure your data always remains yours.
Power (Processing power) - having a computer, (in this case a Raspberry Pi) rather than a simple gateway device, means you can process and interact with your electronic life "locally" and in real time. Via the internet you can access EVE securely from your phone, PC or tablet. (The power to grow) Speech recognition, TV interfaces, texts, emails, tweets......there are almost limitless ways of interacting and integrating with the digital world that you already own and will be buying in the future.
Speed – Not everyone is blessed with a fibre connection to their home and some of us may never get one, which begs the question, “what happens if my life is connected via the Cloud but the connection is slow or worse, goes down”? With Cloud based services if you use your tablet to switch your light on, your tablet sends a message over the air to your WiFi router, this travels over the internet to the Cloud (hopefully encrypted, but often not) then returns all the way back again back via radio to your light bulb. Delays and loss of connection mean you can no longer interact with the devices you own in your own home! What we see of the future isn't that and we are sure that you don’t either!
What inspired EVE?
Here are some inspirational ideas which show EVE is possible and by combining these, EVE could do much more than anything that's gone before.
Julius voice recognition (already running on Pi)(link)
Open source version of Kinetic gesture detection (link)
Samsung TV that listens to you and more (link)
Hyperglance new ways of displaying complexity (link)
Arduino shows a simple idea can release immense creativity (link)
Zoneminder CCTV (link)
ModMiPi because EVE needs clothes plus has VESA mount (link)
What people already do with our hardware (Quadcopter video,Terex video)
Why do we need your support?
We are a small and passionate company and we already have some amazing products, but we are realistic and see that EVE is far too big an idea to do on our own.
Achieving our funding target of £15,000 will enable us to release the hardware and put in the early work to get a fledgling architecture together. Once funded we will release the EVE Alpha Eagle files and Schematics. Along the journey to EVE we will release the software under open source license and work with the community to collate the feedback and experiences of developers like you.
We know there are a number of companies who have been successfully funded on Kickstarter who on the face of it are doing similar things. This shows that there is significant demand out there. However, we feel that none of these seemingly “finished” products particularly hits "at the core" of what actual people need.
Why is EVE here now and where are we heading?
For the past for 6 years we have been working tirelessly on the goal of delivering the future of connectivity (see our bio on the right for more). This idea for a wireless device server just wasn't possible (economically) until the Raspberry Pi came along. It means we can adopt many wireless standards (see the picture above) to enable people to develop software (without limits).
Why does the world need EVE?
For a so long we have been frustrated with the output of companies and projects that have touched upon the coming wave of the Internet of Things.
From our perspective, and we suspect yours too (if you are into this kind of stuff), we feel that the Internet of Things is happening far too slowly and worst of all in little silos. Whilst manufacturers wait for common standards before "moving", this desire for an Internet of Things simply isn’t being delivered – and may never be if everyone waits for everyone else to move. More sensible voices are beginning to point out that “one size does not fit all” and that lots of ways will exist.
The fear is that something developed today may have nothing to talk to tomorrow! EVE has been designed to allow US ALL to unleash the potential in the devices we have by talking to everything regardless of age or generation. Heck there's plenty of X-10 kit around, that was an idea from the 60's. Coping with legacy kit we just can't avoid.
We have discovered from customer feedback that they do not wish to openly connect all their things to the Internet and would prefer something more personal, we have branded this “My Internet of Things”
With EVE we have taken a pragmatic approach and assumed that many manufacturers will probably not get "going" in big numbers any time soon, we don’t think the rest of us should wait until they do. If you are a manufacturer, buy an EVE and join us because people WILL buy your products.
Our ultimate goal for EVE is to provide a version of a consumer ready box that would be easily available for any home – we might be coming back to you, our supporters and Kickstarter again to deliver the next step in EVE's journey. That is if we are successful in getting support for EVE Alpha.
Why Open Source, surely this is so valuable we should have kept it closed?
The reason for opening up the board so early on, is to give the community the chance to sculpt what EVE can ultimately become. Software currently is seriously sparse, but we know together we can quickly unlock EVE’s potential. You might want to brew your own version of EVE (we hope people do).
Just as the Arduino spawned innovation and how much of an successful hit the Raspberry Pi has been, it shows one thing, tools + passion = results. We see EVE as the genesis of a new way to connect your digital world. We don't want her to be owned by any single person, organisation or body – EVE is about YOU and what YOU want to connect and control.
Meet EVE in person
We all ready have some early adopters that are committed to EVE and will be helping us show off EVE at the following events, as more are confirmed we will keep you updated.
November 6th 2012 - GeekUp Nottingham (UK)
November 15th 2012 - Silicon Valley IoT meetup (USA)
November 21st 2012 - Launch forum for SH&BA, London (UK)
November 28th - 30th 2012 - IoT forum in Bled (Slovenia)
November 29th - IoT:Bring a thing, present or make a thing Cambridge (UK)
March 24th - 25th 2013 - CoAP Plugtests in Paris (France)
March 29th - April 1st 2013 - National Home Building show NEC (UK)
Production plan
The very first boards will begin to be dispatched on the first day we are funded. Remaining boards will take 2 weeks to order and be shipped immediately. We anticipate shipping everything within November and December at the latest. The only problem we foresee is those ordering EVE along with a Raspberry Pi board, the delivery times on these is bound to fluctuate coming up to Christmas. We are happy to part ship if you would prefer.
Our PCB assembly is done in Nottingham in the UK on our own facilities (this is why we can do things so fast and at such good prices). The ModMyPi cases are also made in the UK as is the Raspberry Pi. The only things imported are the electronic parts and the fibreglass circuit boards.
EVE Alpha Technical Specs
The different reward levels provide several combinations of the available radio modules so please pick carefully.
EVE Alpha can physically support:
(top left) Extra pads to enable easy wire mods
(bottom right) 4 33Mhz or 868-915Mhz RFM12B module (connects to JeeNode wireless networks, Open Energy Monitor, X10, Bye Bye Standby, Current Cost and so much more)
4 (centre bottom) Z-Wave module (off the shelf home automation products)
(left bottom) EnOcean module (off the shelf energy harvested light switches and controls)
(right bottom) SRF or RFM12B style connector for another 433 or 868 device.
EVE Alpha board also includes(in Pre-built versions):
(top left) 868-915Mhz SRF module (the surface mount variant of our fantastic data radios)
(centre) XBee shaped module (Bluetooth, 802.15.4, Zigbee, LLAP, WiFi (RNXV), RF Bee and many many more) This includes our XRF and the new hyper range ARF which does 10's of KM. Can also be Zigbee - Telegisis ETRX3 series via custom adapter (uses the XBee socket)
(centre left) I2C connected Real Time Clock with battery backup TI BQ32000k
(centre left) I2C connected Local temperature sensor TI TMP100NA
(top right) Extra solder pads for future development
(centre right) External Power Jack and 3v3 regulator
EVE has support via USB for:
UMTS, 3G, 4G, LTE, Wifi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, X10 and much much more
EVE has support via Ethernet for:
IP to local networks, connection to the Internet, twitter, emails, facebook and so much more.
Not sure what you get in the different reward levels?
I have radios and love to solder
Then the Bare Bones or Entry Level is just for you.
Bare Bones - gets the EVE Alpha PCB, stand off, XBee connectors and a 2x13 way Pi connector, You will need to supply and install your own radio's.
Entry Level - has all the tiny surface mount parts soldered in place leaving you to add the easy to solder radio modules of your choice. The real time clock and temp sensor.
Pre Built and above all have the basic SMT parts and a combination of radios already installed.
What does the EVE case/box look like?
On a 19" monitor, this picture is visually larger than the actual case (95x62x28mm). We might move the logo to the top corner (your thoughts welcome)
What happens if no one is making the wireless device you want?
So make your own! The Developers Dream and Extra Mile includes the XINO RF. This Arduino with on board radio is an easy to use sensor development platform with thousands of code examples already freely available.
Also included is a LLAP wireless temperature sensor that uses simple and easy to use text commands, the box is about the size of a box of matches and can run for years on its internal battery by sleeping between transmissions. We are just working on devices that require no batteries at all. We don't understand the word boundary :)Newt Gingrich was speaker in 1995 and is still a leader in the GOP today. | AP Photos Old Guard still drive GOP agenda
BALTIMORE—Plenty of comparisons have been drawn between the Republican romp of 1995 and the GOP shellacking of 2010.
But how little the GOP has actually changed is on stark display here, where the House Republican “Congress of Tomorrow” retreat seems more like a curtain call from yesteryear.
Story Continued Below
Here’s the scene: Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, is holding forth with big ideas and “30,000-foot” worldview on health care and politics.
Frank Luntz, the old-school Republican word guru, was called in to coach the neophyte politicians on how to message their impending vote to increase the amount of money the nation can borrow.
Former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) is talking about free markets and spending.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former K Street ally of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), and Republican National Committee chairman from 1993 to 1997, spoke about his work as a state executive, while also touching on the similarities to when he led the party.
“It is reminiscent of 1995 when Sen. [Bob] Dole and Speaker Gingrich talked about a new partnership among House, Senate and governors,” Barbour said. “So we look forward to working with them, we were glad to be asked.”
And this all comes at a retreat that is a signature Washington event: As in the past, it’s paid for by a nonprofit organization funded, and run, by corporate lobbyists, even though many of the attendees campaigned against special interests and the insider ways of the capital city.
For a new GOP majority that promised to change the ways of Washington — indeed ran against its own party’s establishment in some cases — the retread status of this retreat is striking.
The Contract with America is now the Pledge to America, and Boehner’s chief of staff Barry Jackson — the man pulling the strings quietly behind the scenes here and simultaneously at the RNC meeting in Oxon Hill, Md., — still has a firm grip on every corner of the party’s infrastructure.
Republicans aren’t alone; in fact the blast from the past is also evident on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue. The day the House GOP gathered here at the harbor-side, sky-scraping Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, the White House announced that Bruce Reed, a Clinton-era policy adviser, would rejoin the executive branch as Vice President Joe Biden’s chief of staff. Last week, former Clinton Commerce Secretary Bill Daley became Obama’s chief of staff.Liz Lynne denies allegation that she ordered aide to destroy notes on claims made by former manager of Rochdale home
Police are examining a claim that a senior Liberal Democrat ordered a personal assistant to destroy a document containing allegations of abuse and mismanagement against the late paedophile MP Cyril Smith.
Liz Lynne, who is standing to become the party’s president, is alleged to have told her constituency aide Deborah Doyle to get rid of a document detailing allegations of a coverup at the Knowl View children’s home in Rochdale.
A former manager at the home, Martin Digan, said he had spoken to detectives about his claim that Lynne avoided meeting him to discuss allegations that Smith knew about child abuse taking place at the home and had taken control of it.
The interviews are part of a wider criminal investigation announced by Greater Manchester police in July to review the way previous reports of child sexual abuse in Rochdale – in particular around Knowl View – were handled or allegedly covered up.
Lynne has categorically denied asking any staff member to destroy any documents relating to Knowl View or child abuse and said nobody had approached her about any such allegations.
Last month Lynne said she had no recollection of any notes detailing child abuse claims that were written or destroyed by a staff member, or of being approached by Digan.
The disclosure comes as ballot forms for the presidential position have been sent to Liberal Democrat members. Senior party sources have told the Guardian that Lynne could well win the contest. Lynne, who followed Smith as the MP for Rochdale, could face a protracted row over the claims as the party approaches the general election.
The party is still reeling from separate allegations against Lord Rennard, the former party election strategist, who was accused of groping women – an allegation he denies – and against Mike Hancock, the MP for Portsmouth South, who has admitted making inappropriate advances towards a vulnerable constituent [see footnote].
The Crown Prosecution Service has said Smith should have been prosecuted for abuse in Rochdale in the 1960s. He died in 2010 aged 82.
Doyle said she first approached police with the claim last year after seeing a Dispatches documentary on Smith, and was contacted by the force last month to arrange an interview. She told the Guardian: “I have been in contact with Greater Manchester police and have told them that I am willing to be interviewed. This meeting is still being set up.”
Digan said: “I have given a statement to the police regarding Liz Lynne.”
Doyle, who worked for Lynne between September 1995 and May 1997, said she took three or four pages of notes from a long telephone conversation with Digan in 1996. Digan had contacted Lynne’s office in Rochdale as claims of widespread abuse had begun to emerge about Knowl View, where boys as young as 10 had been raped. The first questions were being raised publicly about Smith’s role in the school.
Doyle says Digan told her over the telephone that Smith knew of abuse at the school and gave details of a coverup at the institution and the local authority. She says she told Lynne, who had been on holiday when Digan called, about the allegation, but that Lynne said she did not want to meet Digan and told her to destroy the notes. Doyle said of the notes: “I think I took them home and put them on my fire.”
Smith had retired from frontline politics but was still a prominent figure in Rochdale. Lynne had taken over his seat.
Digan, a social worker, was responsible for passing a dossier of evidence to the police that eventually led to the school being closed in the 1990s.
He said last week that he had approached Lynne’s office hoping to discuss suspicions about the way Smith and others had wished to take the school out of local authority control. He also had concerns that Smith had his own set of keys to the school.
A constituent of Lynne’s at the time, Digan said he called her office and had a long conversation with her personal assistant about Smith. He said he called Lynne’s office again some weeks later, on the off-chance of finding out if he could talk to someone else about the school. This time, Lynne answered the telephone.
“I arranged to go and meet her, but someone from her office cancelled it the day before it was due to take place,” he said. “She never got back to me. The shame is that many abuse victims could have been helped if Lynne and many others had taken the abuse at Knowl View seriously at that point.”
In an email, Lynne said: “I have no knowledge that the police are investigating any allegations relating to me but I can assure you that I have not been contacted by them in any way shape or form. I categorically deny that I asked any staff member to destroy any documents relating to Knowl View school or child abuse. I can add that whilst I was an MP, nobody approached me about any such allegations.
“I was able to reassure Lib Dem officials after these unsubstantiated rumours were publicised that they were entirely untrue. I am taking legal advice as to how I should proceed if this false allegation is further publicised.”
A police source confirmed that Doyle and Digan had been in contact with the force.
• This footnote was appended on 14 November 2014. The article stated that “the party is still reeling from separate allegations against Lord Rennard, the former party election strategist, who was accused of groping women – an allegation he denies”. To clarify: the allegations were investigated by the Metropolitan Police, which decided not to proceed.A solid gold ornament in the shape of a monkey head, dating from the 100-800 AD Moche culture of Peru’s north coast, was returned to Peru yesterday by the New Mexico History Museum, at a ceremony in Washington D.C.
The gold bead, measuring 4.5cm tall by 7cm wide and most probably once on a necklace, was part of an exhibition on Art of Ancient America in the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The collection was on loan to the museum since 1998 by private collector John Bourne, and that same year the bead was identified as a Moche artifact by Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva —who discovered the magnificent tombs of the Lord of Sipan— during a visit to the museum. There were also two ear spools and a gold rattle but, unlike the monkey head, these were not later donated by Bourne to the museum.
The monkey head, with turquoise and shell eyes and bits of turquoise in its tongue, has a ball tucked inside to make the bead rattle when moved. It is a fine example of the artistry of Moche metalworkers.
The Peruvian government filed a request in 1998 to repatriate the artifact, on the grounds that it had been stolen from a burial mound in Sipan. In fact, journalist Roger Atwood, author of Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World, maintained that the four pieces had been stolen from Sipan. He once described Bourne’s collection as among “the finest small collections of pre-Columbian art anywhere.”
The objects were impounded but disagreements eventually led the U.S. Attorney General’s office in Albuquerque to decide not to prosecute and the objects were returned to the museum in 2000.
Then in May this year, the Peruvian government took up the issue again, and following a full identification, the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents voted in October to return the monkey head to Peru.
Museum Director Frances Levine said in a statement that the New Mexico museum’s focus is “on stories played out on U.S. soil” and that artifacts such as the Moche monkey head bead “can be better used to help museums in Peru tell their own stories.”Alpine Health - Report, 2007-08. Altona Memorial Park Trustees - Report, 2007-08. Ambulance Service Victoria - Metropolitan Region - Report, 2007-08. Architects Registration Board - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Austin Health - Report, 2007-08.
Australian Grand Prix Corporation - Report, 2007-08. Bairnsdale Regional Health Service - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Ballarat Health Services - Report, 2007-08. Barwon Health - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Barwon Region Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08.
Bass Coast Regional Health - Report, 2007-08 (three papers). Bayside Health - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Beaufort and Skipton Health Service - Report, 2007-08 (three papers). Beechworth Health Service - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Benalla and District Memorial Hospital - Report, 2007-08 (two papers).
Bendigo Cemeteries Trust - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Bendigo Health Care Group - Report, 2007-08. Boort District Hospital - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Casterton Memorial Hospital - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Central Gippsland Health Service - Report, 2007-08 (two papers).
Central Highlands Region Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08. Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Trust - Report, 2007-08. Child Safety Commissioner - Report, 2007-08. Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. City West Water Limited - Report, 2007-08.
Cobram District Hospital - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Cohuna District Hospital - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Colac Area Health - Report, 2007-08. Coliban Region Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Commissioner for Law Enforcement Data Security - Report, 2007-08.
Community Visitors - Report, 2007-08. Confiscation Act 1997 - Asset Confiscation Operations, Report to the Attorney-General, 2007-08. Consumer Affairs - Report, 2007-08. Corangamite Catchment Management Authority - Report, 2007-08. Country Fire Authority - Report, 2007-08.
Dandenong Development Board - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Dental Health Services Victoria - Report, 2007-08. Dental Practice Board of Victoria - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Disability Services Commissioner - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Djerriwah Health Services - Report, 2007-08 (two papers).
Dunmunkle Health Services - Report, 2007-08. East Gippsland Region Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08. East Grampians Health Service - Report, 2007-08. East Wimmera Health Service - Report, 2007-08. Eastern Health - Report, 2007-08.
Echuca Regional Health - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Edenhope and District Memorial Hospital - Report, 2007-08. Education and Early Childhood Development Department - Report, 2007-08. Emerald Tourist Railway Board - Report, 2007-08. Emergency Services Superannuation Board - Report, 2007-08.
Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority - Report, 2007-08. Environment Protection Authority - Report, 2007-08. Essential Services Commission - Report, 2007-08. Fawkner Crematorium and Memorial Park Trust - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Fed Square Pty Ltd - Report, 2007-08.
Geelong Cemeteries Trust - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Gippsland and Southern Rural Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08. Gippsland Southern Health Service - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Goulburn Valley Health - Report, 2007-08. Goulburn Valley Region Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08.
Goulburn-Murray Rural Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08. Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water Corporation - Report, 2007-08. Health Purchasing Victoria - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Health Services Commissioner - Report, 2007-08 (two papers). Hepburn Health Service - Report, 2007-08.
Heritage Council - Minister's report of receipt of 2007-08 report. Hesse Rural Health Service - Report, 2007-08. Heywood Rural Health - Report, 2007-08. Human Services Department - Report, 2007-08 |
F A = G SC c cos 2 α {\displaystyle P={\frac {F}{A}}={\frac {G_{\text{SC}}}{c}}\cos ^{2}\alpha }
Note, however, that in order to account for the net effect of solar radiation on a spacecraft for instance, one would need to consider the total force (in the direction away from the sun) given by the preceding equation, rather than just the component normal to the surface that we identify as "pressure".
The solar constant is defined for the sun's radiation at the distance to the earth, also known as one astronomical unit (AU). Consequently, at a distance of R astronomical units (R thus being dimensionless), applying the inverse square law, we would find:
P = G SC c R 2 cos 2 α {\displaystyle P={\frac {G_{\text{SC}}}{cR^{2}}}\cos ^{2}\alpha }
Finally, considering not an absorbing but a perfectly reflecting surface, the pressure is doubled due to the reflected wave, resulting in:
P = 2 G SC c R 2 cos 2 α {\displaystyle P=2{\frac {G_{\text{SC}}}{cR^{2}}}\cos ^{2}\alpha }
Note that unlike the case of an absorbing material, the resulting force on a reflecting body is given exactly by this pressure acting normal to the surface, with the tangential forces from the incident and reflecting waves canceling each other. In practice, materials are neither totally reflecting nor totally absorbing, so the resulting force will be a weighted average of the forces calculated using these formulae.
Solar radiation pressure on perfect reflector at normal incidence (α=0) Distance from sun Radiation pressure in μPa (μN/m2) 0.20 AU 227 0.39 AU (Mercury) 60.6 0.72 AU (Venus) 17.4 1.00 AU (Earth) 9.08 1.52 AU (Mars) 3.91 3.00 AU (Typical asteroid) 1.01 5.20 AU (Jupiter) 0.34
Radiation pressure perturbations [ edit ]
Solar radiation pressure is a source of orbital perturbations. It significantly affects the orbits and trajectories of small bodies including all spacecraft.
Solar radiation pressure affects bodies throughout much of the Solar System. Small bodies are more affected than large because of their lower mass relative to their surface area. Spacecraft are affected along with natural bodies (comets, asteroids, dust grains, gas molecules).
The radiation pressure results in forces and torques on the bodies that can change their translational and rotational motions. Translational changes affect the orbits of the bodies. Rotational rates may increase or decrease. Loosely aggregated bodies may break apart under high rotation rates. Dust grains can either leave the Solar System or spiral into the Sun.
A whole body is typically composed of numerous surfaces that have different orientations on the body. The facets may be flat or curved. They will have different areas. They may have optical properties differing from other aspects.
At any particular time, some facets will be exposed to the Sun and some will be in shadow. Each surface exposed to the Sun will be reflecting, absorbing, and emitting radiation. Facets in shadow will be emitting radiation. The summation of pressures across all of the facets will define the net force and torque on the body. These can be calculated using the equations in the preceding sections.[8][14]
The Yarkovsky effect affects the translation of a small body. It results from a face leaving solar exposure being at a higher temperature than a face approaching solar exposure. The radiation emitted from the warmer face will be more intense than that of the opposite face, resulting in a net force on the body that will affect its motion.
The YORP effect is a collection of effects expanding upon the earlier concept of the Yarkovsky effect, but of a similar nature. It affects the spin properties of bodies.
The Poynting–Robertson effect applies to grain-size particles. From the perspective of a grain of dust circling the Sun, the Sun's radiation appears to be coming from a slightly forward direction (aberration of light). Therefore, the absorption of this radiation leads to a force with a component against the direction of movement. (The angle of aberration is tiny since the radiation is moving at the speed of light while the dust grain is moving many orders of magnitude slower than that.) The result is a gradual spiral of dust grains into the Sun. Over long periods of time, this effect cleans out much of the dust in the Solar System.
While rather small in comparison to other forces, the radiation pressure force is inexorable. Over long periods of time, the net effect of the force is substantial. Such feeble pressures can produce marked effects upon minute particles like gas ions and electrons, and are essential in the theory of electron emission from the Sun, of cometary material, and so on.
Because the ratio of surface area to volume (and thus mass) increases with decreasing particle size, dusty (micrometre-size) particles are susceptible to radiation pressure even in the outer solar system. For example, the evolution of the outer rings of Saturn is significantly influenced by radiation pressure.
As a consequence of light pressure, Einstein[15] in 1909 predicted the existence of "radiation friction" which would oppose the movement of matter. He wrote, “radiation will exert pressure on both sides of the plate. The forces of pressure exerted on the two sides are equal if the plate is at rest. However, if it is in motion, more radiation will be reflected on the surface that is ahead during the motion (front surface) than on the back surface. The backward acting force of pressure exerted on the front surface is thus larger than the force of pressure acting on the back. Hence, as the resultant of the two forces, there remains a force that counteracts the motion of the plate and that increases with the velocity of the plate. We will call this resultant 'radiation friction' in brief.”
Solar sails [ edit ]
Solar sailing, an experimental method of spacecraft propulsion, uses radiation pressure from the Sun as a motive force. The idea of interplanetary travel by light was mentioned by Jules Verne in From the Earth to the Moon.
A sail reflects about 90% of the incident radiation. The 10% that is absorbed is radiated away from both surfaces, with the proportion emitted from the unlit surface depending on the thermal conductivity of the sail. A sail has curvature, surface irregularities, and other minor factors that affect its performance.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully unfurled a solar sail in space which has already succeeded in propelling its payload with the IKAROS project.
Cosmic effects of radiation pressure [ edit ]
Radiation pressure has had a major effect on the development of the cosmos, from the birth of the universe to ongoing formation of stars and shaping of clouds of dust and gasses on a wide range of scales.
The early universe [ edit ]
The photon epoch is a phase when the energy of the universe was dominated by photons, between 10 seconds and 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
Galaxy formation and evolution [ edit ]
The process of galaxy formation and evolution began early in the history of the cosmos. Observations of the early universe strongly suggest that objects grew from bottom-up (i.e., smaller objects merging to form larger ones). As stars are thereby formed and become sources of electromagnetic radiation, radiation pressure from the stars becomes a factor in the dynamics of remaining circumstellar material.
Clouds of dust and gases [ edit ]
Pillars of Creation clouds within the Theclouds within the Eagle Nebula shaped by radiation pressure and stellar winds.
The gravitational compression of clouds of dust and gases is strongly influenced by radiation pressure, especially when the condensations lead to star births. The larger young stars forming within the compressed clouds emit intense levels of radiation that shift the clouds, causing either dispersion or condensations in nearby regions, which influences birth rates in those nearby regions.
Clusters of stars [ edit ]
Stars predominantly form in regions of large clouds of dust and gases, giving rise to star clusters. Radiation pressure from the member stars eventually disperses the clouds, which can have a profound effect on the evolution of the cluster.
Many open clusters are inherently unstable, with a small enough mass that the escape velocity of the system is lower than the average velocity of the constituent stars. These clusters will rapidly disperse within a few million years. In many cases, the stripping away of the gas from which the cluster formed by the radiation pressure of the hot young stars reduces the cluster mass enough to allow rapid dispersal.
Star formation [ edit ]
Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space collapse to form stars. As a branch of astronomy, star formation includes the study of the interstellar medium and giant molecular clouds (GMC) as precursors to the star formation process, and the study of protostars and young stellar objects as its immediate products. Star formation theory, as well as accounting for the formation of a single star, must also account for the statistics of binary stars and the initial mass function.
Stellar planetary systems [ edit ]
A protoplanetary disk with a cleared central region (artist's conception).
Planetary systems are generally believed to form as part of the same process that results in star formation. A protoplanetary disk forms by gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud, called a solar nebula, and then evolves into a planetary system by collisions and gravitational capture. Radiation pressure can clear a region in the immediate vicinity of the star. As the formation process continues, radiation pressure continues to play a role in affecting the distribution of matter. In particular, dust and grains can spiral into the star or escape the stellar system under the action of radiation pressure.
Stellar interiors [ edit ]
In stellar interiors the temperatures are very high. Stellar models predict a temperature of 15 MK in the center of the Sun, and at the cores of supergiant stars the temperature may exceed 1 GK. As the radiation pressure scales as the fourth power of the temperature, it becomes important at these high temperatures. In the Sun, radiation pressure is still quite small when compared to the gas pressure. In the heaviest non-degenerate stars, radiation pressure is the dominant pressure component.[16]
Comets [ edit ]
Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1). Radiation pressure and solar wind effects on the dust and gas tails are clearly seen.
Solar radiation pressure strongly affects comet tails. Solar heating causes gases to be released from the comet nucleus, which also carry away dust grains. Radiation pressure and solar wind then drive the dust and gases away from the Sun's direction. The gases form a generally straight tail, while slower moving dust particles create a broader, curving tail.
Laser applications of radiation pressure [ edit ]
Optical tweezers [ edit ]
Lasers can be used as a source of monochromatic light with wavelength λ {\displaystyle \lambda }. With a set of lenses, one can focus the laser beam to a point that is λ {\displaystyle \lambda } in diameter (or r = λ 2 {\displaystyle r={\frac {\lambda }{2}}} ).
The radiation pressure of a 30 mW laser of 1064 nm can therefore be computed as follows:
A r e a = π ( λ 2 ) 2 ≈ 10 − 12 m 2 {\displaystyle A_{rea}=\pi \left({\frac {\lambda }{2}}\right)^{2}\approx 10^{-12}{\text{ m}}^{2}}
F o r c e = P o w e r c = 30 mW 299792458 m/s ≈ 10 − 10 N {\displaystyle F_{orce}={\frac {P_{ower}}{c}}={\frac {30{\text{ mW}}}{299792458{\text{ m/s}}}}\approx 10^{-10}{\text{ N}}}
P r e s s u r e = F o r c e A r e a ≈ 10 − 10 N 10 − 12 m 2 = 100 Pascal {\displaystyle P_{ressure}={\frac {F_{orce}}{A_{rea}}}\approx {\frac {10^{-10}{\text{ N}}}{10^{-12}{\text{ m}}^{2}}}=100{\text{ Pascal}}}
This is used in optical tweezers.
Other examples [ edit ]
Laser cooling is applied to cooling materials very close to absolute zero. Atoms traveling towards a laser light source perceive a doppler effect tuned to the absorption frequency of the target element. The radiation pressure on the atom slows movement in a particular direction until the Doppler effect moves out of the frequency range of the element, causing an overall cooling effect.
Large lasers operating in space have been suggested as a means of propelling sail craft in beam-powered propulsion.
The reflection of a laser pulse from the surface of an elastic solid gives rise to various types of elastic waves that propagate inside the solid. The weakest waves are generally those that are generated by the radiation pressure acting during the reflection of the light. Recently, such light-pressure-induced elastic waves were observed inside an ultrahigh-reflectivity dielectric mirror.[17] These waves are the most basic fingerprint of a light-solid matter interaction on the macroscopic scale.[18]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]As the United States and France prepare for a seemingly inevitable military strike on Syria, intelligence experts around the globe are sounding the alarm that the justification for intervention is far from established.
The Obama administration joined by French President Francois Hollande have vowed to punish the Syrian government for what they claim is irrefutable evidence that it unleashed chemical weapons in a suburb of Damascus, killing hundreds. But a growing number of analysts who have scrutinized military intelligence in past conflicts warn that the case linking the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad to a chemical weapons attack is incomplete.
One of the world's leading experts on chemical weapons, Jean Pascal Zanders, on Friday told The Huffington Post UK that he has significant doubts about the identity of the chemical agent widely blamed for the deaths in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.
"We don't know what the agent is," said Zanders, who until recently served as senior research fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies, an EU agency that scrutinizes defense and security issues. "Everyone is saying sarin. There is something clearly to do with a neurotoxicant [such as sarin], but not everything is pointing in that direction."
The agent used is a crucial piece of information, Zanders said, because the family of neurotoxicants that includes military weapons such as nerve agents also encompasses industrial products like those used to control rodents. Until the actual agent can be identified, any link to the Assad regime is tenuous, Zanders said.
"If say, for example, a neurotoxicant was taken from a factory and used at [Ghouta], then the number of actors who might be responsible for that then increases," he said
Zanders' caution was merely the latest bit of skepticism to emerge from the ranks of experienced experts now challenging the adequacy of the case for a strike in Syria.
On Thursday, Lawrence Wilkerson, who reviewed the intelligence presented by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell as justification for the war in Iraq a decade ago, told HuffPost that the preparations for a Syria strike seem devoid of authority.
Wilkerson likened the current debate to a repeat of the days he spent preparing for Powell's since-debunked testimony, "with people telling me [former Iraq President] Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction with absolutely certainty."
He added: "It seems like the same thing again."
That pronouncement followed a striking caution from Hans Blix, who was chief United Nations arms inspector for Iraq in the run-up to the war. In an interview with Nathan Gardels, Blix said that while "indications are certainly in the direction of the use of chemical weapons" in Syria, those now contemplating military action should wait for U.N. inspectors now on the ground to complete their work.
"As we've seen before, the political dynamics are running ahead of due process," Blix said, adding that the dynamic was reminiscent of the way the Bush administration launched the war in Iraq.
"I do not go along with the statement by the U.S. that 'it is too late' for Syria now to cooperate. That is a poor excuse for taking military action."
Most pointedly, Blix warned that missiles aimed at eradicating Assad's chemical weapons capacities could exacerbate harm.
"Attacking stockpiles with cruise missiles, as I understand it, has the disadvantage that is might spread chemical weapons in the vicinity of any attack," Blix said.
Zanders, the former EU chemical weapons expert, went even further, arguing that outsiders cannot conclude with confidence the extent or geographic location of the chemical weapons attack widely being blamed on the Assad regime.
He singled out the images of victims convulsing in agony that have circulated widely on the Web, including on YouTube.
"You do not know where they were taken," he said. "You do not know when they were taken or even by whom they were taken. Or, whether they [are from] the same incident or from different incidents."
Zanders added: "It doesn't tell me who would be responsible for it. It doesn't tell me where the films were taken. It just tells me that something has happened, somewhere, at some point."A New York company called Ecovative Design grew mycelia into a custom drone-shaped chassis you see above. Unfortunately, some parts of the drone just can't be replaced with biodegradable materials for now, though the team tried to stay true to the idea and used silver nanoparticle ink (which can disintegrate along with the chassis) to print the device's circuits. For the test flight earlier this month, the team had to use propellers, controls and batteries taken from an ordinary quadcopter, but that might change in the future. You can read all about the development process on the scientists' website, where you can also download some 3D printable files of a few drone chassis concepts.
Update (November 26, 2014): Lynn Rothschild reached out to us in order to address some comments and clarify a few things. She wrote:Preface These are just my slides someone posted on HackerNews. You can watch the actual presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paa3niF72Nw I also wrote down the answers for questions that came up during the presentation here: http://blogs.perl.org/users/zoffix_znet/2016/03/wow-perl-6-talk-slides-recording-and-answers-to-questions.html You can navigate these slides by pressing Left / Right arrows or by swiping on your mobile devices.
Wow, Perl 6! by Pete 'Zoffix Znet' Evstratov https://metacpan.org/author/ZOFFIX | @zoffix This presentation is available at TPM2016.zoffix.com
Question Policy If you did not understand what I said or what I'm talking about, simply raise your hand. This presentation is available at TPM2016.zoffix.com
Mind The Unicode: Perl 6 lets you use fancy-pants Unicode terms and operators that you'll see in this presentation. All of them have "Texas variants" that use ASCII characters only. If you rather use those, see http://docs.perl6.org/language/unicode_texas to find them.
Lazy Lists and Their Uses
Lazy Lists Let's do something crazy... like create an INFINITE LIST!! 1: my @to-infinity-and-beyond = 0, 2 … ∞; 2: say @to-infinity-and-beyond[1008]; # OUTPUT: # 2016
Lazy Lists Something more useful: working with a giant file: 1: for '/tmp/4GB-file.txt'.IO.words { 2:.say; 3: last if ++$ == 3; 4: } 5: say "Code took {now - INIT now} seconds to run"; # OUTPUT: # foo # bar # ber # Code took 0.01111143 seconds to run
Lazy Lists Something more useful: working with a giant file 1:.say for '/tmp/4GB-file.txt'.IO.words[0..2]; 2: say "Code took {now - INIT now} seconds to run"; # OUTPUT: # foo # bar # ber # Code took 0.01111143 seconds to run
Molding Your Own Subsets, Custom operators, Multi-dispatch
Subsets A subset of a type lets you restrict the values it accepts: 1: subset BigPrime of Int where { $_ > 10_000 and.is-prime } 2: 3: sub MAIN ( BigPrime $num ) { 4: say "That's a nice-looking prime number you got there!"; 5: } $ perl6 test.p6 3 Usage: test.p6 <num> $ perl6 test.p6 31337 That's a nice-looking prime number you got there! $ perl6 test.p6 100000 Usage: test.p6 <num>
Multi-Dispatch Multiple subs or methods of same name, but different parameters: 1: subset Prime of Int where *.is-prime; 2: subset BigPrime of Prime where * > 10_000; 3: subset SmallPrime of Prime where * <= 10_000; 4: 5: multi MAIN ( BigPrime $num ) { say "Prime number! Nice and big"; } 6: multi MAIN ( SmallPrime $num ) { say "Puny prime number"; } 7: multi MAIN ( $num ) { say "Gimme primes!"; } $ perl6 test.p6 42 Gimme primes! $ perl6 test.p6 7 Puny prime number $ perl6 test.p6 31337 Prime number! Nice and big
Multi-Dispatch Multiple subs or methods of same name, but different parameters: 1: class Numbers { 2: multi method id ( Numeric $num ) { say "$num is a number" } 3: multi method id ( $num ) { say "$num is something else" } 4: } 5: Numbers.new.id: π; 6: Numbers.new.id: 'blah'; # OUTPUT: # 3.14159265358979 is a number # blah is something else
Multi-Dispatch Extend method functionality: 1: class Numbers { 2: multi method id ( Numeric $num ) { say "$num is a number" } 3: multi method id ( $num ) { say "$num is something else" } 4: } 5: 6: class SmarterNumbers is Numbers { 7: multi method id ( Numeric $num where * == π ) { say "Mmmm yummy pie!" } 8: } 9: 10: SmarterNumbers.new.id: 42; 11: SmarterNumbers.new.id: π; 12: SmarterNumbers.new.id: 'blah'; # OUTPUT: # 42 is a number # Mmmm yummy pie! # blah is something else
Custom Terms and Operators
Custom Terms and Operators 1: sub infix:<¯\(°_o)/¯> { 2: ($^a, $^b).pick 3: } 4: 5: say 'Coke' ¯\(°_o)/¯ 'Pepsi'; # OUTPUT: # Pepsi Operator categories: infix, prefix, postfix, circumfix, postcircumfix and you can also use term for terms.
Custom Terms and Operators 1: sub prefix:<∑> (*@els) { @els.sum } 2: say ∑ 1, 2, 3, 4; # OUTPUT: # 1234 Doesn't seem to work well...
Custom Terms and Operators 1: sub prefix:<∑> (*@els) is looser(&infix:<,>) { @els.sum } 2: say ∑ 1, 2, 3, 4; # OUTPUT: # 10 Use is looser / is tighter to change precedence. Default precedence is same as + / ++ operator in that position. (See docs on how to change associativity with is assoc trait)
Custom Terms and Operators More examples: 1: sub term:<ξ> { (^10 + 1).pick; } 2: sub postcircumfix:<❨ ❩> ($before, $inside) is rw { 3: $before{$inside}; 4: } 5: 6: my %hash = :foo<bar>, :meow<moo>; 7: %hash❨'foo'❩ = ξ; 8: %hash❨'meow'❩ = ξ; 9: 10: say %hash; # OUTPUT: # foo => 6, meow => 8
Custom Terms and Operators Overriding existing operators: 1: sub infix:<+> (Int $a, Int $b) { $a - $b }; 2: say 2 + 2; # OUTPUT: # 0
Custom Terms and Operators Don't worry... this effect is lexically scoped!
Custom Terms and Operators Overriding existing operators: 1: class Thingamagig { has $.value }; 2: 3: multi infix:<~> (Thingamagig $a, Str $b) { 4: $a.value ~ $b 5: } 6: 7: my $thing = Thingamagig.new: value => 'thingamagig'; 8: say 'foo' ~ 'bar'; 9: say $thing ~ 'bar'; 10: say 'bar' ~ $thing; # OUTPUT: # foobar # thingamagigbar # barThingamagig<139870715547680> See Color::Operators module from Color distribution for more examples.
Hyperspace Multi-core processing at a touch of a button Punch it, Chewie.
Hyper Operators They look like « and » and you might see them explained with examples like these: (1, 2) «+« (3) (1, 2) »+» 1 (1, 2, 3, 4) «+» (1, 2)
Hyper Operators Those won't be multi-threaded for a while, if at all. Instead, the variant I'll talk about is this one: @foo».bar
Hyper Operators Let's say you want to uppercase each string in your array and then break that array up into sublists of 3 elements each: 1: my @a = <one two three four five six seven eight nine>; 2: say @a.map({.uc }).rotor: 3; # Output: # ((ONE TWO THREE) (FOUR FIVE SIX) (SEVEN EIGHT NINE)) It's nice and short, but what if you want to call a more time-consuming method on thousands of elements?
Hyper Operators Just use a hyper operator before the method call: 1: my @a = <one two three four five six seven eight nine>; 2: say @a».uc.rotor: 3; # OUTPUT: # ((ONE TWO THREE) (FOUR FIVE SIX) (SEVEN EIGHT NINE)) Put » before the dot method call and the method you're calling will be called on individual elements instead. Further methods in the chain will be called on the array (list, etc.), unless they're hypered as well. BONUS: it's a compiler hint to use multiple threads.
Hyper Seqs What if you want to "do stuff" on a bunch of things, but on multiple cores? Loop over a HyperSeq. You get one by calling either:.hyper —preserves element order
—preserves element order.race —does not preserve element order
Hyper Seqs Iterate over a 4-element sequence, sleep for 1 second for each element: 1: for (1..4).race( batch => 1 ) { 2: say "Doing $_"; 3: sleep 1; 4: } 5: say "Code took {now - INIT now} seconds to run"; # OUTPUT: # Doing 1 # Doing 3 # Doing 2 # Doing 4 # Code took 1.0090415 seconds to run Code runs for just over 1 second!
Hyper Seqs.hyper is the same, but it preserves the order of elements in the resulting sequence.
Autothreaded junctions Logical superposition of values Code with some logical checks: 1: my @valid = <foo bar baz>; 2: my $what = 'ber'; 3: say "$what is not valid" if not @valid.grep: { $what eq $_ }; 4: say "A ber or a bar" if $what eq 'ber' or $what eq 'bar'; # OUTPUT: # ber is not valid # A ber or a bar
Autothreaded junctions 1: my @valid = <foo bar baz>; 2: my $what = 'ber'; 3: say "$what is not valid" if $what eq none @valid; 4: say "A ber or a bar" if $what eq 'ber' | 'bar'; # OUTPUT: # ber is not valid # A ber or a bar
Autothreaded junctions type constructor operator True if... all all & no value evaluates to False any any | at least one value evaluates to True one one ^ exactly one value evaluates to True none none no value evaluates to True
Autothreaded junctions Best part? Junctions are autothreaded, meaning they are a hint to the compiler it can evaluate them on multiple threads!
Promises I don't always write concurrent code,
but when I do, it's THIS simple: 1: start { sleep 3; say "two" }; 2: say "one"; 3: sleep 5; 4: say "three"; # OUTPUT: # one # two # three
Promises Concurrent / asynchronous code: 1: my @promises = ^3.map: { 2: start { 3:.say; sleep 1; 4: $_ * 4; 5: } 6: }; 7: say "Started! {now - INIT now}"; 8: say await @promises; 9: say "All done! {now - INIT now}"; # OUTPUT: # 0 # 1 # 2 # Started! 0.0196113 # (0 4 8) # All done! 1.0188611
Promises Start later: 1: Promise.in(5).then: -> $v { say "It's been {now - INIT now} seconds!" }; 2: sleep 7; 3: say "Ran for {now - INIT now} seconds" # OUTPUT: # It's been 5.031918 seconds! # Ran for 7.0160562 seconds
Supplies Asynchronous data streaming: 1: my $supplier = Supplier.new; 2: 3: $supplier.Supply.tap: -> $v { say "Original: $v" }; 4: $supplier.Supply.map( * × 2 ).tap: -> $v { say " Double: $v" }; 5: $supplier.Supply.grep( * % 2 ).tap: -> $v { say " Odd: $v" }; 6: 7: $supplier.emit: $_ for ^3; # OUTPUT: # Original: 0 # Double: 0 # Original: 1 # Double: 2 # Odd: 1 # Original: 2 # Double: 4
Supplies Events at interval inside an event loop ( react ): 1: react { 2: whenever Supply.interval: 2 -> $v { 3: say "$v: {now - INIT now}"; 4: done if $v == 2; 5: } 6: whenever Supply.interval: 1 -> $v { say " 1 sec: {now - INIT now}"; } 7: } # OUTPUT: # 0: 0.026734 # 1 sec: 0.0333274 # 1 sec: 1.02325708 # 1: 2.027192 # 1 sec: 2.0276854 # 1 sec: 3.0234109 # 2: 4.0324349
Channels A thread-safe queue: 1: my $c = Channel.new; 2: start { 3: loop { say "$c.receive() at {now - INIT now}" } 4: } 5: await ^10.map: -> $r { 6: start { 7: sleep $r; 8: $c.send: $r; 9: } 10: } 11: $c.close; # OUTPUT: # 0 at 0.01036314 # 1 at 1.0152853 # 2 at 2.0174991 # 3 at 3.020067105 # 4 at 4.01953470 # 5 at 5.0195884 # 6 at 6.0205915 # 7 at 7.020651 # 8 at 8.02339744
Grammars! An easy way to parse things
Grammars! An easy way to parse things 1: grammar MyGrammar { 2: token TOP { <sign> <digits> <decimal>? } 3: token sign { <[+-]>? } 4: token digits { \d+ } 5: token decimal { \. <digits> } 6: } 7: 8: say MyGrammar.parse: '250.42'; # OUTPUT: # ｢250.42｣ # sign => ｢｣ # digits => ｢250｣ # decimal => ｢.42｣ # digits => ｢42｣
Grammars! An easy way to parse things 1: grammar MyGrammar { 2: token TOP { <sign> <digits> <decimal>? } 3: token sign { <[+-]>? } 4: token digits { \d+ } 5: token decimal { \. <digits> } 6: } 7: 8: class MyActions { 9: method sign ($/) { $/.make: $/.chars?? ~$/!! '+' } 10: method TOP ($/) { $/.make: $<sign>.made ~ ($<digits> + 42 ) ~ $<decimal> } 11: } 12: 13: say MyGrammar.parse('250.42', actions => MyActions).made; # OUTPUT: # +292.42
Grammars! Useful modules: Grammar::Debugger and Grammar::Tracer —just use one of the modules in the distro to get debug output for your grammars
—just one of the modules in the distro to get debug output for your grammars Grammar::BNF —convert BNF to Perl 6 grammars automagically!!
Whatever, man! Whatever Code, Meta operators, Model6 Object Model, Sets, bags, and mixes
Whatever Code Use WhateverStar as a quick way to get a closure with arguments: 1: say (* + 2)(2); 2: say <1 25 3 100>.grep: * > 5; 3: subset Primes of Int where *.is-prime; 4: 5: # same as 6: 7: say sub { $^a + 2 }(2); 8: say <1 25 3 100>.grep: { $_ > 5 }; 9: subset Primes of Int where { $_.is-prime };
Whatever Code Each WhateverStar represents the next positional argument. You can't use WhateverStar to refer to the same argument more than once: say ( * + * + * )(2, 3, 4); # OUTPUT: # 9
Whatever Code n-at-a-time.map never looked simpler: say ^12.map: * + * + *; # OUTPUT: # (3 12 21 30)
Whatever Code Look, ma! The entire Fibonacci sequence in a lazy list! 1: my @fibonacci = 0, 1, * + * … *; 2: say @fibonacci[42]; # OUTPUT: # 267914296
Psst, there's HyperWhatever! Just sayin'... 1: say ( ** + 2 )(^10); 2: say ( * + 2 )(^10); # OUTPUT: # (2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11) # 2..^12
Meta Operators Same as if you placed the operator that is inside the brackets between each element in the list: 1: say [+] 1, 2, 3; # 6 2: say [*] 1..5; # 120 3: 4: my @numbers = (2, 4, 3); 5: say [<] @numbers; # False
Meta Operators Triangle Reduce: use operator between two successive elements, take the result and use the operator between it and the next element: 1: say [\+] 1, 2, 3; 2: say [\*] 1..5; # OUTPUT: # (1 3 6) ## Breaking it down: 1 (1), 1 + 2 (3), 3 + 3 (6) # (1 2 6 24 120)
Perl 6 Object Model 1: class Foo { 2: has $.attr; 3: has $.attr-rw is rw; 4: has $.attr-required is required; 5: has $!attr-private = 42; 6: 7: method public { say $!attr + $!attr-private; } 8: method!private { say'secret' } 9: } 10: 11: my $foo = Foo.new: :attr<public>, 13: :attr-required<yup-here-it-is>; 14: 15: say $foo.attr; 16: say $foo.public; 17: $foo.attr-rw = 42;
Perl 6 Object Model You can specify types and subset restrictions too: 1: class Foo { 2: subset Primes of IntStr where *.is-prime; 3: 4: has Int $.attr; 5: has Str $.attr-rw is rw where *.chars < 5; 6: |
the difference to the team if enough fans of other clubs join in.It would be a shame if this club that is 106 years old would disappear on the growing list of clubs that once were.Saxophonist and bassoonist Ben Wendel’s latest album is The Seasons. The album began as a series of YouTube duets, which have now been recast for a full band. In this interview, Wendel talks about the origins of the video project; reaching people with music in the era of social media; his band Kneebody and their rock-band-like approach to touring; and the next things he’s working on. Learn more at benwendel.com.
ON TOUR: Ben Wendel and The Seasons band are on tour Feb. 1-9, 2019. They start tonight (Feb. 1) in LA and finish in Chicago on Feb. 9. A complete list of tour dates is here.
Support the show! Become a member for just $5/month at http://patreon.com/thejazzsession. You’ll receive a bonus episode packed full of cool stuff every month. Like this one. Plus, 100 members = 3 episodes per month, and 200 members = weekly episodes! Let’s do this!Story highlights Civil suit claims Texas falsified prescriptions to acquire drugs for lethal injections
Death penalty states are scrambling to find drugs for executions
Several lawsuits call use of untested drugs "cruel and unusual punishment"
A federal civil complaint in Texas claims the defendants may have falsified prescriptions, lied to pharmacies and perhaps even broken the law, but they're not drug runners.
They're officials from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, responsible for executing death row inmates.
The complaint, filed in October, is one example of the lengths death-penalty states are willing to go to acquire drugs for lethal injections.
Texas, which declined to comment on the pending case, is among 32 death-penalty states scrambling to find new drug protocols after European-based manufacturers banned U.S. prisons from using their drugs in executions -- among them, Danish-based Lundbeck, which manufactures pentobarbital.
"The states are scrambling to find the drugs," says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center. "They want to carry out these executions that they have scheduled, but they don't have the drugs and they're changing and trying new procedures never used before in the history of executions."
States have been forced to try new drug combinations or go to loosely regulated compounding pharmacies that manufacturer variations of the drugs banned by the larger companies. The suit against Texas alleges the state corrections department falsified a prescription for pentobarbital, including the patient name as "James Jones," the warden of the Huntsville Unit "where executions take place," according to court documents. Additionally, the drugs were to be sent to "Huntsville Unit Hospital," which, the documents say, "has not existed since 1983."
The suit said the pharmacy was unaware of the purpose for the order and when it found out it canceled the order before it was filled.
In a letter obtained by CNN, dated October 4 of this year, Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, which was requested to provide drugs to Texas officials says it believed its "information would be kept on the 'down low'" by the TDCJ."
The plaintiffs also allege the state did not produce a purchase order, instead using an individual employee's credit card to make the purchase.
The pharmacy is asking the TDCJ to return the drugs it sold the state. It is unclear whether they have.
Maurie Levin, one of the attorneys representing the inmates, said, "We believe that TDCJ's purchase of compounded pentobarbital from Woodlands Pharmacy violates numerous state laws. The vast majority of compounded drugs can only be mixed or sold pursuant to a doctor's prescription. TDCJ did not get a prescription for its purchase of compounded drugs. There are exceptions to the requirement, but TDCJ's purchase does not qualify for any of them."
In September, Texas even turned to another state, Virginia, for a supply of Nembutal, according to documents provided to CNN by Berkeley Law staff attorney Jen Moreno.
Death row inmates say using untested drugs is "cruel and unusual punishment," and several have filed federal lawsuits to delay executions until drug protocols have been reviewed.
Ohio was set to execute Ron Phillips on Thursday using a two-drug cocktail never before used in an execution. Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said it "was unable to obtain a sufficient quantity of pentobarbital." Instead it was set to use the sedative midazolam and pain-killer hydromorphone in a lethal dosage.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich stayed Phillips' execution this week pending a review of possible organ donation to his family members.
Missouri was set to use propofol, the infamous drug from the Michael Jackson case, in an execution last month, but the governor halted it after he was warned the European Union might halt shipments of the drug, leading to shortages for medical purposes.
Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, said a new combination of drugs used in the execution of Florida inmate William Happ last month took 14 minutes to kill him instead of the usual seven.
"There is absolute chaos among the states," Denno said. "So, every few months it seems we see a different state using a different type of drug, or types of drugs."
Jim Petro, the Republican former attorney general of Ohio, presided over 19 executions but no longer supports the death penalty. "An attorney general is bound to follow the statute," he said. "Duty is duty."
Dieter said using untested drugs amounts to experimentation on human beings: "They're guilty people who did these crimes, but that doesn't ameliorate our ethical obligations."[As community content, this post reflects the views and opinions of the particular author and does not necessarily reflect the official stance of Neo4j.]
Why Would You Want to Do This?
The amount, frequency and connectedness of incoming data
The importance of speed and size
The type of query executed on the database
The Playground
Preparations
{"timestamp":1375801302,"eventType":"state.shutdown", "objectType":"compute","objectId":"/locations/server1/computes/123","groupId":"group1","userId":"bert"}
:Action_state.shutdown_1375801302 rdf:type :Action :Compute_/locations/server1/computes/123 rdf:type :Compute :Compute_/locations/server1/computes/123 prov:invalidatedBy :Action_state.shutdown_1375801302 :Experimenter_Bert rdf:type :Experimenter :Experimenter_Bert prov:wasAssociatedWith :Action_state.shutdown_1375801302...
Getting Graphy
Step 1
private void importOntology(OWLOntology ontology) throws Exception { OWLReasoner reasoner = new Reasoner(ontology); if (!reasoner.isConsistent()) { logger.error("Ontology is inconsistent"); //throw your exception of choice here throw new Exception("Ontology is inconsistent"); } Transaction tx = db.beginTx(); try {
Step 2
Node thingNode = getOrCreateNodeWithUniqueFactory("owl:Thing");
Step 3
for (OWLClass c :ontology.getClassesInSignature(true)) { String classString = c.toString(); if (classString.contains("#")) { classString = classString.substring( classString.indexOf("#")+1,classString.lastIndexOf(">")); } Node classNode = getOrCreateNodeWithUniqueFactory(classString);
Step 4
NodeSet<OWLClass> superclasses = reasoner.getSuperClasses(c, true); if (superclasses.isEmpty()) { classNode.createRelationshipTo(thingNode, DynamicRelationshipType.withName("isA")); } else { for (org.semanticweb.owlapi.reasoner.Node<OWLClass> parentOWLNode: superclasses) { OWLClassExpression parent = parentOWLNode.getRepresentativeElement(); String parentString = parent.toString(); if (parentString.contains("#")) { parentString = parentString.substring( parentString.indexOf("#")+1, parentString.lastIndexOf(">")); } Node parentNode = getOrCreateNodeWithUniqueFactory(parentString); classNode.createRelationshipTo(parentNode, DynamicRelationshipType.withName("isA")); } }
Step 5
for (org.semanticweb.owlapi.reasoner.Node<OWLNamedIndividual> in : reasoner.getInstances(c, true)) { OWLNamedIndividual i = in.getRepresentativeElement(); String indString = i.toString(); if (indString.contains("#")) { indString = indString.substring( indString.indexOf("#")+1,indString.lastIndexOf(">")); } Node individualNode = getOrCreateNodeWithUniqueFactory(indString); individualNode.createRelationshipTo(classNode, DynamicRelationshipType.withName("isA"));
Step 6
for (OWLObjectPropertyExpression objectProperty: ontology.getObjectPropertiesInSignature()) { for (org.semanticweb.owlapi.reasoner.Node<OWLNamedIndividual> object: reasoner.getObjectPropertyValues(i, objectProperty)) { String reltype = objectProperty.toString(); reltype = reltype.substring(reltype.indexOf("#")+1, reltype.lastIndexOf(">")); String s = object.getRepresentativeElement().toString(); s = s.substring(s.indexOf("#")+1, s.lastIndexOf(">")); Node objectNode = getOrCreateNodeWithUniqueFactory(s); individualNode.createRelationshipTo(objectNode, DynamicRelationshipType.withName(reltype)); } } for (OWLDataPropertyExpression dataProperty: ontology.getDataPropertiesInSignature()) { for (OWLLiteral object: reasoner.getDataPropertyValues( i, dataProperty.asOWLDataProperty())) { String reltype = dataProperty.asOWLDataProperty().toString(); reltype = reltype.substring(reltype.indexOf("#")+1, reltype.lastIndexOf(">")); String s = object.toString(); individualNode.setProperty(reltype, s); } } } } tx.success(); } finally { tx.finish(); } }
Graphwalking
START e=node:name(name="experiment123"), ag=node:name(name="Agent") MATCH e-[r:hadActivity]->ac-->a-[:isA*]->ag RETURN distinct e.name as experiment, type(r) as relationship, a.name as agent ac.name as activity, ac.startedAtTime as starttime, ac.endedAtTime as endtime ORDER BY starttime
Conclusion
The Web Ontology Language (OWL) has been around for a while now and is used for a variety of semantic applications. Ontologies are freely available and help developers to create models for real-world scenarios. They can be instantiated, combined and enriched using SWRL rules and a reasoner such as Hermit or Pellet The reasons for creating such a representation of data differ: Natural language processing, reusing data across domains or contextualisation are just some of many. The data obtained is then stored in a knowledge base, from which it can be retrieved using SPARQL queries.But if it’s all already there, what’s the point of combining it with a graph database?While SPARQL certainly has its strong points – like using different ontologies at the same time and the similarity to well-known SQL – it also has weaknesses. Triple stores, which are the starting point for most SPARQL applications, consume a lot of disk space compared to relational databases. They are also slow for very large datasets.On the other hand, Neo4j stores whole graphs as opposed to “just” triples. It has an easy-to-learn and easy-to-use query language and a web-based, graphical interface which allows users to easily browse and explore the graph.Also, it is fast for querying and scales very well to handle larger datasets.As is the usual case, there is no ideal solution, and everything really depends on your particular use case, considering, for example:There is the PROV-O ontology, which models causation and influence between activities, agents and entities. This concept is fairly abstract but useful to answer a number of questions related to the origin of entities (and what may have influenced them throughout their lifetime).The PROV-O ontology is applicable to a number of fields. For example, social networking (“Who was the author of the blog post that influenced Peter to write his mashup?”) or experimenting (“Who was the last person to access the experiment before it failed and when did he or she access it?”).PROV-O is used in the BonFIRE project, which is a multi-site cloud experimentation and testing facility.There are people (agents) conducting experiments using resources (entities). At an infrastructure level, to perform their experiments, they create, use and destroy (activities) compute nodes, storages and virtual networks (entities). After their experiment has finished, they download the results (entities) from the virtual machine for further analysis.These results are influenced by a large number of activities and agents, and often it is difficult to determine how such a result came to be, who was involved in its formation or why it is different from other results. But using provenance, these questions can be answered.In BonFIRE, the data arrives on a RabbitMQ as a set of JSON messages that look like this:In this case, bert shut down compute node 123 located on server1. This message is filled into Java classes which are used to transform them (“manually”) into triples.Using the single message from the above example, we derive several triples that would look something like this:The prefixes used are defined in the ontology into which these triples are going to be imported.The above step is not necessary if the messages are supposed to go into the ontology directly – the OWL API could be used instead to create individuals, properties and so on.Transforming them to triples, however, serves as an interface to be able to read data from all kinds of sources as long as it’s formatted as triples. If the OWL API was used instead, the code would have to be changed every time the data changes.These triples can then be added to an ontology using the OWLRDFConsumer class from the OWL API. This adds the triples to the ontology where the reasoner can be invoked to enrich the data.So far, that’s not really special. The interesting bit follows after the reasoning has taken place.Now there is this ontology object sitting in the memory, which contains the ontology itself as well as the individuals that came from the triples. It could simply be stored in a knowledge base, but if it was, you wouldn’t be reading about it here 🙂An ontology is a graph. It has a top node (owl:Thing) and classes extending it. There are individuals that belong to classes and object properties connecting the individuals. Individuals can have data properties and annotations that can be represented as node properties and relationship properties or as relationship types.The import of an ontology is pretty straightforward:The only object you need is the ontology object created earlier.It could also be loaded from a file, but that doesn’t make a difference.Create a starting node in Neo4j representing the owl:Thing node. This is the root node of the graph we’re going to create.Get all the classes defined in the ontology and add them to the graph.Find out if they have any super classes. If they do, link them. If they don’t, link back to owl:Thing.Make sure only to link to the direct super classes! The relationship type used to express the rdf:type property is a custom one named “isA”:Now for each class, get all the individuals. Create nodes and link them back to their parent class.For each individual, get all object properties and all data properties. Add them to the graph as node properties or relationships. Make sure to get all axioms, not just the asserted ones.That’s it, you’re done! Now for the fun bit: querying the ontology!This is the graph now sitting in the database:It has the ontology as well as all the individuals and properties, represented in their “natural” form. Now the querying can begin.Whether it is a simple query to find out what happened to a specific VM (entity) during its lifecycle……or you want to do some more complicated pattern matching to find out how two experiments are different when they look the same at first glance – the only boundary is your imagination. Protege comes with a simple visualisation and the possibility to execute SPARQL queries.Neo4j has Cypher, which makes querying the imported ontology much more intuitive – ontologies are graphs after all. Also the webadmin interface allows better “exploring” of the graph.Time is not an issue in this case, because the ontology import is not time-critical. It’s done only once after the experiment has finished and imports the whole ontology.For an ontology containing several hours of experiment data, the import takes only a few seconds. Once the graph has been imported, querying is fast, which makes it a great tool to analyse and visualise ontologies.The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday cleared the way for a Montgomery County man to get a new trial in the 1998 suffocation of a 17-month-old girl. With the move, the court stuck to an earlier decision granting the convicted murderer relief because a 2013 state law allows challenges when scientific evidence evolves after a trial.
"I join this Court’s order because its effect is to grant Neal Hampton Robbins, applicant, the relief to which he has been due but has been denied for half a decade," a clearly frustrated Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Elsa Alcala wrote in an opinion on the court's order that a 2015 decision to rehear the case was "improvidently granted."
"This concurring opinion marks the third time in less than five years that I must document my position in favor of granting post-conviction relief to applicant, who is incarcerated for capital murder in a case in which there is no competent evidence that a murder even occurred," Alcala added.
The long-awaited decision involves the case of Robbins, who was convicted in the 1998 death of his girlfriend's daughter, Tristen Skye Trivet. Robbins had been caring for Tristen for hours while her mother was out. Tristen's mother checked on her once after Robbins left and thought the child was sleeping. When she checked 20 minutes later, she found that Tristen's lips were blue and that she was not breathing. Tristen was pronounced dead, and Robbins was later arrested and charged with capital murder. He was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison.
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In 2007, the original pathologist in the case, Dr. Patricia Moore, recanted her earlier conclusions at Robbins' trial that the death was a homicide, and Robbins' legal team has worked to get him a new trial. Moore has had a handful of infant death cases reviewed and conclusions changed because her findings of homicide failed to stand up on re-examination.
In Tristen's case, Moore later reassessed her conclusions, saying she should have ruled the manner of death "undetermined" instead of "homicide."
Robbins' case was buoyed by the 2013 passage of a state law that gave defendants a new challenge if they could prove that there had been a change in the science behind evidence presented at trial.
"I'm extremely gratified that the Court of Criminal Appeals has declined the state's invitation to second-guess its decision 14 months ago granting Neal Robbins a new trial he so clearly deserves," said Brian Wice, Robbins' attorney. "All that Neal Robbins has ever asked for in the almost two decades that I've represented him is a fair trial with a reliable result. Today's decision now makes that dream a reality."
Alcala's nine-page opinion on Wednesday detailed how the CCA should have never considered a prosecutor's request for a rehearing of the matter after the court decided in 2014, and that Robbins should get a new trial based on the 2013 law.
The four judges who disagreed with granting Robbins a new trial in 2014 — Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Judges Lawrence Meyers, Michael Keasler and Barbara Hervey — were part of the core that voted in 2015 to rehear the matter at the prosecutor's request. Alcala's opinion calls them out for what she sees as way to get a do-over for the state. Keasler and Meyers are running for re-election this year.
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"I believe that judges have the right to study the issues and upon further reflection change their minds," Alcala wrote. "But that does not appear to be what is occurring here," she wrote. She pointed out that three dissenting judges "maintain their former dissenting opinions that relief should not have been granted" to Robbins under the 2013 statute. "But they now appear to vote in a manner that has the effect of granting relief to applicant."
Last year, the state's 2013 law was tweaked by the Texas Legislature in response to the CCA reconsideration of its earlier ruling.
The modified law, passed last year, gives criminal defendants the right to challenge their conviction not only if the science behind evidence used at the original trial had changed but also if the scientific conclusions by a testifying expert had changed.
The change was proposed by state Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Corpus Christi, in his House Bill 3724.
Alcala addressed this end-run by the Legislature.
"This Court's judicial decisions should not require litigants to run to the Legislature for a statutory response to correct our judicial mistakes," Alcala wrote. "This court's judicial decisions should not give the appearance of indecision or manipulation for the achievement of a desired result."
Judge Bert Richardson wrote a concurring opinion in which he agreed that Robbins should get a new trial because the state's chief witness — the medical examiner — changed her opinion about the death. But he disagreed with the majority that "resurrecting the Court’s 2014 opinion [in favor of Robbins] is the best way to accomplish that end result."
Instead, Richardson wrote that he could not join the majority opinion that the rehearing was "improvidently granted."
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He wrote that "the better approach is to resolve this case under the amended statute without having to resurrect the 2014 opinion."
Judge Meyers filed a dissenting opinion, saying he disagreed that the rehearing was improvidently granted.
"As I indicated in my dissent to that original opinion, article 11.073 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure does not provide for relief based on any constitutional criteria," he wrote.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals heard the matter last June as the 2013 law was being changed. By then, the changes had been approved by the Texas Legislature. The court took the matter under consideration during its summer break, and by the time the judges returned to work — Sept. 12 — the bill had been signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.
Reference Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling on Neal Robbins (268.3 KB) DOWNLOADMr. Eastwood:
President Obama: Oh... well... this is your day, sir... um, here, at the White House. And if you need anything just ask me, or any of the staff, and we'll be happy to... pardon...?
Mr. Eastwood:
President Obama: Well, to be totally honest with you, I'd have to say, yes! I feel very fortunate, and blessed... I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful girls and we all have good health. I was able to stop smoking... I'm probably in the best shape of my entire life... and... beg pardon...?
Mr. Eastwood:
President Obama: (laughing) Amen! The last three years have been a real education for me... I tried really hard on that whole bipartisan thing, and you're right, looking back, I think I stretched all credible limits... but... you know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice... um... what's that...?
Mr. Eastwood:
President Obama: (laughing) True that! And, you know, some sure smell a lot worse than others... but, respectfully, I would ask you to watch the language around Sasha and Malia....
Mr. Eastwood:
President Obama:... and... um, could you stop spitting the tobacco juice at Bo? Thanks... By the way, I feel like I ought to ask you about that chair you've got there... You certainly project yourself as a very fit and healthy man at eighty-two, and I can't help but wonder at how....
Mr. Eastwood:
President Obama: Well I'm very glad that that particular social program has been available for you... that's one thing that Mr Ryan and I have agreed upon is trimming $700 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse... um... your Hoverround being a good example, and... um....
Mr. Eastwood:
President Obama:... Um, sorry... No, sir... I don't think I want to do that. But, thank you for such a fine example of how to do it with your performance at the RNC....(Rachel Orr/The Washington Post)
Whatever critics might say about failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney, everyone at least agrees that he has done well for himself as a businessman. There is no such consensus regarding Donald Trump, the front-runner in this year's Republican primaries, who touts his experience in business — particularly his ability to negotiate — as his strongest qualification for the presidency.
Trump's sub-par record as a businessman has been widely discussed, but a recent analysis suggests the extent of Trump's underperformance is vastly greater than previously recognized. The new results emphasize the degree to which Trump has relied on his family's wealth and connections in order to create his fortune.
"Isn't he a huge business success? Doesn’t he know what he’s talking about?" Romney asked in a speech Thursday. "No. Look, his bankruptcies have crushed small businesses and the men and women who work for them. He inherited his business. He didn’t create it."
In a speech in Salt Lake City March 3, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney denounced support for candidate Donald Trump, saying Trump "is playing the members of the American public for suckers." Here are key moments from that speech. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Last year, Wonkblog examined Trump's performance as an investor based on public estimates of his wealth, including his own claims. His numbers were not only worse than those posted by skilled investors such as Warren Buffett, but Trump has made even less than a Main Street investor would by buying decent run-of-the-mill mutual funds to save money, if that investor had started with as much money as Trump did.
In response, several readers wrote in to defend Trump, complaining that comparing the real-estate business to the stock market is comparing apples to oranges.
That's true, but it turns out that making money in real estate has been even easier than making money in stocks during the past several decades. Compared to other investors in his business, Trump's performance looks much worse than when compared to ordinary people who save money in the stock market.
In 1976, Trump told the New York Times that he was worth $200 million. Had he put that money in an ordinary fund based on the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, the kind that many people use to save money for retirement, he'd have $12 billion today. That is more than the $10 billion he has claimed he is worth. Bloomberg estimates his wealth at $2.9 billion.
[The myth and the reality of Donald Trump's business empire]
Yet compared to that of the average real-estate investor over the same period, Trump's performance is even worse, according to John Griffin, a businessman and a real-estate investor who is also a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Griffin used an index of funds known as real-estate investment trusts, or REITs. The managers of these funds rely on their expertise in real estate to earn money for their clients by buying and selling interests in commercial property.
This index has earned 14.4 percent a year since 1976. Had Trump done as well as the average among others in the industry, making investments that returned 14.4 percent over the long term, he would have turned the $200 million he said he had in 1976 into $23 billion as of last year, Griffin calculated.
Trump is "an underperformer relative to his peers," Griffin said. "If we want somebody else with good investment experience to run for office, we can pick the average guy running a REIT fund."
Independent estimates of Trump's wealth yield similar results.
In 1978, Business Week estimated that he was worth $100 million, about half what Trump claimed at the time. Had he invested that money in the stock market, he'd be worth about $6 billion today — twice the $2.9 billion that Bloomberg estimates he is worth now. Had he done as well in real-estate as the average among other investors working in the industry, he'd be worth $8.6 billion, according to Griffin.
In 1990, Donald Trump opened the largest and most lavish casino-hotel complex in Atlantic City. Unlike any other casino in America, the Trump Taj Mahal was expected to break every record in the books. But just several months later, it all fell apart. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)
Even Business Week's estimate might have exaggerated Trump's wealth in 1978, judging by Trump's tax returns from that time. If so, Trump's performance over the period could be less catastrophic than it appears based on these figures.
Yet there is another factor that suggests these figures actually minimize Trump's underperformance.
In general, an investor who borrows heavily should perform better than average, since the person has more money to invest. Investors can pocket the difference between the interest paid to the bank on loans and the returns on the investments they make with the money, if they're good investments.
Trump is fond of saying that his businesses' multiple bankruptcies only reveal his skill in using the laws and the courts to get an advantage over his rivals. They also reveal that, unlike many investors, Trump borrowed heavily to finance his real-estate projects.
Griffin cited one estimate, from 2000, that Trump's businesses relied on loans totaling 69 percent of what he had put into his projects with his own money. By contrast, the same figure for the funds in the real-estate index is about 36 percent on average, reflecting the fact that many managers have taken a more conservative approach to investing.
Griffin's figures on Trump don't account for the improved performance that would be expected from an investor who is so leveraged. Conversely, current estimates of Trump's wealth overstate his success, since they don't account for all the money he lost when his businesses went under. His creditors absorbed those losses.
"Somebody paid for those bad decisions, and those were his business partners and the banks that loaned him money," Griffin said. "If he plays that strategy with our country's money, who picks up the tab?"
Some have noted that Trump has a lavish lifestyle, speculating that his personal expenses might explain his underperformance. Yet the real-estate index accounts for the fees that managers pay themselves as a salary — about 1 percent of their assets, on average.
[Donald Trump represents the end of the end of history]
Assuming Trump had performed as well as the average manager while also devoting just 1 percent of his assets to his lifestyle, not only would he be worth $8.6 billion today, he'd have eight figures a year in play money.
Trump's record is a striking contrast with Romney's, who called Trump a "phony" and a "fraud" in his speech Thursday.
In 1984, Romney founded Bain Capital, which has been roundly criticized for laying off workers at the companies in which it invests. All the same, no one can dispute that Romney made boatloads of money.
He established Bain with an investment fund of $37 million. The firm now claims $70 billion in assets under management. According to Forbes, Bain's average return on its investments was 173 percent under Romney's leadership. He was so popular with investors that he was able to charge a fee of 3 percent, instead of the 2 percent most of his competitors offered.
Romney is not a billionaire — he was worth only about $230 million in 2012, according to Forbes. That's partly because he left Bain to pursue his political career, and the firm has struggled since his departure.
One reason that Trump is a multibillionaire, while Romney isn't, is that Trump has received help from his father.
Both men came from wealthy families. As the New York Times reported, Romney's father gave him a loan that he used to buy his first house, for $42,000. While Romney had all the advantages that come from growing up in a wealthy and well-connected family, this is the only evidence of tangible financial assistance from his parents.
Trump's father, however, helped him throughout his career with millions in loans. As The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler explains, Fred Trump was one of two guarantors of a $70 million construction loan from the bank Manufacturers Hanover that financed one of Donald Trump's first major projects, the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan, in 1978. Fred Trump also arranged for an unsecured line of credit from Chase Manhattan in the amount of $35 million for his son, which he also used to build the hotel.
Finally, Fred Trump extended a dubious loan to his son for $3.5 million, with casino chips from one of his son's failing casinos as collateral. Regulators later declared that loan illegal.
Fred Trump's connections helped Donald Trump get his start. Since then, he has consistently underperformed relative to the real-estate industry as a whole.
1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × 23 well-known people who support Donald Trump View Photos See who supports Donald Trump. Caption See who supports Donald Trump. Paul D. Ryan The House speaker endorsed Trump’s bid for president on June 2. Joshua Roberts/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
More from Wonkblog:
Everything you need to know to deal with a stock market collapse is on this index card
Donald Trump's accent, explained
The real reason Donald Trump is so rich
A strange but accurate predictor of whether someone supports TrumpIrrespective of the administration tangles that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finds itself as far as the implementation of the Lodha Committee report is concerned, the world’s richest cricket board only got richer on Tuesday.
Oppo mobile manufacturer emerged as the highest bidder for the Team India sponsor as the BCCI raked in an all-time figures. The deal was struck as India battled it out against Australia for a series-levelling 75-run win in the second Test in Bangalore. (Scorecard)
Oppo has paid Rs 1079 crore for a five-year deal, outbidding Vivo mobiles’ Rs 768 crore bid.
Oppo will pay Rs 4.61 crore per bilateral match and Rs 1.56 crore for an ICC event match. Sahara was the previous highest bidder for Team India sponsorship with Rs 3.34 crore per match.
STAR India paid Rs 1.92 crore per bilateral match and Rs 61 lakh for an ICC match.
Oppo takes over from April 1
Oppo’s logo will don the Team India (senior, junior and women’s teams) jersey and training gears from April 1. The current India team sponsorship deal with Star India will end in March 31.
“Nine companies bought the tender document, but only two companies put in their bids today. The board’s legal arm and auditors evaluated the bids received. It is a five-time increase from the previous rights holder,” said BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri told reporters.
The bidding process took place under Supreme Court- appointed Committee of Adminsitrators (COA). “It was carried out in a very transparent manner and we are very satisfied with the outcome,” said Diana Edulji, who is part of the four-member COA panel.
First Published: Mar 07, 2017 13:25 ISTSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Taxpayers in Kentucky could be landed with a legal bill of over $2.3 million – after the state’s protracted legal fight against same-sex marriage.
The US Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, bringing equality to all 50 states.
Prior to the ruling, Kentucky’s attorney general had refused to fight against equality in the state, branding it pointless – but Governor Steve Beshear hired private lawyers to continue the legal battle.
However, following the Supreme Court victory for equality, the state must now pick up the tab for the entire legal battle – and it isn’t going to come cheap.
According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, lawyers representing same-sex couples have handed the state a legal bill of over $2 million in legal fees, court costs and expenses over the case.
Meanwhile, records show that Beshear’s private attorneys were contracted for $260,000 – bringing the cost of the “pointless” case to $2.3 million (£1.4 million).
Kentucky is not the only such state to be landed with huge legal bills after the battle.
Florida’s attorney general Pam Bondi was a fierce opponent of same-sex marriage until the very end, claiming in a legal brief that “disrupting Florida’s existing marriage laws would impose significant public harm”, and would cause “significant financial and logistical problems”.
Bondi continued to fight against same-sex marriage until the very week that marriages began, filing desperate attempts to stall on the issue.
However, after her inevitable defeat, she has filed an objection to the costs settlement – with the battle thought to have cost at least $500,000.
Attorney Stephen Rosenthal, who represented a number of couples in the Florida case, said: “It really is the height of hypocrisy to argue we shouldn’t be entitled to fees when they put us through this.”
“They knew full well that if they lost, that they and, frankly taxpayers, would be on the hook for paying for their unwise legal defense of an unconstitutional law.”"We've all seen it a million times: a comedian tells a joke, someone else gets offended, someone else blogs about it, and then 'boom!,' outrage spreads across the land," says filmmaker Ted Balaker who is currently finishing up his latest documentary, "Can We Take A Joke?." The film, which features comedians Gilbert Gottfried, Jim Norton, Lisa Lampanelli, Adam Carolla, Karith Foster, and Penn Jillette, examines the role of comedy in our culture of constant outrage.
"Comedians don't even have the freedom of conscience to just be neutral on something," Balaker told Reason TV's Nick Gillespie. "[They] have to affirm what the cool kids believe."
Balaker, a frequent Reason TV contributor, sat down with Gillespie at this year's FreedomFest 2015 to talk about the current state of comedy, how technology has fueled the outrage machine, and how comedians are fighting back against PC zealots.
About 5 minutes.
Edited by Amanda Winkler. Shot by Paul Detrick and Meredith Bragg.
Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel for daily content like this.Anne Sipusipu says she has been harassed and had her bag snatched on regular public transport.
Female bus commuters in Papua New Guinea's capital city Port Moresby can now catch a |
area network (HAN) technology, which is designed to allow convenient human-machine data exchange through natural physical contact -- even through clothing, gloves and shoes.
NTT initially hopes this human area network technology will appeal to organizations looking to boost convenience and security in the office. Obvious applications include secure entrances and keyless cabinets that recognize employees when they touch the door handle (thus bypassing the need for card-swipers and keys), or secure printers that operate only when you touch them.
For now, a set of 5 card transmitters and 1 receiver goes for around 800,000 yen ($8,000), but NTT expects the price to come down when mass production begins.
[Source: RBB Today]A Japanese company called Asahi Kasei has developed the world’s first elastic electrical cable – and has taken the liberty of christening it “Roboden” (here’s a link, if your Japanese is good). In a somewhat unsettling comparison, TechCrunch notes that Roboden can stretch by a factor of 1.5, “like the human skin.”
The comparison (which Asahi Kasei actually makes itself) is in fact apt, since one of the main applications Asahi Kasei envisions is in humanoid robotics. Typically, for robots to be able to articulate their rigid joints, roboticists have to include extra, slack wiring to accommodate the movement. A stretchy cable is more forgiving, eliminating the need for some of that slack. Asahi Kasei is also one of the world’s major manufacturers of spandex (though under the brands ROICA and Dorlastan), so the company is very much at home in the world of the stretchy. “We thought, if we can make a cable that stretches by a factor of 1.5, it could be used for wearable electronics, or for wiring the skin of humanoid robots,” Shunji Tatsumi of Asahi Kasei Fibers told Diginfo TV, in one of the latter’s trademarked deadpan video reports.
There are other, more mundane uses as well: you can simply buy USB cables out of Roboden if you feel a great need for stretchy wires to plug into your laptop. “Of course, this will also have applications in amusement or entertainment,” added Tatsumi.
But the most intriguing frontier here is that favorite of robotic observers: the uncanny valley, that eerie in-between state in which robots are just not quite convincingly human. “For robots to be more like people, they’ll need to be soft,” Tatsumi said. Asahi Kasei is not the first to have envisioned an era of the flexible, even squishy, robot (see this recent account of a Harvard project to make a Gumby-like robot). All of which raises a question: will the steepest ascent out of the uncanny valley be in the realm of touch, not sight?But the sale of the building for $31.2million, while covering the debt, did not leave the museum with any extra cash. And it left, if anything, an even more difficult conundrum for the museum about how to move forward.
The museum still has a small, 5,000-square-foot space in Lincoln Square, at Columbus Avenue near 66th Street, where it could continue mounting small shows if the trustees felt that it could sustain the costs of keeping a staff and paying to store, conserve and insure the collection. The museum remains open at that location these days, and admission is free. The building on West 53rd Street is closed.
Photo
The museum’s president, Laura Parsons, said of the current situation: “The board took the first step of discharging its obligations to the bondholders — the next step is to determine what the best outcome for the museum and the art is.”
Ms. Parsons declined to go into greater detail, saying that the discussions were confidential.
Compared with the Brooklyn Museum, which has had to make hard choices in recent years about what parts of its own enormous holdings to keep, the Smithsonian would appear to have greater resources to take care of the folk collection. But there will most likely be pressure to keep some of the collection in New York, making a loan arrangement with the Brooklyn Museum appealing.
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A spokeswoman for the Smithsonian Institution was on vacation and could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for the Brooklyn Museum, Sally Williams, said that the museum’s director, Arnold Lehman, was out of town and that she had not been briefed on any discussions.
The folk art museum has suffered considerable bad fortune over the years. For example, its former chairman, Ralph O. Esmerian, promised to donate his collection of folk art, including a version of Edward Hicks’s “Peaceable Kingdom,” but Mr. Esmerian also put the painting up as collateral against money he owed, and in 2008 it was put up for auction. In July Mr. Esmerian, who is no longer on the board, was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud.
The Museum of Modern Art has said that it does not know yet what it plans to do with the folk museum building. The museum sits between MoMA’s building and the site of a high-rise being planned by Hines, the real estate developer, which will include multiple floors of galleries for MoMA. One possible plan would be to tear down the folk art museum’s building to allow MoMA to make maximum use of the space.
In addition to its holdings of folk art, the folk museum has a collection of outsider art, including several thousand drawings, books and related material by Henry Darger.
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The museum has lost several top employees since its financial problems started a few years ago. Brooke Davis Anderson, who was in charge of the museum’s collection of outsider art, departed last year for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The museum’s executive director, Maria Ann Conelli, left this year.
The folk art museum’s situation is a stark warning of what can happen when a museum overreaches in constructing a new home. Founded in 1961, the museum survived some early near-death experiences. When it decided to build a permanent home, it engaged high-profile architects and borrowed the $32 million by issuing bonds through New York City’s Trust for Cultural Resources, a public benefit corporation that helps major cultural institutions borrow money for capital projects.
Some critics have attributed the museum’s troubles to its architecture, saying that it was unwelcoming and did not display the art and artifacts attractively. To be sure, the museum never drew the crowds it had projected in estimates made during the planning process, or received enough contributions to support its interest payments. It was the first institution that borrowed through the trust to default on its debt.By logic, if you’ve been using the same database in the last 2 years, it is likely that about two-thirds of your marketing communications could be going to waste. With a campaign as off-targeted as that, you get a snowball’s chance in Houston of getting a sale.
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For quality data cleansing solution, we telephone contacts on your database to confirm every piece of business information you hold with them. We retrieve missing details and apply necessary changes to eliminate goneaways, duplicate entries, and contacts that fall outside your target criteria. Use our data verification service to validate contact names, contact numbers, email addresses, postal codes, and other pertinent contact details. We also provide data management services to keep your database well-organized, updated and fully locked and loaded for your next marketing campaign.Constantly inspired by what's trending across the world, we have put together our take on the Top 10 decorating trends currently seen around the globe. What's more, we've recommended how you can incorporate them into your own home. Here, we bring you our first part of the Trends series, where we focus on three trends making waves among the decor community. Let's get to it, then!
#Trend1: Graphic Pillows
A major trend popping up around the world is that of graphic pillows. This nicely offsets the already predominant trend of minimalism. The cushions add not just a pop of colour to stark spaces, but also texture and a sense of easy fun to unadorned, plainly upholstered couches and chairs.
Lynda D’Souza, interior designer and co-founder of Wilde North Interiors, a boutique design firm based out of Toronto says, "A sofa seems undressed without a couple of pretty cushions layered on it. While there are plenty of prints available in the market already, there should always be room for new designs and patterns. If you're looking for the perfect cushions to compliment your modern design scheme then look out for graphic prints, stripes or geometric prints. Sometimes, a contemporary space can come off as cold and a good way to soften the room is to introduce lots of texture through prints."
In a modern home, consider graphic-print cushions in shades of white and grey for a stunning yet understated vibe. For an ethnic home that has a more bohemian vibe, you can have as much fun as you'd like, using colourful cushions that will bring vibrancy to space. Suzani prints and Ikat or the current popular Kilim fabrics are perfect ways to achieve this. They come in a variety of shades with either a flat weave or heavily textured tapestry. Combining them with white allows the prints to stand out, giving the room a clean and fresh look without over-saturating it with colour. Gulmohar Lane has a suite of pretty Ikat cushions perfect for an eclectic home and The Label Life carries a range of graphic prints for a more modern look.
#Trend2: Geometric Tiles
Geometric tiles are a big trend this year and are being seen especially in bathrooms. A departure from a traditionally monotone bathroom in white or any other neutral shade, a geometric tiled floor will bring an unexpected pulse of colour to your bathroom.
According to Behzad Kharas, architect by profession, and Chairman and Managing Director of the The BNK Group, “Geometric tiles have been inspired by Turkish / Moroccan influences of design. These tiles work best for bathrooms which are either eclectic or rustic. Examples of where this will work the best are in a spa as well as in your modern eclectic bathroom.”
Picture Courtesy - Michael Is Boyd
#Trend 3: Tribal-inspired Prints and Textures
Show off your wanderlust with African-inspired textiles, accessories, and art in your home! These traditional, artisanal products will be a welcome addition to your home, whatever its style, adding a sense of personalisation and an indication of your interests. In an already overstuffed home, the items will add further dimension. In a minimal, sleek home, they will stand out as conversation pieces.
Behzad Kharas says, "Tribal prints and textures can be best displayed in your living room in three ways: Create a wall panel behind a sofa with these prints; convert a print into a piece of art that you can frame and hang on your wall and last but not the least, use as fabric for curtains, sofa and as cushion covers.
Picture Courtesy - All Interior DesignKudos to Assemblyman Donnelly for once again reminding us of how our ostensible ally to the south treats American citizens. For those of you who don’t know, Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi has been languishing in a Mexican prison for over five months for unintentionally violating Mexico’s draconian gun laws. Fox News provided a handy cheat sheet explaining the circumstances of his detention, which I recommend skimming in order to understand the pettiness of these charges, especially in relation to a nation which demands that we accommodate millions of their countrymen who routinely flout much more serious American laws.
If the Mexican government’s actions are understandable, then the reaction by our nation’s political class is unconscionable. Governor Jerry Brown intends to wine and dine visiting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto without raising this pressing issue with his honored guest. That’s why Tim Donnelly’s event later today is of crucial importance in spreading awareness of this intolerable situation. Mexico’s leadership needs to be put on notice that it can’t flagrantly abuse American citizens with our tacit consent, and the only way that message is going to register is if American public officials exert pressure upon them.
That’s where you come in. The American public needs to make it known to our political class, even in deep blue states like California, that it will not tolerate this treatment of honorable servicemen and women. Let that message resonate today!Supreme Court: The Bench comprising of the Chief Justice and D.Y. Chanchrachud, J. has stayed the controversial Uttaranchal High Court’s order declaring Ganga, Yamuna and their tributaries as living entities.
The High Court had on March 20, 2017, [2017 SCC OnLine Utt 367 ] declared the Rivers, and all their tributaries, streams, every natural water flowing with continuous or intermittent flow, as juristic/legal persons/living entities, having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person read with Articles 48-A and 51-A(g) of the Constitution. The Director NAMAMI Gange, the Chief Secretary of the State of Uttarakhand and the Advocate General of the State of Uttarakhand were declared as persons in loco parentis i.e. the human face bound to protect, conserve, preserve, uphold the status and promote the health and well being of Ganga and Yamuna. The High Court made it clear that, “Rivers Ganga and Yamuna are breathing, living and sustaining the communities from mountains to sea”.
The State Government contended that given that the rivers run through different states, it is for the centre to frame policy on protecting them. [State of Uttarakhand v. Mohd. Salim, Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No. 016879/2017, order dated 7-7-2017]BROWNLOW Medal 2017 looks like it could be a Dustin Martin coronation ceremony.
The Tiger superstar is an unbackable favourite to take home 'Charlie' for the first time, particularly with last year's winner, Patrick Dangerfield, ineligible.
But who could give Dusty a fright? Will it be another year of midfield domination? Could the ladder-leading Crows spring a shock?
The AFL.com.au Brownlow Predictor tallies our reporters' vote projections for every game - below is each club's best hope, the player likely to be quickest out of the blocks, and those one-vote wonders that every Brownlow count delivers.
Check out the AFL.com.au Brownlow Predictor
Vice-captain Rory Sloane and All Australian midfielder Matt Crouch are the Crows' best chances of polling strongly. As the minor premiers, the Crows should collect maximum votes for a number of games. Club great Mark Ricciuto is the club's only Brownlow medallist, sharing the award in 2003.
Best chance: Rory Sloane
Sloane started the season with a bang before he struggled to get involved once opposition teams tagged him. A couple strong performances in rounds 18 and 22 had Sloane finish the season with 21 votes on our Brownlow Medal predictor, which is good enough for fifth overall. Sloane should collect maximum votes in five games this season. He is always a popular figure with the umpires with his toughness at the contest and tackling pressure.
Fast starter: Rory Sloane
Sloane is expected to poll 12 votes out of a possible 18 – including three best-on-ground performances - in the first six rounds of the season.
One-vote wonder: Andy Otten
More known as a key defender, Otten successfully moved into attack, booting four goals in the Crows' 100-point thumping of Fremantle in round 10.
Ineligible: None. - Lee Gaskin
For a team that finished with the wooden spoon, the Lions should still have a few reasons to get excited on Brownlow night. The two Daynes – Beams and Zorko (although he's ineligible) - should poll well and keep the votes ticking along. We've got just six players polling votes, with Lewis Taylor the only other player aside from the two midfield aces projected to grab a three-voter.
Best chance: Dayne Beams
After his 2016 was ruined with knee problems, Beams returned to near peak form this season. With the added responsibility of the captaincy, the 27-year-old excelled. He's projected to get 15 votes but has polled in 10 games, so that number could easily rise. His 32-disposal, four-goal effort against Gold Coast in round 21 was a highlight and should bag three votes, while on three other occasions he kicked three goals and added 28-plus disposals in the same game.
Fast starter: Dayne Beams
Beams takes out this one as well. The Lions won their first match against Gold Coast, where Beams is expected to grab two votes, and his performances in rounds two and three losses against Essendon and St Kilda have also seen him predicted to get a vote.
Dayne Beams nails this long-range goal from inside the square. #AFLLionsBlues pic.twitter.com/Asgqq7yolU — AFL (@AFL) July 23, 2017
One-vote wonder: Ryan Lester
A member of the leadership group and one of the most popular players at the club, Lester's performance against Carlton in round 18 just might see him grab his first ever Brownlow vote. One goal, 26 disposals and nine marks in a 30-point victory.
Ineligible: Nick Robertson, Dayne Zorko. - Michael Whiting
It's tough to see too many Blues polling well, considering they won six matches. Bryce Gibbs, Marc Murphy, Sam Docherty and Matthew Kreuzer all impressed, and although young gun Patrick Cripps finished with a tally of 18 last season, he was slightly quieter this campaign. A broken left leg ended his year early.
Best chance: Bryce Gibbs
After seeking a trade back to Adelaide at the end of last season but being made to stay put, the South Australian was professional in his response, putting together one of the finest seasons of his career. He was tipped to pick up 11 votes after being adjudged best on ground three times, with two of those coming in losses. An eight-game patch in the middle of the season saw him pick up fewer than 30 disposals just once.
Fast starter: Marc Murphy
Everything is relative, and the captain being expected to poll four votes in the opening three rounds was a decent effort considering his side won only once in that period.
Impossible! Can you believe this effort from Marc Murphy? 🍌🍌 #AFLBluesDons pic.twitter.com/5HagY2f9Uy — AFL (@AFL) April 9, 2017
One-vote wonder: Kade Simpson
The evergreen backman continues to thrive despite having turned 33 during the season. He had 33 disposals in the round 13 victory against Gold Coast, in what is predicted to be his only vote for the year.
Ineligible: Nil. - Dinny Navaratnam
The winner won't come from Collingwood after a topsy-turvy season but the midfielders should attract votes with the Brownlow predictor tipping the Magpies will poll 60 votes. Scott Pendlebury is a regular vote-winner but Taylor Adams and Steele Sidebottom had better seasons. Jamie Elliott should poll votes in the middle of the season and Brodie Grundy and Jeremy Howe will pick up ones and twos.
Best chance: Steele Sidebottom
Sidebottom was desperately unlucky to not receive a nomination for the All Australian team after one of his most consistent seasons. His average disposal count of 27.3 was equal only to 2015 while he also kicked 16 goals. He has polled either seven or nine votes in each of the past five seasons and should at least match that tally this year. The Brownlow predictor has him polling just four votes but he's expected to poll more.
Fast starter: Taylor Adams
Adams jumped out of the blocks having 30 disposals or more in seven out of the first 10 games. He is an in-and-under type who is not flashy. If he had kicked straight the Magpies may have won more early games and he would have been a bigger chance to earn more votes.
One-vote wonder
Will Hoskin-Elliott had a good first season with the Magpies and by law of averages he should claim at least one vote. He was in the top six players on the ground on a number of occasions but whether he did enough to earn the umpires' attention in at least one of those games remains to be seen.
Ineligible: Levi Greenwood, Brodie Grundy, Travis Varcoe. - Peter Ryan
The Bombers won't have a contender for the Brownlow with best chance star midfielder Zach Merrett serving a one-game suspension late in the year. He was their leading hope, particularly after polling a team-high 19 votes last year. The Brownlow Predictor expects Merrett to poll 18 votes this season, and 10 Bombers to receive votes across the season.
Best chance: Joe Daniher
With Merrett suspended during the season, Daniher becomes Essendon's best of its eligible players. The star key forward had some brilliant games this season and should get best-afield nod in at least three games, including his five-goal hauls against Collingwood and Geelong.
Fast starter: Dyson Heppell
The new Essendon skipper returned to an AFL field for the first time in 18 months and blitzed in the Bombers' round one win over Hawthorn with 34 disposals and three goals. He should get off to a flyer with three votes.
One-vote wonder: Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti
In AFL.com.au's Brownlow Predictor there is no Bomber who ends the season with just a single vote. McDonald-Tipungwuti is closest with two, and he is an eye-catching player so should have his moments in the eyes of the umpires.
Ineligible: Zach Merrett. - Callum Twomey
Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti put in a number of eye-catching games this year. Picture: AFL Photos
Walters, David Mundy, Bradley Hill and Lachie Neale all had their moment in the sun in the Dockers' six victories between rounds three and nine. It will be slim pickings after that when Freo only won two games. As a whole, the Dockers are expected to finish with about 48 votes.
Best chance: Nat Fyfe
The 2015 Brownlow medallist got better as the year wore on coming back from a broken leg but Fyfe could pick up three votes after leading from the front with 33 touches, seven clearances and six tackles in an upset win over the Western Bulldogs in round three. He might not poll again until a best-on-ground effort in the round 16 victory against North Melbourne. Tipped to receive about nine votes all up.
Fast starter: David Mundy
The former skipper booted three goals from 23 touches in the round four heart-stopper against the Dees, before racking up a game-high 30 disposals in the thriller victory over North a week later. Could poll six votes and that might be it for his night.
One-vote wonder: Matt Taberner
Hauled down seven contested marks and slotted four goals in a stunning first AFL game for the year against Essendon in round seven. A month later he was dropped.
Ineligible: Sean Darcy, Cam McCarthy. - Travis King
Suspensions have decimated the Cats' genuine chances, and there'll be plenty of grimacing and reflecting on mistimed tackles when Patrick Dangerfield polls strongly – and likely leads for a while - with around six three-point games predicted, mainly in the middle of the season. Joel Selwood and Mitch Duncan – also ineligible – will be the other prolific Cats, but no one in hoops (who can actually win it) will challenge the favoured Tiger.
Best chance: Joel Selwood
It was a consistent year from the captain who averaged nearly 26 disposals over 18 games. Despite missing the last three with an ankle injury, he finished second at the club for contested possessions behind Dangerfield. Started the season well with huge games against Melbourne (round three) and St Kilda (round five), before he hit a purple patch before the bye that should leave him with around 15 votes in total.
Fast starter: Patrick Dangerfield
Will poll in the first three rounds and could lead with Martin on seven votes going into round four. Had a quiet patch until round nine, but should put another five on the board before the bye. He'll be the quickest Cat out of the blocks, but with his best work coming after round 13, he'll trail the likes of Martin, Kelly and Sloane at the season's mid-point.
One-vote wonder: Mark Blicavs
His best shot will be in round five in the Cats' win over St Kilda. Had 21 touches, rucked a bit, took a big contested grab over Billy Longer and tackled hard. Given he quite often starts in the circle, he would have been right under the umpires' noses.
Ineligible: Patrick Dangerfield, Mitch Duncan, Tom Hawkins, Sam Menegola, James Parsons. - Jennifer Phelan
In a grim season for the club overall, don't expect to see anyone polling too high. The Suns won just six matches but were competitive in a few others and we've got them polling 47 votes overall. Interestingly, 11 players scored votes from our judges.
Best chance: Gary Ablett
No surprises here. Punters may remember Ablett's year for the hamstring injury that kept him out of so many matches late in the season, but when he played, the two-time winner was fantastic. We have him polling 11 votes, but he's an umpires' favourite, so don't be surprised if he gets a few more. Ablett played in all six Gold Coast victories, racking up at least 32 disposals each time.
Gary Ablett is letting his footy do the talking ð What a start for the Suns! #AFLSunsHawks pic.twitter.com/0HZSOsRQ8n — AFL (@AFL) April 9, 2017
Fast starter: Touk Miller
No real standout in this category for the Suns. The only player that polls in two of the first five matches is Jack Martin (one vote each time). Miller's opening round against the Lions grabbed him the three votes despite a narrow loss.
One-vote wonder: Jarrod Witts
Might have to be a two-vote wonder this time. The hulking ruckman had a strong first season in Gold Coast colours and our judges gave him two votes for his influential role in Gold Coast's round three slaughter of Hawthorn.
Ineligible: Matt Rosa. - Michael Whiting
Gun onballers Josh Kelly and Dylan Shiel are expected to be the Giants best Brownlow vote-getters, but power forward Jonathon Patton could be a surprise on the night. The big man kicked 13 goals in three games after the bye, to go with a six-goal haul in round four, so should snag some votes. Our predictor has GWS polling 82 votes.
Best chance: Josh Kelly
The Giants' briliant young midfielder had a breakout year and is the club's best hope this year. Kelly averaged almost 30 possessions per game and also kicked 18 goals, and was outstanding in the first half of the season especially. Kelly broke the GWS record with 43 touches in round 22 against West Coast, and our predictor is forecasting 25 votes for the 22-year-old.
Fast starter: Josh Kelly
After the Giants' round one disaster in Adelaide, Kelly led the club's revival with some outstanding form. He could very well have eight or nine votes from four rounds after racking up big numbers against Gold Coast, North Melbourne and Port Adelaide.
Josh Kelly ends the Suns' five-goal run and looks dangerous while doing so 👏 pic.twitter.com/jxavpCihch — AFL (@AFL) April 1, 2017
One-vote wonder: Sam Reid
If the umpires were switched on in round 14, Reid should get at least a vote for his tagging job on Brisbane Lion Dayne Zorko at the Gabba. Reid was sent to the dangerous Lion, who averaged 25 disposals a game and booted 34 goals in 2017, and kept the brilliant Lion to just five possessions.
Ineligible: Toby Greene and Shane Mumford - Adam Curley
Don't expect a Brownlow bonanza from the Hawks, but midfielder Tom Mitchell is a big chance to feature strongly. Behind him, premiership stars Shaun Burgoyne, Jack Gunston and Jarryd Roughead and NAB AFL Rising Star runner-up Ryan Burton are best placed to do well. Our Brownlow predictor has Hawthorn amassing 61 votes on the night.
Best chance: Tom Mitchell
The ex-Swan is in the mix to finish on the Brownlow Medal podium thanks to a magnificent first season in brown and gold. He led the league with 35.8 disposals – never having fewer than 26 in a game – his 14.8 contested possessions ranked fifth, and he was also prominent in stoppage clearances (seventh) and tackles (15th). The predictor expects him to pick up 22 votes, including three each in rounds five, eight and 22.
Fast starter: Tom Mitchell
There wasn't anyone who really fit this category because of the Hawks' 0-4 beginning, but if anyone does it is the club's resident ball magnet. Our predictor has him voteless through four rounds, but a best-on-ground effort in round five was the start of eight potential votes in five rounds.
Few players have won more of the ball in a season than Tom Mitchell. Picture: AFL Photos
One-vote wonder: Cyril Rioli
Rioli's football resume stacks up with some of the greats, but it was a frustrating season for him, even before sustaining a season-ending PCL injury in round eight. But he may salvage a Brownlow Medal vote for his round-five effort against West Coast, including 15 disposals (nine contested), 1.1, six score involvements and six tackles.
Ineligible: Luke Hodge - Marc McGowan
Melbourne has not had a Brownlow medallist since Shane Woewodin won the prestigious award in 2000. Oliver is clearly the Demons' best hope this season and he could be a real chance of finishing inside the count's top five. Jack Viney and Tom McDonald had a number of match-winning performances and they might poll maximum votes in a couple of those games.
Best chance: Clayton Oliver
Oliver enjoyed a breakout season in 2017, performing at a consistently high level rarely seen in such a young player. The 20-year-old averaged 30 disposals across 22 games, ranking fifth in the AFL for total touches, fifth for clearances, second for contested possessions, No.1 for total handballs and No.1 in the AFL for average groundball gets. Oliver is already one of the best clearance players in the AFL, he's clean below his knees in congestion and has elite vision in traffic.
Eddie's Pocket or Clayton's Corner? A terrific goal from Oliver 👌 #AFLCrowsDees pic.twitter.com/nSSMvDQvBj — AFL (@AFL) May 13, 2017
Fast starter: Clayton Oliver
Expect Oliver to leap out of the gates after gathering 36 disposals and then 35 touches in his first two games. It would be a surprise if Oliver did not poll maximum votes against St Kilda in round one after gathering 36 touches and nine clearances in what was a best on ground display.
One-vote wonder: Angus Brayshaw
Repeat concussions restricted Brayshaw to just five senior games in 2017. However, he made a late season return and performed well in the final three games of the season. The luckless youngster could poll a vote against St Kilda in his return game in round 21, after racking up 26 disposals in a big Melbourne win.
Ineligible: Tomas Bugg, Jesse Hogan, Jordan Lewis, Christian Salem, Bernie Vince. - Ben Guthrie
Ben Cunnington is expected to lead the Roos' charge with 15 votes, but is ineligible because of suspension. Cunnington, Shaun Higgins and Ben Brown were the Kangas' standouts and all should poll well – potentially in double digits. But don't expect great variety in the club's votegetters, with only eight players expected to feature and 38 of their 47 votes tipped to come from the aforementioned trio.
Best chance: Shaun Higgins
North's newly crowned best and fairest averaged a personal-best 23.5 disposals, five tackles, 5.7 inside 50s, 7.2 score involvements, and almost a goal and a goal assist per game. The former Dog added much-needed skill and class to the Roos' midfield and was not only consistent, but had some eye-catching performances. AFL.com.au's Brownlow Medal predictor has Higgins racking up 12 votes, including two threes, in rounds two and 19, and three twos.
Fast starter: Ben Cunnington
Cunnington missed round one through suspension, but following a disappointing 2016 campaign the inside midfielder hit the ground running this year after working on his aerobic capacity in the off-season. Had fewer than 26 possessions just twice to round nine, when he is slated to already have 11 votes.
One-vote wonder: Mason Wood
Wood's talent continues to tantalise, but the key forward suffered through another injury-ravaged season. Should be in vote contention in round seven for his career-high 24 disposals, 10 marks, five tackles and 2.3 in the 59-point demolition of Adelaide.
Ineligible: Ben Cunnington, Scott Thompson, Jarrad Waite. - Marc McGowan
The Power are expected to have four players in double figures such was their spread of contributors on their way to a 14-8 win-loss record in the home and away season. All Australian forward Robbie Gray will figure prominently, as will Ollie Wines and Chad Wingard, while star ruckman Paddy Ryder is ineligible after being suspended early in the season.
Best chance: Robbie Gray
Gray tormented defenders as a permanent forward and turned several games on his own. He is expected to poll 17 votes according to the Brownlow Medal predictor, including four games where he was the best on ground.
Fast starter: Ollie Wines
The Power vice-captain burst out of the blocks with a strong start to the season. According to our predictor, Wines will poll nine votes in the first five rounds of the competition.
One-vote wonder: Matthew Broadbent
Before an ankle injury ended his season, the experienced half-back flanker had a blinder in the Power's 90-point flogging of Carlton in round five, picking up 32 possessions.
Ineligible: Tom Jonas, Paddy Ryder. - Lee Gaskin
The Tigers should add another Brownlow medallist to their ranks, with Dustin Martin set to join 2012 winner Trent Cotchin. With 15 wins in the regular season, there will be plenty of three-vote games on offer and Martin will scoop up most. Our Brownlow Predictor has the Tigers polling 88 votes as a team.
Best chance: Dustin Martin
The superstar midfielder is expected to poll a record 38 votes to win in emphatic style after a career-best season. He is tipped to poll three votes in 10 games, with his increased scoreboard impact (32 goals in the home-and-away season) making him a match-winner. He is the shortest priced favourite in history after Patrick Dangerfield was ruled ineligible.
Fast starter: Trent Cotchin
The skipper started the season in brilliant form and set the example for his team by pairing his committed attack on the ball with a strong defensive side to his game. His first month should see him poll seven votes, including three for a best-on-ground effort against Collingwood in round two.
One-vote wonder: Reece Conca
The defender played the opening six games before a foot injury ended his season, but that included a 25-possession effort against West Coast. He pushed forward well but missed his chances in front of goal. He was still in the top three players on the ground, according to our predictor.
Ineligible: Bachar Houli, Toby Nankervis
The two highest-polling Saints will most likely be onballers Seb Ross and Jack Steven. Jack Billings polled four votes in the first three years of his career but he should exceed that tally after some exceptional matches. With a relatively blue-collar midfield, few of their teammates are likely to be prolific, although Jack Steele impressed in his first season since crossing over from Greater Western Sydney.
Best chance: Seb Ross
The hard-working left-footer put together the best season of his career, having played every game and averaging just shy of 30 disposals. He was tipped to poll in seven games for a total tally of 14. Just once was he adjudged best on ground, when he had 32 disposals in the round 13 win against North Melbourne. On 14 occasions, he collected at least 30 disposals, giving him plenty of chances to catch the umpires' attention.
Fast starter: Jack Steven
Having set a high bar with three best and fairests in the past four years, Steven was inconsistent by his standards but his best performances were still excellent. The predictor expected him to poll eight votes between rounds five and seven. It was some sort of return after missing two weeks with a punctured lung.
Jack Steven nailed it from a tight angle and celebrated accordingly ðª pic.twitter.com/aZfnAaT3Vb — AFL (@AFL) June 16, 2017
One-vote wonder: Jake Carlisle
Key defenders are rarely among the votes and that will likely be the case for the former Bomber, but he might pinch one for his effort against Fremantle in round 15.
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logic you’ll need.
In the case of a processes, which require several model classes to cooperate, abstracting it into its own class will help keep your controller and model code singly-responsible and well-isolated.
AdvertisementsSpeaking via video link at technology conference CeBIT in Germany, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden denied being Russia’s “pawn,” and predicted that the NSA’s spying practices are unlikely to change under Donald Trump.
A day after FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Michael Rogers appeared before the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Snowden discussed the accusations of Russian interference in the US election. While stating the allegations were plausible, Snowden told those gathered at the conference in Hanover that “we haven't seen any real evidence out of the FBI of it.”
READ MORE: ‘Stop breaking the law’: Snowden raises ‘red flag’ over testimony of NSA and FBI chiefs
Snowden was later asked: “Are you a pawn right now for the Russian president when he talks to President Trump?” The whistleblower stated that he was not a “powerful influential figure” who could change things and was expendable to Russia.
“Russian influence in the election needs to be investigated and if they are found to have been, they need to be held accountable to the law,” Snowden said later. He added that if they were found to be interfering, this was nothing new and that every country’s intelligence agencies interfere in elections.
“Foreign interference is a common thing,” he said. “If elections have been interfered with throughout history why does this one matter?”
Asked what has changed since he last spoke at CeBIT in 2015, Snowden said the latest progress in encryption is driving the “internet predator class” to develop hacking techniques, known as ‘Zero days’. There is no guarantee that these techniques, detailed in the recent WikiLeaks dump, will not end up in the wrong hands.
“Very soon we are about to see a level of proliferation that results in a real crisis,” he said.
Discussing Kellyanne Conway’s recent claims that there are cameras in certain microwaves, he said she may have misunderstood information she was given to arrive at that conclusion. However, given the information revealed by WikiLeaks of spying through Samsung smart TVs, it may not be as ridiculous at it seems.
Kellyanne Conway claims microwaves could have spied on Trump https://t.co/2AR73GRPfZpic.twitter.com/6z8IWkObhQ — RT America (@RT_America) March 13, 2017
Asked about allegations he was connected to WikiLeaks, Snowden said “No, this is well established public fact.” He admitted they helped him leave Hong Kong before coming to Moscow in 2013. “I don’t talk to Julian Assange, I don’t talk to WikiLeaks, I have no relationship with them.”
Snowden said WikiLeaks’ recent publications “have been a genuine public service.”
“We need to make the cost of compromising data greater than the value of that data,” Snowden said of storing data on clouds, claiming that more complicated engineering procedures will make it too costly to steal data. Snowden cited the example of how two-step authentication could have prevented the hacking of John Podesta’s emails.
Podesta, who served as campaign manager for Hillary Clinton during her election campaign, had his email compromised by a simple phishing scheme. The emails were leaked to WikiLeaks which published them in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, revealing a fractured Democratic party.
READ MORE: Clinton chair John Podesta claims FBI helped Trump beat Hillary (VIDEO)
“I’m not here to fix this,” Snowden said, when asked about his claims that mass surveillance has increased since he leaked NSA documents in 2013. He claimed the technology community will have to move the issue forward, something he said he was not qualified to do.
Asked if he had confidence that Trump’s administration would reform the NSA, Snowden laughed. “Let’s be real. Donald Trump has never represented himself as a friend of civil liberties.”
Asked about the German government’s decision not to invite him to the country to give testimony to members of parliament investigating NSA surveillance in Germany, Snowden said they may be “simply moving on, to avoid the topic, because sometimes the truth is uncomfortable."
Snowden can testify in Berlin, govt must provide ‘effective protection’ – court https://t.co/Ev1hI2YR7r — RT (@RT_com) November 22, 2016
Looking back his life so far, Snowden said: “I’m proud of the choices I made,” insisting he would deal with the consequences of the choice he made as they happen, claiming “belief is not enough” and that he takes pride in acting on his beliefs. Asked if he wanted to go back to the US Snowden said “Of course, it’s my home.”
“I lost a lot,” Snowden said when asked about previous comments that he “burnt his life to the ground,” saying the statement had hope, as it allowed new growth in his life, which he described as “profoundly empowering.”
Snowden complemented Oliver Stone’s recent film of which he is the subject, saying it was an “amazing accomplishment” to explain a complicated issue to a broad audience.Renault was slow to use its token allocation last year, although an upgraded engine was seen briefly at the end of the season.
Abiteboul admits that while progress is only relative to what the opposition has also achieved over the winter, Renault feels that it has made a big step.
"It will not be minor relative to us," Abiteboul said when asked by Motorsport.com what sort of improvement would be seen.
"The question is how that compares to the rest. It relates to what Mercedes and Ferrari and Honda have done.
"But it is a big step for us. It is the biggest step since the new regulations have been introduced."
More development
Remi Taffin, who now carries the title of technical director at Viry-Chatillon, confirmed that there will be further developments as the year goes on.
"The power unit we will use in Melbourne is a continuation of the work we started last year, and some add-ons push the concepts further," Taffin said.
"We also have some other areas we are working on so there will be further refinements coming throughout the season, but what we will see in Melbourne will already be a substantial step up from where we left off in 2015.
"However, we have to look at 2016 as laying the foundations for 2017 when we expect the partnership to have matured."
Taffin insist that Renault learned from last year's development programme.
"If we look back to 2015, we introduced some new concepts late in the year with the 'Spec D' power unit.
"While we did not use all the concepts we developed at that point, the track test in Brazil gave us some very useful information.
"In particular we worked on the combustion chamber and the turbo to bring additional performance without sacrificing reliability."When bad things happen, we like to believe that we would do whatever necessary to change the situation. Research on what is known as learned helplessness has shown that when people feel like they have no control over what happens, they tend to simply give up and accept their fate.
What Is Learned Helplessness?
Learned helplessness occurs when an animal is repeatedly subjected to an aversive stimulus that it cannot escape. Eventually, the animal will stop trying to avoid the stimulus and behave as if it is utterly helpless to change the situation. Even when opportunities to escape are presented, this learned helplessness will prevent any action.
While the concept is strongly tied to animal psychology and behavior, it can also apply to many situations involving human beings.
When people feel that they have no control over their situation, they may begin to behave in a helpless manner. This inaction can lead people to overlook opportunities for relief or change.
The Discovery of Learned Helplessness
The concept of learned helplessness was discovered accidentally by psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven F. Maier. They had initially observed helpless behavior in dogs that were classically conditioned to expect an electrical shock after hearing a tone.
Later, the dogs were placed in a shuttlebox that contained two chambers separated by a low barrier. The floor was electrified on one side, and not on the other. The dogs previously subjected to the classical conditioning made no attempts to escape, even though avoiding the shock simply involved jumping over a small barrier.
To investigate this phenomenon, the researchers then devised another experiment.
In group one, the dogs were strapped into harnesses for a period of time and then released.
The dogs in the second group were placed in the same harnesses but were subjected to electrical shocks that could be avoided by pressing a panel with their noses.
The third group received the same shocks as those in group two, except that those in this group were not able to control the shock. For those dogs in the third group, the shocks seemed to be completely random and outside of their control.
The dogs were then placed in a shuttlebox. Dogs from the first and second group quickly learned that jumping the barrier eliminated the shock. Those from the third group, however, made no attempts to get away from the shocks. Due to their previous experience, they had developed a cognitive expectation that nothing they did would prevent or eliminate the shocks.
Learned Helplessness in People
The impact of learned helplessness has been demonstrated in different animal species, but its effects can also be seen in people.
Consider one often-used example: A child who performs poorly on math tests and assignments will quickly begin to feel that nothing he does will have any effect on his math performance. When later faced with any type of math-related task, he may experience a sense of helplessness.
Learned helplessness has also been associated with several different psychological disorders. Depression, anxiety, phobias, shyness, and loneliness can all be exacerbated by learned helplessness.
For example, a woman who feels shy in social situations may eventually begin to feel that there is nothing she can do to overcome her symptoms. This sense that her symptoms are out of her direct control may lead her to stop trying to engage herself in social situations, thus making her shyness even more pronounced.
Researchers have found, however, that learned helplessness does not always generalize across all settings and situations. A student who experiences learned helpless with regards to math class will not necessarily experience that same helplessness when faced with performing calculations in the real world. In other cases, people may experience learned helplessness that generalizes across a wide variety of situations.
The Role of Explanatory Styles
So what explains why some people develop learned helplessness and others do not? Why is it specific to some situations but more global in others?
Many researchers believe that attribution or explanatory styles play a role in determining how people are impacted by learned helplessness. This view suggests that an individual's characteristic style of explaining events helps determine whether or not they will develop learned helplessness.
A pessimistic explanatory style is associated with a greater likelihood of experiencing learned helplessness. People with this explanatory style tend to view negative events as being inescapable and unavoidable and tend to take personal responsibility for such negative events.
Learned Helplessness in Children
Learned helpless often originates in childhood, and unreliable or unresponsive caregivers can contribute to these feelings. This learned helplessness can begin very early in life. Children raised in institutionalized settings, for example, often exhibit symptoms of helplessness even during infancy.
When children need help but no one comes to their aid, they may be left feeling that nothing they do will change their situation. Repeated experiences that bolster these feelings of helplessness and hopelessness can result in growing into adulthood ultimately feeling that there is nothing one can do to change his or her problems.
Some common symptoms of learned helplessness in children include:
Low self-esteem
Passivity
Poor motivation
Giving up
Lack of effort
Frustration
Procrastination
Failure to ask for help
Learned helplessness can also result in anxiety, depression, or both. When kids feel that they've had no control over the past events of their lives, they gain the expectation that future events will be just as uncontrollable. Because they believe that nothing they do will ever change the outcome of an event, kids are often left thinking that they should not even bother trying.
Academic struggles can often lead to feelings of learned helplessness. A child who makes an effort to do well but still does poorly may end up feeling that he has no control over his grades or performance. Since nothing he does seems to make any difference, he will stop trying and his grades will suffer even more. Such problems can also affect other areas of the child's life. His poor performance in school can make him feel that nothing he does is right or useful, so he may lose the motivation to try in other areas of his life as well.
Learned Helplessness in Mental Health
Learned helplessness is thought to contribute to feelings of anxiety and may influence the onset, severity, and persistence of conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). When you experience chronic anxiety, you may eventually give up on finding relief because your anxious feelings seem unavoidable and untreatable. Because of this, people who are experiencing mental health issues such as anxiety or depression may refuse medications or therapy that may help relieve their symptoms.
As people age, learned helplessness can become something of a vicious cycle. When encountering problems such as anxiety or depression, people may feel that nothing can be done to ease these feelings. People then fail to seek out options that may help which then contributes to greater feelings of helplessness and anxiety.
Overcoming Learned Helplessness
So what can people do to overcome learned helplessness? Research suggests that learned helplessness can be successfully decreased, particularly if intervention occurs during early onset. Long-term learned helplessness can also be reduced, although it may require longer-term effort.
Therapy can be effective in reducing symptoms of learned helplessness. In one study, for example, some participants were asked to try to complete an unsolvable task. Those who received a therapeutic intervention after failing at the task were more likely to try again and successfully complete a follow-up task. Those who did not receive an intervention were more likely to experience learned helplessness and give up.
So what can people do to overcome learned helplessness? Cognitive-behavioral therapy is form of psychotherapy that can be beneficial in overcoming the thinking and behavioral patterns that contribute to learned helplessness. The goal of CBT is to help patients identify negative thought patterns that contribute to feelings of learned helplessness and then replace these thoughts with more optimistic and rational thoughts. This process often involves carefully analyzing what you are thinking, actively challenging these ideas, and disputing negative thought patterns.
A Word From Verywell
Learned helplessness can have a profound impact on mental health and well-being. People who experience learned helplessness are also likely to experience symptoms of depression, elevated stress levels, and less motivation to take care of their physical health.
Not everyone responds to experiences the same way. Some people are more likely to experience learned helplessness in the face of uncontrollable events, often due to biological and psychological factors. Children raised by helpless parents, for example, are also more likely to experience learned helplessness.There has been a sea change within the wearables industry. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple looks to have grabbed the wearables unit sales crown from Fitbit this past holiday season. It's time to begin thinking about wearables not just as standalone devices for the wrist, but rather platforms containing a number of products designed for different parts of the body. In this environment, Apple has become the new wearables leader.
Change Is in the Air
Over the past few years, the wearables industry had come to revolve around two product categories targeting the wrist:
Health & fitness trackers
Smartwatches
Fitbit and Apple have been the top two companies selling wearables in volume. While Fitbit's assortment of health & fitness trackers outsold Apple Watch in terms of unit sales, the higher-priced Apple Watch gave Apple the revenue edge. After initially positioning Apple Watch as a mini iPhone on the wrist, Apple changed strategies last year in an effort to close the unit sales gap between Fitbit and Apple Watch. Management shifted Apple Watch marketing more towards health & fitness while lowering the entry-level price and expanding the product line to include more fitness-oriented Watches.
The ingredients for an interesting holiday quarter for the wearables industry seemed to be in place. The debate centered on whether or not Apple would be able to entice people to embrace smartwatches instead of dedicated health & fitness trackers. However, Fitbit had an early November surprise announcement. The company disclosed a sudden deterioration in customer demand in 3Q16, and the negative trends had continued into October. The slowdown caught Fitbit off guard. Management was forced to issue very weak financial guidance for the upcoming holiday shopping season. More worrying, management didn't seem to know what was driving the sudden decline in demand. While Apple Watch was a prime suspect, Fitbit has never publicly viewed Apple as a competitive threat.
Despite lowering sales expectations, Fitbit still ended up missing its holiday sales forecast. The company hit a brick wall in terms of sales growth. Demand for Fitbit products completely evaporated at the end of the year with the company seeing a 21% decline in unit sales in 4Q16. Just one year earlier, Fitbit had reported 55% unit sales growth.
While Fitbit saw weakening consumer demand, other wearables players reported much more positive results. Apple reported record Apple Watch sales in 4Q16. Fossil and Garmin also saw promising smartwatch trends. (My Fossil and Garmin 4Q16 earnings analysis is available here and here, respectively.) Garmin even described a scenario of robust smartwatch demand during the holidays. While consumers turned away from Fitbit health & fitness trackers during the second half of 2016, smartwatches have been gaining momentum.
By the Numbers
The shift in consumer preferences regarding fitness & health trackers and smartwatches is visible when comparing Fitbit and Apple Watch unit sales. As seen in Exhibit 1, Apple nearly closed the unit sales gap between Apple Watch and Fitbit last quarter. During 4Q16, Fitbit sold 6.5M devices at an average selling price of $85. Meanwhile, Apple sold 5.6M Apple Watches at an average selling price of $372.
Exhibit 1: Fitbit vs. Apple Watch Unit SalesSydney, Australia — Lockheed Martin and Saab have won major deals to supply combat systems for the Royal Australian Navy, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Oct. 3, the first day of the Pacific 2017 maritime symposium.
The deals are reported to be worth several billion Australian dollars and have been announced as part of the country’s plans to establish a continuous naval shipbuilding capability.
Turnbull said the Lockheed Martin Aegis combat management system, or CMS, will be integrated into the Navy’s nine Future Frigates together with an Australian Tactical Interface to be developed by Saab Australia, which will be acquired under the SEA 5000 project.
He said the Australian government has also mandated Saab Australia to provide its 9LV CMS for the 12 offshore patrol vessels, or OPVs, to be acquired under the SEA 1180 project and a future upgrade of the Australian Tactical Interface for the Navy’s three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers that are currently being delivered.
The Hobart DDG destroyers currently have the Aegis Baseline 8 combat system with the Australian Tactical Interface provided by Raytheon Australia, but the government is mulling a ballistic missile defence capability, which, among other things, will require an upgrade to Aegis Baseline 9.
The overall announcement is largely seen as an intent by the Turnbull government to guarantee an indigenous CMS capability in coming years. “It guarantees the development of a long-term sustainable Australian combat management system industry, which is integral to the implementation of the government’s Naval Shipbuilding Plan,” Defense Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.
The Future Frigate program will acquire nine warships from the mid-2000s, which will be optimized for anti-submarine warfare but also have a significant air defence capability. The Australian government had previously mandated a phased-array radar to be developed by Australia’s CEA Technologies and the combat system competition was between Lockheed Martin with the Aegis Baseline 9 and Saab Australia with the 9LV system.
“The decision to select Aegis for the Future Frigate is a good decision,” said Gary Feldman, Lockheed Martin’s director of Australian mission systems. “We think the commonality with the air warfare destroyers, the interoperability and the overall capability and the growth path for the future makes it a very important decision.”
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The Saab Australia 9LV system is already in service aboard several of the Australian Navy’s warships, including the upgraded Anzac-class anti-ship missile defence frigates and the two 27,000-tonne Canberra-class landing helicopter dock ships.
The decision to integrate the system with the 12 OPVs, to be built in Australia in 2018, will mean that Saab will most likely be involved in some way with all surface ship combat management systems in the future.
“Saab welcomes the announcement by the Australian prime minister that confirms the company as an integral part of the government’s enterprise approach to combat management systems. This is an endorsement of the advanced combat system capabilities we have developed for the RAN, and we look forward to working closely with the Australian Defence Force to deliver highly capable systems for the Future Frigates and other platforms,” Saab Australia’s managing director, Dean Rosenfield, said.Lessons from Romania: Nicu Vlad at the Olympic Training Center
Matt Foreman
Nicu Vlad is one of the greatest weightlifters of all time. The Romanian legend won the Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles games when he was only twenty-one years old, and that was only the beginning of his amazing career. Vlad went on to win the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics, the bronze at the 1996 Olympics (when he was thirty-three), and three world championships in 1984, 1986, and 1990. However, the accomplishment that Vlad is probably most famous for is his all-time world record snatch of 200.5 kilos in the old 100 kilo bodyweight class. He is the heaviest lifter in history to snatch double bodyweight, and many weightlifting experts believe that Vlad is one of the most technically perfect weightlifters of all time. His snatch technique has been the learning model for thousands of young weightlifters over the last two decades. So you can imagine how I felt when I found out that I was going to have the opportunity to train with Vlad for three weeks at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs during the summer of 1990.
Nicu and his coach, Dragomir Cioroslan, came to the United States in 1990 to spend the summer training at various locations around the country. They spent most of this visit in Colorado Springs, and the national junior squad training camp was held at the OTC during the same time. I was invited to train at this camp, which meant that I was going to be working out in the same gym with an athlete whose pictures I had taped up on the walls of the gym where I worked out at home. I was seventeen years old and Nicu Vlad had been my weightlifting idol long before I knew he was coming to the United States. This was literally the opportunity of a lifetime, and this article will examine just a fraction of the many lessons I learned during that memorable summer.
First, the formal details of training…
I recall meeting Dragomir and Nicu for the first time. Dragomir, who was one of the friendliest people I had ever met in my life, smiled broadly and shook my hand with gusto as he looked me in the eye and exclaimed, “My name is Dragomir, how are you?!” After that, I was introduced to the big man, who shook my hand with his thick paw and growled, “Nicu Vlad,” as he glanced at me with the same interest he probably showed in his morning bowel movement. Nicu was polite and respectful, but he had a quiet intensity in his personality that was obvious. This man was a legend, and everybody knew it. You gave him a wide berth.
Nicu usually trained twice a day, and his workouts were broken up into short segments. He generally performed the classic lifts along with front squats, back squats, and RDLs (more on that later). I never saw him spend any time doing supplemental exercises such as push presses, overhead squats, etc. He often performed his squats in the mornings and his competition lifts in the afternoons. In a typical afternoon session, he would train one of the competition lifts (snatch or clean and jerk) for around thirty minutes and then go outside the gym to lie down in the grass and relax for a while. After twenty or thirty minutes, he would come back in the gym to train again, often hitting the other competition lift. After this second session, he would sometimes go back outside to take another relaxation break before the next segment or sometimes he would go straight into a squatting or pulling movement, depending on which lifts he had trained that morning. Basically, Dragomir had him on a European-style program that combined many of the Russian and Bulgarian principles that we have all studied over the years. He was training around seven to nine times per week, with the morning sessions usually taking place around ten o’clock and the afternoon sessions around three or four. It’s important to note that Nicu was twenty-seven years old during this time, which is generally considered a little old for most hardcore European training systems. I believe his volume and exercise selection had been narrowed to accommodate his age.
Nicu was training to compete at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Washington at the end of the summer, so I was able to see him train when he was around six weeks out from a meet. The top lifts I saw him perform in training during this time are as follows: 185 snatch, 210 clean and jerk (he clean and jerked 210, brought the weight down to his shoulders, and jerked it a second time). Nicu’s all-time best official lifts are 200.5 in the snatch and 237.5 in the clean and jerk. But those lifts had been done in 1986; during the 1990 time period when I saw him, he was usually hitting around 190/220 in meets. Therefore, 185 and 210 were working pretty close to his top results at the time. In the supplemental lifts, I saw multiple sets of three in the back squats with 250-260, and RDL sets of three usually performed with 250-260. The squats and RDLs with 260 were, as far as the eye could tell, practically effortless. He did not squat with any of the massive weights that many Americans think the top European lifters handle on a daily basis. Also, the jerk was his weak spot and, because of this, he almost always lowered the weight to his shoulders and performed two reps of the jerk for every clean.
But despite the amazing work capacity and kilograms Nicu was capable of handling, the most phenomenal aspect of his training was definitely his technique. When I first became an Olympic weightlifter, a great coach told me that one of the elements of having perfect technique meant you could “make 50 kilos look exactly the same as 150 kilos.” Vlad was the best example of this rule that I have ever seen in my career. Every movement of his body from his back position to his foot placement to his acceleration in the second pull was identical, regardless of the weight on the bar. When he performed snatches and cleans, he would usually power snatch or power clean the light weights, catching them in a high receiving position. And, as the weight got progressively heavier, he would simply catch the bar gradually lower and lower until he was hitting his top weights and catching them near rock-bottom. Nicu jumped his feet forcefully off the platform when he was extending the second pull and going under the bar, producing a loud slap! when his feet hit the platform as he turned his wrists over and caught the weight. Not every great lifter has utilized the same “feet jumping” technique as Vlad, obviously. There are some great lifters who simply lift their feet just high enough to slide them out and re-position them as they receive the bar. But Vlad’s technique involved violent jumping of the feet and many lifters, including myself, formed their own technique from emulating him. Everything about his movements was a textbook combination of speed, tightness, precision, and strength. Any weightlifter who wants to be successful would be wise to study the technique of Nicu Vlad, as we all did during our summer of watching him train.
A quick 185 snatch, then some RDLs…
One afternoon, many of the junior squad lifters were in the OTC game room playing pool and PacMan when Wes Barnett stuck his head in the door and told everybody, “Vlad’s going heavy in his workout.” We all ran out of the game room, across the hockey field, and down the hill to the gym so we could see some big weights. Nicu was warming up in the snatch at the time, and we all quietly took seats around the gym to watch the big show. After his normal warm up, snatching 70, 90, 110, 130, 140, 150, and 160 with ease, he put 170 on the bar. We were all shocked to see him miss the 170, but then he repeated the weight a few minutes later and made it easily. He jumped to 175 and missed the weight behind him twice, and then jumped to 180 and missed that weight twice as well. Most of us were wondering what in the hell was going on, as he was clearly in good shape and strong enough to make these weights. I will never forget what he did next.
He loaded 185 on the bar. This time, as he stood in front of the bar preparing for the lift, he stood motionless, tilted his head back and closed his eyes in the famous Vlad-concentration pose we had all seen him strike on the platform at the Olympics and world championships. He had not done this before any of the other lifts of his workout, and the gym went completely silent. After ten seconds, he reached down, grabbed the bar, and nailed the easiest, strongest snatch of the day.
I learned a lot about mental discipline as I watched this workout. After his missed snatch attempts, Nicu had no reaction whatsoever. He did not get visibly upset or discouraged in any way. His face remained stoic and he simply progressed to the next weight, confident that he would make any technical corrections that were needed. When he got to 185, which I later learned was the weight he had planned to hit that day, he just applied an extra level of concentration and focus. It was a big weight, he was having a bad workout, and he needed to tap into his extra reservoir of inner strength, mojo, or whatever you want to call it. Because he was a world champion, his mojo did not involve jumping around like a crackhead, punching himself in the face, or kicking the bar. His fire burned inside, and it burned hot. And after he made the 185, he simply went on with the rest of his workout. No celebration, actions of deep relief, or pissing and moaning because he hadn’t had a perfect workout. It was all just a day at the office for Nicu Vlad.
Then he started performing an exercise we saw him do regularly. It looked a lot like a stiff-legged deadlift, only he bent his knees slightly and displaced his hips backwards as he lowered the bar. He would regularly do this exercise with 250 kilos or more, and he even did a personal record set of 300x3 at the end of the camp. Somebody in the gym asked Nicu and Dragomir what the exercise was called. They said that they did not have a special name for it, and so one of the American lifters suggested that it could be called a “Romanian Deadlift” or RDL. Now, here we are eighteen years later, and this exercise has become a common staple in workout routines all across this country. I’ve always considered it a privilege that I was present when the RDL was officially named.
The Nicu Vlad Charm School…
Vlad had a fairly quiet, reserved personality, probably due mostly to the fact that his English at the time was relatively limited. With the English that he was able to speak, he was always happy to engage in conversation and joke around. I recall one night in the OTC dorm when a tall swimmer was walking down the hall and accidentally bumped into Nicu, knocking him back a step. The swimmer apparently thought he was a tough guy, because he just glanced around and kept walking without excusing himself. Wes Barnett jokingly told Nicu to go give the guy a beating. Nicu looked at Wes and shook his head saying, “What?” because he didn’t understand. Wes pointed at the swimmer and punched his fist into his palm five or six times. Nicu understood, but he stopped Wes and said, “No.” Then he punched his own fist into his palm one time, looked at Wes and said, “Just one.” He was telling us that he could knock the guy out with one shot!
Nicu also gave out a piece of advice that I now realize is probably the greatest lesson I’ve ever learned in weightlifting and life in general. This particular junior squad camp had several young athletes who would later go on to become great American lifters in the 1990s. Names like Barnett, Gough, McRae, Patao, and my dorm roommate Pete Kelley were all there. These individuals were hard working, driven, competitive animals who were hungry to move up in the national rankings. However, there were also several young athletes who had made the junior squad and earned their way to the camp, but showed some of the worst attitudes I have seen in my years as an athlete. These were spoiled brats who whined constantly about the gym being too small, the bars not spinning well enough, the dorms being too hot, the taste of the dining hall food, and every other free benefit that had been given to them. They did not train hard, complained incessantly, back-talked the coaches and OTC staff, and threw temper tantrums in the gym when they missed lifts. Not surprisingly, almost all of them quit the sport within the next few years.
Nicu and Dragomir used to watch these kids silently and shake their heads in disgust. It was obvious what they were thinking. Then, USA Weightlifting magazine decided to do an interview with Vlad, so Dragomir acted as his interpreter to answer their questions. At one point, the reporter asked Nicu what he thought about training with our top young junior lifters. Although I’m not quoting him word-for-word, I remember his answer clearly and it was this: “In Romania, I train on a bar that is bent. My gym has bad lighting and very little heat in the winters. Here in America, you have everything you need to train. It’s not in the bar or the gym or the platform… it’s in you.”
The message, which I consider almost a biblical principle, is that the strength you possess in your heart will be the deciding element in your weightlifting career. Adversity is the name of the game in this sport, and the only factor that can propel an athlete to success is sheer force of will. Physical talent is not enough. There are armies of physically talented athletes out there. The ones like Nicu Vlad, who refuse to allow anything to defeat them, will be the last ones standing. This attitude drove Nicu forward to victory at the World Championship that same year, and then eventually to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where, at the age of thirty-three, he snatched 197.5 in the 108 class, winning the third Olympic medal of his illustrious career.
I could write an entire book about all the other things I saw, heard, and learned during those weeks. Vlad told us that Yuri Zacharevich from the Soviet Union had rack jerked 300 kilos in training. Vlad told us that Naim Suleymanoglu owned eight houses in Turkey. Vlad told us that we were all idiots for spending our recovery time having chicken fights in the OTC pool instead of resting for our next workout. During his trip, somebody printed up some “Nicu Vlad Summer US Tour 1990” tank tops and sold them. I bought one and wore it as religiously as the stoners at my high school wore their Megadeth t-shirts. It was an exciting summer that marked the beginning of some great US lifting careers. I was lucky to be there. We all were.
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When you subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive training tips from Greg Everett & more.Police say an American tourist was murdered while walking along the beach with her husband. (Photo: Thinkstock)
A dream vacation quickly turned into a nightmare for a couple visiting the island of Grenada.
On Sunday, the body of a 39-year-old American woman was found about 12 miles outside of the island’s capital of St. George’s.
“Breaking News,” said the alert on SpiceIslander Talk Shop. “ Officers at the St. David police station confirm that a murder has been committed.”
According to reports, the woman and her husband had arrived on the island only a day earlier. They were attacked while walking along the well-known and populated La Sagesse beach.
The husband was able to escape the attack and run for help. By the time they returned to the mangrove, the woman was dead.
For other vacationers, the murder came as a shock. “Gradually we put the story together,” British journalist Sue Hardy told MailOnline. “It appears the American woman tourist - described as ‘very beautiful’ by one member of the staff I spoke to - had gone off for a stroll along the beach with her husband.”
Related: Is the Caribbean More Dangerous Than You Realize?
View photos
(Photo: MTV News Grenada/Facebook)
The murder is currently under investigation, but the site suggests the woman was murdered with a cutlass and possibly raped. The police believe that the man who committed the murder is Dave Martin Benjamin, an ex-convict who was recently released from prison.
MTV News Grenada reports that Benjamin walked into the St. David police station and turned himself in.
WATCH: Caribbean Travel: Smart Ways to Save
Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.Ah, I drew a pony! I've never drawn one before! I've never seen an entire episode! Ahaha, you guy's should see the original sketch... This was inspired by fanfic Confounding Feelings [link]. You dudes should totally check it out!Probably should have asked before I painted this... too late. This one's for you Alex! |
Iranian law has the right to keep his wife from leaving the country. His reason for keeping Ardalan at home, according to reports, is that he did not want Ardalan to miss their 7-year-old son’s first day of school on Sept. 23. The Asian Football Confederation Futsal Championship is set to run from Sept. 21-26.
[Hiker: “I was imprisoned in Iran for two years."]
Ardulan expressed dismay over her husband’s decision and called on the country to revise its laws when it comes to allowing women to leave the country.
“These games were very important to me,” she told Nasimonline (via news.com.au). “As a Muslim woman, I wanted to work for my country’s flag to be raised [at the games], rather than traveling for leisure and fun.”
She added: “I wish authorities would create [measures] that would allow female athletes to defend their rights in such situations.”
Ardulan, who has been heralded as Iran’s best female player, is a longtime advocate for women’s rights in Iran, especially when it comes to equal treatment in sports. In 2005, she made headlines for being one of the first women to attend a men’s national team match. She had to petition Iran’s soccer governing body for permission, however.
Unfortunately, not much has changed in Iran in the last 10 years. Despite promises to ease restrictions, women are still banned from attending men’s sporting events in the country. In some cases, the country has even arrested women who tried to do so. The most famous example came last year when Ghoncheh Ghavami went to jail for five months after attempting to attend a men’s volleyball game.
[FIFA President Sepp Blatter calls on Iran to end ban of women from soccer stadiums]
While Ardulan won’t end up in jail — without her passport, she has no choice but to follow the law and remain in the country — women’s rights advocates hope her case will raise awareness to bring change.
“This just shows to what extent this law can impact a woman’s life,” Shadi Sadr, the director of the human rights group Justice for Iran, told Radio Free Europe earlier this week. “Even if a woman reaches the highest ranks in politics, sports, or culture, she still needs her husband’s consent for one of her most basic rights — traveling abroad.”
Sadr continued: “[Ardulan] broke the silence, and this could lead to other women taking the courage to detail and shed light on other similar cases.”How I mark Spring
My spring starts based on the clouds, not the sun’s crossing of the equator. Warmer temperatures, combined with still-moist air, means cumulus at nice altitudes.
Friday was it. Day one of the 2013 season. Everyone has been jonesing since fall; conditions like this means appointments are rescheduled, gliders are freshly-waxed, and there is a waiting line for the towplane.
Tail Dollies from all the gliders aloft
Conditions were wonderful. We spent most of the time between 7,000 and 9,000 feet, and made it about 160 nautical miles round trip.
Cloud surfing, aerobatics, all the good stuff.
Highlight of the flight: we happened on 4 golden eagles at about 7,000 feet. They were playing the same game…darting around the clouds, climbing, diving, twisting, and rolling.
One of them was 800 feet above. When she saw us, she folded her wings and bombed for us. Breathtaking! Beak pointed nearly straight down, she fell like an aerodynamic rock, then extended her wings, flared, and streaked 15 feet off my left wing. I swung hard round, and we chased each other for a while. She is more maneuverable, but I’m faster. A fun matchup.
One of my new soaring friends
The eagles are masters of this space…they have no enemies here, and no fear. On this first day of spring, they had no purpose except stretching their wings and making the sky their playground. In that last point, a lot like me.(Image: Steelworker gear via Shutterstock)Caught between an unyielding corporation and crumbling solidarity, striking steelworkers in Ohio find history is both their ally and enemy as they ponder the uncertain future of organized labor.
Niles, Ohio – My childhood was made of steel.
In 1969 my family moved to Baltimore, where my father designed ships at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point Shipyard – what one historian notes “was once the ” >1,975 employees when its latest owner threw in the towel. The story is the same for much of the country. The golden era of industry is gone, but it weighs on workers who lament the passing of the American Dream, while anxiously confronting a future that seems to be one of perpetual decline.
The ripples of history surface in areas like Ohio’s Mahoning Valley, known as the “%20″ >Little Steel Strike” that turned the valley into a battlefield as steelmakers violently quashed unionization efforts. It’s also the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Steelworkers of America (USW) and the 35th anniversary of “%20″ >V&M Star, which casts pipes for natural-gas fracking (and which was ” >saved the jobs of 350,000 of its members – from glass workers who construct windshields to rubber workers who make car tires to chemical workers who manufacture paint brighteners.
It’s hard to deny that the bailout worked. By June 2009 the unemployment rate in the region that includes Niles had shot up to %20″ >have dropped by nearly 9 percent since 2010. For many college graduates, a good job is working in a call center. One auto worker says for high-school graduates who can’t land a spot on the production line, Walmart is a good option.
While these jobs are non-unionized, workers say they are treated better because of the spillover effect of organized labor. Local 4564-02 President Bill Irons stopped by the picket line one day with a crock pot of barbeque pork. A mountain of a man, Irons’ bolt-like fingers are riven with cracks, as if the skin is straining to contain flesh and bone. Irons argues, “Unions keep companies honest. All the non-union guys benefit from safety improvements and higher wages that unions win.”
Yet his local is in critical condition. Today it has 135 members at six plants. Twenty years ago, says Irons, the local had 800 members. A generation before that, it probably numbered in the thousands.
For companies like Phillips, and corporate America in general, even a handful of unionized workers is too many. After I finished talking with Irons, strikers pointed out that Phillips’ president and CEO George Kubat was exiting the plant. I caught up with him at the gate and inquired about the status of negotiations.
Looking tense, Kubat said it was in the hands of a “federal negotiator.” I asked three times if he foresaw the situation being settled anytime soon. After deflecting my question twice – “Email me” – he shook his head no.(I emailed Kubat as he requested, but received no response to multiple inquiries.)
Phillips is a privately held company based in Omaha. Workers fear it will shift production to its non-union facility there. Phillips doesn’t publicize its vitals, but it seems to be thriving. Tony Beltz says, “There’s been an increase in business.” He says after four years with “zero overtime,” workers regularly logged 60-hour work-weeks this year. Further evidence of the company’s good health was Phillips’ announcement in June that it had ” >repealed an Ohio law eliminating collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers.
The strikers’ ace in the hole is the anti-scab law. According to local reports, on Sept. 28 the Niles” >James Loewen writes that many sundown towns “formerly sported at their corporate limits signs that usually read, ‘Nigger, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on You in ____.'”
The racial divide pains Mary Smith. The only African-American in the workforce, she says, “Phillips hasn’t hired any in the last seven or eight years. So to see them bring these African-Americans in there in the vans makes me angry.” Not that she has sympathy for the scabs. Smith says, “They can’t get jobs by doing the right thing, only by doing the wrong thing. I shouldn’t be saying this but they all look like thugs. They rub their fingers at us, ‘We’re taking your money.’ They’re cold-hearted in there, both the owners and the scabs.”
A hearing on the anti-scab law is set for Oct. 11. In the meantime workers spend their days sitting under canopy tents across the street from the main gate because an injunction has limited them to five pickets per entrance. They talk about the difficulty of staying out on strike because they live from one paycheck to the next. Smith says, “I’ve had to sacrifice a lot over the years, missing vacations with my children and grandchildren because I had to be at work.”
Smith says she was planning to retire next year, but is unsure now because the strike might drag on. For Bob, enjoying his golden years is not an option. “I can’t afford to retire because of my wife’s medical care,” he says. “Some of her arthritis prescriptions cost nearly $1,000 to refill.”
One day they will all be retired. The question is who will replace them: a new generation of strike-breakers, or a new generation of organized labor? One that understands the fight is not only for jobs with living wages, but to bridge the racial and economic divides affecting all workers.Surprised passengers look on after a Metro train’s doors opened before it had reached a platform Tuesday. (Courtesy: Ashley Gonzalez)
The old slogan is “Metro Opens Doors,” but a group of passengers would have preferred if that weren’t the case as they traveled a stretch of the Yellow Line on Tuesday.
Riders said the doors of their Yellow Line train briefly opened on an elevated structure as the train held between Crystal City and Reagan National Airport station.
The incident occurred about 5 p.m. on a train bound for Huntington.
Metro said in a brief statement that the train was removed from service while the agency investigated what went wrong.
“We are aware of the report on social media,” Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said. “All passengers were accommodated on the next train without incident.”
Passengers said the train had been stopped for about a minute when the doors suddenly opened, hundreds of feet from the National Airport platform. Despite Metro’s account, riders said the train continued to Huntington and the operator never acknowledged the mishap.
[Trapped on a train: Behind the scenes of Metro’s September Red Line debacle]
Ray Atkinson, 57, of Alexandria, was sitting in a window seat in a car toward the front of the train.
All of a sudden, he said, “I heard the announcement ‘doors opening.’ I thought, ‘what?'”
Another passenger, Jay Robertson, 36, of Alexandria, said the incident lasted less than 10 seconds, but it was worrisome considering how crowded Yellow Line trains can get in the late afternoon. Luckily, he said, crowds were sparse on this particular train.
Robertson was seated in the fifth car of the train when he heard the announcement. The train was stopped on a hill, banking right, as the doors opened on its left side.
“The doors opened, and it was probably 3 or 4 seconds, and then they closed again,” he said. “So it wasn’t super long, but it was long enough.”
[Cars on Metro’s Red Line became separated as train moved between stops]
This post has been updated.By Anna Steshenko
Last summer, as policy makers grappled with how to tackle soaring real estate prices in the Vancouver and Toronto areas, they encountered a major obstacle: there was no comprehensive database tracking all the potential variables at play, especially when it came to foreign buyers.
Now, a “massive” effort is underway at Statistics Canada to make sure that problem never arises again.
A team of more than 15 people is at work compiling the Housing Statistics Framework, an ambitious database that will contain everything from price information to owner demographics, on every property and piece of land in the country.
“It is a very challenging task,” said Haig McCarrell, director of the Investment, Science and Technology Division at Statistics Canada and the lead manager of the program, which was announced in the March federal budget.
“There is data on the real estate market, but the problem is that it is inconsistent. A number of studies had been done, but with no conclusions, because of missing information.”
In order to build the robust national database, McCarrell and his team are tapping both private and public sources, as well as pre-existing statistics such as census records.
Statistics Canada’s public partners include provincial governments, land title authorities and non-for-profit organizations. The private sources cannot be named as per their agreements with the government agency.
“Private sources have a business model, commercialized data, so we have to make sure that we are not stepping on their toes,” said Anik Lacroix, an assistant director at Statistics Canada. “The issue is the limitations of agreements, it is how we release data, but asking private sources to provide more data is not a problem.”
Once the data is acquired, McCarrell said it must also be cleaned and packaged in such a way that it is consistent and can be of use to researchers and policy makers.
“For many middle class Canadians, their home is the most important investment they will make in their lifetime. As such, it is critical to their financial well-being that this investment be protected. HSF represents a significant jump forward in the quality and type of data available and will yield significant ongoing benefits by enhancing the ability of housing participants (and) commentators, to monitor and analyze the housing market,” said David Barnabe, a spokesperson of federal Finance Department, in an email statement.
Ottawa committed $39.9 million for five years in the March budget to see the project through.
The creation of the database will be facilitated by a National Property Register, which will keep tabs on every property in Canada, and information about their respective owners.
The Housing Statistics Framework would mine that data to generate statistics on foreign ownership, average prices, mortgage data, vacancy rates, property size and homebuyer characteristics.
The HSF will be renewed on a quarterly basis and is scheduled to be complete by the end of this year, though not all regions will receive their data at the same time.
“The data must be first provided to big real-estate markets, and so we are concentrating on Toronto and Vancouver,” explained McCarrell.
Foreign buyers in Ontario have been required to disclose their citizenship and residency status since May 6, 2017.
Last week, Ontario’s Ministry of Finance released that province’s first detailed statistics on foreign buyer activity in the area known as the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
They showed that the largest of foreign transactions was in York, north of Toronto, at 9.1 per cent, followed by Toronto proper at 7.2 per cent. In total, foreign buyers accounted for 4.7 per cent of real-estate purchases in the GGH.
Jason Mercer, a senior manager at Toronto Real Estate Board, said the new data being assembled by Statistics Canada will help prevent a re-run of last summer’s uncertainty.
“We were asked what’s the level of foreign buyer activity in Greater Toronto Area in July 2016 when the government was considering the foreign buyer tax, and we didn’t know,” Mercer said.
“You make policy on solid empirical evidence. It is good to have agencies collecting and disseminating this data. It is certainly helpful for policy development.”The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a remarkable letter (PDF) this morning in which the Department of Justice admits its lawyer misled a panel of judges during oral arguments last month over the legality of National Security Letters, or NSLs.
To the surprise of some observers, during his rebuttal, Justice Department lawyer Douglas Letter told the three judges that recipients of NSLs could, in fact, speak about the letters in general terms. They could discuss the fact that they had received a letter and could engage in public debate about the "quality" of the NSLs they had received, he said.
But actually, they can't. Letter's statements contradicted longstanding policy, and EFF apparently asked the DOJ for clarification. The result is that DOJ has sent a note to the Clerk of Court for the 9th Circuit to correct the error, clearing up "an inadvertent misstatement by government counsel during the rebuttal portion of the argument."
Companies are only allowed to talk about their receipt of NSLs and other "national security processes" in "bands." For instance, Google reports having received between 0 and 999 NSLs each year. Alternatively, a company can say it's in a "band" of 0 to 249 if it uses a more vague description category.
"[A]pproximately 49 minutes into the Court’s recording of the argument, government counsel indicated that if a company discloses that it is in one of these two bands starting with zero, it could publicly discuss the fact that it had received one or more NSLs and could discuss the quality of the specific NSL(s) that it had received," explained DOJ. "That suggestion was mistaken."
In other words, the inclusion of zero in the lower "band" isn't an accident. It's deliberate, to make sure the great majority of companies can't say whether they've received one or not.
"We regret this inadvertent inaccuracy and apologize for any confusion that may have been caused," concludes the letter, which is signed by Jonathan Levy, an appellate lawyer in the DOJ's Civil Division.
"During oral arguments we were surprised to hear the government retreat from its position that NSLs gag recipients from talking about the ‘very fact of having received’ an NSL," said EFF legal director Cindy Cohn. "But now we learn that the government’s position remains unchanged. Because the government’s argument to the Ninth Circuit depended in part on the assertion that the NSL gag order does nothing to stifle public debate, this later retraction significantly undermines its case."
Letter's exact words during his erroneous rebuttal, which begins around minute 49 of the recording of the argument (MP3), were as follows:-William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
"When the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight o'clock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfather’s and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it’s rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father’s. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools."This website is a place for publishing at ease. Here are quicklinks to the sections that you may be interested in:CAIRO - Players and coaches from Libya's national soccer team have announced their support for the fight to end Muammar Qadaffi's 42 years in power, a rebel spokesman said Saturday.
Seventeen players from the team defected while they were in the West African nation of Mali for a match and later traveled to Tunisia, said Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, spokesman of the rebel leadership in the eastern city of Benghazi.
"We welcome this from the national team and our youth," Ghoga said. "This case shows that demands of the youth for freedom and anyone who has the chance to announce their defection and support for the rebels would do so."
Four of the players are from Tripoli's most popular team, al-Ahly, where one of Qadaffi's sons, al-Saadi, once played, said Ghoga. Al-Saadi now heads Libya's Football Federation.
The players crossed into rebel-held territory in Libya's western mountains. They visited with residents in the town of Zintan on Saturday, said Gomaa Ibrahim, a spokesman for rebel fighters in that area.
In a video posted Saturday on a rebel Facebook page under the title "the national team announces its defection," several of the men said they are visiting rebels in the western Nafusa mountains to show support. The speakers did not identify themselves by name.
One of them said they are "announcing - not from now but from the beginning of the revolution - that we are joining it."
"This is miraculous revolution that confronted the aggression with strong faith," he said.
Another said: "God willing, Tripoli will be liberated by this mountain. This is a message to the agents to abandon their weapons because Libya will be free, sooner or later."Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Andrew Verity surveys the damage caused by the skyscraper
A London skyscraper dubbed the Walkie-Talkie has been blamed for reflecting light which melted parts of a car parked on a nearby street. What happened?
It's like starting a fire with a parabolic mirror.
"Fundamentally it's reflection. If a building creates enough of a curve with a series of flat windows, which act like mirrors, the reflections all converge at one point, focusing and concentrating the light," says Chris Shepherd, from the Institute of Physics.
The half-finished 37-storey "Walkie Talkie"- nicknamed such because of its tapering rectangular design - is indeed a curvy building. Its design, which has also been compared to a brimming pint glass, has provoked controversy before.
It transpires the car, a Jaguar on Eastcheap in the City of London, was parked at just the spot where the focused light landed.
Image caption The "hot spot" on Eastcheap, in London
The car wasn't the only casualty. There have also been reports of a smouldering bicycle seat, singed fabric and blistered paintwork.
Land Securities, which is developing the tower with the Canary Wharf Group, says it is working on a solution and has taken the emergency measure of suspending the parking bays beneath the glare.
They have described the problem as a phenomenon caused by the current elevation of the sun in the sky. It is thought it can last for two hours a day and might only be a problem for the next two or three weeks.
But how common is it for skyscrapers to damage cars or property in this way?
The answer It's down to the design of the building
A series of curved windows, which act like mirrors, can focus and concentrate the sun's rays
Architectural critic Jonathan Glancey says the story is not unprecedented.
In 2003, the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, designed by architect Frank Gehry, hit a similar stumbling block.
"The building was clad from head to toe, right down to the pavement, in stainless steel panels, and they would send the sun dazzling across the sidewalks to hotspots where people were. It was measured up to 60C (140F).
"Local people living there complained they were having to crank their air conditioning up to maximum to cool things down," he says.
Blinding glare also affected drivers passing the building.
After computer models and sensor equipment identified the panels causing the problem, they were sanded down to break up the sun's rays.
There are also plenty of lesser-known, smaller scale sun traps caused by architecture, according to Shepherd.
"The Eden shopping centre in High Wycombe has a shop with a series of windows in a curve that all happen to concentrate the light at one point. If you walk across that point you can feel some warmth," he says.
Walkie-Talkie in action One reading suggests hot spot was 91.3C today
Some plastics such as PVC - polyvinyl chloride - can melt at 100C, but they can soften before that
There are also those caused by design, rather than accident.
Solar furnaces, the largest of which is in Odeillo in France, use mirrors to gather sunlight and create high temperatures, usually for industry.
The temperature at focal points can reach 3,500C (6,330F), with the heat used for testing various materials, generating electricity and the design of solar plants.
Shepherd says the same principle is also used in reflecting telescopes. A curved mirror collects the light and reflects it to a focus.
"It has to be perfectly curved to get a clear picture - if not you get hazy blob concentrations," he says.
The physics is the same for sound as for light, he adds. "The curved mirror effect can be used to focus sounds - or the reverse, if a speaker stands at one end of an amphitheatre, and wants to project to an audience."
Image caption Solar furnace in the French Pyrenees
When it comes to the skyscraper and the car, Shepherd says the fact the car was black - a good absorber of light - would have had an impact on the damage caused by the concentrated heat.
Who, what, why? A part of BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer questions behind the headlines
He says the only parts that seem to have suffered are plastic, which is significant, as plastics generally have a much lower melting point than the steel of the car body.
Some plastics such as PVC - polyvinyl chloride - can melt at 100C, but they can soften before that. One reading taken today suggested the hotspot was 91.3C.
As for the Walkie-Talkie, Shepherd thinks the developers could employ a number of possible solutions.
"They could coat the windows to reduce reflection - which would be a cheap fix - but the downside of that is it could reduce the light entering the building.
"Another solution would be for them to misalign the window frames, to slightly alter them by about a millimetre, but that would be very expensive," he says.
You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on FacebookWas Jonah truly swallowed by a whale?
Question: "Was Jonah truly swallowed by a whale?"
Answer: The story of Jonah is the amazing tale of a disobedient prophet who, upon being swallowed by a whale (or a “great fish” - see below) and vomited upon the shore, reluctantly led the reprobate city of Nineveh to repentance. The biblical account is often criticized by skeptics because of its miraculous content. These miracles include:
• A Mediterranean storm, both summoned and dissipated by God (1:4-16).
• A massive fish, appointed by God to swallow the prophet after he was thrown into the sea by his ship’s crew (1:17).
• Jonah’s survival in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, or his resurrection from the dead after being vomited upon the shore, depending on how you interpret the text (1:17).
• The fish vomiting Jonah upon shore at God’s command (2:10).
• A gourd, appointed by God to grow rapidly in order to provide Jonah with shade (4:6).
• A worm, appointed by God to attack and whither the shady gourd (4:7).
• A scorching wind, summoned by God to discomfort Jonah (4:8).
Critics also find Nineveh’s repentance (3:4-9) hard to believe, though it isn’t technically a miracle. In actual fact, Nineveh’s repentance makes perfect sense given Jonah’s extraordinary arrival upon the shores of the Mediterranean and the prominence of Dagon worship in that particular area of the ancient world. Dagon was a fish-god who enjoyed popularity among the pantheons of Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean coast. He is mentioned several times in the Bible in relation to the Philistines (Judges 16:23-24; 1 Samuel 5:1-7; 1 Chronicles 10:8-12). Images of Dagon have been found in palaces and temples in Nineveh and throughout the region. In some cases he was represented as a man wearing a fish. In others he was part man, part fish—a merman, of sorts.
As for Jonah’s success in Nineveh, Orientalist Henry Clay Trumbull made a valid point when he wrote, “What better heralding, as a divinely sent messenger to Nineveh, could Jonah have had, than to be thrown up out of the mouth of a great fish, in the presence of witnesses, say on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish-god was a favorite object of worship? Such an incident would have inevitably aroused the mercurial nature of Oriental observers, so that a multitude would be ready to follow the seemingly new avatar of the fish-god, proclaiming the story of his uprising from the sea, as he went on his mission to the city where the fish-god had its very centre of worship” (H. Clay Trumbull, “Jonah in Nineveh.” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 2, No.1, 1892, p. 56).
Some scholars have speculated that Jonah’s appearance, no doubt bleached white from the action of the fish’s digestive acids, would have been of great help to his cause. If such were the case, the Ninevites would have been greeted by a man whose skin, hair and clothes were bleached ghostly white—a man accompanied by a crowd of frenetic followers, many of who claimed to have witnessed him having been vomited upon the shore by a great fish (plus any colorful exaggerations they might have added).
Jonah needed only to cause enough of a stir to gain himself admittance to the king who, upon believing Jonah’s message of imminent doom for himself, would have the power to proclaim a citywide day of fasting and penance. According to the biblical narrative that’s exactly what happened (Jonah 3:6-9). So we see that, given the caveat that Jonah was spewed upon the shore by a great fish, Nineveh’s repentance follows from a very logical progression.
As for Jonah’s aquatic experience (which is the crux of the story), while there is no conclusive historical proof that Jonah was ever swallowed by a fish and lived to tell about it, there is some provocative corroboratory evidence. In the 3rd century B.C., a Babylonian priest/historian named Berosus wrote of a mythical creature named Oannes who, according to Berosus, emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to men. Scholars generally identify this mysterious fish-man as an avatar of the Babylonian water-god Ea (also known as Enki). The curious thing about Berosus’ account is the name that he used: Oannes.
Berosus wrote in Greek during the Hellenistic Period. Oannes is just a single letter removed from the Greek name Ioannes. Ioannes happens to be one of the two Greek names used interchangeably throughout the Greek New Testament to represent the Hebrew name Yonah (Jonah), which in turn appears to be a moniker for Yohanan (from which we get the English name John). (See John 1:42; 21:15; and Matthew 16:17.) Conversely, both Ioannes and Ionas (the other Greek word for Jonah used in the New Testament) are used interchangeably to represent the Hebrew name Yohanan in the Greek Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Compare 2 Kings 25:23 and 1 Chronicles 3:24 in the Septuagint with the same passages from the Hebrew Old Testament.
As for the missing “I” in Ioannes, according to Professor Trumbull who claims to have confirmed his information with renowned Assyriologist Dr. Herman V. Hilprecht before writing his own article on the subject, “In the Assyrian inscriptions the J of foreign words becomes I, or disappears altogether; hence Joannes, as the Greek representative of Jona, would appear in Assyrian either as Ioannes or as Oannes” (Trumbull, ibid., p. 58).
Nineveh was Assyrian. What this essentially means is that Berosus wrote of a fish-man named Jonah who emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to man – a remarkable corroboration of the Hebrew account.
Berosus claimed to have relied upon official Babylonian sources for his information. Nineveh was conquered by the Babylonians under King Nabopolassar in 612 B.C., more than 300 years before Berosus. It is quite conceivable, though speculative, that record of Jonah’s success in Nineveh was preserved in the writings available to Berosus. If so, it appears that Jonah was deified and mythologized over a period of three centuries, first by the Assyrians, who no doubt associated him with their fish-god Dagon, and then by the Babylonians, who appear to have hybridized him with their own water-god, Ea.
In addition to Berosus’ account, Jonah appears elsewhere in the chronicles of Israel as the prophet who predicted Jeroboam II’s military successes against Syria in the 8th century before Christ (2 Kings 14:25). He is said to be the son of Amittai (cf. Jonah 1:1) from the town of Gath-hepher in lower Galilee. Flavius Josephus reiterates these details in his Antiquities of the Jews (chapter 10, paragraph 2). Jonah was not an imaginary figure invented to play the part of a disobedient prophet, swallowed by a fish. He was part of Israel’s prophetic history.
As for the city of Nineveh, it was rediscovered in the 19th century after more than 2,500 years of obscurity. It is now believed to have been the largest city in the world at the time of its demise (see Tertius Chandler's Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census). According to Sir Austen Henry Layard, who chronicled the rediscovery of Nineveh in his classic Discoveries at Nineveh, the circumference of Greater Nineveh was “exactly three days' journey,” as recorded in Jonah 3:3 (Austen Henry Layard, A Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh, J. C. Derby: New York, 1854, p. 314). Prior to its rediscovery, skeptics scoffed at the possibility that so large a city could have existed in the ancient world. In fact, skeptics denied the existence of Nineveh altogether. Its rediscovery in the mid-1800s proved to be a remarkable vindication for the Bible, which mentions Nineveh by name 18 times and dedicates two entire books (Jonah and Nahum) to its fate.
It is interesting to note where the lost city of Nineveh was rediscovered. It was found buried beneath a pair of tells in the vicinity of Mosul in modern-day Iraq. These mounds are known by their local names, Kuyunjik and Nabi Yunus. Nabi Yunus happens to be Arabic for “the Prophet Jonah.” The lost city of Nineveh was found buried beneath an ancient tell named after the Prophet Jonah.
As for the whale, the Bible doesn’t actually specify what sort of marine animal swallowed Jonah. Most people assume that it was a cachalot (also known as the sperm whale). It may very well have been a white shark. The Hebrew phrase used in the Old Testament, gadowl dag, literally means “great fish.” The Greek used in the New Testament is këtos which simply means “sea creature.” There are at least two species of Mediterranean marine life that are known to be able to swallow a man whole. These are the cachalot and the white shark. Both creatures are known to prowl the Mediterranean and have been known to Mediterranean sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his 4th-century B.C. Historia Animalium.
So we now have three of the four major players: Jonah, Nineveh and the man-eating fish. All that remains is the fourth major player: God. Skeptics scoff at the miracles described in the book of Jonah as if there were no mechanism by which such events could ever occur. That is their bias. We are inclined, however, to believe that there is One who is capable of manipulating natural phenomena in such supernatural ways. We believe that He is the Creator of the natural realm and is not, therefore, circumscribed by it. We call Him “God,” and we believe that He sent Jonah to Nineveh to bring about their repentance.
God has made Himself known throughout history in many diverse ways, not the least of which was His incarnation in the Person of Jesus Christ. Not only does Jesus give us reason to believe that there exists One who is able to perform miracles, He gives us every confidence that such events have, in fact, occurred.
Jesus spoke of Jonah’s ordeal as a real historical event. He used it as a typological metaphor for His own crucifixion and resurrection, itself a miraculous event. Matthew quoted Jesus as saying, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea creature, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, Someone greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:40-41; cf. Luke 11:29-30, 32).
The evidence is such that any Christian should have confidence to believe and any skeptic should think twice before dismissing Jonah as a fairy tale.When Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader in 2010, the party published a full breakdown of the result. Though admirably transparent, this act revealed that he owed his position to the support of affiliated trade unionists - party members and MPs had not voted for him (preferring his brother). This incomplete victory dogged Miliband throughout his leadership, being used against him by internal and external foes.
To avoid its new leader incurring this fate, Labour ruled that the result would not this time be published. But last night, the party's procedures committee backtracked and agreed to release a breakdown of how party members, affiliated supporters and registered supporters voted. It was allies of Jeremy Corbyn who were originally most hostile to the result's publication, and his opponents who were most in favour. Some of the latter hoped that a result which showed that the left-winger had failed to win among all sections would weaken his legitimacy and make it easier to subsequently oust him. The irony is that far from weakening Corbyn's position, the breakdown will now likely strengthen it. The expectation of most in Labour is that he will win in all three sections - his mandate will be even clearer.
One benefit of the result being published, as Labour |
¿½ (are) known ignorantly as pollution. Nature has no “pollution.” This is a word coined in human ignorance regarding the presence of the right chemicals being released in the wrong places by those who profit only through selfish preoccupation and nonconsideration of others. The hour-to-hour changes in the inventory of world-government stockpiling of all recirculatable substances will be constantly fed into the world-integrated computer together with locations and summaries of total inventories available for new tasks.
The introduction of automation will make teachers, accountants and other financial professionals, many technicians, and most legal, service, data entry, and manual labor jobs obsolete. Mr. Fuller calls the present educational system “mass-production baby-sitting,” and speaks of using computers, television, and a worldwide network of libraries to teach oneself. He says,
(�) freed of the necessity to earn a living, all humanity will want to exercise its fundamental drive first to comprehend “what it is all about” and second to demonstrate competence in respect to the challenges. The greatest privilege in human affairs will be to be allowed to join any one of the real wealth-production or maintenance teams.
I’ll come back to this later. Despite his extremely accurate diagnosis and predictions, there are serious holes in his master plan.
He says that all of the combined decisions of humans throughout history and the “myriad of unforeseen technological, exploratory, and environmental happenings” produce historical results that no one could have predicted. “Such noncontemplated-by-any results constitute evolution � the will of God.” Other choice snippets include
“What I am trying to do is to discover why God included humans in universe”,
“Cosmic evolution is omniscient God comprehensively articulate”,
“Evolution is methodically synergetic and omnimeaningful.”
He is convinced that evolution is
irrevocably intent upon transforming omnidisintegrated humanity from a complex of around-the-world, remotely-deployed-from-one-another, differently colored, differently credoed, differently cultured, differently communicating, and differently competing entities into a completely integrated, comprehensively interconsiderate, harmonious whole.
Okay! Let’s take a break. His belief that evolution is intent on making humanity “omnisuccessful” pervades this book.
Evolution is the movement of here and now. It is a vast movement that includes planets and galaxies, geology and biology, thought and energy.
The “universe” started as part of a process far beyond our understanding. The solar system started as the collapse of a cloud of gas and dust. Under intense pressure, massive amounts of hydrogen combined into helium in nuclear fusion. In the resulting heat and pressure, heavier elements are blown away from the center as a star is born. These heavier elements eventually attract each other to create asteroids and planets. This whole process of creation gives birth to vast destructive forces as objects collide (especially during the early life of the system) and, in the end, the center explodes and engulfs much of what it has created in supernova. Sometimes, the supernova and the resultant clouds of gas and dust give rise to more solar systems.
This is but a snapshot of an infinitely big and infinitely small process of life. And here, on this planet, an array of organisms has evolved. The environment changes, often drastically, and some species that were previously well adapted die. Their genetic line ends. Some organisms that were previously maladapted flourish. Some organisms previously well adapted adapt again (through conscious design, genetic mutation, or dumb luck) and survive. Or not.
Sometimes survival depends on disease resistance, or on quickness, strength, brutality, or intelligence; sometimes on manipulative or industrious qualities. The path to survival can lie through the convergence of dramatic events, or at the periphery. It can be assisted, hurt, or destroyed by cataclysms or environmental changes occurring over eons.
It is obvious that the rules of survival for humans are changing. The “fittest” of 100 or 1000 or 100,000 years ago were different than the “fittest” today. Among the factors that define the fittest to survive is technological ability. One who has access to and control of vital materials and technology, who controls the research and development of new technologies, who is privy to new information, who has greater maneuverability, more money, etc.
Mr. Fuller tries to break down the “universally assumed law” of the survival of the fittest, and to discredit Darwin. His “speculative prehistory” is laugh-out-loud dumb.
He talks about the adaptation humanity went through to survive and thrive in cold climates, and the inbreeding of various traits for survival. He assumed “Darwin’s evolution of life from the simple to the complex (�) to be in reverse of the facts.” He contends that humans are the only primates that have salt-water tears. I can find no corroborating evidence, and I can only interpret this as fear and loathing that humanity’s closest cousins happen to be gorillas and chimps.
This just has to be quoted in full:
We see it as highly feasible to have telescanned from elsewhere in Universe the DNA-RNA-like coding of a complex angle-and-frequency programming together of terrestrially occurring chemical elements into their molecule-combining chemistries to successively produce a variety of species such as trilobites, dinosaurs, etc., as a progression of elsewhere-controlled Earth-landing tests. We see it as also highly feasible that these landings were used to discover the most suitable types of local-in-Universe information-harvesters and problem-solvers. The critical-limit experiences of the successive creature landings we see thereafter being sent back to some cosmic headquarters, thereby to guide the improvement of the design of the landings of thick-skinned creatures able to cope with greater annual temperature ranges than are humanly tolerable. And after further millions of years have passed and the environmental conditions have become auspicious, we see it becoming feasible to telescan the assembling of humans on Earth, thereafter inbreeding some of them into the ape-stages.
Translation: aliens from another planet created humans. Come on. Sure, it’s possible. It is also possible, through the power of positive thinking, that I turn into Superman.
Mr. Fuller also contends that humanity’s first habitat was the atolls of the South Pacific, and that all marine mammals are descended directly from us.
And after all that, he breaks down the history of human power structures very insightfully and thoroughly.
Throughout the history of land and sea transport those who have gained and held control of the world’s lines of vital supply have done so only by becoming the masters in the game of establishing supreme human power over (�) all humanity.
He points to the development of big ships (3000-1000 B.C.) as a big change in human history. Beforehand, horse/mule/camel caravans were the main line of supply. Overland trade routes between Asia, Europe, and Africa took years, while ships were faster and carried more.
He documents the evolution of the power structure from tribal leadership to a very crude division of labor to the skillful, systematic control of human lives. The medieval European version was an alliance of business and monarchy that was able to build and maintain ships (a huge investment), defend them with armies and navies (and use these forces to attack competitors), and make a ton of money.
This process gradually became more sophisticated. It’s called capitalism. We see it played out today in wars for control of arms, drugs, oil, and technological and economic advantage. The power structure is simply people living off of other peoples’ productivity.
He documents the history of ownership of land. What we now call racketeering and extortion are the roots of ownership. A farmer or shepherd is intimidated into giving food, animals, or whatever in exchange for “protection.” This soon evolved into fights between would-be protectors, and then into mounted warfare, and so on. Deeds to land started with leaders “deeding” land to their soldiers and other supporters in gratitude. The protectors, or “government,” preyed on agriculture, manufacturing, and trade. All markets and trade routes were inevitably “taxed.” The history of serfdom, sharecropping, and slumlording is part of this process.
Up to 1500 B.C., barter was it. Animals, resources, and manufactured goods were exchanged. Mr. Fuller says that the Phoenicians, in their trading voyages, used to carry cattle and other live animals on their ships until they got sick of it and created coinage. (As an aside, he claims that the whole concept of interest comes from loans of domesticated animals: during the tenure of the loan, any offspring of the animal were “interest,” and kept by the person that loaned out the animal.) Then, because they were successful traders (and were dealing with many different languages), they created phonetic spelling and the alphabet we trace our alphabet to.
Gold eventually became the primary coinage. The next big development was this: because you were sick of pirates and thieves robbing you, promissory notes were exchanged instead of gold. These notes were settled at the end of a certain time, with gold only moving from one bank to another. Then armored carriages and cars started getting robbed, and the banks became more centralized, and then the gold disappeared�and here we are.
He details the history of the U.S. in this context:
With the Revolution over we have Alexander Hamilton arguing before the Congress that it was not the intention of the signers of the Declaration of Independence that the nation so formed should have any wealth (�He) went on to argue that the United States government so formed would, of course, need money from time to time and must borrow that money from the rich landowners’ banks and must pay the banks back with interest. Assuming that the people would be benefited by what their representative government did with the money it borrowed, the people gladly would be taxed in order to pay the money back to the landowners with interest. This is where a century-and-a-half-long game of “wealth”-poker began � with the cards dealt only to the great landowners (�)
America became an industrial power in the 19th century through metals production and various technologies. When WWI came along, J.P. Morgan and other industrialists/financiers cashed in. England was a huge customer, but they really made money when the U.S. entered the war. Every last dime the U.S. spent on the war was borrowed from Morgan and the other industrialists, to be repaid with interest by the taxpayers.
Then Congress invented the income tax.
Mr. Fuller traces these events directly to the Great Depression. After the war, the tremendous production was continued with cars and farming equipment. With a bad crop failure in 1926, many banks foreclosed on the farmers, but were unable to sell the farms or the equipment (because city people weren’t about to move onto a farm). And these banks were inevitably beholden to larger banks they had borrowed from. Big banks foreclosed on little banks, and huge banks foreclosed on big banks.
The 150-year-long “infinite wealth” poker hand and its uncalled bluffing were over. The called hands were suddenly down. It turned out that the “wealthys” wealth was nonexistent (�) what the banks had been doing was to loan the people’s deposits to other people. The banks had no money themselves (�)
In 1933, for the first time ever, the hands of the U.S. American wealthy were exposed (�) most were money empty (�) the game of “deedable land wealth” had been a bluff from its very beginning � multimillenia ago, when that little man on a horse, armed with a club, first rode up to the giant shepherd leader of a tribe and said, bluffingly, “It’s very dangerous out here in the wilderness for beautiful sheep such as yours.”
All the failed farm mortgages passed to the government; Roosevelt and company guaranteed the safety of bank deposits, regulated banking, threw a few of the worst crooks into jail, and established the S.E.C. (Securities and Exchange Commission) to restore confidence. Rent and price controls were established, and the value of gold was fixed against the dollar.
Mr. Fuller says that corporations took control of most farmland immediately.
What began in 1934 as government subsidies and loans to farmers for farm machinery, later to keep acreage out of production, would by 1978 result in President Carter making enormous payments to appease big corporations for cutting off vital grain and other strategic shipments to Russia. Next, the U.S. government would make enormous subsidies to bail out large corporations such as Lockheed and Chrysler, which as basic military suppliers the U.S. government could not allow to go bankrupt.
Corporations, especially “prime” military contractors, were subsidized on the backs of taxpayers. The New Deal created tax loopholes designed for corporations to grow, and grow they did. After WWII, most big corporations moved out of the U.S. to exploit new markets, often with the help of U.S. “foreign aid.” Later milestones in their explosive growth were Eisenhower’s 1952 release of New Deal economic controls, and Nixon’s 1972 severing of the gold standard. Needless to say, both men were tools of big business.
When in 1972 all the power-structure capital had converted its dollars into gold, oil, or other highly concentrated and mobile equities, then-President Richard Nixon severed the U.S. dollar from its government-guaranteed gold equity value of $35 per ounce, and the U.S.A. people’s dollar buying power plummeted � now, in 1980, being worth only 5 cents on the 1971 U.S.A. dollar.
He defines three major stages in history: from land-based capitalism, to finance capitalism, to lawyer capitalism. He has humorous and insightful anecdotes and metaphors to illustrate each stage:
Land-based:
Obviously, very powerful people had their land given to them by the king (�and) the king, with the church’s approbation, asserted it was with God’s blessing (�) All the kings always had their priests present when the land claimage was made by their explorers. The priests planted their crosses to confirm that the king’s ownership was blessed by God. The Roman Catholic Church, starting in its emperor-pope days, has been in the deeded-land business for (�) 2000 years. It is as yet the world’s largest real estate owner.
Finance:
Up until the time of World War I the owners of the factories (Mr. Morgan et al.) said, “We put you in as management to make a profit out of this factory.” If the management said, “Give us a new piece of machinery,” the owners said, “New piece of machinery! What are you talking about? We put you in to make money out of our machinery. You are fired.” Change was anathema to the J.P. Morgan-type of financier. Scientists would come up to Mr. Morgan and say, “Mr. Morgan, I can show you how to make steel so that it won’t rust.” “Young man! The more it rusts, the more I sell. How crazy you must be! Get the doctor to look this man over, he’s obviously a lunatic � take those mad papers out of his pocket and put them in my desk drawer.”
Lawyer:
The Wall Street lawyers’ grand strategists put the Wall Street lawyer John Foster Dulles in as Ike’s Secretary of State to dictate the American foreign policy of “Soviet containment,” and Foster Dulles’s Wall Street lawyer brother Allen Dulles was put in as head of a new brand of absolutely invisible, U.S.A.-financed, capitalistic welfare department, the CIA, established ostensibly to cold-war-cope with the secret-agent operations of our enemies. So secret was their operation that the people of the United States and its Congressional lawmakers had no idea of the size of the unlimited funds given to the CIA, nor for what those unknown funds were expended (�) I call the CIA, “Capitalism’s Invisible Army.”
He caps a brilliant analysis:
If we take the billions of dollars given in the 1930s to the great U.S.A. defense-industries corporations by the New Deal’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation�if we take the hidden tax-deduction subsidies to do research, development, and advertising given to all these companies in pre-1942 dollars between 1933 and 1980�if we take the $100 billion in foreign aid that paid for the overseas establishment of the great corporations�if we take the $155 billion of atomic know-how and development taken over by the oil companies�if we take the number of fine ounces of gold bullion taken out of America exclusively by the capitalist world’s banking system�and if we take a reasonably low estimate of the unknown billions of dollars taken out of the U.S.A. by the CIA to operate exclusively on behalf of international capitalism without the knowledge or authority of the people of the U.S. of America’s quasi-democracy�and, if we multiply the sum of the foregoing figures by twenty-five, which is the amount to which our present U.S. dollars have been depreciated between the time of the appropriations and January 1, 1980, we come to a figure in the magnitude of $6 trillion that has been legally transferred from the U.S.A. people’s national capital account over to the capital ownership account of the stockholders of the 1000 largest, transnational, exclusively American-flag-flying corporations.
He understands the pathology of humans very well. It is strange, then, that he has a formula (along with every other philosopher and budding imperialist) to eliminate this madness.
Back to Mr. Fuller’s design science revolution. In this book, he declared that 1989 would see his vision realized. A bold and brash assumption, based (I believe) on faith in his version of evolution. He has thought of almost everything; his planning, priorities, and designs are impressive. But�
A very big assumption running throughout this book is that history has somehow ended; that we are somehow entering a golden age. His language is clear about this: humanity must “no longer” depend on various governments, ideologies, and religions; advancing technology only now will enable humans to live in peace and plenty; war is now obsolete.
He has left out important essentials of human nature. Not everyone wants to be a scientist. He says,
Children and grown people will be able to get their continuing intellectual education�at their home terminals. They will get their social experience and tool-handling education in locally organized neighborhood activities when humans wish to converge.
He sounds like a computer, and doesn’t seem to be having any fun. He says, “The computer will continually direct us back to basics.” I couldn’t disagree more. A tool is an extension of a person that uses it.
Then we get to the real issue: the nature of this world government. He foresees all people interning in various production roles (until age 38), after which they receive a (very generous) fellowship to do what they want, “to the improvement of human functioning in support of the eternally regenerative integrity of Universe.”
Of the production teams, he says,
There would be no pay for the work. It would be like qualifying for the Olympic team to be allowed to do what you want to do. You would have to prove that you could do the job you wanted to do better than anyone else available to get onto the production teams (�) There is no joy equal to that of being able to work for all humanity and doing what you’re doing well. It is difficult to match the gratification of not just crudely crafting a plaything for one child (which indeed can be very rewarding) but of producing exquisite somethings for a billion children.
This new world order will be supervised by a “nonpolitical, professionally trained, and examination-qualified management,” who would presumably preside over a computer network regulating all aspects of life.
You won’t be able to buy any nonconsumables � you will only be able to rent. If you are renting more than you can use, the system will call the excess back.
Each individual’s (electromagnetic) field alternates between positive and negative. When an individual is feeling predominantly negative mentally, the field is negative, and vice versa. (�) satellites, dynamically space-stationed around the world, can take continual readings of the sum-total proportions of positive and negative electromagnetic field reactions of all humanity in respect to world-numbered “proposals” � to be broadcast at given times all around the world � regarding computer-discovered solutions to each and every world-human-affecting problem.
This is Big Brother, not some benign governing body. Many people will not want any part of it. Can every aspect of life be regulated?
In the electromagnetic field, there isn’t a clear distinction between positive and negative. It is a vast spectrum. And even if a scan did pick up a clear “positive” response, how could it differentiate between an opinion about a certain proposal and the constantly shifting emotions and thoughts of people?
Who controls this world management committee? How are they selected? How do they decide what proposals to float before humanity? And who controls the scanning technology?
Technology is not a magic answer, and no system or plan will give each of us what we need. Granted, Mr. Fuller has some really good ideas. But he ignores human nature as he intellectualizes us to death. He states in the beginning of the book,
(�) I am convinced that human continuance now depends entirely upon:
The intuitive wisdom of each and every individual.
The individual’s comprehensive informedness.
The individual’s integrity of speaking and acting only on the individual’s own within-self-intuited and reasoned initiative.
The individual’s joining action with others, as motivated only by the individually conceived consequences of so doing.
The individual’s never-joining action with others, as motivated only by crowd-engendered emotionalism, or by a sense of the crowd’s power to overwhelm, or in fear of holding to the course indicated by one’s own intellectual convictions.
And the fact is that there is no map, no path, and no formula to follow to gain these qualities. No government, or organization, or mass movement, or any group of people have ever found “the key,” and they never will. Each of us must create this for ourselves.
God is a word. It means different things to different people. Mr. Fuller’s belief in God is detailed quite succinctly in this book. In a poem/prayer (called Ever Rethinking the Lord’s Prayer), he defines God as
the scientific method
human intellect
human experience
In the same poem/prayer, he says, “I define Universe as all of humanity’s in-all-known time consciously apprehended and communicated (to self or others) experiences.”
The last thing I want to do is break down a poem or a prayer, but this is too much. Shakespeare’s Hamlet comes to mind: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” And if a tree falls in a forest with no human there to hear it, is there sound?
Are we so full of ourselves that we imagine the vast play of life to be dependent on human perception?
He obviously believes that, given enough time, science will penetrate the design of (reality, the universe, existence, consciousness, God, take your pick). Science and the scientific method are born of language and logic. No doubt powerful tools, but as with every tool, there are limits. One must understand the language. And there are also more important, subtle limits.
Taking the word door: we have agreement. We all know what a door is. The word door points toward what is, the wooden or metal thing that swings on hinges that we walk through. The word points towards the real.
Sometimes what’s real isn’t something we can touch, or look at, or smell. Maybe it can only be felt or sensed in some other way. We may still describe and express this experience with words. Yet, when we can no longer point outside ourselves to what we’re talking about, we are at a purely personal level. It’s me. It’s the self. This world of sense, emotion, thought, energy, vibration, breathing, heart pumping, marrow growing, cell dividing�only I know the truth of it. No one knows how it is for another.
Words aren’t adequate to express the totality of this experience. The process of the mind, this tool of imagination, memory, analysis, division, and generalization; it is just a part of a whole. It is obvious, is it not? that an integrated approach to life is needed. And what is this process of life? Not a definition, but a real understanding. With all the ability and baggage we inherit, and all the potential we have, life still remains to be found here, now. I have only my sense. I’m not a computer plugged in, sharing information. The only access to truth is through my physiology and direct experience. All else is brainwashing.
We’ll understand only if we examine and question every concept, assumption, and belief. Beliefs create division: person/animal, self/environment, physical/non-physical, wave/particle, good/bad, Mr./Magoo. The process of mind has tremendous liability along with tremendous value. It is true that we have beliefs, but the belief is not truth. Yet, so often we act as though our individual belief systems are reality.
What does it mean to be insane? Does it not depend on your perspective? A Lakota Sioux medicine man may pierce pectorals and other major muscles with weighted hooks and dance until the hooks rip. A U.S. army officer may deliberately infect with small pox blankets and supplies bound for indigenous Americans. A person may commit suicide out of depression or religious belief or to make a political statement. A person may kill another for power, money, food, or clothing, or out of depression or religious belief or to make a political statement. People may say that the world is round, or flat, or that it is all an illusion. People may pay taxes to a government that oppresses and kills people with that money. A person may follow the pictures in their head towards respectability, infamy, or whatever.
Insanity is a process of thought. We may accept a thought, or resist, reject, modify, analyze, justify, talk to ourselves, and much more; we all know the story. This process of thought, which so often dominates the landscape of our awareness, is capable of great subtlety and drama. And it grows out of patterns, many of which form in our younger years. Some are picked up from our parents, and many are centered around memories of pleasurable or painful events. We call these patterns beliefs, or habits, or whatever.
We develop practices and goals, disciplines and escapes, ideals and belief systems. We strive towards “good” and do away with “bad”, whether chasing different pleasures or achieving certain lifestyles or emotional or energetic states. And these patterns we experience, inherit, cultivate, enjoy, fulfill, resist�this is the continuum of insanity in which we all find ourselves.
Mr. Fuller has explored a lot, but he has failed to explore himself. In his fervor to transform what he sees as society’s ills, he has neglected to sincerely attempt to understand these things. Out of a clear recognition that humanity is in a process of self-destruction, Mr. Fuller launched a personal crusade. And he left a legacy of inventiveness and resourcefulness that has a very real potential of benefiting us. However, this intellectual knowledge that was the core of his life never addressed why we are self-destructive, greedy, violent, and stupid. He simply tried to affect a “positive” change.
Mr. Fuller is not unlike the disgruntled young westerner who moves to Asia and becomes a devotee of an eastern religion, or the person who, seeing the damage wrought by modern industry, chooses to never ride in a car again. Seeing the tremendous suffering, we react. We try to escape it, fix it, and transform it. We develop a sense of urgency, an ideal of peace, and a desire to end this suffering. And yet, do we understand the roots of suffering? Do we recognize this appalling greed, violence, and stupidity in ourselves? Are we attempting to understand these things?
Or are we trying to escape, change it, reform the system, or carve out a niche in this crazy world to protect ourselves?
These things aren’t separate, but acting out of a belief to change the world (or to protect oneself from it) illustrates a complete lack of understanding of what the world is, and who we are.
The design science revolution can accomplish a lot, but it can’t compel us to understand ourselves. No mass movement or belief or theory, nor any amount of money or resources can accomplish this understanding. No amount of reform or discipline or hard work or intellect or allegiance to anything can substitute for this understanding.
Mr. Fuller says, “Human mind has discovered a number of cosmic laws � generalized scientific principles.” I ask, what laws? Sure, we have developed numerous models to explain reality. Some work well, until they don’t. Around 1900, before Einstein, Planck and the rest, physicists were talking craziness: “We have the model to understand the universe now.” The assumption that science will eventually explain reality is just that: an assumption. No doubt, science and technology are a big part of human survival; with these tools, we have extended our sense of the universe and ourselves. We have a better idea of the past, and a more complete picture of reality. But the fact remains that we don’t know anything.
He is, well�skip over this quote if you don’t feel like tripping along with him.
Apparently the integrity of the synergy of all synergies of all principles is continually testing its own comprehensive adequacy to accommodate all challenges in pure principle to the maintenance in pure principle of the principle of nonsimultaneous, only-overlappingly-affected, complex unity’s eternal regeneration.
Realization that the foregoing may be true tends to inform humans that the introduction into Universe of humans, in pure principle, with minds operating in pure principle, capable of apprehending and objectively employing in pure principle some of the eternal principles, was courageously undertaken by God to discover whether the principle of the eternally regenerative integrity of Universe can endure inviolate despite the dichotomy of knowledge brought about by introduction into the cosmic scheme of humans and their minds with access to and employment of some � but not all � of the eternal principles. This was an experiment in pure principle to test the adequacy of the synergy of synergies of principle to cope with the sometimes perverse, egotistical, selfish, and deceitful initiatives inherent in the concept of humans in pure principle without access to the wisdom accruing synergetically only to knowledge of all the principles � ergo, possibly capable of impairing the integrity of eternal regeneration. That may be what the integrity of God needs to know and needs to know by experimental evidence.
That is what I am thinking about in “Ever Rethinking the Lord’s Prayer.”
He seems to have confused this delusional rambling with some kind of logic. He must have said principle 50 times. The worship of the mind so prevalent in this book is stupid.
I am all about the earth. Waking up in the morning, feeling sunlight, hearing the multitude of sounds. Walking outside and feeling the wind, looking up through a tree canopy at the green filtered sunlight on a blue background. And this is just the small stuff!
It is clear that we are extremely far from the ability to find, much less colonize other planets capable of supporting us. And a good thing, too. The legacy of colonization has been marked by parasitical behavior marked at best by oppression, and at worst by genocide. Let us survive here and now, in learning, self-sufficiency, and love, however that looks to you, or die.The Chicago area running community is one of the strongest in the country. It’s not an exaggeration to say that just about any weekend of the year you’ve got a choice of different running races to put your fitness level to the test. But you’ll find that almost all of them have the same thing in common—they’re run on the road.
Trail runs are around, you just have to look a little harder, and drive a little further, to find them. That said, it’s certainly worth the effort to do so.
If you’d like to do something a little bit different this summer, get off the roads and try one of these five trail races that just may make you a convert to trail running.
1. Big Foot Trail Run
This event held in June is organized by RAM Racing is held the same weekend as the Big Foot Triathlon in Lake Geneva, WI. The 5K course (run it twice for a 10K) is entirely within the Big Foot Beach State Park just to the east of actual Lake Geneva (as opposed to the town).
You’ll be running on mostly grass and trail in the well-kept state park. It’s a race that’s welcoming to beginning trail runners—and you won’t get the big hills and technical terrain of some other trail runs in Wisconsin.
Lake Geneva is only about two hours from Chicago, and has been a popular weekend retreat for more than a century. There are plenty of hotels and B&Bs to choose from, as well as other activities on and around the lake to fill up your weekend. All runners will receive a custom technical T-shirt, and the race benefits Children’s Oncology Services.
2. Rugged River Four-Mile Trail Race
The Black Hawk statue at Lowden State Park, home of the Rugged River Four-Mile Trail Race. David Wilson
The Rugged River Four-Mile Trail Race is held each July in the Lowden State Park, about two hours west of downtown Chicago in Oregon, IL. It is the successor to the Rugged River 5K, which had been held for the previous five years. So by procrastinating, you get to run a little bit longer. Of course, there will be no complaints since you’ll be running through the beautiful state park that runs adjacent to the Rock River. The park is probably best known as home to the Black Hawk statue, but its natural beauty makes it one of the better hiking and trail running destinations in Illinois within a relatively easy drive from Chicago.
The challenging course starts outside the dining hall of Northern Illinois University’s Lorado Taft Field Campus and covers both the western and eastern sides of the park before returning to finish at the hall. If you’re used to a trail running on Chicago’s Lakefront Path, this will be a nice taste of narrow trails, big trees, singletrack, and more of wilderness feel than most other options in the area.
It’s a small race (capped at 200 runners) and you’ll certainly enjoy the post-run breakfast buffet (with cinnamon rolls).
3. Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10
Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve is home to the Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10 trail race on July 11. Jeff Banowetz
When you think of trail running in the Chicago area, the Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10 is what pops to mind. This July event features an off-road run in a big loop around the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in west suburban Lemont. While it may offer certain extremes (often the heat, and for those used to running on flat city streets, the hills), the course is run on the crushed limestone path in the forest preserve. Trail running shoes are optional. But that’s not to say you don’t get a great off-road experience. The unique forest preserve encircles Argonne National Lab and offers a wide variety in topography—including forests, prairie, and bluff savanna.
It’s one of the bigger trail races you’ll find in the area with 1,000 participants, and it’s on the Chicago Area Runners Association racing circuit, which brings out some of the faster runners in the area. Runners receive T-shirts, finisher’s medals, and a post-race party complete with food, beer, and music.
4. Nearly Sane Trail Half Marathon
Runners will all get a gender-specific tech T-shirt, a customized race bib with your name or nickname (if you register early) and a 13.1 car sticker. Plus everyone gets free Chicago hot dogs at the finish with your beer—and there are even vegan options for those so inclined. The course is relatively flat and fast for a trail run, so road runners need not be intimidated.
5. The North Face Endurance Challenge
Kettle Moraine State Forest is home to the North Face Endurance Challenge on Oct. 3-4. Amy Bayer
The North Face Endurance Challenge has a bit of everything that a trail runner could want. Held at the Kettle Moraine State Forest in southern Wisconsin in September, the race is as close to a western-style trail run that you’re going to get within a few hours of Chicago. You can choose to go big with 50-mile, 50k, or 26-mile distances on Saturday, or try to tackle the half marathon, 10k, or 5k on Sunday.
You’ll certainly get a lot of the area’s best ultrarunners taking to the course looking for fast times (the fact that the course is entirely “runnable,” according to race organizers, let’s you know how tough some ultra courses are).
For those looking for a taste of ultrarunning, or trail running for that matter, the North Face Endurance Challenge is a great way to get started. It’s extremely well organized and offers plenty of support on the course. You’ll also enjoy running through the pinewoods, prairies, and hardwood forests that make Kettle Moraine such a beautiful destination. Perhaps “enjoy” isn’t the right word, as you’ll certainly work going up and down the glacial-carved hills. But it will be an experience to remember.Legendary comedian Paul Mooney once famously quipped, “Everybody wanna be a nigga, but nobody wanna be a nigga.” Mooney, who is black, was describing whites’ fascination with blackness, their penchant for consuming and performing black culture, and the notion that the fantasy would be far less appealing if whites actually suffered the violence and discrimination of racism. The bizarre story of Rachel Dolezal, the NAACP administrator who considers herself black despite white biological parents, adds a twist to Mooney’s prophecy. Unlike most impersonators, Dolezal seems wholeheartedly committed to living as a black person. Her failed reinvention is a lesson about racism, privilege, and identity as choice.
Scholars and cultural critics have long noted that because white culture is viewed as either nonexistent or boring, whites consume and adopt nonwhite styles and practices to build hip |
. It will be good time-pass for him.”With the addition of LeBron James, and assuming that no one is traded from now until the first game (which is obviously not a certainty), the Cleveland Cavaliers will become the first NBA team in more than 25 years to have four number one draft picks playing on the same team.
Cleveland now has LeBron James (2003), Kyrie Irving (2011), Anthony Bennett (2013; lol), and Andrew Wiggins (2014). Not since the 1988-89 Lakers has a team had four No. 1 overall draft picks (James Worthy, Mychal Thompson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Magic Johnson). The 1987-88 Lakers also featured these four No. 1 picks. And the Lakers had an earlier three season run (1959/60 through 1961/62) of having at least four No. 1 picks. In 1959 they boasted a record five top draft picks (Chuck Share, Ray Felix, Frank Selvy, Rod Hundley, and Elgin Baylor).
Several other teams have come close to having four number one picks. In the mid to late 1980s, the Rockets featured John Lucas, Joe Barry Carroll, Ralph Sampson, and Hakeem Olajuwon. But these four were never together on a roster.
Already having a cluster of previous number one picks put the Cavs in a good position to improve next year. The Lakers teams with four or more number one picks made their conference finals each season and appeared in the finals three times. At least according to oddsmakers, there's a decent chance James could take his new team this far.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the Cavs are the first team since the 1961-62 Lakers to have four No. 1 picks. We regret overlooking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
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Based On Their Draft Picks, How Good Should The Cavs Be Next Year?Civil liberties groups fight biometric IDs
ACLU, other groups oppose plan for biometric Social Security cards
Civil liberties organizations oppose a proposal by two senators to require biometric Social Security cards for U.S. workers in an effort to curb illegal immigration.
Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) published an article March 19 that outlined several principles they intend to include in immigration reform legislation, and described a requirement for biometric Social Security cards “to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs.”
In response, the American Civil Liberties Union, American Libraries Association and about 40 other groups and individuals wrote to the White House officials and members of Congress on April 13 to urge them to reject a biometric national ID card because the groups claim it would invade privacy, allow for troubling government controls and be risky and expensive.
“A National ID would not only violate privacy by helping to consolidate data and facilitate tracking of individuals, it would bring government into the very center of our lives by serving as a government permission slip needed by everyone in order to work,” states the letter from the ACLU and the other groups.
The organizations also contend it would cost approximately $285 billion to issue a biometric ID card to each American. That estimate is based on an extrapolation of the Homeland Security Department’s estimated $1.9 billion cost of issuing identity credentials to a million transportation workers under the Transportation Workers Identity Credential program, the groups wrote. The cost would likely be covered by fees to obtain the cards, they added.
The letter writers also contend that a biometric Social Security card system would not be effective without establishing a central electronic repository of Americans’ personal information, which would risk of identity theft.
“Without recordkeeping, the same Social Security number and birth certificate could be used again and again to issue new cards to different people – defeating the entire purpose of the system,” the organizations wrote.
Currently, unauthorized workers often circumvent laws by using stolen or borrowed Social Security numbers, and current U.S. systems to verify workers' Social Security numbers, such as E-Verify, have very imited ability to detect identity theft.
Schumer and Graham did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The Last Gang in Town: The Epic Story of the Vancouver Police vs. the Clark Park Gang
Aaron Chapman
Arsenal Pulp Press (2016)
Vancouver in the Seventies: Photos from a Decade That Changed a City
Kate Bird
Greystone Books (2016)
If modern-day Vancouverites were dropped on the streets of their home city 40 years ago, they’d scarcely recognize the place.
Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners ‘Punch to the Gut’ Musical on Residential Schools Returns to Vancouver Children of God has been shaped by intense audience reactions, says director Corey Payette.
“Vancouver today looks at itself as this sea-to-sky beauty,” laughs Aaron Chapman, author of the recently released book, The Last Gang in Town. “We eat sushi. We do yoga and the Grouse Grind. None of that was part of Vancouver in the 1970s. We weren’t drinking designer macchiatos walking down the street. You were drinking a stubby bottle and throwing it at somebody.”
Chapman’s book isn’t the only new book showcasing how much things have changed. Kate Bird’s Vancouver in the Seventies also provides a vivid look at a decidedly different Vancouver — a city of smog, grime, protest and unprecedented generational strife.
Hippies occupied Stanley Park. The mayor threatened to bulldoze Chinatown. Politicians like Harry Rankin and Bruce Eriksen were championing the plight of those in the newly christened Downtown Eastside. Meanwhile, gangs of young men turned city parks into bases, committing robberies, arson, assault and even attacks on city police.
Vancouver in the 1970s — particularly in the early part of the decade — was boisterous, divided and unrefined, far different from today’s polite, gentrified city.
“I have this belief that Vancouver becomes a new city every 10 years,” Douglas Coupland writes in the foreword to Bird’s book, “and since the '70s we’ve been four other different cities in between.”
Neighbourhoods have changed — a lot.
At the dawn of the 1970s, the City of Glass looked markedly different, and nowhere was that difference more obvious than the skyline. It would be decades before glass-walled high-rises came to dominate the downtown; in fact, it was only three years earlier that the 1967 Strata Titles Act had allowed for the creation of the condominium.
False Creek and Granville Island were cluttered with derelict warehouses. Sections of Robson Street were European-themed — Vancouver in the Seventies features photos of Danish tea rooms and schnitzel houses. Kitsilano — in particular a stretch of houses along West 4th Avenue known as “Acid Row” — was hippie central. Commercial Drive, Chapman explains, was still primarily Italian, and most businesses recognizable today had yet to take root (except for Nick’s Spaghetti House, which opened in 1955).
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the city’s obsession with development. Mayor Tom Campbell floated plans to do everything from replacing Chinatown and Strathcona with a freeway to building a Four Seasons hotel at the entrance to Stanley Park. There was even a plan to demolish Christ Church Cathedral and replace it with an Arthur Erickson-designed office tower called Cathedral Place.
The '70s was the decade of the “mega-project” and rapid change. Entire neighbourhoods, including Gastown and Granville Street, were transformed in a few years. The methods may have been, at times, questionable, writes Coupland in Vancouver in the Seventies, but Vancouverites were invested in their city and genuinely wanted to make it a better place.
“While we flatter ourselves that Vancouver is green and perfect, in the '70s, at least, the city was all about grime and unhappiness,” he notes, “but at least everyone was trying to come up with new solutions to longstanding problems.”
People protested — a lot.
Like much of the western world, Vancouver had a lively counterculture — particularly in the early 1970s — ready to express anti-establishment leanings in public protest. There was certainly much to protest: the Vietnam War, marijuana legalization, the Kent State shootings, and the Amchitka nuclear tests.
Local developments, too, provided inspiration for protests. In the fall of 1970 squatters spent six weeks occupying the Jericho Youth Hostel before a court-ordered eviction turned into a street battle between protesters and police. At the 1972 opening of the Georgia Viaduct, sign-waving protesters attacked the mayor’s limousine. In 1974, a group calling itself “Renters United for Secure Housing” stormed a zoning hearing in Kitsilano. And beginning in 1970, young protesters began a year-long occupation of what was intended to be the Stanley Park Four Seasons site, christening it “All Seasons Park.” There were even protests against fluoridating Vancouver’s drinking water.
It was sometimes difficult to distinguish protest from wanton violence — most notably in the case of the Rolling Stones riot outside the Pacific Coliseum in the summer of 1972. It’s hard to say how much the riot was politically motivated (Chapman writes that a Marxist-Leninist gang calling itself the Youngbloods had been keen to disrupt the concert) and how much was simply the result of a large crowd plied with too much alcohol.
In any event, the gathering quickly degenerated into chaos. Officers armed with helmets and riot sticks were pelted with rocks, bottles and, eventually, Molotov cocktails. One officer was hospitalized after being hit with a railroad spike fired from a homemade bazooka. In the end, 31 police officers were injured — 13 of them hospitalized — and 22 arrests were made.
“Without question, there were a number of different things going on,” Chapman notes. “But what it boils down to is, there was this attitude back then. It was a Golden Age of Casual Violence. Some people just wanted to go out, get drunk and get into a fight. The idea of getting into a fight with a cop, that was the piece de resistance of the kind of trouble you could get into. It was a much more violent time. There was just a real taste for fisticuffs.”
Not all of the kids were all right.
Vancouver has always been home to youth gangs. But in the decades before the Red Scorpions and the United Nations gang battled for supremacy in the drug trade, gangs were a different breed. Most made their home in city parks, and drew their names from them — like the Riley Park, Dunbar Park and Ross Park gangs.
However, as Chapman details in his book, none were more notorious than the Clark Park Gang.
Started in the 1960s, the “Clark Parkers” grew to become Vancouver’s most notorious gang, involved in assaults, robberies, arson and vandalism all over the city. Most members came from low-income homes in the East End, their childhoods transformed by alcoholism and abuse. They prided themselves on being the toughest guys in town. Identifiable by their Dayton Boots and red “mack” jackets, the gang had 50 to 60 core members, but could call up more than 200 if the need arose. Guns were virtually unheard of — although knives and chains came out when the going got tough. Most differences were settled with fists, and while break-and-enters and drug trafficking were part of gang life, the primary goal wasn’t necessarily profit.
“This wasn’t organized crime,” Chapman says. “It was almost ‘Disorganized Crime.’ And that made things a lot more volatile. Today, your chance of interacting with a gang member is incredibly low. They keep to themselves.... In the Park Gang era, these gangs were right on the street. Your chance of accidentally running into them on the street, or cross somebody somehow — it was way higher. You talk to people who lived through the Park Gang era, they all remember these guys. And everyone has a story. ‘My older brother got beat up by them.’ ‘Someone I know got attacked by them.’ And in a lot of ways, it’s since turned them into something of an urban legend.”
The Corporate Influence and Real Estate Greed that Created a City read more
By the early 1970s, Clark Park was a place to be avoided. Gang members’ graffiti (they adopted the now-iconic East Van Cross, which had first started appearing in the 1940s) could be seen all over the East End.
Some members of the gang eventually changed their ways, becoming parents and getting straight jobs. Others did not, manning grow houses, selling hard drugs or working as enforcers for the Hells Angels. And an unfortunate few didn’t survive. And it was, in part, their adversarial relationship with law-enforcement that led to the gang’s undoing.
The adults weren’t much better.
As poorly behaved as some of the city’s youth might have been, their elders were no angels. As well as presiding over the destruction of heritage sites like the Vancouver Opera House, Campbell, as mayor, fought anyone who got in his way. On learning council had approved the Four Seasons Hotel at the entrance to Stanley Park, he headed to the site to celebrate by gloating in the faces of protesters.
Law enforcement too was markedly different. While finally free of the corruption that had tainted the department, officers had a very different way of interacting with the criminal element. Following the Rolling Stones riot of 1972, which the police blamed on the Clark Park Gang, the VPD created a secret “Heavy Squad” — 11 of the largest, toughest men it could find — to drive the gang from its turf.
“They were tough and strong,” noted retired constable Vern Campbell in an interview with Chapman. “Christ, if you were under six-foot-three you were only able to serve coffee to these guys.”
Working in small teams in the summer of 1972, the H-Squad was responsible for some highly controversial police work. In interviews with Chapman, gang members tell tales of being intimidated, beaten with clubs or driven out of town and abandoned. There are stories of death threats, being tossed into Burrard Inlet and shot at with live rounds and being attacked with bats and told never to return.
The H-Squad was disbanded in October 1972 (its members received commendations) and the final nail in the Clark Park Gang’s coffin came only a month later. A police pursuit ended with the shooting death of 17-year-old gang member Danny Teece. The fatal shot, fired by Cst. Brian Honeybourn, and the trial that followed were death-knells for the gang. Members remained friends, but began to drift apart. (Honeybourn went on to a distinguished career in law-enforcement, and later undertook the most extensive investigation of the Babes in the Wood murders, the city’s best-known unsolved murder).
“We changed the East End,” notes former Clark Park member Gary Blackburn, in an interview with Chapman. “At one time, everyone just looked out for themselves; everyone wanted to be king of the mountain. We brought all these guys who used to fight each other together to become friends.”
“It wasn’t based on money but just that we stuck together. People would come from everywhere if you were in trouble. Even people who didn’t know you had your back. People still say ‘Don’t fuck with the East End.’ All that East Van graffiti and what it means — that’s because of us.”Our colleague Juliet Eilperin looks at how a White House decides whom to honor once they've died. There are a lot of politics involved, naturally, but also a fair amount of personal influence (as you might expect). That's why you get a statement from President Obama on the death of Leonard Nimoy, for example, but perhaps not some other nearly-as-famous celebrity.
We took a closer look at the breakdown of those whom Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, honored with a statement over the course of their presidencies. Obama has recognized more people overall -- 124 to Bush's 96 -- and a much lower percentage of those people have been white.
(When we said that Bush had honored 96 people? It's really 94. Two of those he honored were animals: His cat, Willie, and dog, Spot.)
Looking at the demographics a bit more closely, Obama has been much less likely to honor white men, a group that comprises less than half of those he honored. For Bush, the figure was over 60 percent.
In general, those being honored came from the same groups: American political leaders, leaders of foreign countries, and those working in the arts and entertainment. More of Obama's honorees have been from the Civil Rights movement (4.8 percent) and/or activists (5.4 percent) than Bush's; Bush was more likely to honor religious leaders (7.1 percent). Bush was slightly more likely to honor people from his home state, too (5.6 percent to 3.6 percent).
Each president issued his recognition in a different way. Obama generally does statements, usually just from himself. (On 26 occasions, Vice President Biden also issued a statement.) Bush, on the other hand, would occasionally recognize the deceased in conjunction with his wife (and, when the cat died, his daughters). And the recognition itself ranged in intensity, from a simple statement to expressing sadness, deep sadness, or mourning. On a few occasions, he issued proclamations, the highest recognition he offered.
President Obama isn't yet done, of course. On Thursday, he issued a statement on the death of Willie Barrow -- a black civil rights activist from Illinois. As it turns out, it's precisely the sort of person you'd expect him to honor.
The Vulcan was an outlier.Question:
Are dogs colorblind?
Answer:
No, dogs are not colorblind in the sense that they see more than just black, white, and gray. However, the color range they perceive is limited compared to the spectrum we see.
To put it in very basic terms, the canine color field consists mostly of yellows, blues, and violets. “Human” reds, greens, and oranges are not distinguishable to dogs and instead appear somewhere on their yellow to blue spectrum.
The reason? The retina of both species contains two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. The human eye, however, contains more types of cones while the canine eye has more rods and no fovea, which is responsible for sharp visual detail in humans. The result is that dogs have superior night vision and are better at tracking movement than we are, but see fewer colors and shapes and objects appear in much less detail.
The bottom line is that tossing an orange ball onto green grass may look like yellow against yellow to your dog, but his acute motion-detection ability will help him fetch it anyway.
Mentally Stimulating Games To Play With Your Dog
Keep Dogs Safe While Gardening
SaveHockey Chris Drury has a Stanley Cup ring, an NCAA championship, two Olympic silver medals, and a Little League World Series title. He’ll have some time to cherish a career illuminated with championships. Drury retired from the NHL yesterday after 12 seasons, unable to hook up with a new team after the Rangers bought out the final year of their captain’s contract in June. Drury, a Trumbull, Conn., native, also won the Hobey Baker Award while at BU as the top player in college hockey. He pitched a five-hitter and drove in two runs as Trumbull defeated Chinese Taipei to win the 1989 Little League title. Drury retired one day before his 35th birthday... Harvard juniors Josephine Pucci and Jillian Dempsey and alumna Julie Chu were named to the US Women’s National Team for the Twelve Nations Series Aug. 24-31 at Finland. has a Stanley Cup ring, an NCAA championship, two Olympic silver medals, and a Little League World Series title. He’ll have some time to cherish a career illuminated with championships. Drury retired from the NHL yesterday after 12 seasons, unable to hook up with a new team after the Rangers bought out the final year of their captain’s contract in June. Drury, a Trumbull, Conn., native, also won the Hobey Baker Award while at BU as the top player in college hockey. He pitched a five-hitter and drove in two runs as Trumbull defeated Chinese Taipei to win the 1989 Little League title. Drury retired one day before his 35th birthday... Harvard juniorsandand alumnawere named to the US Women’s National Team for the Twelve Nations Series Aug. 24-31 at Finland.
Baseball Dissapointing Cubs fire GM Hendry Jim Hendry helped the Randy Bush will serve as interim GM. “First and foremost, we just didn’t win enough games,’’ chairman Tom Ricketts said... Cumberland, R.I., was defeated by Huntington Beach, Calif., 11-0, in pool play of the Little League World Series at South Williamsport, Pa. California pitcher Braydon Salzman missed getting hit in the head by a comebacker thanks to the thin brim of his yellow cap, but he was not hurt. In other games, British Columbia topped Saudi Arabia, 6-5; and Venezuela defeated the Netherlands, 6-1. In the final game of the night, a Pennsylvania team helped the Little League set an attendance record. The game between LaGrange, Ky., and Clinton County, Pa., drew 41,848 fans to Lamade Stadium. Kentucky won the game, 1-0... Brewers pitching prospect Mark Rogers, 25, from Brunswick, Maine, was suspended 25 games for a second positive test for a stimulant... Alex Rodriguez felt much better after his workout and hopes to return to the Jack Wilson on the 15-day disabled list because of a severely bruised left heel suffered in Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to Toronto... White Sox righthander Phil Humber is going on the 15-day disabled list after getting struck in the face by a line drive in Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the Indians. helped the Chicago Cubs reach the playoffs three times as general manager. He also saddled them with big contracts and underachievers, and now he’s out of a job. The Cubs fired Hendry with another disappointing season coming to a close. Assistant GMwill serve as interim GM. “First and foremost, we just didn’t win enough games,’’ chairmansaid... Cumberland, R.I., was defeated by Huntington Beach, Calif., 11-0, in pool play of the Little League World Series at South Williamsport, Pa. California pitchermissed getting hit in the head by a comebacker thanks to the thin brim of his yellow cap, but he was not hurt. In other games, British Columbia topped Saudi Arabia, 6-5; and Venezuela defeated the Netherlands, 6-1. In the final game of the night, a Pennsylvania team helped the Little League set an attendance record. The game between LaGrange, Ky., and Clinton County, Pa., drew 41,848 fans to Lamade Stadium. Kentucky won the game, 1-0... Brewers pitching prospect, 25, from Brunswick, Maine, was suspended 25 games for a second positive test for a stimulant...felt much better after his workout and hopes to return to the Yankees lineup this weekend.... The Mariners placed infielderon the 15-day disabled list because of a severely bruised left heel suffered in Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to Toronto... White Sox righthanderis going on the 15-day disabled list after getting struck in the face by a line drive in Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the Indians.
Injured Clijsters pulls out of US Open Two-time defending US Open champion and third-ranked Kim Clijsters will not go for three in a row this year because of a stomach muscle injury. Clijsters, who missed Wimbledon with an ankle injury, pulled out of a tournament in Toronto this month with a muscle strain on the left side of her stomach. Clijsters said she also would pull out of tournaments in Japan and China in September. Her absence leaves Serena and Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova as the headliners on the women’s side of the US Open, which begins Aug. 29... A weary Rafael Nadal and an off-target Roger Federer got knocked out of the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio. Nadal faded in a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Mardy Fish. Third-seeded Federer struggled with his groundstrokes during a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) loss to Tomas Berdych. In the women’s bracket, second-seeded Vera Zvonareva beat Daniela Hantuchova, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), and No. 4 Maria Sharapova defeated 10th-seeded Samantha Stosur, 6-3, 6-2.
Miscellany Biffle takes pole for Sprint Cup race Greg Biffle won the pole for tomorrow’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., posting a qualifying lap of 190.345 miles per hour for his first pole since June 2008... Local favorite Jacques Villeneuve earned the pole position for today’s Nationwide Series race at Montreal...... The Chinese Basketball Association will restrict contracted NBA players from playing for domestic teams in the event the season is canceled. The Association would bar players under contract such as Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul, who have expressed interest in playing in China if part or all of the NBA season is canceled... US sprinter Jeremy Dodson was arrested on suspicion of identity theft just days before leaving for world championships in Daegu, South Korea. His agent, Vince Ewing, said it was Dodson’s identification that was stolen and “apparently used by an unidentified person.’’ won the pole for tomorrow’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., posting a qualifying lap of 190.345 miles per hour for his first pole since June 2008... Local favoriteearned the pole position for today’s Nationwide Series race at Montreal...... The Chinese Basketball Association will restrict contracted NBA players from playing for domestic teams in the event the season is canceled. The Association would bar players under contract such asand, who have expressed interest in playing in China if part or all of the NBA season is canceled... US sprinterwas arrested on suspicion of identity theft just days before leaving for world championships in Daegu, South Korea. His agent,, said it was Dodson’s identification that was stolen and “apparently used by an unidentified person.’’
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.RHI scandal: Mike Nesbitt claims to have uncovered'smoking gun' of Arlene Foster's culpability in botched heating scheme BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt claims his party has "uncovered proof" that First Minister Arlene Foster played a key role in the heating scandal that is set to cost Northern Ireland’s public services £400m over the next 20 years. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/rhi-scandal-mike-nesbitt-claims-to-have-uncovered-smoking-gun-of-arlene-fosters-culpability-in-botched-heating-scheme-35291766.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article35275888.ece/30d3b/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-d293a81a-949b-4bb4-8ce8-2703c1b24e60_I1.jpg
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Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt claims his party has "uncovered proof" that First Minister Arlene Foster played a key role in the heating scandal that is set to cost Northern Ireland’s public services £400m over the next 20 years.
Mr Nesbitt said Mrs Foster's decision not to employ a crucial safeguard, while she was in charge of DETI when the Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) scheme was rolled out, led to a deluge of applications which eventually broke the budget. In a lengthy statement Mr Nesbitt, said: "The Ulster Unionist Party has uncovered proof that First Minister Arlene Foster was responsible for the decision that will cost Northern Ireland’s public services £400 million over the next 20 years.
"At a meeting of the then Enterprise Trade & Investment Committee at Stormont, an official was questioned about the reason why Northern Ireland did not adopt the so-called Degression procedures which were applied to the GB heat incentive and could have capped the amount of public funds available for the local RHI scheme, saving the public £400 million.
"At the meeting on the 9th of February 2016, the official said Degression was discussed in the context of the Department’s intention to introduce a domestic RHI scheme.
"So the Minister decided that the priority should be on the introduction of the domestic RHI scheme.
"Here for the first time is proof that Mrs Foster’s fingerprints are on the decision-making process that has resulted in the biggest financial scandal in the history of Northern Ireland."
Mr Nesbitt said it is time Mrs Foster'stopped blaming others and took responsibility'.
"It is time Mrs Foster stopped blaming others and embraced the age-old principle of Ministerial Responsibility. She was not only aware of what was happening, she was making it happen, through a series of policy choices that resulted in the fatally-flawed RHI.
"Remember, this was all totally unnecessary. Mrs Foster had the option to adopt the successful GB model, which had the checks and balances that would have made this scandal impossible. Degression would have meant that the greater the number of applications for RHI, the lower the tariffs would have fallen, ensuring the total spend would remain constant, no matter how many applied.
"In fact, the consultation document from July 2013 makes explicit reference to the Department’s intention to introduce Degression at some point during the lifetime of RHI. Who decided otherwise? Mrs Foster! And at what cost? £400 million, literally up in smoke.
"So, now there is a smoking gun, the public will ask what is more important to Mrs Foster – her job or the reputation of the devolved institutions? We will know soon enough."
Audio of Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee on February 9 2016 – comment can be heard on the SoundCloud embed below at 1:33:55.
The Belfast Telegraph first reported on Stormont's failure to control the scheme in July.
Mrs Foster has faced intense public scrutiny over her role in the scheme when she was economy minister.
The DUP leader has rejected calls for her resignation over her handling of an error-ridden scheme that has left Stormont facing a £400 million overspend in the next 20 years.
The Assembly's Public Accounts Committee is currently investigating the RHI furore.
Ministers do not usually appear before the PAC under Assembly conventions but, such is the scale of the fall-out from the RHI, its members are to discuss a proposal from SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan that Mrs Foster gives evidence.
Read more
The first minister, who has been accused of not doing enough to pursue whistleblower allegations that sought to expose flaws in the system, has indicated a willingness to answer questions on the matter.
One reason @PA decided to dig deeper into RHI - closure of "very successful" scheme announced @ 6.02pm on a Friday night #badnewsburialfail pic.twitter.com/5XAZqcW5MI — David Young (@DavidYoungPA) December 13, 2016
Mrs Foster's acknowledgement that one of her former special advisers - Stephen Brimstone - was an RHI applicant, and confirmation from the DUP that the brother of Andrew Crawford, another of her former special advisers, was also on the scheme has led political rivals to assert that the first minister must have had an intimate knowledge of its workings.
There is no suggestion Mr Brimstone or Mr Crawford's brother were anything other than legitimate claimants.
The RHI aimed to cut the cost of green energy to encourage people to move off fossil fuels but ended up landing ministers with a massive overspend.
It incentivised the installation of costly eco-friendly heating systems by paying a tariff per kilowatt of heat burned over a 20-year period.
However, unlike in the rest of the UK, in Northern Ireland no cap or payment tier system was placed on the money that could be claimed in proportion to the size of boiler and the hours it was operated.
That resulted in the RHI tariff paid out being higher than the cost of fuel needed to run the boilers - meaning the more businesses burnt, the more they earned.
Thousands signed up to the RHI - a deluge that ultimately forced its closure, but not before Stormont had been left with a huge future bill.
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Overall, more than £1 billion of public money will be paid by 2036 to Northern Ireland-based businesses which signed up to the scheme. Around £400 million of that will be paid out by the Stormont Executive.
On Monday Mrs Foster made clear she would not be standing down.
"I take the view that a mark of a politician is not made when times are good but when you are faced with challenges," she said.
"I intend to face this challenge and to deal with the issues in front of me and to bring about cost reduction for the scheme."
The PAC will meet at Parliament Buildings on Thursday.
Belfast Telegraph Digital"You gave me the wrong order lady!" Chat Noir snuck up from behind Wait-Stress, swinging his staff over his head, and straight down towards the woman. She pulled out a menu to block the staff. "Nice try, but cat is not on the menu!" She flicked the head of the menu that sent Chat Noir flying backwards. "Chat Noir!" Ladybug cried getting her yo-yo cocked and ready to be thrown. However, the villain was already prepared for Ladybug's attack and maneuvered her body so she could toss rolled up silverware at Ladybug. She spun her yo-yo in self-defense. "Don't make this order difficult," the Wait-stress crackled. Just hand over your miraculous so I can return with your impending doom." She tossed forks this time at the heroine's feet. Pieces of roof tile shot up. "Not if I can help it! Lucky Charm!" Ladybug tossed her yo-yo in the air and retrieved a red with black dotted bottle filled with Ketchup. "Oh great," Ladybug rolled her eyes. "How am I supposed to use this?" Her eyes scanned the area looking for condiment use inspiration. She looked behind the villain to see Chat Noir climbing back onto the roof. An idea sprung into her head. "Chat Noir! Use this!" She threw the Ketchup to him as if she were throwing a pitch in baseball. The Wait-Stress tried to reach for the bottle, but she was too slow. The black cat jumped up and caught the condiment. Without much thought to how the ketchup would be used, her squeezed the bottle right into the Wait-Stress' face. She screamed in pain as the acidic sauce managed to make its way into her eyes. Ladybug was quick and tossed her yo-yo around the checkbook in the woman's apron pocket. "No!" Screamed the woman whipping the red paste out of her eyes. Ladybug broke the checkbook and a purple butterfly flew from it. "Time to de-evilize!" She tossed her yo-yo at the butterfly and catches it. She opens up the yo-yo and a white butterfly flies away. Chat tossed the ketchup bottle to the red hero. Ladybug catches it and gets ready to toss the bottle in the air. "You won't stop me! The Wait-Stress screams getting up and running towards Ladybug. She picks up a broken tile from the building roof they are on. She raised the tile charging at the hero who was now looking away. Chat Noir pieced the situation together. Ladybug was not going to be able to protect herself and call cleanse the city at the same time. "Ladybug, watch out!" He called out to her as he began to sprint towards the Wait-Stress. He needed to be fast. He took out his staff and threw it at the woman. He was successful and it hit her in the head and bounced toward the street, but he was too late. "Miraculous Ladybug!" The spotted hero tossed the ketchup bottle in the air. Clunk! The Wait-Stress made her final move and smacked Ladybug in the side of her head with the tile. Ladybug tumbled for a moment, flopping to her knees and then toppled off the side of the three story building. A crowd of people below screamed. Chat's heart panicked. Without hesitation he dove off the building as Ladybug began to topple off the building. A red ring of light began to form around her. "No," he whispered as he saw pink shoes form around her feet. He latched himself around his lady, keeping her face covered from the public below. Chat reached a claw behind his back for his staff, but it wasn't there. He saw it was falling as well a good distance away. He had forgotten he threw it. The ground was creeping closer. Chat Noir's eyes grew large with panic. He couldn't and let all these people see who his Lady was. He couldn't catch them, though because his staff was out of reach. He didn't have time to think. He only had time to react. He reached out his right claw straight towards the ground. "Cataclysm!" He yelled as he hit the street. The street rolled as if it were a pond and Chat Noir was a pebble that had been tossed in. The rippling road knocked pedestrians and bystanders down and out of the way, and the the cataclysm epicenter deteriorated into a gaping hole that had now swallowed Chat Noir with Ladybug. Chat noir tried to reposition his body. His night vision helped him see that that he was falling deep. He flipped himself and Ladybug so they were now falling feet first. With his right claw still free he clung his left arm tight around his lady and began to drag his arm down the side of the wall of the hole. The jagged, uneven sides twisted his shoulder in every possible directing. He yelled out in pain as his elbow hit the sharp edge of something. By a stroke of luck Chat's ear picked up on a metal clank and right above him, his staff had fallen in. With a very painful movement he removed his right hand from the wall and grabbed the staff and extended it down. He wrapped both legs around himself and the unconscious Ladybug wait for the poll to hit the bottom. With a jolt, he felt the bottom. Slowly he bag to try and control the speed he and his partner slid down the |
DBS) in India:
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Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in India
The deep brain stimulation involves surgical implantation of electrodes deep into the thalamus- part of the brain which handles the movement-related communication. During this procedure, the patient’s head is shaved and then attached with screws to a sturdy frame to prevent the head from moving during the surgery. Scans of the brain and head are taken using the MRI and the surgeon uses these images as guides to the surgery. The patients are awake during the procedure and feel no pain as the head is numbed with a local anaesthetic. The surgeon drills two holes into the head, from there he threads a slender tube down into the brain to place the electrodes on each side of a specific part of the brain.
After the implantation of the electrodes, the patient provides feedback about the placement, then he is put under general anaesthesia. The electrodes are then attached to the wires which run inside the body from the head down to the best. From here, the electrical pulses will be continuously delivered over the wires to the electrodes in the brain. The frequency level of the stimulation is customized to the individual.
The recovery period is quicker, most patients are able to go back home after a 24-hour hospital stay and can resume their normal activities.
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India offers affordable price best deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat the neurological diseases like the Parkinson’s disease. The top hospitals in India have a team of highly proficient and skillfull consultants who help the patients manage all the aspects of the complex condition through an integrated approach including the counselling of the patients and their relatives. Deep brain stimulation in India from the top surgeons and best hospitals is offered with superior quality medical services and treatments at the most affordable price. Indian medical industry offers the medical treatments at an extremely low price and it is the most economical health and medical care destination with the huge cost savings in diagnosis, medical, surgical and therapy procedures.An official North Korean photo shows crew members of the USS Pueblo being taken into custody on Jan. 23, 1968. Their spy ship was seized by North Korea in international waters. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
The memory of 11 gruesome months of captivity in North Korea came flooding back to Tom Massie when he heard that the American hostages held in Iran for 444 days more than three decades ago will finally be compensated for their ordeal.
Good for them, he thought. But for Massie and his 81 fellow crew members on the USS Pueblo, a Navy spy ship that North Korea seized in international waters in 1968, financial recompense remains elusive.
Now in their 60s and 70s, many disabled and struggling on fixed incomes, the men of the Pueblo have received almost nothing in damages. The government once paid them about $800 for food they didn’t eat, calculated at the World War II rate of $2.25 a day.
That’s far less than the $4.4 million to which each Iran hostage is entitled under a law passed by Congress last month — $10,000 for every day of captivity in Tehran, coming from a fund established in part with penalties paid by sanctions-busting banks.
The contrast strikes many of the Pueblo crew members as another slap in the face from a government that has sometimes regarded them as an embarrassment.
1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The harrowing ordeal of American sailors held hostage by North Korea in 1968 View Photos Their ship, the USS Pueblo, was captured, and they spent 11 months in brutal captivity. Caption Their ship, the USS Pueblo, was captured, and they spent 11 months in captivity. Jan. 23, 1968 In this official North Korean photo, crew members of the USS Pueblo are led into captivity after the U.S. Navy intelligence ship was seized by North Korean patrol boats in the Sea of Japan on Jan. 23, 1968. The photo was released in 1988 by Robert Chicca, who organized the crew’s reunion 20 years after the incident. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
“I’m glad they’re getting something,” said Massie, 67, a retired heating and air-conditioning vendor who lives in Roscoe, Ill., and still suffers the physical and emotional effects of torture.
“But I really don’t think it’s fair, if there’s a law passed where somebody gets compensated and everybody don’t get the same treatment,” he said. “They were POWs, we were POWs. We were held for 11 months and beaten every day, humiliated, starved, just about anything you could think of.”
The $1.1 billion fund to pay the Iranian hostages, and potentially the victims of terrorist attacks at U.S. embassies in Beirut and East Africa, has reopened old wounds for victims of similar international incidents.
The crew members of the Pueblo are particularly angry. More than 60 are still alive. Since learning that the Iran hostages can make claims, they have been furiously emailing one another, writing their representatives in Congress and calling lawyers to see if they can get a share of the money, too.
“We’ve always thought we ought to be compensated,” said Alvin Plucker, director of the USS Pueblo Veterans Association. “Now, we’re lighting the flames out there. We’re communicating back and forth. Some of the emails are in favor of doing something. And some say, ‘Show me the money.’ In other words, they don’t believe it’s ever going to happen.”
As the 48th anniversary of their capture approaches, several crew members said one potential obstacle is that many Americans are too young to remember the Pueblo incident.
An environmental research vessel outfitted as a spy ship, the Pueblo was on an intelligence-gathering mission in the Sea of Japan on Jan. 23, 1968, when it came under attack by North Korean submarine chasers, torpedo boats and MiG fighter jets. One crew member died during the assault. The crew burned many of its records and surrendered.
In North Korea, the crew members were imprisoned under harsh conditions and tortured in an attempt to get them to confess to espionage and violating North Korean waters. They posed for propaganda photos, often extending their middle fingers to convey their true feelings about their captors, who were clueless about the acts.
Public response to their sly defiance helped persuade Washington to officially apologize to North Korea to end the incident, and the crew returned home on Christmas Eve. The Navy held a board of inquiry that recommended that Cmdr. Lloyd M. Bucher be court-martialed for abandoning the ship, but the Navy secretary closed the case, reasoning that the crew had “suffered enough.”
Many of the crew members have had difficulty getting over their experience. Several said they have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and have taken disability payments.
In the one serious attempt to get compensation from North Korea, Massie, two other crew members and Bucher’s widow filed a lawsuit. Other crew members didn’t take part — for most, because they couldn’t afford the lawyer’s fee of $5,000.
In 2008, the four plaintiffs won a $65 million default judgment in a federal court in Washington. But they never were able to identify any of North Korea’s assets to collect.
They may now be the only four connected to the Pueblo who are potentially eligible to make a claim on the fund just established by Congress, since the law requires a legal ruling that is not collectable. An exception was made for the Iran hostages because they were banned from suing as a condition of their release.
The fund has nonetheless resurrected long-buried hopes among crew members.
“Why can’t we be in on something like that?” said Rick Rogala, 68, of Sarasota, Fla., a seaman apprentice on cooking duty when the Pueblo was seized. “The money is out there for that kind of situation. We seem to be the forgotten ones.”
But others are skeptical.
“I’ve tried to distance myself to some degree,” said John Mitchell, 68, of Kneeland, Calif., an engineering yeoman on the ship. “I don’t want to make my life about the Pueblo. Hey, if somebody wants to give me $3 or $4 million, I’ll take it. But I doubt we’re going to get anything.”
Ralph McClintock, secretary of the USS Pueblo Veterans Association, said he still feels the way he did in 2008, when South Korean television came to the group’s 40th reunion and asked him about the lawsuit he refused to join.
“I don’t want their money,” he said of North Korea’s secretive first family. “I want them, the Kims, gone. I want the Korean People’s Army disbanded. I want whatever I may be entitled to passed to the Korean people. They’ve been through hell.”Sports Illustrated's latest cover features 10 top figures from the sports world linking arms above the headline "A nation divided, sports united."
The magazine's Oct. 2 edition focuses on political protests across the sports world, which reached a fever pitch over the weekend after President Trump lobbed attacks at NFL players who kneel during the national anthem.
The cover features NBA stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL team owner Shahid Khan, WNBA player Candace Parker and other athletes who have spoken up about politics.
THIS WEEK'S COVER: In a nation divided, the sports world is coming together https://t.co/aONQ0a141s pic.twitter.com/rvuXVmiHq7 — Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 26, 2017
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Trump on Friday attacked NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality, police brutality and the criminal justice system. The president called for NFL teams to fire players who protested.
In the wake of Trump's statements, hundreds of NFL players kneeled before games over the weekend, and the NFL and most team owners put out statements backing players' right to peacefully protest.
Other stars of pop culture spoke up as well, with Stevie Wonder taking a knee at a Saturday appearance in New York, and the cast of "Star Trek: Discovery" posting a photo of themselves kneeling on social media.
Lawmakers and others have criticized Trump’s timing of the NFL attacks because Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still reeling from hurricane damage. The White House defended his words at a Monday press conference, saying that he is “not emphasizing sports” over relief for hurricane victims.Claim: Image depicts a “captured Ebola victim” who has risen from the dead.
FALSE
Example: [Collected via e-mail, October 2014]
Ebola victim turns zombie?
Origins: On 5 October 2014, the Huzlers web site published an article positing that an “Ebola zombie” had been captured and photographed in Liberia. The story came hot on the heels of the CDC’s announcement that a man who had traveled from Liberia to Dallas had fallen critically ill after contracting the Ebola virus. Concern over Ebola was at its peak in the United States when the site published an image of a purported “Ebola zombie,” along with the following claim:
The first reports of Ebola victims rising from the dead was reported by Liberia’s National Newspaper. Initially, officials from the World Health Organization fled in shock and horror as the Ebola patients suddenly arose from the dead. After organizing military reinforcements and obtaining increased containment measures, World Health Organization’s special operations staff quickly responded with military assistance and quarantined the two Ebola victims who arose from the dead. The first reports of Ebola victims rising from the dead was reported by Liberia’s National Newspaper. Initially, officials from the World Health Organization fled in shock and horror as the Ebola patients suddenly arose from the dead. After organizing military reinforcements and obtaining increased containment measures, World Health Organization’s special operations staff quickly responded with military assistance and quarantined the two Ebola victims who arose from the dead. With Texas now infested with an unknown amount of Ebola patients, nearby Kansas has declared a state of emergency. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has declared October “Zombie Awareness Month” and the state is on high alert for a zombie outbreak. Homes across the state are to receive pamphlets warning them of how to prevent the spread of Ebola and what to do if an Ebola Victim falls dead and then starts to show life again.
For a number of reasons, this article resonated strongly with readers. First, a genuine diagnosis of a case of Ebola in Dallas had sparked great public concern over spread of the disease. Second, “zombie preparedness” campaigns at both state and federal levels have used pop-culture interest in zombies to promote disaster preparedness education. Also, an earlier report had suggested that two Ebola patients had been presumed dead and prepared for burial before showing signs of life. (Additional details of that story never surfaced, nor did any other reputable news outlets duplicate its claims.) Finally, a third Ebola victim believed to have died of the illness was captured on film showing signs of life and was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Africa.
None of those cases actually constituted an Ebola victim’s genuine rise from the dead, however. The image shown above, widely circulated as that of a reanimated Ebola victim, is actually a prop mask. Also widely circulated as an image of an “Ebola zombie” is an image of a “lab zombie” taken from the movie World War Z, seen here:
Ultimately, readers should take note of the fact that Huzlers is a well-known humor and satire site, whose prior spoofs include Justin Bieber’s admitting to being bisexual and the 2014 Super Bowl‘s being rigged. The Huzlers site also carries a disclaimer on its pages noting that “Huzlers.com is a combination of real shocking news and satire news to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief.”NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - As India prepares to import corn for the first time in 16 years, at least one stipulation in its international tender has become much tougher to meet - that shipments of the crop are completely free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
A woman selling grilled corn takes shelter under an umbrella as it rains on a beach in Mumbai in this July 11, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Files
The Asian country of 1.2 billion people does not allow cultivation of any genetically modified food, and has rules that are supposed to ensure that imports contain no trace of GMOs.But an explosion in the use of GM crops worldwide means that purity grade has become harder to attain and, with a growing risk of the supply chain being contaminated, underlines the vulnerabilities faced by countries trying to stay GM free.
Even a shipment containing a handful of genetically altered seeds could cross pollinate with local varieties and mean that in India’s case farmers end up illegally growing GM crops.
“They can buy non-GMO corn, especially out of the Black sea region, but I doubt anybody can offer shipments with zero presence of GMOs,” James Dunsterville, an agricultural commodities analyst at Geneva-based commodities information platform AgFlow.
South Korea’s Daewoo International won the tender to ship 250,000 tonnes of non-GM corn to India from Ukraine, but two international traders in Singapore and an exporter in Kiev said Ukraine could at best guarantee 99.1 percent non-GM corn.
“The biggest risk of accepting anything less than 99, or 100, percent is that the imported GM corn may eventually get mixed with conventional seeds that farmers sow in India,” said an Indian government scientist.
“If, God forbid, any GM seed gets mixed here, it’ll spoil the entire Indian agriculture,” added the scientist, who asked not to be named since he was not authorised to talk to media.
Daewoo declined to comment but two sources close to the company said it would be able to meet the requirements and that it was aware of the conditions in last month’s tender issued by Indian state-run firm PEC.
RISKS OF CONTAMINATION
Shrinking arable land, volatile weather and a world population tipped to top 9 billion by 2050 are increasing pressures to plant GM crops to boost yields and protect from pests.
Much of the corn in major producers such as the United States, Brazil and Argentina is GM, helping production hit record levels in recent years and keeping a lid on food prices.
Global corn prices have recovered about 13 percent after hitting a 5-year low in 2014 but are still more than 50 percent below a record price of $8.49 a bushel in 2012.
Indicating the difficulty of keeping GM free, Greenpeace said that Chinese farmers were illegally growing GM corn, despite an official ban on cultivating GM varieties or other staple food crops.
The environmental group said almost all samples taken from cornfields in some parts of the north-east, China’s breadbasket, tested positive for GMO. China has not directly commented on the report, though officials have issued warnings to seed dealers and farmers not to use unapproved GM seeds.
Some farm economists have said India should speed up efforts to embrace GM foods after China took a step towards this with its bid for Swiss transgenic seed developer Syngenta.
But public and political opposition in India remains strong amid fears they could compromise food safety and biodiversity. GM advocates say such fears are not scientifically proven.
“India must reject cargoes from suppliers who promise to provide corn that is only 99.1 percent free of GM organisms,” said Devinder Sharma, an independent food and trade policy analyst based in Chandigarh, highlighting a risk of contamination.
However, Sharma said that it had become standard global practice for GM-free buyers to settle for crops that were up to 99 percent GM free.
A source at trader PEC said India’s condition that the imports were non-GM was sacrosanct.
PEC received 15 bids from global traders including Daewoo, Noble, Cargill and Agro Corp to supply corn mainly to be used as animal feed for India’s poultry industry.
But Singapore-based traders said there could have been more participants in the tender but for the non-GM restriction.
Though Ukraine and growers in Europe, such as France, do produce non-GMO corn, suppliers may not be able to guarantee supplies are completely free of gene-altered grains because of common bulk handling systems, said a trading manager with an international trading company.
“It could be a dirty truck or a dirty conveyor belt. It only takes one seed to get a GMO positive result.”Martin Shkreli is interviewed on Fox Business on Aug. 15. (Richard Drew/AP)
NEW YORK — A federal judge on Wednesday revoked the $5 million bail of Martin Shkreli, the infamous former hedge fund manager convicted of defrauding investors, after prosecutors complained that his out-of-court antics posed a danger to the community.
While awaiting sentencing, Shkreli has harassed women online, prosecutors argued, and even offered his Facebook followers $5,000 to grab a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair during her book tour. Shkreli, who faces up to 20 years in prison, apologized saying that he did not expect anyone to take his online comments seriously.
“He does not need to apologize to me. He should have apologized to the government, the Secret Service, and Hillary Clinton,” said U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, in revoking his bond.
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“This is a solicitation of assault. That is not protected by the First Amendment.”
Shkreli was taken into custody immediately after the hour-long hearing. He did not visibly react though he appeared more nervous than when he entered court. He will remain jailed until his sentencing hearing, later this fall.
Shkreli’s attorneys argued that his comments, while distasteful, did not make him dangerous. “I understand now, that some may have read my comments about Mrs. Clinton as threatening, when that was never my intention when making those comments,” Shkreli said in an earlier letter to the judge.
“It never occurred to me that my awkward attempt at humor or satire would cause Mrs. Clinton or the Secret Service any distress.”
Shkreli’s attorney called his client’s conduct “stupid” but begged the judge to give him another chance.
“He has a way of courting controversy” that has continued since he was convicted, Matsumoto said.
Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical CEO, was convicted of three counts of securities fraud on Aug. 4. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
On Facebook, Shkreli has struck a more defiant note. “Lol Hillary Clinton’s presumptive agents are hard at work. It was just a prank, bro! But still, lock HER up. Spend your resources investigating her, not me!!,” he said in a post the same day prosecutors filed their motion to have his bail revoked.
Shkreli’s lawyers, meanwhile, compared his online comments to the political humor of Kathy Griffin, who held up a photograph of a faux bloody head of President Trump and even Trump himself. During the campaign, Trump used “political hyperbole,” Shkreli’s attorneys said, when he said that Clinton, his Democratic opponent, would abolish the Second Amendment if elected. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know,” Trump said.
“Indeed, in the current political climate, dissent has unfortunately often taken the form of political satire, hyperbole, parody, or sarcasm,” Shkreli’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said in a letter to the court.
“While we do not condone Mr. Shkreli’s comments, his constitutionally-protected political hyperbole does not rise to the level of making him a ‘danger to the community’ when he is not and has never been considered to be a danger.”
This is not the first time prosecutors have complained to Matsumoto about Shkreli’s conduct. During the trial, Matsumoto chastised Shkreli for speaking with reporters in the courthouse where jurors could potentially hear him. Prosecutors had complained Shkreli’s comments — including mocking them as the “junior varsity” — were inappropriate and could taint the jury pool. Shkreli apologized after that incident too.
Shkreli, 34, is best known for raising the price of an AIDS drug by 5,000 percent but was convicted by a Brooklyn jury of defrauding the investors in his hedge funds. Shkreli lied to obtain investors’ money then didn’t tell them when he made a bad stock bet that led to massive losses, prosecutors argued. Instead, they said, he raised more money to pay off other investors or took money and stock from a pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, he was running.
Shkreli, who has indicated that he will appeal his conviction, argued at trial that he ultimately made money for his investors and did not intend to defraud them. He faces up to 20 years in prison, though his attorneys have said he would likely get much less.
Since his conviction, the loquacious executive has kept an active — and combative — online presence. In addition to asking for someone to grab a strand of Clinton’s hair, he has offered investment advice and announced the sale of the only known copy of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” a Wu Tang Clan album, that he purchased for $2 million in 2015.
“I hope someone with a bigger heart for music can be found for this one-of-a-kind piece and makes it available for the world to hear,” he added.
The most recent bid is for $1,001,300 — a potential loss for Shkreli.Last year, two activists appeared in front of Richmond City Council with a 1,000-signature petition and a plea to force local businesses to advertise in one of Canada’s official languages.
“We, the new visible minorities, are experiencing exclusion,” said resident Ann Merdinyan, in front of a slideshow of the city’s Chinese-only signs. “WHY?” read the caption below a photo of a Chinese-only bus ad. “Is this INCLUSIVE TO ALL?” read another.
Richmond’s mayor and councillors — most of them English-speaking white people — told the activists to take a hike.
“With a population of half our people or more being of Chinese origin you can’t be surprised you’ll see some Chinese language,” Mayor Malcolm Brodie, mayor of the Vancouver suburb that is Canada’s only majority-Chinese city.
We, the new visible minorities, are experiencing exclusion
Eighteen months later, something has changed. In a unanimous decision last week, Richmond reversed its earlier stance by directing its lawyers to figure out whether it could legally start cracking down on Chinese-only signs.
“I changed my mind,” said Evelina Halsey-Brandt, the soon-to-be-retired councillor who introduced the motion. “It is time to take a look at whether or not it is appropriate to mandate the inclusion of English on [certain types] of signage.”
More than 30 years after Quebec started cracking down on non-French languages, the rest of Canada has almost entirely steered clear of the pitfalls of policing the language of private enterprise. But now, with an election on the horizon, Richmond is flirting with becoming the first place in Canada where English will be mandatory.
For years, the public campaign to ban Richmond’s Chinese-only signs was largely a one-woman show.
Lifelong Richmondite Kerry Starchuk took the issue to every politician and media outlet she could find before assembling the petition that made its way to city council last year.
“I want my community back … it’s very difficult when you can’t read the signs and communicate,” she told Postmedia News last year.
With only weeks until her political retirement, Ms. Halsey-Brandt is part of a Richmond political dynasty of sorts. Her husband Greg served 11 years as the city’s mayor and another four years as the MLA for Richmond Centre, and his ex-wife was also a longtime city councillor.
Although Ms. Halsey-Brandt said she has no desire to tell shopkeepers what to do, she had second thoughts on the signage issue when she came across an all-Chinese sign pitched on the front yard of a development in progress.
“You put up an information sign in a neighbourhood that only passes information to the Chinese-reading population, that tells me something is wrong with what we’re doing and we need to re-evaluate it,” she said.
Among the candidates gunning for a council seat in the Nov. 15 election, several contacted by the National Post also expressed worry at what they saw as an “unwelcoming environment” of Chinese-only signs.
“I firmly believe that Chinese-only signs only serve to exclude the rest of the community and this is very un-Canadian,” said independent candidate Janos Bergman in an email.
Henry Yao, a Chinese-Canadian independent candidate, said he is supportive of a “well-redeveloped regulation” for Richmond signage, in part because it would end the ”racism, discrimination, and anger” spurred by the sign debate.
Nobody will dispute that the number of Chinese-only signs in Richmond is increasing, but the vast majority still feature English text.
“There aren’t really that many signs that are Chinese-only in the city overall,” said Judy Chern, a lifelong Richmondite with a passing understanding of Chinese characters.
She noted that the city’s Chinese signs are largely placed on businesses that are uniquely targeted to Chinese clients: Chinese apothecaries, Chinese-language DVD stores and purveyors of feng shui products.
“I don’t think they’re purposely trying to exclude anyone. I’m a second-generation Taiwanese-Canadian and I don’t use these services either,” she said.
Last year, city councillor Bill McNulty conducted an informal survey of the city’s signage. He found only about half a dozen that were exclusively Chinese.
The Richmond Chamber of Commerce, for its part, has maintained that the city’s sign issue is best left to free enterprise: If local businesses want to exclude the nearly two million Metro Vancouverites who cannot read Chinese, that’s their prerogative.
I’m a second-generation Taiwanese-Canadian and I don’t use these services either
“We’ve always had the same position on this … we don’t feel a bylaw is the right answer,” said Gerard Edwards, chair of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce.
It is a view echoed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses. “The market can correct itself pretty fast on this type of thing,” said Dan Kelly, the group’s CEO.
This has been the case at Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre, a prominent Richmond mall that is a hub of Asian stores and eateries. To keep the clientele base as large as possible, though, the mall strictly mandates that all signage be at least two thirds English.
“I trust the entrepreneur to know what is in the best interest of their business,” said Mr. Kelly. He warned that language laws — however well intentioned — “are regularly taken to their ludicrous extremes.”
For Western Canadians, the “ludicrous extreme” is the strict language laws in Quebec, where Irish pubs have been asked to take down vintage Guinness signs, not to mention last year’s fiasco when the Office québécois de la langue française wrote up an Italian restaurant for using the word “pasta.”
“Legislation doesn’t always bring out the best in people,” said Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director-general of the Quebec Community Groups Network, the province’s chief advocate for the English language.
“Don’t start with legislation,” she advised the people of Richmond. “It could be a community effort to work together, rather than making it coercive.”
This was the tack taken by Moncton, N.B., which is about two-thirds anglophone and one third francophone. Four years ago, the city turned down a citizen’s request to force shopkeepers to adopt bilingual signage, and instead implemented a cheery program to encourage it voluntarily.
This is about self-segregation: Many people who come to Richmond decide that they don’t want to integrate
“Bilingual commercial signage: It makes good business sense!” reads a City of Moncton brochure.
A Moncton suburb, Dieppe, went the mandatory route in 2010, demanding French be predominant on nearly all new signage. Pattison Outdoor Group, which was soon convicted of violating the law, ultimately removed one of its signs in Dieppe, citing the law’s costs to clients.
Last week, Richmond council candidate Carol Day and Michael Wolfe issued a statement saying they would address Chinese-only signage if elected, and pursue “potential steps to address the issue.”
But Ms. Day opposes a bylaw, preferring to follow a Moncton-style route of gentle encouragement: Monetary incentives, city-funded workshops, maybe even a dedicated city translator going door to door helping business owners draw up coherent English language signage.
“This is about self-segregation: Many people who come to Richmond decide that they don’t want to integrate. I believe that they’re cheating themselves out of a much more enriched life,” said Ms. Day, who is herself a signmaker.
But, she added: “You can’t force this on people.”
National Post
• Email: thopper@nationalpost.com | Twitter: TristinHopperPepsiCo says the emerging “craft” soda industry is a trend that’s here to stay. And what’s why the company is vowing to make a bolder investment on the category as it aims to convince millennials that soda can be a tasty (and healthier!) drink.
The food and beverage giant has confirmed to Fortune that it will begin to sell the “craft” line of Stubborn sodas at major national retailers beginning August 8. The move to bring the line of five sodas, which includes root beer and vanilla cream flavors, comes after PepsiCo (pep) first brought the line to foodservice channels last year.
Stubborn sodas meet a few key trends that PepsiCo is aiming to address. The line of sodas is made with fair trade-certified cane sugar and doesn’t use high fructose syrup. And Stubborn’s calorie count generally ranges between 90 to 100 calories for a 12-ounce glass bottle, far fewer than the 150 calories in a similar sized bottle of Pepsi. For health-conscious millennials monitoring their calorie intake and looking closely at nutritional facts, Stubborn could help lure them back into the soda category. (An important aside: Stubborn contains Stevia).
“Consumers are changing,” says Scott Finlow, vice president of innovation and insights for global foodservice at PepsiCo. “They want quality products with different, more natural ingredients.”
PepsiCo’s bid to sell consumers on “craft” soda comes at a time when a similar movement is exploding in popularity in the beer segment and increasingly resonating in the coffee category. But for the carbonated soft drink category, “craft” sodas still represent a tiny sliver of sales, so small that major industry trackers don’t monitor the subcategory’s sales. It is also tough to define: There’s no formal, government-regulated definition as to what a “craft” soda contains. Some may be wary that it’s simply a marketing ploy.
Still, a successful launch for Stubborn could help improve soda’s image with consumers, as sales for the category have now declined for 11 consecutive years as bottled water, juices, and other drinks that are deemed “healthier” notch stronger sales. PepsiCo, Coca Cola (ko) and Dr Pepper Snapple (dps) have all faced persistent sales challenges as consumers ditch traditional mainstream sodas for other beverages. Craft could improve their dented image.
“Craft is not a fad. It is here to stay,” Finlow says. “We think craft is a critical growth space and we hope this is something we will be talking about for years to come.”
PepsiCo has indicated that it would aim to diversify more in “premium” foods and beverages, as executives have acknowledged that consumers are willing to spend more on products they deem healthier or better tasting. Stubborn and the 1893 soda line, which also plays in the craft space, are also part of an innovation pipeline that’s critical to the company’s growth. PepsiCo last month said new products comprised about $5 billion, or 9%, of total sales.
This Fortune reporter got a sneak preview of the line, and I must confess, the two flavors I tried—Agave Vanilla Cream and Orange Hibiscus—were delicious. The price: $1.99 for a single bottle or $5.39 for a four pack—doesn’t seem like it’s too high of a barrier considering so many “healthy” juices can cost more. But because the line still contains calories, I may be hesitant to buy Stubborn regularly. When counting calories, cutting out beverages is often the easiest change to make to my diet.
Still, trimming the calorie count by about 33% is a notable achievement for PepsiCo. And it points to the Pepsi’s promise, along with other big soda makers, to cut drink calorie consumption by 20% by 2025.
“This brand is developed at a calorie level that creates more choices for our consumers,” says Finlow. “That’s part of our commitment to deliver calorie reduction across the portfolio.”File Description
This is the confirmed change log of Beta 8:
This post will be continually modified to show the changes made.
----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Fixed beginning dialogue for player 1. Was showing stats because of another function. Confusing to new players.
+ Modified Intro Dialogue to show more up to date information.
+ Remastered indoor sounds to be louder, people couldn't hear the rain when inside.
+ Adding 3 new sound effects for various enemy and combat interactions.
+ Player 1 now has an extra life, hopefully more people will be able to push forward now.
+ The outside appearance of the apartments is now smaller. The outside of the hospital is now larger.
~ This is to scale these buildings a little bit more accurately
+ The roads now have less road paint, big game changer here.
+ Player now hears a Silent Hill like static sound when enemies are near, still testing for obnoxiousness.
~ May replace the sound or not use the function at all. We'll see.
+ Added Cats.
V.7 Change Log:
+ Switched the apartments and the hospital entirely.
People were running into the hospital and dying constantly, it was getting old.
+ Re organized the players menu, options (A + B) now have their own transport separate from the others.
+ All health for monsters has been increased.
+ Your knife damage has also been increased by 1.
(Weapon upgrades were way too powerful, they have been scaled back)
+ Player 2 now has additional options to help control his/her minions.
~ These options include (Contract and Release Minions)
(Player 2's minions were constantly getting in P1's way, now they have a way to "hide" the army)
+ During all quest events, Player 2's minions are removed from player 1's area. and can be returned
using the (contract and release minion) option.
~ The flags that have shown up in the map recently are to help prevent text confusion while trying to fight and enter doors.
These flags make it so if you stand near them, combat text will no longer appear on screen, giving you a clean menu to enter doors.
~ This system will probably be replaced at some point with a less "obtuse" system that is better integrated into existing door triggers.
+ Player 1 now has access to Terran Ground Unit Armor Upgrades.
+FUNNY GRENADE HAS TEMPORARILY BEEN REMOVED UNTIL A BETTER MECHANIC FOR IT IS MADEPasadena Police sued over suspect’s death
Jose Sauceda Jr. Jose Sauceda Jr. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Pasadena Police sued over suspect’s death 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
The family of a man who died in the custody of Pasadena Police earlier this year filed a civil lawsuit on Friday (Oct. 26).
Jose Sauceda Jr., 41, was arrested March 25 and taken to Bayshore Medical Center for a blood draw after officers reportedly noticed signs he was intoxicated.
In the lawsuit, Sauceda’s attorneys claim that although he did not fight against officers, he was hogtied and placed face down on a stretcher wearing shackles and handcuffs.
At the hospital, attorneys allege Sauceda remained hogtied and facedown throughout the ordeal, that medical staff were told he was not a patient and he was refused any medical attention.
“Despite the presence of several armed police officers,” court documents state, Saucedo was ignored “…while he struggled, suffocated, turned purple, blue and died.”
Saucedo’s death was ruled a homicide by the Harris County Medical Examiner who reported Saucedo died of cocaine toxicity with restraint.
Pasadena Police officials said two police officers were suspended in connection with the |
In the wake of the November 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 dead and hundreds injured, authorities in the Indian Ocean island-state of Madagascar arrested a man suspected of terrorism and for having Islamic State sympathies. Temporarily taken into custody on November 20 in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital, the man was reportedly a Malagasy of Indo-Pakistani origins who had used social media to preach Islamist hatred and anti-French sentiment, even going so far as to praise the attacks in Paris. He has since been released from custody due to a lack of evidence of terrorist activities, but the case has worried French and Malagasy authorities. Accordingly, they have taken precautionary measures on the island, including increasing the security for French institutions such as the embassy, consulates and various lycées spread throughout the country.
While Madagascar rarely figures amongst states associated with global terrorism, the November 20 case shows that there is cause to worry about the future of the Île Rouge (the “Red Island”). Moreover, the island faces numerous structural problems that could be easily exploited by terrorist groups. For one, the east African island lies at the southern edge of international piracy emanating from Somalia. In recent years, there has been a notable growth of piracy around Madagascar and the Comoros Islands. Pirates have been forced to attack vessels further afield from their bases in Somalia due to the concerted efforts of the international community and improved security measures by ships sailing near the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden. This geographical destiny tied to a growing illicit arms trade on the island, as well as notoriously porous borders, will pose significant policing challenges in the year ahead.
Additionally, Madagascar has a history of severe political instability, leading to multiple leadership crises over the past forty years. The end result of such long-term volatility in the former French colony has been predictable: a collapse in government effectiveness, elite infighting, rampant corruption and the creation of a sizeable black-market economy.
Perhaps more controversially, following the arrest of the Islamic State sympathizer on November 20, Madagascar’s Minister of Public Security Blaise Richard Randimbisoa publicly greenlighted the surveillance of more than a hundred Islamic schools. The enhanced scrutiny of the island’s Muslims, around 7 percent of the total population according to most recent statistics, has reportedly strained relations between the central government and the Muslim community, which is mainly centered along the northern coastal regions of the island as the result of centuries of trade amongst Arabs, Indians, Comorians and Africans. While authorities are seeking to understand the recent and considerable growth in “Koranic schools” and identify potential signs of radicalization, the move could prove to cause a degradation of security and trust in the region. This is because government surveillance has unearthed painful memories of ethnoreligious clashes in the 1970s between the mainly Sunni Muslim Comorian population and mainly Christian ethnicities in the north, which culminated in the 1977 massacre of thousands of ethnic Comorians and led to a mass exodus of reportedly 17,000 for the nearby islands of the Comoros. Consequently, in order for Madagascar’s authorities to succeed in identifying any radicalization without stoking ethnoreligious tensions, they will need to exert a soft and reconciliatory touch vis-à-vis the local Muslim community.
It has even been documented that terrorists have taken advantage of Madagascar’s lax visa system. The ease of visa distribution has allowed them to stay for up to three months (known in French and Malagasy as a court séjour visa) on the island before heading to another destination. For anyone doubting that jihadists may be aware of Madagascar’s advantages, it should be recalled that Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law and a well-known terrorist financier, was killed in a mysterious raid on the island in January 2007. According to reports at the time, Khalifa had been in Madagascar at the time of his death to oversee investments in the mining and trading of precious stones, a difficult-to-trace source of income, when “a gang of twenty to thirty gunmen” raided the house where he was staying, killing him and stealing his computer and documents before vanishing. While no entity has taken credit for the raid, it has been publicly acknowledged that the overwhelming evidence of Khalifa’s efforts to support global terrorism made him a wanted man in many Western capitals.
It appears that with the recent arrest on November 20 of the man suspected of Islamic State sympathies, authorities in Madagascar have opened their eyes to the potential threat in their midst. Blaise Richard Randimbisoa, Minister for Public Security, even recognized that the country figures among the top twenty-five countries considered potential safe havens for terrorists and that as a result they must be ready for “all kinds of contingencies” and to work hand-in-hand with Interpol, France and the United States. The newfound urgency may also be the partial result of Madagascar being named host of the Sixteenth Summit of the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF). The OIF summit, slated for 2016, will bring together the heads of state of more than sixty countries, and thus representing a significant security challenge for the poor island country.
While it remains to be seen whether or not Madagascar and its historically inept institutions are up to the task of resisting global terrorism in the years ahead, it should be obvious that the international community must help give the island a fighting chance.
Stephen Rakowski is an Africa Intelligence analyst based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/ Heinonlein.West African troops have crossed the border into the Gambia as part of regional efforts to support the democratically elected president in a his lingering showdown with his predecessor, Yahya Jammeh.
“We have entered Gambia,” Colonel Abdou Ndiaye, a spokesman for the Senegalese army, wrote in a text message to Reuters on Thursday night, hours after Adama Barrow was forced to hold his inauguration as president in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
The Nigerian military told the Guardian it was also deploying troops to Thethe Gambia as part of a “standby” Wforce assembled by the west African union Ecowas to enforce the result of the December election, which Barrow won. However, Ecowas announced late on Thursday that it would halt its military operation to give a final chance to mediation efforts.
A delegation of west African leaders – including the presidents of Liberia, Mauritania and Guinea – are expected to arrive in Gambia on Friday as part of a final mediation mission, Gambian state television said.
Holding a Qur’an and looking solemn, Barrow was sworn in at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, where he has spent the past few days, and delivered his inaugural speech as president. “This is a day no Gambian will ever forget,” he told a crowd of officials and diplomats. “This is the first time since the Gambia became independent in 1965 that the Gambia has changed the government through the ballot box.”
Jammeh, who ruled the west African nation for 22 years and tried to extend his tenure despite losing to Barrow, is still in State House in the capital and is attempting to make a last-minute deal to ease his way out, according to sources close to the government. Earlier this week, he imposed a state of emergency in a final attempt to hang on to power.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Adama Barrow, left, is sworn in as president of the Gambia. Photograph: AP
Nevertheless, celebrations in the Gambia began as soon as Barrow had made his speech, with drivers beeping their horns in elation and people leaning out of car windows, waving their arms, in scenes reminiscent of the outpouring of joy after the election result was announced. Jammeh rejected it a short time later.
Significantly, Barrow called on the UN to enforce his electoral win. “I hereby make a special appeal to Ecowas, AU [African Union] and the UN, particularly the security council, to support the government and people of the Gambia in enforcing their will, restore their sovereignty and constitutional legitimacy,” he said.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Supporters of Adama Barrow celebrate his inauguration in Dakar. Photograph: Thierry Gouegnon/Reuters
Soon after Barrow’s speech, the UN security council unanimously backed a resolution that called “upon the countries in the region and the relevant regional organisation to cooperate with President Barrow in his efforts to realise the transition of power” – a statement that lent weight to Barrow but stopped short of explicitly sanctioning military intervention.
When the president of Mauritania arrived in the country on a final mediation mission on Wednesday night, Jammeh demanded that Barrow’s inauguration be delayed and that he be allowed to return to his farm in the Gambia, according to diplomatic sources. The sources also said Jammeh asked that Ecowas, the regional body that has been leading negotiations for the past month, be replaced as a mediator.
However, it is highly unlikely that Jammeh will be allowed any of these concessions except a safe haven. One senior member of the coalition told the Guardian last month that Jammeh had “bunkers and treasure” at the farm and would start an insurgency if he were allowed to go back.
Barrow offered an olive branch to the country’s military, which has changed its allegiance several times over the past month, with the chief of defence staff saying most recently that as Jammeh paid his salary, he answered to him. “I call on all civilian and military personnel of the state to support my presidency, since it is built on a constitutional foundation,” Barrow said. “They are assured that they will not be subjected to any injustice or discrimination but will be provided with better working conditions and terms of service.”
Ecowas warned on Thursday night that it would resume its military advance on Friday if Jammeh refused to cede power. Marcel de Souza, head of the Ecowas commission, told reporters that it was out of the question that Jammeh would be allowed to remain in the country.
Halifa Sallah, the spokesman for Barrow’s coalition, said he expected Jammeh to change his defiant position when he saw that the military were no longer with him, which he thought would happen imminently. “Once the international community recognises Barrow, Jammeh will realise that he does not have legitimacy, and governability is also an impossibility, so he may decide to leave,” he said.
The Nigerian foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, who was involved in mediation efforts, said: “There’s a bottom line. There’s a new president. He has to leave power. Ecowas is ready to take steps to ensure that the elected president is able to assume his mandate. The new president will have his say. He might not want necessarily to ride into Banjul on the tank of a foreign country.”
Earlier on Thursday, before the post-inauguration celebrations, an eerie quiet descended on the country as thousands of Gambians waited to see what would happen. Hiding in their homes, many had spent the previous day stocking up on supplies and queuing at banks for cash.
Only a few tourists ventured out into the deserted streets, and hundreds of British holidaymakers were flown home on Wednesday amid chaotic scenes at the airport.
Human rights groups said Barrow had made many vows that he now had to deliver. “We must not forget the big promises Adama Barrow has made to free political prisoners, remove repressive laws and bring Gambia back to theinternational criminal court,” said Amnesty International’s Sabrina Mahtani.
As well as the knock to the tourism industry, a vital source of revenue for the Gambia, Barrow will have to deal with an unfolding humanitarian situation just over the border: 25,000 people, half of them children, have fled the country in recent days.
Not everyone was on their way out of the country, however. One of Africa’s most famous writers, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, was in the Gambia for the inaugural Mboka festival of arts and stayed despite the evacuations. He said that events in the tiny west African nation had a much wider resonance for the continent. “It’s very important for Africa. There is a sense that everyone is rooting for Gambia to go through this transition,” he said.After lowering the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) charges, the State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday reduced charges for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions by up to 75% effective July 15.
The reduced charges will be applicable on the transactions done through internet banking and mobile banking services offered by the bank, according to an official statement in New Delhi on Thursday.
Additionally, bank has also waived charges for fund transfer of up to Rs 1,000 done through IMPS effective July 1, 2017.
“In sync with our strategy and complementing the focus of government of India to create a digital economy, we have taken one more step to promote use of internet banking and mobile banking for doing NEFT and RTGS transactions by reduction of the charges,” said Rajnish Kumar, Managing Director - NBG, SBI.
As on March 31, 2017, SBI had 3.27 crore Internet Banking customers and nearly 2 crore mobile banking customers. Along with customer convenience, this initiative will attract more customers towards transacting digitally.
First Published: Jul 13, 2017 16:15 ISTSci-Fi Weapons
With its second official release ‘’Sci-Fi Weapons’’ Sound Response brings you a cutting edge, hi-tech weapon sound effects collection ready for unleashing cybernetic hell! Months of field recording and sound design yielded 400+ high quality futuristic weapons sound effects. A must have for anyone working on a video game, movie or any other project containing futuristic combat action scenes. With Sci-Fi Weapons at your disposal you’ll have one of the most powerful and advanced futuristic laser weapons audio arsenals out there!
Sci-Fi Weapons soundpack features 588MB (417 Sound Effects) of high definition 24bit/96khz stereo WAV files, embedded with metadata to speed up your workflow and separated into following categories: 1. Assault Rifles 2. Sniper Rifles 3. Machine Guns 4. Submachine Guns 5. Rocket Launchers 6. Loading FX 7. Scanners and Shields 8. Source Sound Accessories.
NOTE: As a result of collaboration between Sound Response and Soundmorph this library is also a part of Soundmorph’s Future Weapons 3 library. If you have Future Weapons 3 library then you already have the included Sci-Fi Weapons sound library.
Sound Effects List (PDF)
Soundpack delivery: Download
For a multi-user license please contact us directly[UPDATED: I have now embedded the documents discussed here at the bottom of this post so you can read them in their entirety – pw]
On Wednesday the Attorney General of Canada intervened in a Quebec Superior Court case, calling for Quebec’s iconic Law 99 to be thrown out. This is the first time Stephen Harper’s government has taken any formal legal position on Quebec secession, and the position it has taken is practically identical to those Jean Chrétien and Stéphane Dion used to hold.
This will take some explaining.
The Clarity Act was not the final word in the legal battle between the Chrétien Liberals and Lucien Bouchard’s Parti Québécois government. The Clarity Act, tabled in 1999 and given royal assent in 2000, set out Parliament’s obligations in the event of a provincial referendum on secession. (Really, a Quebec referendum.) It demanded that Parliament judge both the clarity of a question and then, later, of any referendum majority, before beginning to negotiate secession. And it described the subjects that must be discussed in such a negotiation.
But Bouchard could not tolerate what he perceived as an outrage against Quebec’s right of self-determination, so he had the National Assembly pass Law 99, “An Act respecting the exercise of the fundamental rights and prerogatives of the Québec people and the Québec State.” Passed only weeks before Bouchard resigned as Premier, Law 99 is a sweeping declaration that only Quebec voters and the Quebec National Assembly can decide Quebec’s place inside or outside Canada. It is a self-issued license for unilateral declaration of independence, and amounted to a declaration that none of the Chrétien-era legal battles over secession, culminating in a Supreme Court reference and the Clarity Act, had ever happened, or that if it had, it need not hinder Quebec:
3. The Québec people, acting through its own political institutions, shall determine alone the mode of exercise of its right to choose the political regime and legal status of Québec. 4. When the Québec people is consulted by way of a referendum under the Referendum Act (chapter C-64.1), the winning option is the option that obtains a majority of the valid votes cast, namely 50% of the valid votes cast plus one. 13. No other parliament or government may reduce the powers, authority, sovereignty or legitimacy of the National Assembly, or impose constraint on the democratic will of the Québec people to determine its own future.
The Chrétien government made no legal challenge of Law 99. Neither did any of its successors. It fell to Keith Henderson, the last leader of Quebec’s dying Anglo-rights Equality Party, to challenge the law as an individual. His lawyer is Brent Tyler, a frequent advocate for anglophone rights back in the days when language politics were more salient in Quebec politics.
It’s taken 13 years for their challenge to get anywhere at all. Lawyers for the Quebec government — and recall that for most of this time, the Quebec government in question was Jean Charest’s — have defended Law 99 by (a) stalling whenever possible; (b) insisting that the law is a general declaration of principles, and that any specific challenge to its provisions is too hypothetical for courts to consider. Henderson and Tyler have won against those arguments, but it has been slow going.
Now it seems that Quebec Superior Court is preparing to hear the case, for real, in 2014. And suddenly things have gotten very interesting very quickly.
First, Tyler and Henderson filed a “Re-Amended Motion for a Declaratory Judgment,” essentialy re-stating their entire case for the umpteenth time, and it’s a broadside against almost every paragraph of the Bouchard law. One example among many:
“It lies within the power, not of “the Quebec people,” acting alone, but of the people of Canada, acting through the various governments duly elected and recognized under the Constitution, to effect whatever constitutional arrangements are desired within Canadian territory;”
But it goes on for 17 pages. With lots of such arguments.
So second, the Quebec attorney general’s lawyers filed a defence, and for once it was an argument on the facts, not a mere stalling tactic. I hope to post all these documents soon, but to summarize, the Quebec AG’s defence is curious: it argues, in effect, that this law spelling out “fundamental rights” of the Quebec people does no such thing, and that there is no need to view its provisions as any dispute with Canadian law and the Canadian constitution. I believe that, if they read the Quebec AG defence and were honest with themselves, Quebec sovereignists would be as upset at their own government’s attempt to low-bridge Law 99 as with any other part of this drama.
But the third event is the big one. Faced with the blatant contradiction between Law 99’s plain language and the circumstances of its adoption on one hand; and the these-aren’t-the-droids-you’re-looking-for defence of AG Quebec on the other; the federal Justice Department is intervening, for the first time in 15 years, to assert the primacy of Canadian law in any debate over Quebec’s future.
AG Canada argues in two steps: First, that “Sections 1 to 5 and 13” of Law 99 “should be read down so that their potential scope of operation is brought within the limits of the legislative power of Quebec authorized by the Constitution of Canada.” “Reading down” is a form of judicial pruning: if a province makes grand claims about its authority, a court may “read down” the language so that it can mean no more than what a province is able to do within its jurisdictions. Essentially, the feds are asking the Quebec Superior Court to declare that Law 99 is mere throat-clearing with no more legal meaning than if the New Brunswick legislature had announced an ability to repeal gravity.
Secondly, if the Court finds it can’t read down these provisions, AG Canada says it should simply declare them “ultra vires” — outside Quebec’s constitutional competence — and therefore “of no force or effect.”
To make things clear, the feds call on the Court to declare: “that (1) under the Constitution of Canada, Quebec is established as a province of Canada, and (2) the impugned Act does not and can never provide the legal basis for a unilateral declaration of independence… or the unilateral secession of the ‘Québec State’ from the Canadian federation.”
There’s a lot more detail (even than what I’ve given!) but I can’t cut-and-paste the documents I have, and half of them are in French, so some of that will await another day. A few things are worth pointing out.
First, Stephen Harper has been kept personally apprised of the progress of the Henderson/Tyler challenge to Law 99. William Johnson, the journalist, Anglo-rights activist and author of the first book-length Harper biography, has been writing to Harper to urge him to act against Law 99. “I urged Harper to send a reference to the Supreme Court on Quebec’s Bill 99,” Bill Johnson told me in a letter in February of this year. “The (unofficial) feedback I received from someone close to Harper was that, for Harper to act on 99, there would have to be a groundswell of support in the media. So I’m working on it, perhaps awkwardly, but with determination.”
Johnson got precisely nowhere in his attempt to make Law 99 a matter of public controversy. He couldn’t even get me to write about it. But the Justice Department and Privy Council Office have lawyers who watch every twitch in this case, regardless of any public attention. Finally this month they decided the Quebec government had made arguments on the fundamentals which required rebuttal.
The other thing that strikes me is that there was no public announcement of the federal government’s action. I found out about it when Brent Tyler wrote to me, sending me the pertinent documents. When Chrétien intervened in 1997 in a Quebec lower-court case on secession, his Justice Minister Allan Rock sent out news releases, held news conferences, explained every move. This time it was all under the radar until now.
But the law is the law. Once again there is a direct legal confrontation between the governments of Quebec and Canada over the manner in which Quebec would one day leave Confederation, if it could. Stephen Harper, author of the Québécois nation motion in the House of Commons, has made a new move.
UPDATE, 5:20 p.m.: Here are the documents discussed in this article. First, the re-amended motion from Keith Henderson and lawyer Brent Tyler, calling for Law 99 to be thrown out:
Next, the response from Quebec’s Attorney General, saying this is much ado about hypotheticals:
Finally, the intervention from the Attorney General of Canada, calling for Law 99 to be “read down” or thrown out:The EU referendum exposed the same social divisions as it did in the rest of the UK, Kezia Dugdale said today. The Scottish Labour leader also called on First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to get on with the work of governing Scotland after a destabilising Leave vote.
Dugdale drew links between a vote to leave the EU and a Yes vote in the Scottish referendum, highlighting how the poorest areas of Scotland saw high turnouts for both. She argued these votes were caused by discontent from growing social instability, which resulted in fears about immigration.
“The places where high Leave votes were found in Scotland are some of the poorest communities in our country. Many of them are also places that voted in large numbers for Yes in the Scottish referendum,” Dugdale said in a speech in Edinburgh this morning.
“Politicians of every party in Scotland need to face up to the fact that we are not immune to the deep divisions that made people vote leave in England and Wales. It’s a wake up call to us in the Labour Party too.”
“For decades, the deal in this country was that if you worked hard, paid your fair share and played by the rules you would be rewarded. The last ten years have seen that deal broken.
“All those building blocks of a safe, solid and secure family life have been chipped away at. It’s no wonder people feel more and more anxious about the future today than they ever have.
“On to this background, many people turned and also said to politicians that they had concerns about immigration. But instead of listening and responding to these concerns, too often simple answers were given to very complex questions.”
Dugdale demanded the SNP protects public services and got on with the business of Government.
“Nicola Sturgeon’s minority Government was sent into office with plans for our schools, hospitals and public services. This has to continue to be the priority.
“Vast and wide ranging new powers are coming to the Scottish Parliament over tax and welfare. They must be properly prepared for and the Government must set out how they will use them.
“Brexit may have shocked people across Scotland, but the shock to our economy and our politics cannot be compounded by our Government taking its eye off the ball when it comes to our vital public services.”
Scotland voted to remain in the EU by 62 to 38 per cent, leading to calls for a second independence referendum from the SNP.
Since the result the EU has confirmed its only negotiations will be with the UK. It is the responsibility of leaders from the devolved administrations to work with Westminster to ensure their nations’ interests are represented.(CNN) Ben Affleck has revealed he has completed treatment for alcohol addiction.
The actor disclosed his treatment in a statement on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
"I have completed treatment for alcohol addiction; something I've dealt with in the past and will continue to confront," he wrote. "I want to live life to the fullest and be the best father I can be."
Affleck previously sought treatment for alcohol abuse in 2001
"I want my kids to know there is no shame in getting help when you need it, and to be a source of strength for anyone out there who needs help but is afraid to take the first step," Affleck wrote. "I'm lucky to have the love of my family and friends, including my co-parent, Jen, who has supported me and cared for our kids as I've done the work I set out to do."
Read MoreThe Inner Loop opened in 1965, and by the time the East Side stretch closed in 2014, it was used by just 6,000 vehicles a day, partly because of a decline in Rochester’s population and the number of downtown jobs. Traffic counts on reconstructed Union Street are almost certain to be higher as businesses open on the East Side, and developments are completed on the old highway corridor and downtown.
A few blocks from the Inner Loop, Rochester’s midtown is quickly evolving to a mixed-use housing, office and education district from a retail and office center. The construction is primarily a result of Rochester’s decision to remove another piece of urban infrastructure, the underperforming Midtown Plaza, the country’s first urban indoor shopping mall. The mall was hailed as a retail marvel when it opened in 1962, but it began to weaken in the 1980s as suburban malls were built, and the city’s population fell to less than 240,000, from its 1950 peak of 332,000.
Roughly 33,000 more people left in the 1990s and early 2000s as local employment by the city’s three biggest companies — Eastman Kodak, Xerox Corporation and Bausch & Lomb — fell to just fewer than 9,000 jobs today from a peak of about 80,000.
Since Midtown Plaza closed in 2008, Rochester’s population has increased to about 210,000 from 207,000. Almost all of the gain has been because of the 46 commercial buildings here that have been converted to lofts and apartments since 2000, according to figures from the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation. About 6,500 people live downtown, and 18 new residential projects have been approved that will house 2,650 more people by 2019.
New York State has helped the city’s recovery. The Upstate Revitalization Initiative, announced last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, directed $500 million to the Finger Lakes region, which includes Rochester. In September, the governor participated in the opening of the $18 million AMPrint Center, a 3-D printing technology research center at the Rochester Institute of Technology, which was paid for with help from a $9.2 million state grant. Also that month, Mr. Cuomo announced that the state is helping finance the modernization of Rochester International Airport.New trend keeps parents from cutting the cord. (Getty Images)
New parents can be overwhelmed taking care of a newborn, but one birth consultant thinks one way to help parents cope is by literally not cutting the cord.
Mary Ceallaigh, a birth consultant and doula from Austin, Texas, is preaching the benefits of "umbilical nonseverance" which involves letting the umbilical cord fall off naturally after birth. Ceallaigh, 47, says the practice is also called having a "lotus birth" can help mothers and babies bond.
"It is a trend getting more notice in western culture particularly among holistically inclined people," said Ceallaigh. "[It's] just as another way to create optimal beginnings for babies."
While the practice may seem like a new-age remedy gone haywire, Ceallaigh says the ritual actually comes from traditional Balinese practices. Parents care for the newborn, while also lugging around the baby's attached placenta.
"A lot of people they don't understand that the baby, the placenta, they're all made from the same cells," said Ceallaigh. "It's not some kind of waste material the body produces separately."
When the umbilical cord is not cut, it naturally seals off after about an hour after birth. The umbilical cord and attached placenta will fully detach from the baby anywhere from two to 10 days after the birth.
Dr. James Van Hook, director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, says if doctors momentarily delay clamping the umbilical cord there is a chance that newborns can get a final transfusion of blood cells rich in stem cells and immunoglobulin that theoretically can help the infant fight off infections. However, Van Hook cautions in those cases the umbilical cord is clamped within a few minutes of birth, not left to close off naturally.
"On one hand we want the safest possible delivery on the other hand it's a natural process," said Van Hook. "It's an area [where we need]to figure out how to balance the joy of having a baby with safety."
According to Van Hook, the riskiest aspect of "lotus births" is ensuring that the area around the umbilical is kept clean so that there is no risk of infection and that the placenta and umbilical cord don't impact the baby's care.
But while not traditional, Van Hook says he wouldn't mind letting the parents decide if they want to have a "lotus birth" as long as there were no underlying medial issues.
"If I was taking care of a patient, that's some of the choices people make," said Van Hook. "They're empowered to make their choices."Some 1,000 members of France’s Jewish community gathered Sunday outside the home of Sarah Halimi in Paris to commemorate her murder last week.
A suspect was arrested Wednesday, but authorities have not yet declared whether the murder was racially motivated and community leaders have cautioned against reaching early conclusions.
The Sunday demonstration was meant to be a quiet memorial but members of the far-right Jewish Defense League attempted to turn the event into a vocal protest against anti-Semitism in France, with several attendees clashing with neighbors in the buildings next to Sarah Halimi’s.
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Footage of the event showed JDL members throwing bottles at people leaning out of the windows who had allegedly shouting anti-Semitic slurs at the crowd.
צפו: יהודים רבים הפגינו בפריז ודרשו משפט צדק לרוצח הערבי של שרה חלימיhttps://www.0404.co.il/post/58ea083ba36a444d538b4574.html Posted by 0404 on svētdiena, 2017. gada 9. aprīlis
French police arrived to disperse the protest shortly thereafter, but not before the Jewish demonstrators sang both the French and Israeli national anthems.
Halimi was found dead on the street in front of her apartment on Monday in the crime-ridden 11th district of the French capital. Her 27-year-old neighbor, reported by Israel Radio to be Muslim, was later arrested in connection with her death. He has been sent for psychiatric evaluation, according to reports. Relatives of Halimi said that she had previously experienced anti-Semitic harassment by a relative of the man under arrest. The woman was beaten before she fell from the third floor, Israel Radio also reported.
French police have not classified the woman’s death as a hate crime, but the family of the 66-year-old Jewish doctor asserted that the killing was nationalistically motivated.
The French Jewish community umbrella organization CRIF, however, said in a Friday statement that there was “no information to suggest the murder was an anti-Semitic attack” and cautioned people against spreading rumors online.
French parliamentarian Meyer Habib has called on state authorities to investigate the crime as an anti-Semitic attack, though. In a lengthy Facebook post, he said the suspect had routinely harassed Halimi, calling her and her daughter “dirty Jews.”
On Thursday, hundreds arrived in Jerusalem to lay Halimi to rest. She is survived by her son who lives in Israel and two daughters who live in France.
JTA contributed to this report.UPDATED March 13th:
The victim, 58-year-old Mark Richers, is currently in stable condition and is at the University of Iowa Hospital.
His 13-year-old son is being held at the Southeast Iowa Detention Center pending a Monday court appearance and is currently charged with willful injury.
ORIGINAL:
On Saturday at 11:52 a.m., the Lee County Sheriff’s Office was summoned 79 7th Street in Denmark, Iowa for reports of a man who was possibly shot.
This information was gathered by a Deputy during a traffic stop on a family member who was driving to the aforementioned address in Denmark at a high rate of speed.
The Deputy ascertained from the family member that a father was shot by his son.
The Deputy sent the Denmark Rescue and additional Deputies to the house.
According to a press release, they located an adult male subject suffering from two gunshot wounds.
The suspect was taken into custody, in the city limits of Fort Madison, Iowa by Officers of the Fort Madison Police Department and transported to the Juvenile Detention Center in Montrose.
Charges on the juvenile will be willful injury and additional charges may be filed at a later time.
The Denmark Fire and Rescue, Lee County EMS, Air Evac and the Lee County Attorney Ross Braden assisted at the scene.
The Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division will conduct this investigation under the supervision of Chief Deputy Will Conlee and it is considered ongoing at this time.
Currently, the victim and the suspect’s names are unavailable.
KHQA will continue to update this story as information becomes available.Contains 3 oz of.999 fine Silver.
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Obverse: Features an image of Mercury next to a likeness of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the face value of $25 (NZD) and a background image of a world map, symbolizing travel.
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These coins are extremely unique and have proven to be very popular with collectors. Add this 2014 Silver 3 oz Fortuna Redux Mercury Cylinder coin to your cart today.Mercury’s name comes from the Latin word “merx” meaning “goods”. Usually he is depicted while holding a herald’s staff accompanied by an inscription "Fortuna Redux" – hence the name of this coin. In the days of the Roman Empire, the cult of Mercury was widely distributed, and Julius Caesar proclaimed him the most popular god in Britain and Gaul. Since then, Mercury is believed to bring luck in business and protect travelers on their journey.It’s been a busy two weeks in Metville. Sandy Alderson pulled the trigger on four trades which brought five Major League players, a blockbuster deal that almost-happened-but-never-was, a suspension, rain delays, a walk-off, and a whole lot of emotion in Queens. It definitely has been easy to lose track of where the 25-man roster is and where it will soon be going. So here’s a primer on where things are to help catch you up.
Catcher
After his second stint on the disabled list, Travis d’Arnaud has finally returned to the Mets. The intended everyday catcher is.280/.329/.507 with four homeruns in 75 at bats. His production will likely be diminished from what was expected of him due to all of his down-time this season, but he is the best hitting catcher this team has right now. His current backup, Kevin Plawecki, has stood in as the everyday catcher during all of d’Arnaud’s time out of the Major League roster. The current plan seems to be using the two in tandem until Travis is entirely capable of starting five games a week. This is a better move than keeping Anthony Recker around for several reasons: the first reason is that Plawecki has shown he is capable of starting the majority of the games in a season. He has caught 55 games as the starting catcher this season, while Recker has only started 19 games. Furthermore, Plawecki has shown he is also the better hitter of the two. Recker is having a below-average season, hitting.123/.254/.228 with two home runs in 57 at bats. He also only has three RBIs and has struck out 24 times. Meanwhile, Plawecki is hitting.234/.280/.305 with two homeruns, 17 RBIs and 47 strikeouts through 197 at bats. This move benefits the now-formerly-offense-starved Mets as it |
Most other schools do not have their football team come and face the student section while a stadium of 110,000 people puts their arms around each other’s shoulders to sing a school song in unison at the end of every home game. And most schools do not have a simple two-letter proclamation that can be made and met with a response, and most times, a friendly conversation, from the streets of Chicago to the top of the Eiffel Tower (both of which have been experienced by me personally or by close friends).
This is not just a school. These are not just traditions. And we are not just classmates and peers; we are indeed family.The Wikipedia Battle for Rupert Sheldrake’s Biography
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; King Henry V William Shakespeare
As dreary as the task was, I delved into Rupert Sheldrake’s bio on Wikipedia and started examining the sources for just one statement from this totally over the top biased paragraph with six accusations and 18 citations:
I worked on citations 8 through 12. It’s possibly true morphic resonance is “widely rejected”, but far more likely that morphic resonance is widely ignored. On Wikipedia however, you need valid secondary sources for your statements. So I checked them out. Of the five sources: two were book reviews, one link didn’t work and the other two contained just one sentence dealing with the above statement. Of those two, one was by Martin Gardner from a book published in 1988. He was also a member of CSICOP, so his opinion was hardly representative of the mainstream, but it was also, just one sentence. The last was an article favorable to Sheldrake and again, it was just one sentence.
The sourcing for this statement, in other words, was terrible. Dutifully, I wrote this up on the Wikipedia Rupert Sheldrake Bio talk page. (Under my own name.) One more small bit done in order to move his biography from a horribly biased, possibly libelous wreck to a more neutral point of view.
Boring, right? Why am I doing this? Well, partially this is more fallout from the TED controversy, which put Rupert in the news... again. On June 20th of this year, after the controversy had died down, Rupert sent out one of his newsletters. In it was a small blurb:
Robert McLuhan has recently drawn attention to the phenomenon of guerrilla skeptics, who devote a great deal of time and energy to modifying Wikipedia entries so that they reflect a skeptical point of view about psychic phenomena, and try to portray research on these subjects as pseudoscience. His blog on the subject is here:
Guerrilla Skeptics
The Guerrilla Skeptics apparently did not take kindly to being outed. Since June, they have gone on the attack to seriously change Rupert’s Bio. On June 14th, he had a relatively stable and neutral biography, which is documented from June 14th. Compare this to the pretty current September 28th version. The changes are quite drastic and unfavorable to Sheldrake.
——-
Wikipedia matters because of the sheer numbers of visitors it draws. The term Parapsychology has about 300,000 views a year and Rupert Sheldrake’s biography Wikipedia page has about 180,000 views a year. His Wikipedia profile in fact, is second only to his own site if you google his name. Sheldrake’s Wikipedia problem is a bit unusual because he appears to be the subject of a coordinated attack by an ideologue organization. (Here’s a long video of them describing their process.) Most of the people who have problems with Wikipedia are trying to get some bit of information corrected on a subject of their expertise. Hilarity often ensues.
A Nobel Prize winning physicist and a senior editor of a science magazine tried to get an article about Energy Catalyst fixed, and failed. Professor Timothy Messer-Kruse tried to get an article about the Haymarket riots, his area of expertise, corrected, using the Library of Congress as a source and failed as well. Economist David Henderson was not trusted to know his own birthday.
These types of problems occur because anybody can edit Wikipedia. In order for all of these people to edit this encyclopedia, Wikipedia has a rule that only secondary sources are allowed because primary sources need to be interpreted. It’s more complicated than that, but what happens is that this opens the door for all sorts of gaming of Wikipedia by less than objective editors. Especially in regards to controversial topics and people, there are often a number of conflicting opinions to choose from and it requires a bit of subject knowledge to sort them out. If you’re an ideologue however, you merely choose the opinions that you agree with and ignore everything else while dismissing contrary sources as being biased. That’s what’s happening on Rupert Sheldrake’s Wikipedia page.
This is not an isolated problem. The great weakness of Wikipedia is its excessive number of ideologues and their desire for control. In 2003, Anthropogenic Global Warming Theory was subjected to near total control by a single editor who created or rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles, obtained Website Administrator status and removed 500 articles and banned over 2,000 Wikipedia editors. This continued until September of 2009 when his privileges were finally revoked. In one case a user named Qworty attempted to purge Wikipedia of all references to the occult and modern paganism by making as many as 13,000 edits.
The outing of Qworty, who turned out to be author Robert Clark Young, was done by Wikipedia watchdog organization, Wikipediocracy. Writer Andrew Leonard, who pursued this story for Salon shared this compelling story:
“The reason I am doing this,” said Andreas Kolbe, one of the Wikipedocracy members who shared his research with me, “is that I want the public to know just what goes on under the surface of Wikipedia and how the site plays dice with people’s reputations by allowing anonymous editing of biographies of living persons. As someone who joined the project with a fair amount of enthusiasm for its mission more than seven years ago, I have found the realities of how Wikipedia is written irresponsible and deeply disturbing, and given the site’s status as a top-10 website, I believe the public needs to understand just what is going on in Wikipedia day after day.”
Pretty much all the “fringe” topics are subject to control by a large number of ideologues working together. They call themselves skeptics, but they are really just true believers of a different sort. They have a long history of ideologue behavior, -particularly towards the paranormal- that goes back to the 1900’s. They were organized long before Wikipedia was created and quickly moved onto the Internet when it became widely used. The Guerrilla Skeptics organization is merely an extension of what skeptics were already doing: working to control information in a way that is favorable to their ideology.
These ideologues are reactionaries. They typically don’t promote their own viewpoint so much as attack viewpoints that they disagree with.
—–
I am not the only person editing (the talk section of) that Wikipedia page for a neutral point of view. It is a very busy Wikipedia page at the moment, at least behind the scenes. Wikipedia editors are supposed to work together to iron out their differences, but in reality, the discussions have a very clear cut us vs. them delineation with no real compromising going on. The issue of how the page should look will surely come down to a fight.
At issue is the all important Wikipedia Neutral Point of View, or NPOV if you’re into the vast array of Wikipedia acronyms. Another important aspect of this conflict is that it is over the biography of a living person. (BLP) This affords Sheldrake some rights that an ordinary Wikipedia article doesn’t have. Wikipedia has faced several lawsuits because of slanderous articles over the years and this has in turn made the neutral point of view for biographies of living people a high priority. But getting there is still an uphill battle.
Here’s where it gets tricky: the skeptics use a tactic known as “undue weight.” Labeling something as fringe, which has been done to a wide variety of topics on Wikipedia allows skeptics to give extra weight to their point of view because by their reasoning, there are way more people that oppose these ideas than support them. This brings to mind the Orwellian phrase: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” And they’ve got legitimate second sources because they found some articles with a sentence or two that said something in favor of their argument.
Another way that skeptics weight things in their favor is to deny non mainstream sources that they don’t agree with while accepting equally non mainstream skeptical sources they do agree with. Quackwatch, a skeptical site run by Stephen Barrett, who has the distinction of having been declared “Biased, and unworthy of credibility.” by the US court system, in a published appeals court decision (NCAHF v King Bio),is supposedly a good source, but Natural News is not.
They’re not above attempts at intimidation either. On the Sheldrake bio talk page, I had referred to CSICOP as a radical atheist pressure group. Then I got this personal message:
Hi, I would recommend looking at WP:IMPERSONATE. The worst case of ignoring it is that a random administrator could temporarily block you, which wouldn’t be so bad, just inconvenient until you get it unblocked. This is just FYI; it doesn’t matter to me who anyone is. vzaak (talk) 06:42, 29 September 2013 (UTC) … … There’s no downside in taking precautions when it comes to identity; “CSICOP, a known radical atheist pressure group” could be construed as an attempt to make the real Craig Weiler look bad. vzaak (talk) 10:47, 29 September 2013 (UTC) … You can be blocked at any time, for no reason other than your account name. You could have been blocked ten seconds after you created your account. Making heated arguments simply draws more attention; it doesn’t actually matter what the arguments are about. Murphy’s Law says that a block would come at the worse possible time — say, in the middle of some argument — which might indeed look like a conspiracy. But it would only be Wikipedia’s WP:IMPERSONATE policy aiming to protect people. vzaak (talk) 22:37, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
That was truly bizarre. It brings to mind a Wikipedia mafia: “Nice name you got there. It would be a shame if anything should happen to it.” Surely someone would do a google search of my name first? The whole first page makes it pretty clear that I’m the real Craig Weiler.
I don’t know why they bother. I’m not a significant contributor to the page, I’m just too busy with other things, but someone who has been working hard to correct the article who goes by the name “The Tumbleman” has said that he/she plans a major edit. It should be interesting and I’ll keep everyone posted as to how it goes.SAN JOSE — Chris Culliver is in trouble again. And this time it involves far more than inappropriate comments.
The 49ers cornerback was arrested Friday on suspicion of hit-and-run driving and other charges after San Jose police said he struck a bicyclist, fled the scene and rammed a witness’ vehicle before being blocked from leaving until officers arrived.
At the time of his arrest, Culliver, who made national headlines at last year’s Super Bowl for anti-gay comments, was found to be in possession of brass knuckles, police said.
The incident started around 10:20 a.m., when a bicyclist was struck in the intersection of Tully Road and South Seventh Street by a white Mustang that fled the scene. A witness’s car was struck as the Mustang fled, and the witness followed the Mustang down Tully toward Senter Road to the area of Mekler Drive. The witness was able to block the Mustang on a nearby street and waited for police to arrive.
Residents described a pearl white and fluorescent green custom-painted Mustang with dealer plates, blocked in by a black Chevrolet Suburban and an orange pickup truck.
Richard Portillo, a 60-year-old retiree, said he heard screeching tires like cars speeding around corners but didn’t think much of it. He went outside about three minutes later and saw the Mustang stopped in front of a pair of police cruisers blocking off the entrance of the street.
“I thought someone was getting a ticket,” he said. “I thought they were racing. If I knew what was going on I would have checked it out for sure.”
Culliver was arrested, and a search of his car produced the brass knuckles. He was booked into Santa Clara County main jail and faces charges of felony hit-and-run, felony reckless driving with injury, felony possession of brass knuckles, misdemeanor hit-and-run and misdemeanor driving on a suspended license, police said.
The bicyclist suffered minor injuries and was released at the scene.
Culliver posted bail — which according to jail records was $36,000 — and walked briskly out of the main jail at 5:15 p.m. Friday, saying nothing to reporters. A woman who joined him cursed at journalists as they pursued Culliver, who got into the passenger side of a white minivan parked at the curb and drove away.
In a statement, 49ers general manager Trent Baalke said: “The 49ers organization is aware of the recent matter involving Chris Culliver. We will remain in contact with Chris and the local authorities as we continue to gather the facts regarding this situation. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will reserve further comment at this time.”
Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Culliver’s personal publicist, Teddy Palmer, said he could not speak about the matter.
“We don’t have any comment right now,” Palmer said.
Culliver, 25, a third-round pick by the 49ers in 2011, missed all last season with a severe knee injury. But his rehabilitation has been progressing well and the expectation had been that he would compete for a starting position this upcoming season.
He also had been rehabilitating his image.
In a story in this newspaper last week, Culliver had talked at length about how much he had changed since last year’s Super Bowl when he became a distraction for the 49ers with homophobic remarks. When asked in a Media Day interview if the 49ers had any homosexual players, Culliver said: “No. Ain’t got no gay people on the team. They gotta get up outta here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff.”
Culliver apologized, then played poorly in the 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
But since then, he has reached out to LGBT groups — who had praised his character at length and lauded his efforts to become a voice of tolerance. He told this newspaper that he would have no problem playing with gay teammates.
Also this month, he received a “champion of compassion” award from a San Francisco animal welfare group because of his admirable life values, as one organizer put it. At a fundraising event on March 13 in San Francisco hosted by Critter Lovers at Work, Culliver was given a standing ovation for his work advocating against dog fighting and promoting animal health care in inner-city neighborhoods.
He has a fundraiser for his own foundation scheduled at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds on April 5.
“I don’t think a lot of people understand the things that I do outside of football,” Culliver said earlier this month. “I think people are just starting to see who I am.”
Contact Eric Kurhi at 408-920-5852. Follow him at Twitter.com/erickurhi.In a press conference on Friday, the Fairbanks Police Department said prosecutors will not file criminal charges against FPD Sergeant Gregory Foster for fatal shooting James Robert Richards, Jr., 28, of Fairbanks. Richards was fatally shot in the summer of 2016 after he allegedly threatened people, fled from police, and took a hostage. In the press release issued by the Office of Special Prosecutions, officials investigating the actions of Foster say they did not aim to “determine if Sgt. Foster’s conduct was appropriate under any applicable use-of-force policy.” Instead, the inquiry was limited to a simple decision of whether or not criminal charges were appropriate. According to investigators, they are not. “At the time of the fatal shooting, Sgt. Foster reasonably believed that Mr. Richards was attempting to flee from a recently committed violent assault and while fleeing, had taken a hostage. Under these circumstances, criminal charges are not appropriate,” Supervising Assistant Attorney General Robert E. Henderson wrote in a statement.
The investigation summary reveals more details regarding the nature of the incident that led to Richards’ death, as well as includes multiple video sources showing the shooting itself. FPD said they were called on the scene after Richards assaulted (by “pistol whipping”) two residents, firing a bullet into the wall, and “demanding money and drugs.” He then walked away from the apartment, where FPD made contact with him. In the report, police say they called out to him several times, but he did not respond. Two officers fired their taser rounds at Richards, but neither were effective in stunning him. Police say the situation boiled to a head when Richards took the arm of an elderly man and continued to walk away, ignoring police orders to stop. Investigators say officers “believed that Mr. Richards was using the male as a human shield.” Solomon Roberts, the elderly man in question, later said he was not being pulled or threatened by Richards during the encounter.
At that point, Foster fired twice from his issued duty rifle. “Both rounds struck Mr. Richards in the head, fatal shooting him nearly instantaneously,” the statement said. Following the shooting, many in the community expressed concerns about the possibility of race playing a factor in the incident, as Richards was Alaska Native. At a memorial event shortly after, community members spoke out regarding that possibility. Ricko DeWilde, an organizer of the event, said the Native community has had a contentious relationship with the Fairbanks Police Department, and expressed frustration regarding the way in which the police force investigate themselves in cases of misconduct. “We sit back and wait for years for a thorough investigation that they conduct on themselves,” DeWilde said. “That makes zero sense to me. As a Native community we need to step forward and look into the issues and look into them closely.”
To help alleviate these concerns, the investigation was carried out by a the Office of Special Prosecution. Additionally, FPD released dashboard camera footage and body camera footage, both displaying the events leading up to the shooting, as well as the shooting itself. In the video, Richards is seen positioned to the side of Roberts putting the man in between Richards and the officers on the street. Several officers can be seen following behind Richards, as well as Foster, who “took cover behind Deputy Chief Johnson’s patrol vehicle.” When Richards approaches the vehicle Foster is standing behind, he opens fire. The report concludes that based on Richards’ activity, as well as the information known to Foster at the time, Foster’s “actions, given the totality of the circumstances, were not objectively unreasonable.”
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commentsMatthew Boyd has been dumped on the cusp of his record-breaking match
- Bulldog Matthew Boyd dumped on cusp of record-breaking match
- Free agent Jasper Pittard one of three Power players dropped
- Gary Rohan back for Swans' critical match with Richmond
THE AXE has fallen on former Western Bulldogs skipper Matthew Boyd just as he was set to break retired West Coast ruckman Dean Cox's games record for rookie-drafted players.
Boyd and Cox are locked on 290 games, but the 2016 premiership player will now have to wait to pass the ex-Eagle after being dumped from Sunday's clash with Melbourne.
Coach Luke Beveridge has not been shy in the past two years about omitting big-name players, and Boyd is only the latest.
Defender Fletcher Roberts and young big man Tim English were also dropped, while Travis Cloke (soreness) and Marcus Adams (foot) were forced outs.
Check out the full teams here
However, premiership trio Dale Morris, Tom Boyd and Zaine Cordy are back.
Tom Liberatore – after playing three VFL matches – Tom Campbell, Mitch Honeychurch, Lukas Webb and Bailey Williams were named on the extended bench and could also return.
The Demons have no confirmed changes yet, with Jake Spencer potentially back to help solve their ruck struggles, along with Ben Kennedy and Sam Weideman as possible ins. All three have been named on the extended bench.
St Kilda welcomes back Nick Riewoldt as it bids to end its three-match losing slide, as well as beat North Melbourne for the first time since 2011.
Luke Dunstan and Jack Lonie also return for Jack Steele, who was dropped, and Nathan Wright (shoulder) and Paddy McCartin (knee).
The Roos made just one change, replacing promising backman Ed Vickers-Willis (knee) with Declan Mountford, who has not played at AFL level since making his debut in round one.
Richmond is unchanged for its big test against suddenly in-form Sydney at the MCG on Saturday.
The Swans have brought back speedster Gary Rohan at Lewis Melican's expense.
Port Adelaide has followed through with coach Ken Hinkley's mid-week promise of multiple selection changes in response to last week's 70-point loss to Essendon.
Defender Jasper Pittard, an unrestricted free agent at year's end, is the highest-profile casualty, joining Power teammates Brendon Ah Chee and Jimmy Toumpas in being omitted.
Fifty-one-game small forward Jake Neade will play his first match of the year, while Aaron Young – fresh from 37 disposals and five goals in the SANFL – and Dan Houston also come into the side.
Port Adelaide's opponents, the Brisbane Lions, enter Saturday's clash at Adelaide Oval unchanged for just the second time this season after their 57-point defeat of Fremantle last week.
Gold Coast is also going into round 13 unchanged after holding off Hawthorn at the MCG last Saturday.
The Suns' opponent, Carlton, has promoted Sam Petrevski-Seton and Blaine Boekhorst in place of injured pair Liam Sumner (adductor) and Alex Silvagni (knee).
Thursday, June 15
West Coast v Geelong at Domain Stadium, 6.10pm AWST
WEST COAST
In: T.Cole, T.Barrass
Out: J.Hill, S.Butler
GEELONG
In: R.Stanley, J.Bews
Out: M.Blicavs (managed), T.Hawkins (suspended)
Friday, June 16
North Melbourne v St Kilda at Etihad Stadium, 7.50pm AEST
NORTH MELBOURNE
In: D.Mountford
Out: E.Vickers-Willis (knee)
ST KILDA
In: N.Riewoldt, J.Lonie, L.Dunstan
Out: P.McCartin (knee), N.Wright (shoulder), J.Steele
Saturday, June 17
Richmond v Sydney at the MCG, 1.45pm AEST
RICHMOND
No change
SYDNEY
In: G.Rohan
Out: L.Melican
Port Adelaide v Brisbane Lions at Adelaide Oval, 4.05pm ACST
PORT ADELAIDE
In: D.Houston, J.Neade, A.Young
Out: B.Ah Chee, J.Pittard, J.Toumpas
BRISBANE LIONS
No change
Gold Coast v Carlton at Metricon Stadium, 7.25pm AEST
GOLD COAST
No change
CARLTON
In: S.Petrevski-Seton, B.Boekhorst
Out: L.Sumner (adductor), A.Silvagni (knee)
Sunday, June 18
Western Bulldogs v Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, 3.20pm AEST
WESTERN BULLDOGS
In: D.Morris, T.Campbell, T.Liberatore, T.Boyd, M.Honeychurch, L.Webb, Z.Cordy, B.Williams
Out: M.Boyd, T.Cloke (soreness), F.Roberts, M.Adams (foot), T.English
MELBOURNE
In: J.Spencer, B.Kennedy, S.Weideman
Out: -OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. — A Michigan mother is reportedly suing her doctor for the stress caused by an unplanned pregnancy, according to WJBK.
According to the report, Lori Cichewicz went to her doctor in 2008 to have a tubal ligation, which is also known as “having your tubes tied.”
Cichewicz’ss doctor reportedly said her tubes were “blocked” and she had “no chance” of getting pregnant and did not need birth control. Three years later, she gave birth to a child who has Down syndrome, according to the report.
Cichewicz is now suing for wrongful conception, according to the report. Wrongful conception is a medical malpractice claim that arises from the “negligent performance of a sterilization procedure,” according to the University of Missouri School of Law.
“This is really very close to a medical malpractice case,” legal analyst Charlie Langton told WJBK. “That’s really essentially what it is.”
Cichewicz, who is now 50 and raising a special needs child, is seeking damages for the emotional distress caused by the unplanned pregnancy.
“I’m older, I don’t know, will I see her graduate college? Will I see her go to college? Will I see her get married? Will I see her graduate high school? All this is going through my mind,” Cichewicz told WXYZ.
Cichewicz is not suing for “wrongful birth,” which is a claim that a health care provider has breached a duty subsequent to conception that results in the birth of an abnormal child.
“The stress associated with thinking about of having to be pregnant or being pregnant when she didn’t want to be pregnant are the only damages,” Langton told WJBK. “It’s not the fact she is going to get money for having to raise a Down syndrome child, the court already said no.”
The case is expected to go to a jury trial later this year.With a different amazing dumpling restaurant on just about every street in the neighborhood, Manhattan's Chinatown is a great place to host a culinary expedition, and its high density of top-tier dumpling spots makes it easy to get from one to the next. Hence, the team at Viewing NYC thought it would be a great idea to try 10 of the best. We did some research and chose the 10 spots to visit, all within the borders of Manhattan's Chinatown. Most of the dumpling joints have appeared on various top-ten lists around the web, others have amazing reviews on places like Eater, Zagat, The Infatuation, and Yelp, some were passed to us from word of mouth. This past Saturday, October 3rd, 2015, we hosted the inaugural Viewing NYC Chinatown Dumpling Crawl so we could try all 10 dumplings spots, back-to-back-to-back, in one afternoon. The Methodology We only ordered the standard pork and chive fried dumplings at each restaurant. Soup dumplings are amazing, and boiled/steamed dumplings have their place too, but it's unfair to compare them against each other. To make the ratings as accurate as we could, we needed to be very consistent with what we ordered. We chose establishments which have the typical Chinatown "hole-in-the-wall" feel offering quick food at affordable prices. We wanted places where it was less of a restaurant and more of a grab-and-go joint. At every restaurant we ordered enough freshly fried dumplings so that each participant got 2 dumplings: one to eat "naked" (i.e. sans sauce), and one to eat with the restaurant's provided dipping sauce, vinegar etc… We did not call ahead for pickup orders because fried dumplings are so quickly made, and degrade quickly if allowed to sit for even a few minutes. We wanted them as fresh as possible. After trying each of the dumplings, we rated the "naked" and sauced dumplings separately, and provided an area for tasters to write comments. The Dumpling Restaurants & Crawl Order Tasty Dumpling Fried Dumpling Noodle Village Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles Jin Mei Dumpling House Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei Lam Zhou Handmade Noodle China North Dumpling C & L Dumpling House Vanessa’s Dumpling House More on each of these below… or TL;DR The Prosperity Dumpling Controversy In late August, one of the top seeded restaurants that used to be on this crawl — Prosperity Dumpling — was shuttered by the NYC Department of Health for multiple violations. The restaurant was still closed on the date of the crawl, so they are notably absent from this list, replaced with another dumpling spot.
Prosperity Dumpling is temporarily closed. Scheduled to reopen on November 25, 2015. Photo: Yelp
The Route The route was a mere 1.5 miles, zig zagging from West Chinatown in a funky U until we hit the south side of the LES/Chinatown border.
The Crawlers We had a good mix of people in the crawl representing a broad array of culinary interests. We had some Yelp Elites, some who eat only Michelin rated food, some hardcore dumpling fiends, some who couldn't use chopsticks, and people representing multiple countries over multiple continents. All-in-all a good mix of tastes that led to a varied representation in the averaged ratings. Dumplings were scored and ranked based on a simple average of the 20 crawlers who submitted ratings 1-10. The Results Presented in ascending order of average rating.
Bottom Tier: 10th Place
Vanessa's Dumpling House | Check out Viewing NYC for more info on the 2015 Chinatown Dumpling Crawl and to see who won! viewing.nyc/the-best-dumpling-in-the-2015-viewing-nyc-chi... Photo: viewingnyc
Vanessa's Dumpling House Naked: 4.81/10
Sauced: 5.25/10
Overall Average: 5.03 Somebody had to come in last place, and with an average score of 5.03/10, it's Vanessa's Dumpling House on Eldridge. Many crawlers pegged Vanessa's as a frontrunner going into the event, which surprises me. Vanessa's is by far the most corporate of them all, had the longest lines, and had the most non-Asian diners in there picking up 4 dumpling for $1. Looked very pretty, but not very tasty. Very uniformly shaped, well cooked outside, not very tasty on inside Nice crisp, and aesthetically pleasing, dumpling. But not very flavorful. Just okay. Highly commercialized and very bland, wouldn't come back here. Probably least flavor and most oily. Wasn't my favorite by a long shot. Actually disappointed, was barely edible compared to some of the other dumpling places. The ingredients didn't seem fresh... Having this the last stop on the crawl made me realize that I don't need to go here anymore, my eyes were opened to so many more authentic tasting dumplings. And way cheaper! Each dumpling looked identical in size, shape and cooking that it looked almost mechanic, and tasted as such too. There was no love put into these dumplings and it showed. We heard a stranger describing Vanessa's as dumplings for white people and thought that was a crude way to say it, but somehow spot-on.
Bottom Tier: 9th Place
Fried Dumpling | Check out Viewing NYC for more info on the 2015 Chinatown Dumpling Crawl and to see who won! viewing.nyc/the-best-dumpling-in-the-2015-viewing-nyc-chi... Photo: viewingnyc
Fried Dumpling Naked: 4.85/10
Sauced: 5.35/10
Overall Average: 5.10 Fried Dumpling on Mosco has offered 5 fried dumplings for $1 forever, never raising prices or changing the recipe, making them a Chinatown favorite. But with an average score that places them second to last, the surprisingly low result from the long-time Chinatown legend disappointed all. Dumplings seemed smaller in size than the first stop and much more greasy. Sauce was more seasoned though! Needs more meat. Nice thinner skin though. More messy, worse presentation, but tasty. Inconsistent with level of fried exterior. Sauce almost 100% vinegar Northern Style - they do one thing and they do it well! Less filling, and much less chive and pork taste. Noodle covering too chewy. However very authentic ambience. Just... No. Tough exterior, skimping out on meat, and dry dry dry. No good Thinner skin, but quite tough. not juicy, smaller dumpling. flavor is ok. sauce is watery, doesn't enhance much. Nothing special about these fried dumplings from Fried Dumplings, but that doesn't mean they weren't tasty. Poor quality casing; chewy. Not fresh, definitely frozen beforehand. Limited flavor with boring sauce. Love that this place has only one dumpling offered on its menu. Do one thing and do it right. Despite its lower score, many crawlers liked the simplicity of Fried Dumpling and rated the dumplings high. The inconsistency in our order however pulled enough negative ratings to drop Fried Dumpling in the charts severely.
Bottom Tier: 8th Place
Jin Mei Dumpling House | Check out Viewing NYC for more info on the 2015 Chinatown Dumpling Crawl and to see who won! viewing.nyc/the-best-dumpling-in-the-2015-viewing-nyc-chi... Photo: viewingnyc
Jin Mei Dumpling House Naked: 6.25/10
Sauced: 6.45/10
Overall Average: 6.35 Jin Mei Dumpling House has been around for a couple of years now and offers 5 pork and chive dumplings for $1 out of a tiny shop on Henry. The dumpling house was impressively run by a single woman, the owner who handmade and cooked each dumpling herself, so our order took a bit of time to come out, but they were all fresh and hot. Excellent dumpling execution Standard fare for dumplings, not particularly memorable/outstanding but gets the job done Very gingery, yum! Flavorful filling, and the casing was moderate at best. The oil was sweet and flavorful. The sauce was too gingery. Similar to tasty dumpling, but less doughy & smaller. flavor is ok, not juicy. skin is still on doughy side. just ok, sauce is meh. Nice amount of dough. Kinda mediocre? Classic style heavy on chives, roughly hand made, heavy ginger, fried ok, sauce nothin special. Very nice traditional dumpling. Classic The dumplings were OK, pretty bland but still good. Most flavorful dumplings. Great ginger and chive tastes in the meat and sauce. Standard and good dumplings but not particularly exceptional. Tangy realness! Stuffed the most out of all the places Many crawlers thought that Jin Mei made the dumplings more like the ones you find in China, more authentic to what a dumpling should be with a higher chive-to-pork ratio and fresh ginger. Many crawlers also thought that Jin Mei made them a bit on the cheaper side, and not as much meat-flavor as there should be. When all was said and done, Jin Mei was third from last in 8th place.
Bottom Tier: 7th Place
China North Dumpling | Check out Viewing NYC for more info on the 2015 Chinatown Dumpling Crawl and to see who won! viewing.nyc/the-best-dumpling-in-the-2015-viewing-nyc-chi... Photo: viewingnyc
China North Dumpling Naked: 6.22/10
Sauced: 6.61/10
Overall Average: 6.42 China North Dumpling on Essex serves up 12 fried pork and chive dumplings for $3, making it one of the less expensive places to fill your belly on the list. Not the greatest flavor and a little too greasy. Meh...noodle dry. Good standard dumplings, can't quite compete with the others Plain, juicy fatty meat, overly greasy, not he best but not he worst, plain sauces Fresh-fried and crispy but not as flavorful as others. Meat already had been marinated and its flavor could hold its own w/o help of sauce. Texture was excellent,. Meat to skin ratio on point Great value prop and delicious tasting overall. Limited flavor, with a poor quality casing. Filling was alright, and the dumpling was over-cooked. Best dump for a buck Doughy, deep fried, more vegetable in the filling vs others (ie. less meat), overall meh. Again, inconstancy killed the rating here. We got some that were well cooked, some overcooked, some too greasy, some dried out. China North pulled down some great scores, but unfortunately the good dumpling ratings were not enough to overpower the bad, and China North scored 7th place overall.
Middle Tier: 6th Place
C & L Dumping House | Check out Viewing NYC for more info on the 2015 Chinatown Dumpling Crawl and to see who won! viewing.nyc/the-best-dumpling-in-the-2015-viewing-nyc-chi... Photo: viewingnyc
C & L Dumpling House Naked: 6.37/10
Sauced: 6.95/10
Overall Average: 6.65 C & L Dumpling House offers up 4 pork and chive dumplings for $1.25 placing it in the middle of the pack when it comes to pricing. (Side note: Can you believe $1.25 is the middle of the pack! Gotta love Chinatown!) The outer shell here was well toasted and the meat was excellent. There was great fat content in the dough, and both sauces were amazing. The sauce here is amazing!! Dumps are standard fare, but the sweet chili sauce puts it over the top Doughy, medium thickness skin. filling & flavor ok. best chili sauce. Tasty crispy dough outing and solid dumpling over all. Too much breading Biggest dumplings of crawl, sauce good, long preparation time, average flavor Decent. Noodle probably the weakest, but filling with most flavor with strong chive and ginger taste. Sauce did not add much to flavor |
ance, the story about a goofy teenager living in Preston, Idaho, exploded and made more money than most of us will see in a lifetime. Given its paltry budget, the movie was a huge box-office success. Maybe Idahoans don't want to be known as the state that fathered the gangly red-haired, tetherball-loving dork, but too bad. It will have to do until an inspiring movie is made about the Boise State football team and how they overcame all the odds to play for a national championship in the rigged BCS system. I can see it now: Bringing Down the BCS: A Boise State Story. Until then you're stuck with Napoleon and Pedro.
Illinois -- The Fugitive & Ferris Bueller's Day Off
One thing that's always bothered me about The Fugitive is when Tommy Lee Jones' character says, "You must have ears like an eagle," when he's responding to his fellow U.S. Marshal who was able to tell the difference between the sound of a regular train and the sound of an elevated train. Ears like an eagle? Really? Well, besides providing us with some humorous dialogue, The Fugitive featured Illinois, Chicago specifically, as Harrison Ford ran for his life trying to find the one-armed man.
Another movie that features the sights and sounds of Chicago is Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I would be remiss if I didn't include Ferris' day of high school debauchery on this list when we're talking about Illinois. One of the great teen movies of the '80s, it remains one of the most beloved comedies and the entire thing took place in the Windy City. Kind of weird how both these movies depict someone on the run from the authorities, but we'll chalk that up to the fact that there's just a lot to see and do in Chicago -- you've got to hurry up or you'll miss it.
Indiana -- Hoosiers
Basketball is life in Indiana and in the '50s, when Hoosiers takes place, the entire state and its high school teams competed in a statewide basketball tournament. If there was ever a time where basketball completely took over an entire state this is it. The story about Milan High School reaching and winning the championship is one of the most memorable sports films ever made. It's hard not to think of Indiana without thinking about Hoosiers.
Iowa -- Field of Dreams
Ray Kinsella carved out a baseball field in his Iowa cornfield because of a voice he heard in a dream. Ever since then Field of Dreams and its story about baseball's greatest heroes gathering in a lonely cornfield has been embedded into the state of Iowa and its history.
Kansas -- The Wizard of Oz
"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." One of the most famous lines in all of cinema has to do with this state. Poor Dorothy is transported from Kansas to the land of Oz through a tornado. The Wizard of Oz also drew attention to how dangerous it can be to live in the tornado-torn state of Kansas.
Kentucky -- Secretariat
Think about Kentucky and the first thing that pops into my head is horse racing and the Kentucky Derby. The greatest race horse tracks have ever seen is tied to Kentucky with his unbroken record at the Kentucky Derby. Also, much of the film was shot in Kentucky.
Louisiana -- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post-Katrina, New Orleans is still under water and trying to rebuild. In Warner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant, Nic Cage is on the verge of complete insanity as he tries to walk the fine line of good cop/bad cop. Not only is Bad Lieutenant a superb movie, and one of Cage's finest acting performances, it also features a Louisiana reeling after the worst natural disaster in our nation's history. While I'm sure Louisianans don't want to be remembered only for Katrina, it's still hard for the rest of us to forget just how bad it was and how long it will take for the ever-resilient folks of New Orleans to build it back up.
Maine -- Lake Placid
Seriously, how could I not pick Lake Placid to represent the lovely state of Maine on this list? I failed to find a rousing documentary on clam chowder, so a movie about a gigantic crocodile, fed cows by an insane Betty White, had to do. Thank heavens the lake the crocodile terrorizes, Black Lake, is a fictional lake. Nevertheless, the movie is set in Maine, leaving us to wonder, how does a crocodile live in such frigid temperatures? Oh, who cares, it tears people limb from limb and even attacks a helicopter at one point. I'm sure Maine is proud of its rambunctious reptilian friend and its penchant for devouring everything in sight.
Maryland -- The Blair Witch Project
Can we blame the shaky-cam epidemic on The Blair Witch Project? The Blair Witch Project was thrust into the spotlight as one of those "you have to see this" movies. The faux-documentary style hasn't gone away, so it seems like Blair Witch has influenced cinema as the years have passed. The famed Blair Witch is located in Burkittsville, Maryland, and that's where our ambitious filmmakers head in order to make their movie. Congratulations, Maryland, you're known for harboring a ghost story that has routinely scared millions of Americans over the years.
Massachusetts -- The Town
Ben Affleck has made it a point to feature Boston boldly in his movies. He did it with Gone Baby Gone and Good Will Hunting. This year, with The Town, he tore up the streets of Boston as we watched him and his band of bank robbers go on a spree of terror. We also discovered a little secret: This tiny town in Boston is known for producing the most bank robbers in the world. While this isn't the most reputable claim to fame, it is still pretty cool. Not to mention Fenway Park, what amounts to a holy shrine for most Bostonians, is featured prominently in the plot of the film.
Michigan -- Up in the Air
Michigan and the automotive industry have been hit hard during these tough financial times. Not that Up in the Air features Michigan prominently, but the overall tone of the show reflects what's happened all over the state. People got laid off by the thousands, and sad saps like Ryan Bingham probably had to do much of the firing. Up in the Air isn't just a movie that shows the overall state of what's happening to jobs in our nation, but it gives us a glimpse of how tough it must be to live in Michigan at a time like this.
Minnesota -- The Mighty Ducks
Out of all the pairings on this list, this is probably my favorite. No one in America takes hockey as seriously as Minnesotans, and no movie features hockey and Minnesota more prominently than The Mighty Ducks. Gordon Bombay and his rag-tag band of misfits overcome all odds, fly together, and become Pee Wee League champions. Minnesota, be proud of your Mighty Ducks heritage. Even though all the kids have moved on in their acting careers, we can always look back and realize that, no matter how many times we revisit this movie, somehow it never gets old.
Mississippi -- Mississippi Burning
It's true, many of the southern states in our list are associated with racial injustices that occurred there during the Civil Rights movement. This isn't a knock on the states as they are today, but we'd be remiss if we didn't remember the trials and struggles during that time. Loosely based on the murder investigation of three civil-rights workers, Mississippi Burning stars Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman as the investigating FBI agents. Dafoe's character isn't well-versed in the ways of the South, whereas Hackman's character knows how racial relations work there. They are met with hostility and by hooded members of the KKK. It's a terrible history, but films like this make sure we don't repeat the past.
Missouri -- Winter's Bone
One of the best films to come out of this year's Sundance Film Festival features the cold, barren woodlands of Missouri as a backdrop to a world of unimaginable violence and an almost completely male-dominated society. As Ree Dolly walks through the leafless forests in her hat and coat we are given a glimpse of some of Missouri's most bleak, yet beautiful, landscapes.
Montana -- Legends of the Fall
Col. William Ludlow retires to the farthest reaches of wild Montana with his family and friends. So many of the movies on this list are mentioned for the sole fact that the movie gives us amazing glimpses of the scenery in that state. This movie is no different. Although the movie was filmed in Canada, the wilderness of both places is almost identical and just as awe-inspiring.
Nebraska -- Children of the Corn
Have you ever taken one of those cross-country trips? Have you ever driven through Nebraska? No wonder they have a college with "husk" in their name. The only sight you see when you're driving through Nebraska is corn, corn, and more corn. As far as the eye can see, it's just corn. I would like to thank Nebraska for growing a lot of our food supply, but when I think of Nebraska and movies together, I think of Children of the Corn. According to IMDb, from 1984 to 2001 there have been seven Children of the Corn movies and they've all been set and filmed in Nebraska. Sorry, Nebraska, but those giant fields of corn are inherently scary. Imagine how many wayward children are hiding in those vast fields just ready to pounce on the next lone voyager passing through.
Nevada -- Casino & The Hangover
Between Casino and The Hangover I couldn't decide which one truly defines Nevada as a state. Let's not kid ourselves, Nevada is bigger than just Las Vegas, but The Strip is what makes the state unique. Casino is more or less the origins of how The Strip as we know it today got started, with more help from the Mafia than Las Vegas would like to admit. Knowing how Las Vegas grew into what it is today is only half of what makes Vegas America's Playground.
We need to know what it's like today; enter The Hangover. Remember back in the late '90s when Las Vegas tried to reinvent itself into a "family town"? Roller coasters popped up at every casino as the gambling empire tried to lure parents and their children to its oasis of fortune. The fact is, Las Vegas was never a family town, and it's just now realized that. "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," is now the motto, and The Strip has finally embraced once again the fact that it's a place for adults to play. The Hangover represents everything that can happen in one night in Las Vegas if there's enough alcohol (and roofies) involved.
New Hampshire -- What About Bob?
New Hampshire is one of those places that doesn't get much notoriety when it comes to movies. So I guess it's fitting that even though Bill Murray's hilarious comedy What About Bob? was supposed to be set in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, it was actually filmed in Virginia. Not one piece of filming took place at the real Lake Winnipesaukee, but New Hampshire has the honor of being associated with one of Bill Murray's greatest comedic performances.
New Jersey -- Snake Eyes & Garden State
I'll admit, I got stumped every now and then while making this list. I kindly asked Film.com's intrepid editor Laremy Legel for some help. He put down a lot of great suggestions for a few of the states I was missing. He also put down some suggestions for states I had already made picks for. New Jersey was one of those states. I had already picked Snake Eyes starring Nic Cage, because I thought that it was a fun movie that portrayed Atlantic City with a seedy charm. You need a movie that represents Atlantic City in order to talk about New Jersey. If we were talking TV I think we'd just use The Sopranos and be done with it. What totally slipped my mind was the Zach Braff movie Garden State, which is actually named after the state in question. A miss on my part, but I'm grateful to have an editor that's on top of things. So New Jersey, like Nevada, gets two movies to represent just how awesome it really is.
New Mexico -- Independence Day
Sorry, New Mexico, you'll always be famous for the Roswell crash that thrust the idea of aliens into the mainstream. Is it true or not? We'll never know, but we do know that movies like Independence Day wouldn't have been possible if it hadn't been for Roswell and the conspiracy surrounding it. Even the movie purports that the alien space craft that Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum fly is the exact one that was found at the Roswell crash site. New Mexico will always be remembered for its history of Little Green Men, and that's that.
New York -- Wall Street
Wall Street is the epicenter of New York, and the cause of much controversy over the past few years. Oliver Stone's character Gordon Gekko is the perfect representation of how we picture Wall Street fat cats. He's conniving, greedy, and will stop at nothing to get richer and richer. Wall Street thrusts us into the cutthroat world of stock trading and how much of what we do in our everyday lives is run in one way or another by people on Wall Street.
North Carolina -- A Walk to Remember
I could have picked any Nicolas Sparks movie for this spot, because North Carolina has the dubious distinction of being the place where romance author Nicolas Sparks was born. Many of his stories are set in North Carolina. Depending on how you look at it, this is either a good or bad thing for the state. Sparks' rant comparing himself to Shakespeare didn't help his cause much, but whenever I hear about North Carolina I will instantly think of his tear-filled, star-crossed love story where Mandy Moore is our generation's Juliet.
North Dakota -- Fargo
Does North Dakota want to be associated with a movie that is famous for stuffing a man into a wood chipper? Well, they have no choice, because this is one of those movie association givens. It has to be Fargo, right? Although much of the movie was actually filmed in Minnesota, the vast frigid snow scenes were filmed in Fargo. If that isn't representative of one of our coldest states, then I don't know what is.
Ohio -- Major League
What better way to represent a state with the most disappointing sport outcomes than with a movie about one of the most down-in-the-dumps movie baseball teams out there? Not to mention in the film they are actually the Cleveland Indians. Who would have thought that Charlie Sheen and his brother Emilio would star in three films on this list?
Oklahoma -- Oklahoma!
Oh, the classic Roger and Hammerstien's play turned movie, Oklahoma!. There's no other movie out there that could have represented this state. Around the turn of the century people are moving west and claiming land. Oklahoma! is a fun tale about life and love in Oklahoma as the state was just starting out.
Oregon -- The Goonies
If you're visiting Oregon it's an absolute must that you visit Astoria and see where The Goonies was filmed. Sure, most of the film takes place under Oregon's surface, but the two are linked forever now. The movie features many of the wonders that make Oregon such a beautiful place to visit: lush green forests, coastline roads, and steep cliffs plunging into the ocean. Sidenote: Is it just me or is it trippy to see Josh Brolin that young?
Pennsylvania -- Rocky
One of the most iconic film characters in the history of cinema has his own statue honoring him in downtown Philadelphia. Rocky grew up on the streets of Philly and has always been synonymous with the city and state. I couldn't think of any movie that better represented Pennsylvania than that of Rocky. Period.
Rhode Island -- Dumb and Dumber
This would be an easy one if we were talking about TV shows -- I'd say Family Guy and be done with it, but this is movies we're talking about. This film was shot on location, in Providence, and featured a pair of fellas who had no money or job prospects. Also, their pet's heads were falling off.
South Carolina -- The Patriot
The Patriot was filmed almost entirely on location in South Carolina. Taking place during the American Revolution, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) is forced into the war after Col. William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) kills his son. According to Roland Emmerich's film Benjamin Martin is the person who turned the tide of the war and taught our troops to fight guerilla style as opposed to the British way of standing and dying in an open field.
South Dakota -- North by Northwest
One of the greatest thrillers of all time coupled with one of the best directors of all time equaled one of the most memorable cinematic climaxes of all time. How could we ever forget Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint hanging perilously off the face of Mount Rushmore? One of my favorite movie posters for North by Northwest has Alfred Hitchcock's profile added to the famous men on the mountain, right next to Abraham Lincoln. If there were a cinematic Mount Rushmore, he'd be one of the first to be included.
Tennessee -- Get Low
There are only a few states that come to mind when I hear of a hermit living in the backwoods, and Tennessee is one of them. Sure, it's got Nashville and Elvis -- heck, I could have picked any Elvis movie to put here just because Tennessee is famous for Graceland. Still, Get Low is a perfect example of backwoods living, and a great film at that. Another film that comes to mind when thinking of the awe-inspiring wilderness that surrounds Tennessee is the relatively new film with Hal Holbrook, That Evening Sun, which features some stunning shots of Tennessee's mountains, hills, and fields.
Texas -- There Will Be Blood
Oil! It's what Texas is built on and There Will Be Blood tells the story of how oil exploration began here in our country. Daniel Plainview is a ruthless oil tycoon who will stop at nothing to create the largest oil empire, which is how I picture most oil tycoons. Not only was a lot of the movie filmed on location in Marfa, Texas, but the movie's plot is intricately woven into the fabric of Texas' oil exploration past and its oil production future.
Utah -- The Sandlot
I'm a native Utahan. I've lived here all my life and regularly drive by Vincent's Drug Store in Midvale, Utah. I'm proud that The Sandlot was filmed almost exclusively in this state. Not that Utah has much to do with baseball, but it's an iconic movie for Utahans as you can drive around the state pointing out places where the movie was filmed. It helps that The Sandlot is one of the best kid-oriented sports movies out there, and one of those movies that pretty much everyone holds in high regard.
Vermont -- State and Main
State and Main is one of my all-time favorite comedies. When a Hollywood production moves into a small Vermont town the simple country folk are bombarded by big stars and big egos. I don't know too much about Vermont, but when I picture it I picture quaint little antiquing towns, bed and breakfasts, and comfortable diners where everyone knows everyone.
Virginia -- Remember the Titans
Even though most all of the film was shot in Georgia, Remember the Titans is set in Virginia, dealing with the racial strife that surrounded the Civil Rights movement. T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, brings on a black coach in hopes of guiding their team to victory. The team deals with bonding issues as race becomes the underlying issue of what coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is really trying to fix.
Washington -- Sleepless in Seattle
With Washington's most famous and populated city named in the title, the rom-com starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan is the one that came to mind when thinking of a movie to represent this state. I was actually stumped here; this was one that Laremy helped out with, and when he suggested it I gave myself a good face palm -- duh! Sleepless in Seattle not only shows us the sights of Seattle and Washington, it also lets us in on the corny love stories that could be taking place there right now.
West Virginia -- October Sky
October Sky is based on the true story of the Hickam family who live in Coalwood, West Virginia. While most of the movie was actually shot in Tennessee, this is one of those stories that define an area and its people. Homer Hickam doesn't want to work in the mines with his father; he wants to build rockets after seeing Sputnik take off. Against all odds a miner's son becomes a rocket scientist. Oh, and just like every true story of this nature, the rift between father and son slowly closes as the father accepts his son's true wishes. Tender.
Wisconsin -- Mr. 3000
Stan Ross, played by Bernie Mac, played for the Milwaukee Brewers and then retired after he got his 3,000th hit. In true situational comedy fashion, Ross finds out that he's actually three hits short of 3,000 and has to put the uniform back on if he's going to get to 3,000. Focusing on the Brewer organization, the film also contains some great shots of Miller Park that any Brewer's fan would love.
Wyoming -- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Richard Dreyfuss constructed a mountain out of mashed potatoes. That mountain is located in Wyoming, and parts of the movie containing that mountain were filmed there. Dreyfuss sculpting his mashed potato mountain is one of those scenes that just sticks with you after you've seen it.
The collective states of our union hold some wondrous wilderness and cities that we discover every time we watch a new movie. Movies have been set and filmed all over this nation, and working through this list gave me more appreciation for the country we live in and how the films we watch portray it.
View the original article on film.comI have one that you could consider adding to #18 belt chirp. On my '96 (4.0), I had a chirping belt when cold for a few days so I ordered a new belt and two new idler pulleys from Rock Auto. On replacement day after changing the belt and both pulleys, it still had a chirp when revving the engine. While watching the belt while revving the engine, that's when I noticed the pulley portion of the harmonic balancer moving in and out. Inspection of it showed that it was beginning to come apart - the isolating rubber was bulging out and I could pick it off. Fortunately the local parts store had a new Dorman balancer for $45 and with a short harmonic balance puller, it could be pulled without removing the radiator. I figure the balancer was so cheap compared to some others because it has no reluctor wheel on it since our crankshaft position sensor is located in the bellhousing.
96 4x4 Laredo, 97 4x4 Limited, 97 4x2 Limited4 More Things NBC Must Do To Save 'Meet The Press'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press
In keeping with its recent tradition of drawn-out, publicly humiliating anchor switches, NBC has finally admitted it is replacing Meet the Press host David Gregory with the network's political director, Chuck Todd, on Sept. 7.
The switch had been rumored for months, as it became increasingly obvious that the Gregory-led Meet the Press was sinking in the ratings and failing to set the news agenda in ways it did when the late Tim Russert was at the helm. Gregory took over the show in 2008 after Russert's sudden death.
This change may seem like an esoteric matter, but Meet the Press is a broadcast institution. It is the longest continuously running TV series in American broadcast history, debuting in 1947, just two years after the end of World War II.
And it's a demanding gig. I found out late last year how difficult such hosting jobs are, when I stepped in to guest-host CNN's Sunday morning media analysis show Reliable Sources on three occasions in the fall. I also learned a little bit about how these shows are put together, and the incredible impact even a guest host can have on what you see.
On Meet the Press, Gregory has taken criticism for everything from displaying a high-capacity ammunition magazine during a discussion on gun control to questioning that seemed to accuse journalist Glenn Greenwald of breaking the law in his reporting on revelations by Edward Snowden.
But my experience tells me replacing Gregory won't solve Meet the Press's problems alone. The show needs more change to stay relevant in today's news mix.
Stop with the old boys (and girls) network. The same people keep appearing on Sunday talk shows offering the same opinions serving the same political agendas. I know the thinking; regular viewers have panel guests they like more than others, so you want to keep bringing the popular ones back.
The result: Liberal media watchdog Media Matters found that more than 75 percent of guests on major Sunday politics shows in 2013 were male and 84 percent were white. But freshening the panel with new faces will bring new ideas, which makes the show more interesting, especially to casual viewers.
I know such change is possible; in my last Reliable Sources appearance in November, half the guests were female and 30 percent were non-white.
NBC missed a chance for diversity in hiring another white male as host (the show's first moderator, Martha Rountree, is also its only permanent female host, hired when the program was a radio show in 1945). Which makes it even more important to open up the show's Rolodex and use the guests to add variety.
It's time to present a wider range of voices speaking on the week's events. And with a week to develop shows, there's time to ensure those voices are substantive and revealing, too.
Get viral. Right now. One lesson Meet the Press could learn from network sibling The Tonight Show is the power of viral media. Creating moments that resonate online can turn the show's segments into social media calling cards, reaching out to an audience that rarely watches Sunday politics shows.
It's also a chance to get the audience more involved in the discussions. Today's media consumers expect a two-way discussion that incorporates their input without looking gimmicky or forced.
But this will only work if the show...
Makes news by challenging the Washington establishment more. Critics may not always agree, but Russert developed a reputation for cutting through talking points by showing what guests said in the past and how it might not line up with what they are saying in the present. Meet the Press could use more of that spirit; too many news shows play it safe with guests, especially sought-after names that can bring publicity. Too often, Gregory was criticized for moving in the opposite direction and asking questions steeped in establishment concerns.
Find a new vision for the Sunday politics talk show. Before cable news channels centered so intently on politics, the Sunday shows were a good place to see newsmakers talk about the political issues of the week.
But by the time Sunday rolls around nowadays, politicos have already made the rounds on CNN, Fox, MSNBC and possibly even The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. At Reliable Sources, it was a constant struggle to stay ahead of the news cycle, searching for new guests or different ideas that could add greater dimension to a story reported days ago.
So what's the point of a Meet the Press in the modern media age? If Gregory had one major failing, it was his inability to solve this problem definitively.
If Todd hopes to perform better as host, he'll need to have a better answer ready. Soon.A father and son duo from northern NSW who invented a backyard beehive system to deliver honey on-tap have raised US$1million in less than three hours via a crowd-sourcing website to fund their first production run.
Cedar Anderson and his father, Stuart, hoped to raise $US70,000 ($89,265) in 42 days, but within 10 minutes of their campaign going live on indiegogo.com this morning they had more than doubled the target. Within 30 minutes the pair had raised almost $US500,000 and have since topped $US1 million.
An option for 200 investors to get in early and purchase the first production run of the full kit of the Flow beehive system - priced at $US350 - sold out almost immediately. They have since had to add more than 1000 extra kits to the campaign to accomodate demand.
The Andersons' ingenious invention aims to take the sting - so to speak - out of beekeeping by allowing beekeepers to collect honey without disturbing the bees inside the hive.
The pair invented a system of frames that fit inside standard bee boxes and which, unlike traditional frames, slope and allow the beekeeper to turn a handle and release honey once the honeycomb cells are full. The system means traditional and more dangerous methods of relinquishing bees of their honey, such as by smoking the bees or dismantling hives, are not required.
Speaking from Canberra, an audibly incredulous Stuart Anderson said he was blown away by this morning's response. It took the pair 10 years to perfect their design.
The Flow Hive taps into the hive and drains honey, without having to stress out the bees. Photo: Elizabeth Milne
"It's gone nuts, I can't keep up," said Anderson.
"Clearly we underestimated the interest," he added.
Anderson said the bulk of online pledges had come from North America, although there had also been "good support from Australia".
The Flow Hive campaign went live about 11.15am (AEST) on February 23rd. Photo: indiegogo.com
Asked what the unbelievable response and backing meant for him and Cedar, Anderson laughed and said he and his son would be "working extremely hard for the next few months... it means we will be in a much stronger position to negotiate with manufacturers".
Anderson, who left his job in the community sector three years ago to work with his son on the Flow frames said he would now probably have to describe himself as "an inventor and a business person".
When goodfood.com.au last checked, the Indiegogo.com campaign had received pledges worth more than $US 2million.On the heels of announcing new versions 5.2 and 5.1.5 of the free, LibreOffice suite of productivity applications, The Document Foundation has provided statistics indicating that LibreOffice is gaining traction with Linux users, developers, administrators, and enterprises. In fact, the new version 5.1.5 of the suite is specifically tuned for enterprise users.
The Document Foundation’s Annual Report notes that the LibreOffice project now has more than 1,000 contributors with 300 making commits in 2015. Moreover, new releases of the suite include enhanced focus on compatibility and standards. The suite’s import/export filters have improved exponentially, and — in a move that will appeal to many admins and cloud-minded users — the suite has been steadily adding direct integration with platforms and services including Google Drive, SharePoint, and Alfresco. You can now open files directly from — and save files to — these services via menu choices under the File menu in LibreOffice applications.
Integration with these platforms and services, of course, means that LibreOffice is now much more competitive with Google Docs. Additionally, as security concerns remain on everyone’s radar, The Document Foundation is working closely with the Transglobal Secure Collaboration Program (TSCP), a public-private partnership formed to secure electronic communication for organizations including defense contractors and government entities. The TSCP has specifications and frameworks that preserve more secure shared documents online. LibreOffice 5.2 complies with these document classification specifications.
In LibreOffice 5.2, documents can be classified into categories (e.g., "Confidential") according to TSCP standards. Additionally, multiple digital signatures and descriptions are now supported, along with import and export of signatures from OOXML files.
The Ubuntu Connection
LibreOffice is, of course, familiar to many Linux users, especially Ubuntu users. After all, the suite has been the default office suite of the Ubuntu OS for years, and it runs fluidly on Ubuntu tablets as well. And, Ubuntu is among the most popular platforms on which to build OpenStack deployments. On the Ubuntu front, The Document Foundation has also recently announced that Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent, has joined its Advisory Board.
The Document Foundation recently clarified that LibreOffice is now on a six-month cycle for major releases, to keep it in step with other open source projects, including OpenStack and Ubuntu. Canonical’s participation on The Documents Foundation’s Advisory Board will help inform and enforce this release schedule.
Of course, LibreOffice, like Google Docs, takes criticism on some fronts for not being fully compatible with Microsoft Office formats and standards. In fact, you can find lively debates on this topic online. The new releases, though, are much more compatible with them. For example, changes to the formula engine within LibreOffice’s Calc spreadsheet app remove restrictions on table structure references in cells. The upshot of this is that the spreadsheet application has better interoperability with other applications, especially Microsoft Excel.
In what could be a very critical next step in encouraging more adoption of LibreOffice, The Document Foundation is developing mobile versions of the LibreOffice applications for Android and Apple iOS devices. These will extend well beyond the limited, document “viewer” applications that you can get now. The full-featured mobile versions will likely integrate directly with popular cloud services, giving users full access to documents and content on the go.
In significant ways, LibreOffice is emerging as a viable competitor to both Microsoft’s productivity application suite and Google Docs. It’s also gaining traction in some notable global organizations. For example, a huge branch of the Italian government has switched from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, and the UK government has made similar moves.Iran-backed majority-Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have been gaining influence as they have helped the Iraqi army kick the Islamic State (IS) out of Anbar province. Iraq's National Security Council recently blessed their participation in the upcoming battle to retake the IS stronghold of Mosul, while Baghdad announced at the end of July plans to incorporate the militias as an "independent" military formation "affiliated" with the Iraqi armed forces.
The militias have also begun to make diplomatic overtures in a bid to attain international legitimacy. Several militia leaders met with European, Canadian and Australian diplomats in Beirut early last month, Al-Monitor reported at the time, hoping to create a back channel with Washington.
All those efforts now risk running into a congressional buzz saw. Current and pending defense authorization legislation prohibits US military assistance for Iraq if it risks falling into the hands of Iran-backed groups, and lawmakers are keeping a close eye on Baghdad's next move.
"This is an issue," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We haven't seen the complicity of the Iraqi government to encourage this, but we want to see a stronger effort to discourage it [...]. As a general principle, the Shia militias as currently constituted — and there are some exceptions to this — are not interested in the Iraqi security blueprint and are counterproductive to the security of the areas that we've taken back or want to take back from [IS]."
(Click here to view a pdf version of this chart)
The resurgence of the militias has concerned US policymakers since June 2014, when Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a call to arms to his followers as IS rampaged through the country. Since then, Iraq has seen a proliferation of loosely affiliated PMU, most of them directed by or otherwise supported by Tehran, including some reconstituted militias that battled US forces in the early years of the invasion.
One of the main militias, the Hezbollah Brigades (Kataib Hizballah), was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department in 2009. Its leader, Jamal al-Ibrahimi — aka Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis — was designated as a threat to Iraqi peace and stability by the Treasury Department that same year and is now the deputy chairman of all PMU operations.
In December 2014, Congress for the first time authorized through the end of 2016 a $1.6 billion “train and equip” fund requested by the Barack Obama administration for “military and other security services" for Iraq. Lawmakers, however, added the caveat that aid recipients be vetted for links to “groups associated with the government of Iran.” The Department of Defense could waive aid restrictions but had to inform Congress.
Last year, Congress reauthorized the program but added a prohibition on aid to the government of Iraq unless Baghdad “has taken such actions as may be reasonably necessary to safeguard” such assistance falling into the hands of organizations “under the command and control of, or associated with” Tehran. That law also requires that the Pentagon provide quarterly reports on the “forces or elements of forces” prohibited from receiving US aid.
Now lawmakers are debating whether to go one step further.
The Senate version of this year’s annual Defense bill merely extends last year’s authorization through the end of 2019. The House, however, passed a bill requiring that the Pentagon provide $50 million to Kurdish peshmerga and Sunni tribal forces unless Baghdad ends its “support for Shia militias under the command and control of, or associated with” Tehran and acts to stop “abuses of elements of the Iraqi population by such militias.”
The House bill gives voice to rising concerns among lawmakers that the Shiite militias not only strengthen Iran's hand in Iraq but make it more difficult to defeat IS because they often victimize Sunnis. Speaking at the nonprofit Stimson Center in April, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said he had recently met with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad and urged him to rein in the PMU.
"The Sunni tribal leaders that we met with want to take their own villages back," said Royce. "Their people want to go back to their villages. They don't want to hand it over to some Shiite militia headed up by a Quds Force leader like [Qasem] Soleimani.”
Further complicating matters, a number of the militias are represented in parliament. A PMU leader at last month's Beirut meeting told Al-Monitor that the PMU have launched preparations to run in next year's parliamentary elections. The source made it clear that their model is Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which holds considerable political and economic sway.
"We will be a military force that is part of the Iraqi state, but not part of the Iraqi army," the PMU leader said. "This is due to many reasons that we explained to them, namely the corruption spread within the Iraqi government institutions."
The administration has also sent mixed messages as it has found itself fighting alongside the militias.
In its April 2015 update to its Travel Warning for Iraq, the State Department for the first time warned that “several anti-US sectarian militia groups, such as the Shia KH [Hezbollah Brigades] and Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) [League of the Right |
and sticking with it for 30 years)—and very little about Trump’s positions on issues like trade. Gingrich has also regularly found fault with Trump, often to the same media outlets he says he views as biased. (He most recently called Trump’s remarks about a judge “inexcusable.”) So Gingrich manages to be both sycophantic and unreliable—a classic Washington combo. When last consulted by Gallup, in 2012, Americans gave Gingrich impressive unfavorable ratings of 61 percent, which, to be fair, still left 26 percent favorable, numbers that those who know him believe could be brought down with even a token effort. Perhaps joining forces with Trump would create a synergy of unfavorability, bringing the positive ratings down to three, one, or zero percent. So Newt as vice president would be an interesting experiment, provided Trump’s goal was shattering defeat.
Governor, New Jersey
Trump and Chris Christie like each other, or think they do, or pretend to. The chemistry between the men is good, now that Christie has become a trusty valet. There are more plusses: Christie’s straight-talk vibe amplifies the strengths of Trump, who still profits from a perceived bluntness. As an attacker, Christie has always been effective, whether as a prosecutor or as a melter of Marco Rubio. Finally, he is a talented pol, a guy who enjoys campaigning and working rooms. According to news reports Thursday, Christie is actively being vetted for the gig, which is the least Trump could do as a reward for his loyalty.
But Bridgegate will trail Christie, and Trump can’t afford that liability. Christie isn’t much in sync with Trump on policy, either, except the policy of being loyal to Trump, so his counsel on many subjects would be of limited use. Finally, there’s the simple and cruel matter of visuals. Both men are above an ideal weight. Like it or not, a president’s appearance is tied to a country’s conception of itself. Americans are prepared to view their country as slightly flabby, but still rich and vigorous, à la Trump. They’re not prepared to view their country as anything resembling Chris Christie. Sorry. I don’t write the rules.
Bob Corker
Senator, Tennessee
Bob Corker is on this list because he’s on other lists. Does he agree with Trump on trade? Nope. Does he agree with Trump on immigration? Nope. Does he agree with Trump on NATO? Nope. But Corker has been non-hostile to Trump, which is more than many other Republican senators can claim. He is liked by Democrats, which means, I suppose, that he could help Trump foster bipartisanship, or something.
But who really knows? Corker talk seems to come mainly from wishful thinking in Washington. Here’s a tip for reading Politico: when a headline starts with the word “Insiders” plus a colon shortly thereafter, consider whether you have time to waste. To be fair, there’s a contrary-indication value—e.g. “Insiders: Trump has peaked,” or “Insiders warn Jeb: Don't engage with Trump.” But when you read “GOP insiders: Bob Corker a good VP pick for Trump,” read that as “GOP insiders: Bob Corker a good VP pick for GOP insiders.”
Mary Fallin
Governor, Oklahoma
Sure, if you think selecting one of the country’s least popular governors is a brilliantly counter-intuitive move, then Mary Fallin is your person. Otherwise, though, I barely pretend to know why people think this pick’s a good idea.
Sure, Fallin has endorsed Trump and said, “I would be very honored if I were to receive a call saying, I need you to help make America great again.” So if you want to make Governor Fallin feel good, give her office a call and say you need her to help make America great again. We can do that for her. But as a vice president? People have suggested she’d be a “counter” to Hillary Clinton. Others have suggested she’d bring a folksy charm to the ticket, making her perhaps a counterbalance to Trump, himself. Some have suggested it’d be good for gaining female support. Of course, they must be remembering how the choice of folksy female governor Sarah Palin sent John McCain’s vote share through the roof, cannon-balling him right into the Oval Office. Perhaps they also think Fallin will help Trump win over that precious swing state of Oklahoma. Back in the real world, though, the plan seems imperfect. Oh, and Sarah Palin was actually popular in her home state.
Governor, Ohio
This one’s not as absurd as it looks. Yes, John Kasich disagrees with Trump on just about everything. That’s a minus. But he never clashed much with Trump during the campaign season, and Trump seems to respect him. Kasich comforts members of the establishment wing, and he brings decades of political experience as a member of the House and as governor of a state, something that’s potentially useful to Trump when making overtures to Capitol Hill. Most important, Kasich could help Trump win Ohio, and Trump really needs to win Ohio.
As hard as a vice-presidential nomination normally is to refuse, however, Kasich might be one to do it. It was one thing when Trump looked like a possible winner. It’s another when Trump’s numbers are looking grim. Kasich might have signed on for a sure win. He won’t sign on for a suicide mission. He has too much scolding to live for.
Jeff Sessions
Senator, Alabama
There are reasons for Trump not to pick Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. He needs Sessions in the Senate. Sessions draws accusations of racism on his own. Alabama is a solidly Republican state regardless of whom Trump selects.
But no politician in Washington has more closely aligned with Trump’s worldview than Sessions, a pioneering G.O.P. populist and a hawk on immigration. It is Sessions who helped Trump with his immigration plan and Sessions who gave Trump the policy adviser Stephen Miller, who is fast becoming a star in his own right. Only from Sessions will Trump reliably take advice.
Picking Sessions would reassure two important camps of Republicans: those who fear that Trump doesn’t mean what he says, and those who fear that he does. For those who fear that Trump’s policy ideas on trade or immigration are insincere, a choice of Sessions would signal that Trump is indeed committed to them. For those who fear that Trump’s proposals to pass new libel laws or come up with new forms of torture are sincere, a choice of Sessions signals that Trump will have a responsible adult by his side to rein him in. The risk to Sessions is also minimal: an association with Trump will not put him at risk among Alabaman voters.
Now, to be sure, I know this list isn’t complete. Other names have been floated: Scott Brown (not enough of a winner), Tom Cotton (if it pleases you to imagine), Kelly Ayotte (voted for the immigration bill of 2013), John Thune (not in Thune’s interest), Joni Ernst (not in anyone’s interest), Mike Huckabee (a size problem), Ben Carson (a craziness problem), and Rubio (as if), among others. But none of them is likely. So Sessions it must be. And yet it probably won’t be, for reasons we’ll learn later.Let the world see you… in the unstoppable colour of VIVA GLAM Sia! This iconic campaign’s newest spokeswoman has broken pop’s artistic boundaries with her avant-garde style and exhilarating vocals – accompanied by soulful songwriting that inspires countless fans to raise their own voices. Sia unveils a warm, vivid red lipstick that’s as loud as you dare to be.
At M∙A∙C, every day is World AIDS Day, but December 1st is especially important to us. In honor of WAD, we invite you to join us in raising awareness around this important cause by rocking #VIVAGLAM Lipstick.
Every cent of the selling price of #VIVAGLAM products goes to ending HIV/AIDS. To-date, more than $470 million has been raised for people affected by HIV/AIDS.
If you’d like to show your support on social, see the attached files and learn how #VIVAGLAM helps people affected by HIV/AIDS or share a photo of yourself wearing VIVA GLAM Lipstick using the #MACCares frame, and tag @MACcosmetics, #MACCares, #VIVAGLAM, & #WorldAIDSDay to inspire your followers to join the movement.It will be held on the first Wednesday of each month from 11 a.m-1 p.m. in the Main Campus Student Services Center, Room 108. The first Connect U will be on Wednesday, March 2.
“Companies that have current positions open will be on hand to interview and talk to students and CNM graduates,” said Rhonda Ross, CNM Career Center Liaison. ”The students and alums will also have the opportunity to visit informally with recruiters about job opportunities, career paths and company cultures at their organizations, get feedback on their resumes and practice interviewing.”
The companies that will be on hand March 2 include:
UPS will be recruiting for part-time loaders, unloaders and part-time supervisors.
Roses Southwest Papers, Inc. will be seeking people majoring in electronics, electrical trades, machine tool technician, HVAC and industrial plant maintenance. The company will also train machine operators.
Holman's USA will be recruiting business and accounting majors for service advisor and order fulfillment specialist positions.
Ambercare will be recruiting registered nurses and caregivers for hospice care.
Albuquerque Convention Center will be recruiting all majors for 40-plus openings for banquet servers, concession workers, bartenders, cooks and dishwashers.
National Clinical Technology will be recruiting an ultrasound sonographer.
Bernalillo County will be recruiting all majors for life guards, head life guards, cashiers and pool managers
In addition, Job Connection Services will sponsor its annual Job Fair on March 9 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Workforce Training Center. More than 50 companies will be on hand recruiting for positions.
Job Connection Services is available to help students prepare for these events and all aspects of the job search process. It offers one-on-one assistance and provides a series of workshops on topics like resume-writing and interview skills. Job Connection Services provides free lifetime services to graduates.Vulnerable young boys were taken from a children’s care home in Belfast in the 1970s, trafficked to London and abused by powerful figures who were part of a Westminster pedophile ring, a victim has claimed.
Richard Kerr, a victim of child sex abuse at the Kincora care home for boys, told Channel 4 News he also suffered abuse at London’s Elm Guest House and Dolphin Square.
The 53-year-old’s harrowing account of what he endured as a boy links the three alleged pedophile ring locations for the first time.
READ MORE: Bishop names late Tory MP Enoch Powell in child sex abuse, satanic worship scandal
Dolphin Square is a luxury London-based apartment complex popular with British civil servants and MPs. Kincora boy's home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was the site of systemic child abuse. Elm Guest House was once a gay brothel where youngsters are also believed to have suffered abuse.
Kerr said he was one of three teenage boys who were hand-picked from Kincora House in the 1970s, and trafficked to London.
Once the youngsters arrived in the capital, they were allegedly abused by politicians and other elite establishment figures at Elm Guest House and Dolphin Square. Kerr told Channel 4 News the two young boys who were trafficked alongside him have taken their own lives.
The 53-year-old alleges he suffered the most violent abuse at Elm Guest House in Barnes, southwest London.
Young boys, many of whom were being cared for by the state, are suspected to have been abused there by the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith, cabinet ministers, pop stars, spies, clergymen, judges, members of the royal household and others.
Reflecting on one ordeal at Elm Guest House, Kerr said he was tied up with his hands behind his back.
“They took photographs. Other men were there. Other men came into the room. It wasn’t just this one man,” he said.
READ MORE: Police corruption: Scotland Yard ‘cover-up’ of historical child abuse investigated by watchdog
Kerr, who is now based in Dallas, Texas, made an emotional return to London last month to revisit the scenes of his alleged abuse for the first time in over 30 years.
He said he was also brought to the Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico, London, where police are investigating allegations of a young boy being killed by a Conservative MP.
“I remember going in with this guy. He told me to sit down and relax and explained about his [drinking] glasses,” he said.
“He had Waterford Crystal and he wanted me to have a brandy, and we had a small one. And then we had a sexual encounter.”
Scotland Yard says allegations surrounding the murder of three young boys by a pedophile ring linked to Dolphin Square are both “credible and true.”
One victim, known as Nick, previously claimed he witnessed a Tory MP strangle a 12-year-old boy in 1980, and that a Conservative minister looked on as another youngster was murdered in 1981.
Kerr’s account offers the first concrete link between three infamous alleged pedophile rings that operated across London and in Northern Ireland. His claims compound calls for allegations regarding the Kincora boy’s home to be investigated by Britain’s official inquiry into child sex abuse being chaired by Judge Lowell Goddard.
Kerr, whose interview with Channel 4 News will be broadcast on Tuesday evening at 7pm, said some of his abusers were politicians but he was fearful about publicly identifying them.
“I need to know that I can have faith in our government,” he said. “But right now, when they’re not willing to bring Kincora into Westminster, the message that sends to me is that there’s some kind of cover-up, and there has been.”
READ MORE: Pedophilia in Britain ‘woven into the fabric of society’ – Theresa May
Victims of abuse at the Kincora boy’s home were granted permission in February to challenge the government’s refusal to include historic child abuse allegations relating to the care home in Britain’s far-reaching inquiry.
Kerr, who resided at the home from the age of 14, said two police officers dressed in plain clothes visited him prior to the trial and warned him to remain silent.
In February, lawyers representing the victims told the High Court in Belfast that British security service MI5 had knowledge of the abuse but had turned a blind eye to it to protect those who were responsible from prosecution.
A separate review is being conducted into what occurred at Kincora. Home Secretary Theresa May said in March this inquiry will share information with that being headed by Justice Goddard.By: |
You may have your Samsung Galaxy S4 or your latest iPhone, but if you don’t have battery power you’re basically holding a piece of junk. Rather than calling police to come to your rescue, you are left using your smartphone as a blunt object.
Battery rundown or exhaustion is something mobile companies have been searching to solve for years. As the problem has visited nearly everyone who owns one, a new breakthrough can’t come too soon.
Charging In Seconds Rather Than Hours
And Israeli startup StoreDot Ltd., founded by Doron Myersdorf, charges an empty battery in just 30 seconds using its new product called “NanoDot”. The technology currently works only with Galaxy S4 batteries but StoreDot is in the process of creating chargers that will work with all handsets. The product was unveiled this week at the Microsoft Think Conference in Tel Aviv.
Nanocrystals are 2 nm in diameter and are made of bio organic peptide molecules or short chains of amino acids that provide unique functionality: visible florescent regions, charge trapping, piezoelectrics, and optics. These crystals store a charge, emit light and are non-toxic.
According to the company, full production and availability of the chargers will not come until 2016 as design to reduce the currently unwieldy is currently underway.
Here’s a video of StoreDot in action; not the most exciting video but delivers the goods!
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References and related content:Jeff Dion of the National Crime Victim Bar Association speaks with reporters after arguments in the case of Anthony Elonis, who was convicted in 2010 of threatening his wife via social media, at the Supreme Court building Dec. 1. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
As the chief justice of the United States name-checked Eminem and speculated about rap-
obsessed teenagers, the Supreme Court struggled Monday with how to draw a digital-age distinction between illegal threats and violent speech that is nonetheless protected by the First Amendment.
The court’s first foray into examining speech made on social media featured rap lyrics and Facebook “likes” but relied on ancient legal concepts about intent and negligence.
The justices seemed reluctant to accept the government’s position that a threat exists whenever the speech in question would make a reasonable person fearful. But there did not seem to be a consensus on what more prosecutors should be required to prove.
The attorney for Anthony Douglas Elonis, a Pennsylvania man convicted of Facebook threats directed toward his estranged wife, a kindergarten class and an FBI agent, said his client should not have been convicted without prosecutors showing that he intended for his crude and violent Facebook posts be taken seriously.
That immediately troubled Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at her customary spot on the bench five days after a heart stent procedure.
“How does one prove what’s in somebody else’s mind?” she asked. “This case, the standard was would a reasonable person think that the words would put someone in fear, and reasonable people can make that judgment. But how would the government prove whether this threat in the mind of the threatener was genuine?”
John P. Elwood, representing Elonis, said several states already require such proof, which he acknowledged made prosecution more difficult. In Elonis’s case, Elwood said, his client went out of his way to characterize his postings as “art” and fiction, and not to be taken seriously.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was not moved.
“This sounds like a road map for threatening a spouse and getting away with it,” Alito said. “So you put it in rhyme and you put some stuff about the Internet on it and you say, ‘I’m an aspiring rap artist.’ And so then you are free from prosecution.”
The court was considering a federal law that makes it a crime to communicate “any threat to injure the person of another.”
Prosecutors said there was no doubt Elonis was doing that on his Facebook feed during a two-month period in 2010. His wife had left with their two children, and Elonis, then 27 and working at an Allentown amusement park, grew increasingly despondent and angry.
He was fired and responded with a post about being a nuclear bomb about to explode. He pondered making a name for himself by shooting up an elementary school.
That brought a visit from an FBI agent, and the prolific Elonis later posted a fantasy about slitting her throat and turning her “ghost.”
About his estranged wife, Tara, he posted: “There’s one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I’m not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts.”
Elonis was convicted after a judge told jurors that the government needed to prove only that Elonis made the statements and that a reasonable person would foresee that the words would be interpreted as “a serious expression of an intention to inflict bodily injury or take the life of an individual.”
Elonis served three years of a 44-month sentence before being released from prison.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit upheld the conviction, saying Elonis’s subjective intent with his postings did not matter.
The current Supreme Court has been protective of First Amendment rights in certain contexts, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out.
“We’ve been loath to create more exceptions to the First Amendment,” she said.
But what the court in an early case called “true threats” have already been recognized as speech without First Amendment protection, and Justice Antonin Scalia indicated that not much had been lost.
He said the standard is that a threat “has to reasonably put somebody in fear. That’s all the government’s insisting on.”
Elwood said the expanded audience that can see a Facebook posting makes it more difficult to ascertain a speaker’s intent, and he worried about prosecutorial abuse.
“Many of the people who are being prosecuted now are teenagers who are essentially shooting off their mouths or making sort of ill-timed, sarcastic comments, which wind up getting them thrown in jail,” he said.
But Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben said there is little evidence of that.
Jurors are able to put remarks into context, he said. They convict when they determine “that these statements are to be taken seriously, that they are not in jest, they are not exaggeration, they are not hyperbole, they are not artistic expression.”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was skeptical of where the government would draw the line.
He asked about this statement made during a domestic dispute: “Da-da make a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake” and “There goes Mama splashing in the water, no more fighting with dad.”
Dreeben, recognizing them as song lyrics, said they could not be prosecuted.
“Because Eminem said it instead of somebody else?” Roberts asked.
“Because Eminem said it at a concert where people are going to be entertained,” Dreeben replied.“This is a critical part of the context.
But several justices indicated that the government was asking for too much leeway.
Justice Elena Kagan described the government’s test as “you should have known you were going to cause fear, essentially,” she said.
“And that’s not the kind of standard that we typically use in the First Amendment.”
The case is Elonis v. U.S.MV-22B Osprey are seen at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan. Japan is seeking closer military cooperation with the United States due to tensions in the region. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
TOKYO, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The United States and Japan have agreed to enhance defense cooperation in the face of increased security threats from North Korea.
Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada met with the head of the U.S. Pacific Command Adm. Harry Harris on Wednesday to discuss coordination in the wake of escalating North Korea provocations, Japanese television network NHK reported.
Inada said that while bilateral trust and the U.S.-Japan alliance have grown stronger, Japan faces security issues that include North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile threats and territorial disputes in the East China Sea.
It is for this reason Japan is seeking closer ties with the U.S. Pacific Command, the defense minister said.
Harris reportedly said that he "agrees entirely" with Inada's statement, adding the foundation for peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific begins with the U.S.-Japan relationship, according to NHK.
Inada also said Tokyo is seeking parliamentary approval for an amendment to a U.S.-Japan mutual logistics support agreement that would allow Japan's self-defense forces to provide ammunition and military refueling for U.S. forces around the world.
The meeting between top officials was held as the United States continues to look into tougher measures to punish North Korea after its fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9.
RELATED North Korea anniversaries could bring more provocations
On Thursday, South Korea's foreign ministry stated U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power is to visit Seoul from Saturday to Tuesday to discuss "urgent problems," including the North Korea nuclear issue and Pyongyang's human rights abuses.
In her first official visit to South Korea, Power is expected to meet with officials at Seoul's foreign and unification ministries, as well as with senior officials at the presidential Blue House, according to Yonhap.While diamonds may be a girl's best friend, they're also well-loved by scientists working to enhance the performance of electronic devices.
Two new studies performed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have revealed a new pathway for materials scientists to use previously unexplored properties of nanocrystalline-diamond thin films. While the properties of diamond thin films are relatively well-understood, the new discovery could dramatically improve the performance of certain types of integrated circuits by reducing their "thermal budget."
For decades, engineers have sought to build more efficient electronic devices by reducing the size of their components. In the process of doing so, however, researchers have reached a "thermal bottleneck," said Argonne nanoscientist Anirudha Sumant.
In a thermal bottleneck, the excess heat generated in the device causes undesirable effects that affect its performance. "Unless we come-up with innovative ways to suck the heat off of our electronics, we are pretty much stuck with this bottleneck," Sumant explained.
The unusually attractive thermal properties of diamond thin films have led scientists to suggest using this material as a heat sink that could be integrated with a number of different semiconducting materials. However, the deposition temperatures for the diamond films typically exceed 800 degrees Celsius -- roughly 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, which limits the feasibility of this approach.
"The name of the game is to produce diamond films at the lowest possible temperature. If I can grow the films at 400 degrees, it makes it possible for me to integrate this material with a whole range of other semiconductor materials," Sumant said.
By using a new technique that altered the deposition process of the diamond films, Sumant and his colleagues at Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials were able to both reduce the temperature to close to 400 degrees Celsius and to tune the thermal properties of the diamond films by controlling their grain size. This permitted the eventual combination of the diamond with two other important materials: graphene and gallium nitride.
According to Sumant, diamond has much better heat conduction properties than silicon or silicon oxide, which were traditionally used for fabrication of graphene devices. As a result of better heat removal, graphene devices fabricated on diamond can sustain much higher current densities.
In the other study, Sumant used the same technology to combine diamond thin films with gallium nitride, which is used extensively in high-power light emitting devices (LED). After depositing a 300 nm-thick diamond film on a gallium nitride substrate, Sumant and his colleagues noticed a considerable improvement in the thermal performance. Because a difference within an integrated circuit of just a few degrees can cause a noticeable change in performance, he called this result "remarkable."
"The common link between these experiments is that we're finding new ways of dissipating heat more effectively while using less energy, which is the key," Sumant said. "These processes are crucial for industry as they look for ways to overcome conventional limits on semiconducting circuits and pursue the next generation of electronics."
The results of the two studies were reported in Nano Letters and Advanced Functional Materials. Both of these studies were carried out in collaboration with Prof. Alexander Balandin at the University of California-Riverside and his graduate students Jie Yu, Guanxiong Liu and Dr. Vivek Goyal, a recent Ph.D. graduate.
Funding for the research conducted at the Center for Nanoscale Materials was provided by the Basic Energy Sciences program of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — Hundreds of Muslim villagers in Egypt's south have attacked Christian-owned stores in search of a girl whose family claims was abducted.
The villagers assaulted the stores Tuesday and surrounded two churches in the city of al-Wasta in Bani Suef province in Egypt's south. Security forces guarded the churches. No casualties were reported.
The college-aged girl disappeared around one month ago. The crowd accused local Christian of kidnapping her.
Bani Suef's prosecutor, Hamdi Farouk, said there was no reason to believe Christians were involved in her disappearance.
Security chief Ibrahim Hudeib said the girl left her house with her gold and passport in hand and may have fled with a local Muslim boy.
Past clashes have been sparked by rumors of conversion, Muslim-Christian love affairs and the construction of churches.PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 06: Rocco Grimaldi #23 of the Florida Panthers skates against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center on November 6, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Flyers defeated the Panthers 4-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 06: Rocco Grimaldi #23 of the Florida Panthers skates against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center on November 6, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Flyers defeated the Panthers 4-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
GREG BEACHAM, AP Hockey Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rocco Grimaldi played two hockey games in two leagues about 1,350 miles and 11 hours apart on Tuesday.
The Florida Panthers’ rookie forward was only disappointed he couldn’t get two wins out of his personal doubleheader.
Grimaldi suited up for the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage on Tuesday morning, recording three shots on goal. He and his mother then hopped on a plane to Los Angeles, where he suited up for the Panthers as an emergency replacement for Aleksander Barkov.
“I felt pretty good out there,” Grimaldi said after logging 10:36 in the Panthers’ 5-2 loss to the Kings. “I grew up playing two, three, four games a day. I know this is a little bit different, but you’ve just got to be mentally prepared. I knew if I prepared mentally that my body would follow along.”
The 21-year-old forward was able to do double duty because the Rampage had a game that started at 10:30 a.m. for schoolchildren. Grimaldi was pulled out in San Antonio before the third period of the Rampage’s 4-3 shootout win when the Panthers realized Barkov was out with an illness.
“We were up 3-2 when I left, and I was just getting ready to go back on for the third,” Grimaldi said. “We had a penalty that had carried over from the second, and was getting ready to go kill it. Then I got pulled aside and (they) said I wouldn’t finish the game. I was a little upset, but I’m glad the boys were able to finish the win in a shootout.”
“I wish we would have gotten wins in both,” he added. “That would have been really cool.”
Grimaldi is a native of Rossmoor, California, just south of Los Angeles, who grew up playing roller hockey before he moved to Michigan for his teenage years. A second-round pick by the Panthers in 2011, he starred for the University of North Dakota and played for the U.S. team at last year’s world junior championships before turning pro this year.
He played four games for the Panthers earlier this season before returning to the minors.
“I flew straight into L.A., so that really helped,” Grimaldi said. “My mom and dad and a lot of friends were here (at Staples Center) tonight. My mom was actually there in San Antonio this morning watching the game, and then she flew back here, too. So she did a doubleheader, too.”
Grimaldi’s feat recalled similar doubleheaders in sports history.
Joel Youngblood got a hit for two different teams on Aug. 4, 1982, when he was traded by the Mets to the Expos during New York’s game at Wrigley Field. He arrived at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium after Montreal’s night game had begun, and singled against Steve Carlton in the seventh inning.
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League ministers decided on Wednesday to let member nations arm Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, and invited an opposition coalition to take the League seat formerly occupied by Damascus.
Permanent representatives of the Arab League attend a meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo March 6, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Previously the League had stressed that the Syrian political opposition and rebels should be supported by humanitarian and diplomatic means during the civil war, which has cost an estimated 70,000 lives.
However, a final statement issued at the end of a ministerial meeting in Cairo said they had “stressed the right of each state according to its wishes to offer all types of self defence, including military, to support the resilience of the Syrian people and the Free (Syrian) Army.”
Qatar has led a push against Damascus at the League but Wednesday’s decision was not unanimous. Lebanon, Iraq and Algeria refused to endorse the final statement’s sections on Syria.
Current and former Western officials say Qatari officials and rich Arabs from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have already been cutting ad hoc arms deals on the Turkish-Syrian border with a disparate collection of opposition groups.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told a news conference that the ministers had invited the opposition Syrian National Coalition - an umbrella body of anti-Assad political and rebel groups - to occupy the Syrian seat at the League.
This was held by Damascus until it was suspended from the organisation two years ago.
The statement called on the coalition to choose a representative to attend a League meeting that will be held in the Qatari capital of Doha on March 26-27. Excluding Syria, the League has 21 members.
Walid al-Bunni, spokesman for the opposition coalition, welcomed the decision as “better late than never” and said the organisation now wanted U.N. representation.
“We see this as a step towards asking for a seat in the United Nations and such important steps will eventually lead to the removal of Bashar al-Assad and put an end to his cruel regime,” he said.
Damascus was suspended from the Cairo-based League in November 2011, eight months into what began as a peaceful popular uprising against Assad but has turned into a civil war.
Moaz Alkhatib, a 52-year-old former preacher at the ancient Ommayad mosque in Damascus, was chosen in November to head the opposition coalition. He won modest pledges of support for the rebels from Western and Arab ministers in Rome late last month.
COMMUNICATING WITH DAMASCUS
Earlier, Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour pushed in the opposite direction at Wednesday’s meeting, calling for the suspension of Damascus to be lifted to help find a political solution to the conflict. “Communication with Syria...is essential for a political solution,” Mansour told the meeting.
He told Reuters later that Syria’s seat should not go to the opposition. “Syria is a state and a government and the idea that a state could be replaced by a group of opponents is very dangerous,” he said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government is dominated by a coalition including the militant group Hezbollah and its mainly Shi’ite and Christian allies who support Assad.
Mikati, who has sought to follow a policy of “dissociation” from the conflict in Lebanon’s dominant neighbour, has said his country would respect any League decisions about Syria.
However, Mansour criticised the Cairo-based organisation’s steps against Damascus.
“We have held meetings over two years and taken decision after decision thinking that with them we will be providing Syria with security and stability by removing the regime and replacing it with another - while Syria sank into blood and destruction,” he said.
Qatar blamed Assad for nearly two years of bloodshed in Syria. “The person who brought a sea of blood is Bashar because he did not commit to the Arab decisions and did not cooperate with us,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani told the meeting.
One million refugees have fled Syria, piling pressure on its neighbours, including Lebanon, which are struggling to support them, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday.MSNBC newscaster Brian Williams is known for making up stories — but Tuesday night, Williams made a confession during a panel discussion that has even liberal supporters shocked.
Williams admitted it’s the job of the liberal media to “scare people to death” regarding President Donald Trump’s standoff to North Korea.
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Williams admits that it’s not his job to report facts and inform the public. No, his job is to scare the American people regarding Trump’s actions.
Appearing as a panelist on The 11th Hour, Williams told MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance —
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“Malcolm, our job tonight is to actually scare people to death on this subject so the talk isn’t as free as it is about a preemptive or a surgical military strike. You know that part of the world. The population centers, Andrea [Mitchell] and the General [Barry McCaffrey] have talked about, South Korea, the Japanese, and so on and so on.”
Mitchell responded by shaking her head in apparent disbelief.
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But Williams seems intent on doing his job well. After all, during the segment’s opening Williams’ self-confessed fear mongering was in full swing.
“With U.S. intel saying the North can now outfit a missile with nukes, the President seems to use the same overheated language as the North as he deals with a genuine overseas threat,” Williams told viewers during the show’s opening tease, going on to say it comes at a “low point” of public trust for the White House.
Williams was responding to Trump’s statement that any further provocation from North Korea would result in the reclusive communist country’s total destruction.
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“North Korea had best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump said earlier this week.
The only person that should be scared by that is North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
— The Horn editorial teamJason Burtis expresses his emotion at a service at Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs. This was the church of Officer Garrett Swasey, who was killed in the Planned Parenthood shootings.
Nov. 29, 2015 Jason Burtis expresses his emotion at a service at Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs. This was the church of Officer Garrett Swasey, who was killed in the Planned Parenthood shootings. Matthew Staver/For The Washington Post
A gunman opened fire at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, authorities said, killing at least three people and wounding at least nine others.
A gunman opened fire at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic, authorities said, killing at least one police officer and two civilians.
A gunman opened fire at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic, authorities said, killing at least one police officer and two civilians |
way 20 times in the past two weeks. The fourth-round pick turned that into 15 receptions for 152 yards and nearly missed a touchdown grab against the Eagles in Week 4.
“It’s clear they want to get the ball in his hands,” an NFC scout said. “He’s a good returner and does a really good job of navigating through traffic to pick up extra yards.”
Crowder and Ryan Grant have fared well with DeSean Jackson out with a hamstring injury. Jackson, however, could be making his return this week against the Jets (1 p.m. ET Sunday, FOX).Can we still call this a parliamentary democracy? Or is it something more akin to a democracy of one?
More and more, Stephen Harper’s critics are asking the question. There is a widespread view among political scientists and constitutional scholars that the prime minister, with his l’etat c’est moi methods, has brought Canadian democracy to new lows.
Canadians themselves may be starting to feel that way. Pollster Angus Reid found this week that 62 per cent of Canadians surveyed described our democracy as being in a state of crisis. For the first time in many elections, democracy is a foremost issue.
When Harper was not even two years into his stewardship, a study published in the International Political Science Review measured the degree of centralization of power in all parliamentary countries. Canada, the study concluded, was the worst.
Much of our undemocratic condition was a result of the power hoarding of prime ministers who came before Harper, says Peter Russell, the University of Toronto professor emeritus who has studied prime ministerial power since the 1950s. But if our democratic health was bad then, Russell says, it’s now worse — much worse — after Harper’s five years in power.
“Harper is on a course towards a very authoritarian populist government appealing over the heads of Parliament to the people with an enormous public-relations machine. The appeal is to the less educated and less sophisticated parts of society.” What is being fashioned, says Russell, is a presidential prime ministership without a powerful legislative branch to keep it in check.
Lori Turnbull, who teaches political science at Dalhousie University and who is publishing a book on declining democracy, says the system with its loosely defined separation of powers relies on a prime minister acting in good faith. Mr. Harper can hardly be said to have done so, she said. In reference to abuses of power by the Conservative government, she said that “if you put together a list of what he’s done, it’s scary.” (See list below.)
Harper cabinet member John Baird rejects such criticisms. “There was a book written about Prime Minister Chrétien, The Friendly Dictatorship,” he says. “People made the same charges about prime ministers Mulroney and Trudeau.”
Conservatives say the portrayal of Harper as an autocrat are politically motivated — this though many of the same professors and journalists (this writer included) charting the plight of democracy today were highly critical of ethical corruption during the Chrétien years.
During his time in office, Harper has been charged with denying Parliament its historic right to documents, shutting down the House, intimidating independent agencies, muzzling the bureaucracy, suppressing research, curbing the access to information system, and other transgressions.
In the election campaign, people have been barred from Conservative rallies, strict limits have been placed on questions from journalists, Tory candidates have been instructed to stay away from all-candidates debates in their ridings. Liberals and New Democrats say the controversy over the coalition issue is another example of Harper not being able to tolerate the rules of democracy.
Democracy became an election issue after the prime minister was defeated on a confidence motion over contempt of Parliament. Though the Speaker of the Commons ruled there were legitimate grounds for the charges, Harper dismissed them as parliamentary squabbling.
“Who does he think he is? The king, here?” asked Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. During the televised debates he told Harper, “You are a man who will shut down anything you cannot control.”
When Harper campaigned during the 2006 election, he made promises of a new era of openness and transparency to contrast a Liberal Party plagued by the sponsorship scandal. He brought in accountability legislation, which was applauded by such oversight groups as Democracy Watch for containing many impressive reforms. But a great number of the reforms, the watchdog group found, never saw the light of day.
At the same time the Conservatives were making their accountability promises in the 2006 campaign, they were running a surreptitious money-shuffling operation that became known as the in-and-out affair. It allowed the party to spend more on its campaign advertising than Elections Canada permitted. Earlier this year, party operatives involved in the scheme, including former campaign manager Doug Finley, were charged with offences under election finance laws.
The case for painting Harper as an anti-democrat stems from dozens of actions, catalogued below. They can be roughly divided into three categories: Treatment of the parliamentary process; degree of information control; intimidation of opponents.
TREATMENT OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCESS
Prorogations of Parliament :
: Other governments have prorogued Parliament many times. But Harper’s prorogations were seen as more crassly motivated for political gain than others. His second prorogation, 16 months ago, brought thousands of demonstrators to the streets to decry his disregard for the democratic way. Contempt of Parliament :
: The demonstrations did not serve to elevate the prime minister’s respect for Parliament. He refused a House of Commons request to turn over documents on the Afghan detainees’ affair until forced to do so by the Speaker, who ruled he was in breach of parliamentary privilege. More recently, he refused to submit to a parliamentary request, this time on the costing of his programs. The unprecedented contempt of Parliament rulings followed. Scorn for parliamentary committees :
: Parliamentary committees play a central role in the system as a check on executive power. The Conservatives issued their committee heads a 200-page handbook on how to disrupt these committees, going so far as to say they should flee the premises if the going got tough. The prime minister also reneged on a promise to allow committees to select their own chairs. In another decision decried as anti-democratic, he issued an order dictating that staffers to cabinet ministers do not have to testify before committees. Challenging constitutional precepts :
: During the coalition crisis of 2008, Harper rejected the principle that says a government continues in office so long as it enjoys the confidence of the House of Commons. To the disbelief of those with a basic grasp of how the system works, he announced that opposition leader Stéphane Dion “does not have the right to take power without an election.” Lapdogs as watchdogs :
: Jean Chrétien drew much criticism, but also much help for his cause, as a result of his installing a toothless ethics commissioner. The Harper Conservatives have upped the anti-democratic ante, putting in place watchdogs — an ethics commissioner, lobbying commissioner, and others — who are more like lapdogs. The foremost example was integrity commissioner Christiane Ouimet, who was pilloried in an inquiry by the auditor general. During her term of office, 227 whistleblowing allegations were brought before Ouimet. None was found to be of enough merit to require redress. The Prime Minister’s Office saw to it that she left her post quietly last fall with a $500,000 exit payment replete with a gag order. The Patronage Machine :
: To reduce checks on power it helps to have partisans in the right places. Harper initially surprised everyone with a good proposal to reduce the age-old practice of patronage. It was the creation of an independent public appointments commission. But after his first choice of chairman for the body was turned down by opposition parties, he abandoned, in an apparent fit of pique, the whole commission idea. Since that time he has become, like other PMs before, a patronage dispenser of no hesitation. One of the latest examples was the appointment of Tom Pentefountas as deputy chair of the CRTC. His only apparent qualification was his friendship with the PM’s director of communications. Mr. Harper also had good intentions on Senate reform but it, too, has remained a patronage pit. One of his first moves as PM, having long lashed out at the unelected body, was to elevate a senator, Michael Fortier, to his cabinet. Abuse of Process
Another less noticed infringement of the democratic way came with the 2010 behemoth budget bill — 894 pages and 2,208 clauses. It contained many important measures, such as major changes to environmental assessment regulations, that had no business being in a budget bill. Previous governments hadn’t gone in for this type of budget-making, which is common in the United States. The opposition had reason to allege abuse of process.
INFORMATION CONTROL
The vetting system :
: In an extraordinary move, judged by critics to be more befitting a one-party state, Harper ordered all government communications to be vetted by his office or the neighbouring Privy Council Office. Even the most harmless announcements (Parks Canada’s release on the mating season of the black bear, for example) required approval from the top. In most instances, forms known as Message Event Proposals had to make their way through a bureaucratic labyrinth of checks for approval. Never had Ottawa seen anything approaching this degree of control. In one of many examples, a bureaucrat, Mark Tushingham from Environment Canada, was barred from giving a talk about his book on climate change — even though it was a work of fiction. The muzzling policy of the government extended to the military brass. It led to a split between the prime minister and Chief of the Defence Staff Rick Hillier. Public service brought to heel :
: In asserting his individual will in the nation’s capital, it is of central importance for the chief executive to have a compliant bureaucracy. Under Harper, who suspected the bureaucracy had a built-in Liberal bias, the public service was stripped of much of its policy development functions and reduced to the role of implementers. The giant bureaucracy and diplomatic corps chafed under the new system. Their expertise had been valued by previous governments. In the Harper democracy, it was shut up, don’t put up. As for independent agencies, the level of distrust was much the same. As part of her distant past, Nuclear Safety Commission head Linda Keen was seen to have Liberal affiliations. It was among the reasons she was unceremoniously dismissed. Access to information :
The government impeded the access to information system, one of the more important tools of democracy, to such an extent that the government’s information commissioner wondered whether the system would survive. Prohibitive measures included the elimination of giant data base called CAIRS, delaying responses to access requests, imposing prohibitive fees on requests, and putting pressure on bureaucrats to keep sensitive information hidden. In addition, the redacting or blacking out of documents that were released reached outlandish proportions. In one instance, the government blacked out portions of an already published biography of Barack Obama.
: The government impeded the access to information system, one of the more important tools of democracy, to such an extent that the government’s information commissioner wondered whether the system would survive. Prohibitive measures included the elimination of giant data base called CAIRS, delaying responses to access requests, imposing prohibitive fees on requests, and putting pressure on bureaucrats to keep sensitive information hidden. In addition, the redacting or blacking out of documents that were released reached outlandish proportions. In one instance, the government blacked out portions of an already published biography of Barack Obama. Supression of research :
: Research, empirical evidence, erudition might normally be considered as central to the healthy functioning of democracies. The Conservatives challenged, sometimes openly, the notion. At the Justice Department they freely admitted they weren’t interested in what empirical research told them about some of their anti-crime measures. At Environment Canada, public input on climate change policy was dramatically reduced. In other instances, the government chose to camouflage evidence that ran counter to its intentions. A report of the Commissioner of Firearms saying police made good use of the gun registry was deliberately hidden beyond its statutory deadline, until after a vote on a private member’s bill on the gun registry. The most controversial measure involving suppression of research was the Harper move against the long-form census. In his democracy, critics alleged, knowledge was being devalued. The less the people knew, the easier it was to deceive them. Document tampering:
It was the Bev Oda controversy involving the changing of a document on the question of aid to the church group Kairos that captured attention. But in Harperland, document tampering was by no means an isolated occurrence. During the election campaign it has been revealed that Conservative operatives twisted the words of Auditor General Sheila Fraser in order to try to deceive the public. They made it sound like she was crediting them with prudent spending when, in fact, what she actually wrote applauded the Liberals. As part of their vetting system, the Conservatives tried to institute a policy, until Fraser rebelled, whereby even her releases would be monitored by central command. The re-ordering of documents extended to the Harper economic-recovery program. The Conservatives got caught putting their own party logos on stimulus funding cheques, which were paid out of public purse. They were forced to cease the practice. Media curbs: Though having stated that information is the lifeblood of democracy, the prime minister went to unusual lengths to deter media access. He never held open season press conferences, wouldn’t inform the media of the timing of cabinet meetings, as was traditionally done, limited their access to the bureaucracy, and had his war room operatives, using false names, write online posts attacking journalists. In one uncelebrated incident in Charlottetown in 2007, the Conservatives sent in the police to remove reporters from a hotel lobby where they were trying to cover a party caucus meeting.
INTIMIDATION OF OPPONENTS
Afghan detainees :
: As a reflection of the governing morality, the detainees’ file is one the Conservatives would hardly wish to showcase. They attempted to tar the reputation of diplomat Richard Colvin, who contradicted their position. On the same file, they tried to deny Parliament its historic right to documents. On the same file, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor got caught misleading the House, had to apologize, and later resigned. On the same file, the Conservatives terminated the work of Peter Tinsley, the Military Police Complaints Commissioner, whose inquiry was getting close to the bone. Tinsley’s commission was denied documents for reasons of national security — even though all his commission members had national security clearance. Lastly, it was this same file which played a large role in the prime minister’s decision to again prorogue Parliament. My way or the highway :
: The prime minister had once criticized Paul Martin’s Liberals, saying that when a government starts eliminating dissent, it loses its moral right to govern. In a variety of punitive ways, Harper moved against NGOs, independent agencies, watchdog groups, and tribunals who showed signs of differing with his intent. In some cases he fired their directors or stacked their boards with partisans. In others, he sued them or cut their funding. The targets of such tactics included the Rights and Democracy group, Elections Canada, Veterans’ Ombudsman Pat Stogran, Budget Officer Kevin Page and many more. His party’s smear tactics — sometimes resembling those of right-wing Republicans — included labelling the Liberal party anti-Israel, calling Dalton McGuinty the small man of Confederation, trying to link Liberal MP Navdeep Bains to terrorism, and calling for reprisals against academics such as the University of Ottawa’s Michael Behiels for questioning their policies. Personal attack ads :
: Beginning when Stéphane Dion was elected Liberal leader, the Harper Conservatives became the most frequent deployer of personal attack ads — many of them blatantly dishonest — of any government. Before the Conservatives’ arrival, such ads were seldom, if ever, used in pre-writ periods. They made them a common practice. A democratic party?
Though he came from the Reform Party, Harper, as his mentor Preston Manning once said, never showed much interest in power sharing. His Conservative Party has become a reflection of his command and control style. Tom Flanagan, Harper’s former strategic guru, helped the leader evolve the Tories into what Flanagan calls a garrison party. It basically exists, he said, to go to war against opponents, raise money, and bow at the leader’s feet. Helena Guergis, the excommunicated MP, is one of the latest to find out what one’s rights within the party amount to. Under Mr. Harper, the rank and file have had little say in policy formation. At the riding level, no dissonance with central command is tolerated. Last year, when constituents in Rob Anders’ Calgary riding tried to organize to contest his renomination, party operatives descended like a commando unit, seized control of the riding executive, and crushed the bid. Legal Threats: The Conservatives ran from accountability by running to the courts. No government has resorted to legal threats and challenges to intimidate opponents as much as this one. In the so called Cadman-gate affair, wherein the Conservatives were accused of trying to bribe independent MP Chuck Cadman for his vote, the party resorted to suing the Liberals. They went after Tom Zytaruk, who wrote a book on the affair, alleging Mr. Zytaruk’s tape of an interview with Harper was altered. The party sued Elections Canada in connection with the in-and-out affair and it is using legal channels to try to block information gathered by the Military Police Complaints Commission on the Afghan detainees’ affair. In other cases, the Conservatives chose to circumvent their own laws. In the interest of making democracy fairer, Harper brought in a welcome measure — a fixed-date election law. PMs no longer had the advantage of setting election dates at their own choosing. But in 2008 Harper ignored his own law and went to the Governor General to call an election. The government’s perspective in the democratic/legal rights area was illustrated when Harper went so far as to appeal a Canadian Federal Court decision asking the United States to repatriate the Canadian Omar Khadr from Guantanamo. Harper was reluctant to speak out against the judicial travesties at Gitmo. The Conservatives shut down the Court Challenges Program, which provided funding for Canadians to defend their Charter rights. They fought hard to deport Iraqi war resisters and they went to extremes to crush protests at the G-20 summit.
………………………………….
The story of increased concentration of power in the prime minister’s office is one, as charted by Donald Savoie and other specialists, that has been ongoing for decades. But the experts are hard pressed to find another prime minister as obsessed with control as the current one.
Chrétien was driven, at times, to authoritarian measures because of his longstanding bitter feud with Quebec separatists. They posed a challenge to him in his own riding, so he went to unusual lengths to secure support there. He bestowed on it largesse by the barrelful, leading to the Shawinigate controversy. At the province-wide level he was determined to ward off secessionist threats. Excesses in pursuit of that goal resulted in the sponsorship scandal.
When he faced an internal rebellion in the party, led by Paul Martin, Chrétien sometimes resorted to extraordinary measures of control as well. And there were other heavy-handed tactics, as seen when Chrétien shut down the Somalia inquiry and used tactics to drown out protests at the APEC conference in Vancouver in 1997. But in day-to-day governance he delegated much power to his cabinet and the public service. He was never personally driven to try to control Ottawa like Harper.
Lorraine Weinrib, a professor of law and political science, says Harper is intent to construct his own constitutional framework. His actions, she said, align with “an all-powerful executive that makes its own rules on a play-by-play basis.” Those actions “reveal an understanding of democratic engagement that barely tolerates the dispersal of power.”
If a healthy democracy requires some degree of balance of power between the executive branch, the legislative branch and other power sources, there is little such balance today. The Harper effect has been to enfeeble the other constituent parts. The state of democracy now is such that the civil service is subjugated, the committee system weakened, watchdogs anemic, independent agencies intimidated, information less available, the prime minister’s own party in servitude, political parties soon — if Harper gets his way — to be stripped of public funding.
Consultant Keith Beardsley who worked in the Harper PMO, said the initial plan in 2006, when the party was new to power and insecure, was to put the hammer down — exert maximum control — for about the first six months. The six months came and went, he said, but the hammer was never lifted.
Critics fear it never will be, that we may just be seeing the beginning, that Harper will see an election victory as vindication for authoritarian methods and that more will follow.
The remarkable thing, as professor Russell notes, in looking at the way this prime minister has overpowered the system, is that he has done it all with only a minority government. Even prime ministers with big majorities have never been able — if indeed it was ever their intent — to bring the system to heel to the extent of the minority man.Despite continued heavy incentive spending, every auto OEM, with the exception of Nissan, missed their sales forecasts for the month of March. The "D3" were the biggest losers of the month with GM sales up 1.6% YoY vs. estimates of +7.0% while Ford sales dropped -7.2% and Fiat Chrysler declined -5.0%. Car sales were even worse with industry volumes down 10.6% overall versus light truck sales that were up 5.2% according to Autodata.
As Bloomberg points out, the massive sales misses come even though there "were a lot of incentives during the month" which will almost certainly result in further production cuts.
The results cast doubt on expectations that industrywide U.S. auto sales would bounce back following declines in the first two months of the year. Carmakers are using heavy discounts to try to trim inventory that’s swelled to the highest level in more than a decade. GM has dialed back output of cars such as the Chevrolet Cruze, while Fiat Chrysler is eliminating models including the Dodge Dart compact. “Sales are under forecast, and there were a lot of incentives during the month,” Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Autotrader.com, said by phone. “Before long, we will see more production cuts.” GM sees the the industry’s annualized sales pace, adjusted for seasonal trends, accelerating to 17 million for the month, trailing analysts’ estimates for a rate of 17.2 million. The selling pace was 16.7 million a year earlier.
Here's how each of the large OEMs fared during the month:
Meanwhile, overall auto sales so far in 2017 have been a disaster despite Ford's assertion that they would remain elevated for the foreseeable future atop a so-called 'plateau'. As we noted once before, the crazy thing about plateaus is that there is a cliff on both sides...
Alas, no amount of incentive spending seems to be enough to fix that pesky inventory issue that keeps piling up on dealer lots across the country.
And auto investors finally seem willing to admit that perhaps 'everything is not awesome' as auto supplier and OEM's all tanked in early trading.
So what say you? Temporary blip on Ford's plateau or bursting of the subprime auto bubble?FC Dallas will look to improve to 2-0 on the young MLS season on Saturday night as they head to Kansas City to take on Sporting KC at 8 p.m. Dallas (1-0-0) is riding high after a grueling opening week that included a trip to Panama in CCL action before taking a 2-1 game over the LA Galaxy in their 2017 opener. SKC (0-0-1) had a less exhilarating week, playing to a 0-0 draw with DC United last Saturday in the nation’s capital.
The Ghosts of CM Park
Road games in Kansas City have haunted FC Dallas in recent memory, having dropped four straight matches in what is now known as Children’s Mercy Park. Last year, the infamous no-goal call in the opening half gave way to a 2-0 Sporting victory. In 2015, Dallas dropped 3-1 and 4-0 league decisions as well as a 6-2 Open Cup loss. Across the last four games at CM Park, Dallas was outscored 15-3.
The last, and only, win to come in the building for FCD was a come-from-behind, 3-2 win in August 2011 in which Dallas was down, 2-0, and scored 3 goals in the final 20+ minutes of the match – including 89th minute and 91st minute tallies – to stun the home crowd. The game-winner was Bobby Warshaw’s first professional goal and would be the last Bobby Rhine goal call on the broadcast before his untimely passing just nine days later (you can listen here).
Key Match-Ups
Carlos Gruezo vs. Benny Feilhaber: Over the last two seasons, Feilhaber has found the back of the net four times against Dallas and assisted on six goals – accounting for 10 of the 19 goals Dallas has allowed in the last seven meetings.
Matt Hedges vs. Dom Dwyer: While Feilhaber is a threat to both score and distribute, Dwyer is the pure finisher. He has seven goals in the last seven meetings, including a four-goal performance during the 2015 LHUSOC shellacking.
Last Time Out
(4-3-3): Tim Melia; Seth Sinovic, Matt Besler, Ike Opara, Graham Zusi; Benny Feilhaber, Ilie Sanchez, Roger Espinoza; Gerso Fernandes, Dom Dwyer, Jimmy Medranda
Key to Three Points
Saturday’s match kicks off a busy week for FCD with a CONCACAF Champions League Semifinal leg at home on Wednesday before the 2017 Home Opener a week from Saturday. With a playoff match on the horizon, Oscar Pareja could elect to utilize some of the depth on his roster. Regardless, FCD will have to shut down the Sporting KC attack that has struck 19 times in the last seven meetings, while capitalizing on their chances on the other end of the field to take home the first result in Kansas City since August 2011.Hello and welcome to This Week in Rust Docs!
This Week in Rust Docs is openly developed on GitHub. If you find any errors in this week’s issue, please submit a PR.
And of course, don’t forget to look at the docs:
This week’s edition was edited by: GuillaumeGomez.
Latest news
The Normalization for long error codes explanations RFC is still in its final comment period!
The “doc days” are still in the center of our last meetings. More information will come soon!
Current opened issues
For now, here are the two big issues opened for Rust documentation:
They both need help to move forward so any contribution is very welcome!
There are currently around 50 other documentation issues opened. Look for A-docs tagged issues on github!
Waiting merge
Recent doc contributions
Meetings
Next meeting will be on Wednesday 1st of June 2016 at 20:00 GMT on #rust-docs channel on irc.mozilla.org. Feel free to come!This is the big boy I have been developing off and on for awhile.Well here's the final piece. It is a commission piece for Princess Twilight and her forces from Equestria prepare to break the changeling siege of Crystal Empire. They've got their work cut out for them.One facet of the piece that was a challenge was how I would handle the literally thousands of changelings flying around the force bubble. Then realized that starling murmurations were a perfect source of inspiration YouTube. However I just didn't want it to look like a million starlings were trying to poop on the Crystal Empire.Then looking at still photos of the flocks I realized that sometimes the flocks looked like objects. A horse's head, a flying angel, a dragon. Then I thought what if Chrysalis was actually guiding and controlling her followers to deliberately form some huge monster flying outside the city.The image is 13.5"x 26" and is done in colored pencil, marker pen, technical pen, and gouache on vellum finish Bristol board.Edit update. If you want to read the story that this piece is based on FimFiction I hope you like what you see. Please help make more art like this possible by supporting me at PatreonAs West Africa reels from what epidemiologists are calling the largest Ebola outbreak in history, two American Ebola patients currently being treated in the region will arrive Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, within the next few days.
The United States Department of State said in a statement Friday that transport of the two American citizens marks the first time anyone with Ebola has been brought into the U.S.
"Every precaution is being taken to move the patients safely and securely, to provide critical care en route on a non-commercial aircraft, and to maintain strict isolation upon arrival in the United States," said the State Department, which would not name the patients for reasons of privacy.
CNN previously reported that the two infected citizens are Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who had been doing medical charity work in Liberia when they contracted Ebola, and that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plane had left Georgia late Thursday afternoon.
Initially, only one of the Americans was to be flown to Emory, according to a statement released by the hospital Thursday. The statement contained both an explanation of the transfer and a letter to hospital staff, ensuring extensive steps would be taken to ensure the disease doesn't spread beyond the patient:
"Emory University Hospital physicians, nurses and staff are highly trained in the specific and unique protocols and procedures necessary to treat and care for this type of patient. For this specially trained staff, these procedures are practiced on a regular basis throughout the year so we are fully prepared for this type of situation."
The patients will be treated in an isolation unit built with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is physically separate from the rest of the hospital and "has unique equipment and infrastructure that provide an extraordinarily high level of clinical isolation," according to the statement.
Dr. Bruce Ribner, an infectious disease specialist at Emory, said at a press conference that the patients would have much better care in the United States. He said he had "no concerns" about his own health, even though he will be working in the unit where the patients will be treated.
In this undated photo released by the Center for Disease Control, a Aeromedical Biological Containment System which looks like a sealed isolation tent for Ebola air transportation is shown. Image: CDC/Associated Press
In Africa, the outbreak has killed 729 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since March. One American citizen died in Nigeria after contracting the disease in Liberia. While the fatality rate of Ebola can reach 90%, roughly 60% of those infected in this spree are dying, due mainly to early detection and treatment.
However, government and public health officials are having trouble containing the disease, which can be contracted through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids. Sierra Leone has banned all public meetings and will being quarantining infected homes and area, while Liberia will do the same, and has closed its schools and borders.
Even with the incoming patient, the chances of an Ebola outbreak in the United States are low. Also, if Ebola did spread beyond the isolation unit at Emory, the disease can be contained and treated easier and more efficiently than it can be in Africa, where medical personnel are ignored or attacked because of locals' fears that they carry the disease themselves. The United States also has stronger and safer medical infrastructure than the affected countries.
That said, plenty of pandemics have landed stateside, and there are many federal, state and local laws that give health authorities plenty of power to contain them.
Federal law
Both the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention— the country's national public health service — can do whatever is necessary to prevent diseases from foreign countries from getting into and spreading throughout the United States. HHS sets the guidelines and protocols for doing this, and CDC carries them out.
CDC agents are regularly stationed at border crossings, airports and sea ports to monitor anyone entering the country. If they see someone who might be carrying an infectious disease, or if the captain, pilot or crew of a ship or airplane reports him to the CDC, the agents can examine and detain them. The agents can do this whether or not there is an epidemic abroad.
If a disease becomes so prevalent within the U.S., the federal government can set up quarantine areas to contain those infected. These sites are directed by the Surgeon General of the United States.
The federal government is in charge of making sure diseases don't enter the country. But if they do or something slips through the cracks, it's up to each state to contain it.
State and local law
Federal intervention for epidemics and pandemics doesn't stop at national borders: If the federal government finds that state efforts to prevent diseases from spreading throughout the country aren't working, it will step in and do whatever it deems necessary to stop the spread from state to state.
This includes "inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination and destruction of animals or articles believed to be sources of infection," according to the Public Health title of the Code of Federal Regulations.
To make sure this doesn't happen, each state has laws giving the proper health authorities the ability to quarantine people, animals plants and anything else infected with a communicable disease if it poses a major health risk. States also have laws giving county and municipal officials the ability to do the same within their own borders.
See also: Top Doctor Dies From Ebola After Treating Dozens of Patients
While federal law makes it illegal to move between states when you've be diagnosed with a dangerous infectious disease (since action involving more than one state is legally a federal issues), you can be charged with a misdemeanor in many states for refusing to willingly enter quarantine.
Washington state takes it up a notch, making it a misdemeanor to even be in public places when you're sick with a contagious disease, effectively requiring you to quarantine yourself.
Other states have laws aimed at curbing the spread of a epidemic before it even begins. In New York city, it's been illegal to spit on sidewalks and the floors of public places and vehicles since 1896. The law was passed to curb the spread of tuberculosis, pneumonia and other respiratory infections.
New York state also requires all students enrolled in college to be vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella, and all employees of healthcare and residential facilities must be vaccinated for the flu or wear a face mask at work.Microsoft has confirmed via multiple mainstream media outlets that today is the day for several more high-profile video apps to appear on its Xbox 360, namely Comcast Xfinity TV HBO Go and MLB.tv. There's not a lot of detail on the apps themselves, although the HBO Go and MLB.tv services are familiar due to their availability on other platforms, while we've already heard the Xfinity TV app will mirror the experience and content already seen on the PC. All three naturally include significant Kinect integration, and bring the total number of video apps (already including recent additions like Verizon FiOS and YouTube ) available to 36. Interestingly, another stat Microsoft is focusing on is that the time spent using its consoles to watch online video is now over half, outpacing the time users are spending playing its games for the first time. Head of marketing and strategy for Xbox Yusuf Mehdi is quoted by theas saying usage is up 30 percent from a year ago. We're not sure if that just reflects gamers powering through to (and possibly being disappointed by) the ending of, but we'll be keeping an eye on our dashboards for the new apps all the same.Across the Washington area, black students are suspended and expelled two to five times as often as white students, creating disparities in discipline that experts say reflect a growing national problem.
An analysis by The Washington Post shows the phenomenon both in the suburbs and in the city, from the far reaches of Southern Maryland to the subdivisions of Fairfax, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
Last year, for example, one in seven black students in St. Mary’s County were suspended from school, compared with one in 20 white students. In Alexandria, black students were nearly six times as likely to be suspended as their white peers.
( Column | Black boys: We see them differently )
In Fairfax, where the suicide in January of a white high school football player who had been suspended brought an outcry for change, African American students were four times as likely that year to be suspended as white students, and Hispanic students were twice as likely.
The problems extend beyond the Washington area to school districts across the country and are among a host of concerns about school discipline that sparked a joint effort by the U.S. Justice and Education departments in July to look into reforms.
Experts say disparities appear to have complex causes. A disproportionate number of black students live below the poverty line or with a single parent, factors that affect disciplinary patterns. But experts say those factors do not fully explain racial differences in suspensions. Other contributing factors could include unintended bias, unequal access to highly effective teachers and differences in school leadership styles.
In the Washington region, many school leaders said they are increasingly focused on the problem and grappling with ways to close the gap.
In Montgomery, Deputy Superintendent Frieda K. Lacey said the district has trained principals and administrators in new approaches, which include involving a team of administrators in suspension decisions.
Still, she said, much remains to be done. Nearly 6 percent of black students were suspended or expelled from school last year, compared with 1.2 percent of white students. The gap remains even as suspensions are down since 2006 across all racial groups.
She pointed to one unsettling statistic: 71 percent of suspensions for insubordination, a relatively rare offense in the county, were handed out to black students. African Americans make up 21 percent of students in Montgomery’s schools. The goal is to dig deeper into the data, offer more professional development and share best practices, she said. “We don’t try to minimize the data,” Lacey said. “We just try to talk about it the way it exists.”
The Post’s analysis found that in the Washington suburbs alone, more than 35,000 students were suspended or expelled from school at some point last school year — more than half of them black students.
In interviews, many school officials noted successes in reducing overall suspensions during the past several years and cited cultural-sensitivity training and positive-behavior initiatives that are more proactive about discipline.
But along with the issue of disparities in many school systems is increasing concern about the subjective nature of many offenses.
In Maryland and Virginia, as in many other places, one of the most common causes of student suspensions are what many call “soft” — or discretionary — infractions: disrespect, defiance, insubordination, |
omia. Secondary Sjögren's syndrome is identical to primary form but with the addition of a combination of other connective tissue disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis.[8]
Celiac disease [ edit ]
Xerostomia may be the only symptom of celiac disease, especially in adults, who often have no obvious digestive symptoms.[13]
Radiation therapy [ edit ]
Radiation therapy for cancers of the head and neck (including brachytherapy for thyroid cancers) where the salivary glands are close to or within the field irradiated is another major cause of xerostomia.[8] A radiation dose of 52 Gy is sufficient to cause severe salivary dysfunction. Radiotherapy for oral cancers usually involves up to 70 Gy of radiation, often given alongside with chemotherapy which may also have a damaging effect on saliva production.[8]
Sicca syndrome [ edit ]
"Sicca" simply means dryness. Sicca syndrome is not a specific condition, and there are varying definitions, but the term can describe oral and eye dryness that is not caused by autoimmune diseases (e.g., Sjögren syndrome).
Other causes [ edit ]
Oral dryness may also be caused by mouth breathing,[3] usually caused by partial obstruction of the upper respiratory tract. Examples include hemorrhage, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever.[1][9]
Alcohol may be involved in the cause of salivary gland disease, liver disease, or dehydration.[3]
Smoking is another possible cause.[9] Other recreational drugs such as methamphetamine,[14] cannabis,[15] hallucinogens,[16] or heroin,[17] may be implicated.
Hormonal disorders, such as poorly controlled diabetes, chronic graft versus host disease or low fluid intake in people undergoing haemodialysis for renal impairment may also result in xerostomia, due to dehydration.[8]
Xerostomia may be a consequence of infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and a rare cause of salivary gland dysfunction may be sarcoidosis.[8]
Infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) can cause a related salivary gland disease known as Diffuse Infiltrative Lymphocytosis Syndrome (DILS).[8]
Diagnostic approach [ edit ]
A diagnosis of hyposalivation is based predominantly on the clinical signs and symptoms.[1] Although dry mouth can not be measured and is subjective to personal expression, the rate of the salivary flow in an individual's mouth can be measured.[18] There is little correlation between symptoms and objective tests of salivary flow,[19] such as sialometry. This test is simple and noninvasive, and involves measurement of all the saliva a patient can produce during a certain time, achieved by dribbling into a container. Sialometery can yield measures of stimulated salivary flow or unstimulated salivary flow. Stimulated salivary flow rate is calculated using a stimulant such as 10% citric acid dropped onto the tongue, and collection of all the saliva that flows from one of the parotid papillae over five or ten minutes. Unstimulated whole saliva flow rate more closely correlates with symptoms of xerostomia than stimulated salivary flow rate.[1] Sialography involves introduction of radio-opaque dye such as iodine into the duct of a salivary gland.[1] It may show blockage of a duct due to a calculus. Salivary scintiscanning using technetium is rarely used. Other medical imaging that may be involved in the investigation include chest x-ray (to exclude sarcoidosis), ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging (to exclude Sjögren's syndrome or neoplasia).[1] A minor salivary gland biopsy, usually taken from the lip,[20] may be carried out if there is a suspicion of organic disease of the salivary glands.[1] Blood tests and urinalysis may be involved to exclude a number of possible causes.[1] To investigate xerophthalmia, the Schirmer test of lacrimal flow may be indicated.[1] Slit-lamp examination may also be carried out.[1]
Treatment [ edit ]
The successful treatment of xerostomia is difficult to achieve and often unsatisfactory.[9] This involves finding any correctable cause and removing it if possible, but in many cases it is not possible to correct the xerostomia itself, and treatment is symptomatic, and also focuses on preventing tooth decay through improving oral hygiene. Where the symptom is caused by hyposalivation secondary to underlying chronic disease, xerostomia can be considered permanent or even progressive.[8] The management of salivary gland dysfunction may involve the use of saliva substitutes and/or saliva stimulants:
Saliva substitutes – These are viscous products which are applied to the oral mucosa, which can be found in the form of sprays, gels, oils, mouthwashes, mouth rinses, pastilles or viscous liquids. [8] This includes SalivaMAX, water, artificial salivas (mucin-based, carboxymethylcellulose-based), and other substances (milk, vegetable oil): Mucin Spray: 4 Trials have been completed on the effects of Mucin Spray on Xerostomia, overall there is no strong evidence showing that Mucin Spray is more effective than a placebo in reducing the symptoms of dry mouth. [8] Mucin Lozenge: Only 1 trial (Gravenmade 1993) has been completed regarding the effectiveness of Mucin Lozenges. Whilst it was assessed as being at high risk of bias, it showed that Mucin Lozenges were ineffective when compared to a placebo. [8] Mucoadhesive Disk: These disks are stuck to the palate and they contain lubricating agents, flavouring agents and some antimicrobial agents. One trial (Kerr 2010) assessed their effectiveness against a placebo disk. Strangely, patients from both groups (placebo and the real disk) reported an increase in subjective oral moistness. No adverse effects were reported. More research is needed in this area before conclusions are drawn. [8]
– These are viscous products which are applied to the oral mucosa, which can be found in the form of sprays, gels, oils, mouthwashes, mouth rinses, pastilles or viscous liquids. This includes SalivaMAX, water, artificial salivas (mucin-based, carboxymethylcellulose-based), and other substances (milk, vegetable oil): Biotene oral Balance Gel & toothpaste: One trial has been completed (Epstein 1999) regarding the effectiveness of Biotene Oral Balance gel & toothpaste. The results showed that Biotene products were "more effective than control and reduced dry mouth on waking". [8]
Saliva stimulants – organic acids (ascorbic acid, malic acid), chewing gum, parasympathomimetic drugs (choline esters, e.g. pilocarpine hydrochloride, cholinesterase inhibitors), and other substances (sugar-free mints, nicotinamide). Medications which stimulate saliva production traditionally have been administered through oral tablets, which the patient goes on to swallow, [8] although some saliva stimulants can also be found in the form of toothpastes. [8] Lozenges, which are retained in the mouth and then swallowed are becoming more and more popular. Lozenges are soft and gentle on the mouth and there is a belief that prolonged contact with the oral mucosa mechanically stimulates saliva production. [8] Pilocarpine: A study by Taweechaisupapong in 2006 showed no'statistical significant improvement in oral dryness and saliva production compared to placebo' when administering pilocarpine lozenges. [8] Physostigmine Gel: A study by Knosravini in 2009 showed a reduction in the oral dryness and a 5 times increase in saliva following physostigmine treatment. Chewing gum increases saliva production but there is no strong evidence that it improves dry mouth symptoms. [8] The Cochrane oral health group concluded 'there is insufficient evidence to determine whether pilocarpine or physostigmine' are effective treatments for Xerostomia. More research is needed. [8] Dentirol chewing gum (xylitol): A study by Risheim in 1993 showed that when subjects had 2 sticks of gum up to 5 x daily, the gum gave subjective dry mouth symptom relief in approximately 1/3 of participants but no change in SWS (stimulated whole saliva). [8] Profylin lozenge (xylitol/sorbitol):A study by Risheim in 1993 showed that when subjects had 1 lozenge 4 to 8 x daily, profylin lozenges gave subjective dry mouth symptom relief in approximately 1/3 of participants but no change in SWS (stimulated whole saliva). [8]
– organic acids (ascorbic acid, malic acid), chewing gum, parasympathomimetic drugs (choline esters, e.g. pilocarpine hydrochloride, cholinesterase inhibitors), and other substances (sugar-free mints, nicotinamide). Medications which stimulate saliva production traditionally have been administered through oral tablets, which the patient goes on to swallow, although some saliva stimulants can also be found in the form of toothpastes. Lozenges, which are retained in the mouth and then swallowed are becoming more and more popular. Lozenges are soft and gentle on the mouth and there is a belief that prolonged contact with the oral mucosa mechanically stimulates saliva production.
Saliva substitutes can improve xerostomia, but tend not to improve the other problems associated with salivary gland dysfunction.[citation needed] Parasympathomimitic drugs (saliva stimulants) such as pilocarpine may improve xerostomia symptoms and other problems associated with salivary gland dysfunction, but the evidence for treatment of radiation-induced xerostomia is limited.[21] Both stimulants and substitutes relieve symptoms to some extent.[22] Salivary stimulants are probably only useful in people with some remaining detectable salivary function.[3] A systematic review compromising of 36 randomised controlled trials for the treatment of dry mouth found that there was no strong evidence to suggest that a specific topical therapy is effective.[8] This review also states that topical therapies can be expected to provide only short-term effects, which are reversible.[8] The review reported limited evidence that oxygenated glycerol triester spray was more effective than electrolyte sprays.[8] Sugar free chewing gum increases saliva production but there is no strong evidence that it improves symptoms.[8] Plus, there is no clear evidence to suggest whether chewing gum is more or less effective as a treatment.[8] There is a suggestion that intraoral devices and integrated mouthcare systems may be effective in reducing symptoms, but there was a lack of strong evidence.[8] A systematic review of the management of radiotherapy-induced xerostomia with parasympathomimetic drugs found that there was limited evidence to support the use of pilocarpine in the treatment of radiation-induced salivary gland dysfunction.[6] It was suggested that, barring any contraindications, a trial of the drug be offered in the above group (at a dose of five mg three times per day to minimize side effects).[6] Improvements can take up to twelve weeks.[6] However, pilocarpine is not always successful in improving xerostomia symptoms.[6] The review also concluded that there was little evidence to support the use of other parasympathomimetics in this group.[6] Another systematic review showed, that there is some low-quality evidence to suggest that amifostine prevents the feeling of dry mouth or reduce the risk of moderate to severe xerostomia in people receiving radiotherapy to the head and neck (with or without chemotherapy) in the short- (end of radiotherapy) to medium-term (three months postradiotherapy). But, it is less clear whether or not this effect is sustained to 12 months postradiotherapy.[23]
A 2013 review looking at non-pharmacological interventions reported a lack of evidence to support the effects of electrostimulation devices, or acupuncture, on symptoms of dry mouth.[24]
Epidemiology [ edit ]
Xerostomia is a very common symptom. A conservative estimate of prevalence is about 20% in the general population, with increased prevalences in females (up to 30%) and the elderly (up to 50%).[8] Estimates of the prevalence of persistent dry mouth vary between 10 and 50%.[8]
History [ edit ]
Xerostomia has been used as a test to detect lies, which relied on emotional inhibition of salivary secretions to indicate possible incrimination.[25]
See also [ edit ]I know I’m not posting here very regularly lately. This new post is part of what could be seen as ‘the occult-mergent series’, in which I will look at the ‘supernatural’ world (even though I disagree with that very word already) as a Christian, also looking at the viewpoints of other traditions too while staying centered on Christ. (Btw: the word ‘occult’ is not in the bible, so there is no commandment ‘against the occult’ as some seem to think. I probably use it in a more or less neutral way here than it is commonly used.)
So, on the the 2 m-words in my title: Magic and Miracles are both not very popular with most moderns, at least outside of the realm fiction. As a believer in both (although I do certainly not at all believe in all things portrayed in fiction, it IS fiction after all…) I also see that there’s a lot of confusion about the two, as there is about all things that are dubbed ‘supernatural’ in a very ‘unsupernatural’ world as ours.
I do think a lot of the confusion comes from the word ‘supernatural’ itself. I do believe that ‘nature’ is a lot broader than the physical ‘laws of nature’ as we know them, and that magic and in many cases miracles too are perfectly part of it, and therefor perfectly natural. They only belong to a certain ‘hidden’ (occultus to use a word in latin) part of nature that is not as easy to understand as the realm of what we call ‘the laws of nature’ and can speak about in scientific terms and manipulate with technique. The line between those 2 parts of nature is nothing but the line between what we can investigate and understand as humans, and is only a limit of our abilities and perception, not a real line at all. The visible and invisible nature are not disconnected nor are they necessarily really different worlds. (There might be different worlds in the realm of the invisible, but that’s another story…)
So what is magic? I would define it as a manipulation of the invisible part of nature by humans to get a certain outcome. Magic is thus for the invisible world an exact equivalent of what science applied in technique is for the visible world. (I’ve written about that earlier, see also this and this post) The difference between both is that magic is not something most people in societies we know grow up with and thus learn, and that probably only a fraction of the people have a real talent for it.
There are roughly two kinds of magic, which probably do have a blurred area in between. The first kind is where the practicer uses his own power as a human being (which might be quite extraordinary in certain individuals), or channels the powers of nature for his goal. This could be energy healing or reiki for example. Some people have a gift for it, most don’t…
A second form of magic is invocation magic, in which the practicer calls upon other beings in the invisible realm to accomplish his goals. These beings can be very diverse, from natural spirits do djinn or demons, or even servitors that are called into existence by the magician itself.
While I am not sure that all invisible beings fall into the demon/angel dichotomy from my pentecostal demonology, even if there are being that are neither black nor white but ‘in the middle’ that does not mean that they are safe. It’s not because something is spiritual that it is safe, and we moderns have a lot of dangerous spiritual ‘ecological naivete’ that sometimes makes us as vulnerable to the invisible world as a dodo to an axe-wielding Dutch colonist… But that’s another story…
So what is a miracle, and where does it differ from magic? A miracle is something God (or in other religions other deities) does, often through a human vessel. So while it might be done with natural ‘energy’, it does ultimately come from God, and even though the miracle might be wanted by humans too, the idea comes from God, and it is done by God.
I can’t claim to have seen and experienced that much miracles, but I can’t deny that there have been ways in which God acted to interrupt the normal in my life or lives around me. But I do have one thing in mind very recently, where God indeed started healing while I was praying, and while it probably looked a lot like ‘energy healing’, I myself as a not-so-magically-talented guy could in a normal situation not have produced that kind of healing energy at all, and the outcome was more than and different from than I had prayed for (much better). So while this ‘healing energy’ might be in a way a part of nature and work like that in some instances, it came from God this time, it did what God wanted. And I was just a clueless vessel, not knowing what I did (my prayer grew more clumsy when I started noticing that something WAS happening) or that I could have done at all.
(And I have no clue why God chose to act that time, and completely surprisingly answered with healing, while a lot of other prayers have been left unanswered. I have no philosophical or theological answers here, only my very limited experience that seems to ridicule much of our human categories. I do think God does not like to be put in a box anyway…)
So the difference between a miracle and magic is that a miracle is an act of God, leading to the accomplishment of Gods purposes, and that magic is something done by humans, with or without the help of other entities, to accomplish human purposes. This might sound vague, but it is a very important distinction. In we bible we see a guy called Simon the sorcerer who is impressed by the power the apostles have through the Holy Spirit, and who wants to buy that power. Which is impossible, the Holy Spirit is God, and Gods power follows Gods purposes, and will not be enslaved by any sorcerer…
A last note that’s not unimportant here is that, for all the fear of ‘the occult’, some Christians who are well-acquainted with supernatural powers should better watch out more to not cross the line, and go from miracles to just performing magic. Like I said, some people do have more talent for such things (that others would call energy-healing for example) and if those people are Christians they will be attracted to more supernaturally-inclined churches (pentecostal/charismatic for example). Some Christians put so much pressure on ‘there can be miracles if you believe’ and ‘have more faith and you will move mountains’, and ‘name it and claim it’ that God disappears out of the picture. Have enough faith and your goals will be accomplished. And then we land in the terrain of the ‘prosperity gospel’.
But all of this ‘have faith and you will accomplish your wishes’ stuff is very similar to very basis magic outside of Christianity. The projection of ones will as a power to get a certain outcome is very prevalent in a lot of occult systems. Think of the new age ideas of ‘the secret’ for example. Another example would be how the postmodern chaos magick has ‘the power of belief’ as a tool very foundational. Others have seen influences of ‘new thought’ (actually a more old-fashioned occult stream) in the prosperity gospel stuff long ago, so I don’t think I’m telling much new stuff here.
Miracle-workers can slide into magic, especially if people do have certain ‘gifts’(and those people are attracted by this kind of Christianity) and they might at a certain moment lose touch with the Christian God, but keep the miracles going when ‘Elvis has left the building’. This can go on without gods power being replaced by other more dark entities, although that always could be the case too…
It can be less subtle even though. I’ve noted already that cursing someone in the name of the Christian God (even disguised as a bible verse and [ab]using bible verses) is a form of black magic, and is misguided invocation magic which tries to use the Christian God to kill people. (Which God won’t do, luckily…) ‘Conservative’ Americans praying for the death of their president Obama is a weird example of this mix of Christianity and black magic(k)…
Christians should watch out that they always keep centered on Christ. The ‘supernatural’ in itself does not have to be a sign of anything, even though we always find it very impressive here in this very ‘un-supernatural’ world. hristians are by definition pledged to Christ, and what makes them special goes beyond just ‘the supernatural’! It leads to the Creator through the Spirit and the Incarnate Christ.
So what do you people think?
PeaceThe Arizona Cardinals have several position battles that will be worth paying attention to this offseason. One is at cornerback, where Jerraud Powers and Justin Bethel will battle for the starting job opposite Patrick Peterson.
Powers was a guest on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM recently and he discussed Bethel, his talent and the possibility he could end up the starter.
Powers, who with the exception of 2014 when he played as the team's nickel corner, has started his entire career. But he knows how things work. Bethel could be the guy this year, but Powers knows he has a place on the team.
"I've been in the league a long time, I know how the story goes," said Powers. "I know it's JB's (Bethel's) time to show that he can play corner and not just a special teams guy, I know he's going to have his opportunity as well.
"If he ends up being the starter, I know I'm still going to have a role on this team no matter what the coaches have me do."
Based on offseason comments by head coach Bruce Arians, Powers is certainly in the lead for the starting job. Arians said Powers was one of the team's defensive MVPs. He even went as far to say at one point he played the best of all the corners last season. Arians has also lauded the talent of Bethel but has indicated he "has a long way to go" to surpass Powers.
Bethel wows his teammates at times.
"He does some things sometimes, me and (Patrick Peterson) will just sit there and shake our heads, like only he could do that," he said. "He has that type of athletic talent."
He does not have experience. In three seasons, he has played a total of 117 snaps on defense.
In OTAs, Bethel played in the slot where Powers played very well last season.
Arizona is counting on both players in 2015. Behind them on the depth chart is Alfonzo Dennard and then a bunch of former undrafted rookies.
Whether Bethel starts or comes off the bench, he should play an integral part of the Cardinals defense.BARCELONA Spain/LONDON (Reuters) - The European Central Bank may buy “simple and transparent” asset-backed securities (ABS) to help achieve its target of delivering price stability to the euro zone, ECB Executive Board member Yves Mersch said on Wednesday.
An illuminated euro sign is seen in front of the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the late evening in Frankfurt January 8, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Asset-backed securities are created by banks pooling loans like mortgages or car loans into an interest-bearing bond that is sold to raise funds.
The ECB included the possibility of ABS purchases in a package of measures it announced last week to pump money into the sluggish euro zone economy.
In a speech entitled “Next steps for European securitization markets”, Mersch said the ECB wanted a more holistic approach to the regulatory treatment of ABS in Europe and greater transparency of their treatment by ratings agencies.
“There is a growing consensus that an instrument once seen as part of the problem could in fact be part of the solution,” he said of talks about ABS in European policymaking circles.
Europe’s ABS market has not recovered from the stigma created by the global financial crisis, which was triggered by doubts about the quality of assets in supposedly rock-solid U.S. mortgage-backed securities.
The ECB and the Bank of England aim to get European banks and investors to agree common standards for safer ABS, which could help build a stronger economy by providing credit to firms that are too small to raise investment funds directly from capital markets.
“We have to work in tandem with the markets, see what the market reaction is,” Mersch said of ECB preparations to buy ABS.
“Obviously we will not go into the area of buying the equity tranche. Anything else beyond has to be seen to be under discussion,” he told a conference organized by European banking lobby AFME.
Substantial efforts are under way to improve transparency and disclosure requirements of ABS across the EU, Mersch said.
Nomura bank has said the European securitization market is about 650 billion-700 billion euros, half its pre-crisis size.
Earlier this week AFME said the ECB and BoE must turn talk of reviving the ABS market into speedy action by easing what they see as punitive capital rules planned for the sector.
Separately on Wednesday, Andreas Dombret, the Bundesbank board member responsible for banking supervision, said it was up to the market and not public authorities to revive the sector.
“First and foremost it’s a job for the industry itself,” Dombret told reporters during a visit to London.
“One should not always call for the public sector to be in the forefront when it should be in the interests of the market itself to revitalize that,” Dombret said.
Greg Medcraft, Chairman of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), a regulators’ association, said the biggest challenge for an ABS market revival was to get institutional investors to buy into it, rather than necessarily giving banks more incentives to take part.
“One of the problems was that it was always too easy to sell to banks,” Medcraft said in an interview.
BASEL TOO SLOW?
The ECB and BoE are seeking to create a clearly defined category of high-quality ABS that would benefit from more lenient capital charges for banks than planned under global rules from the Basel Committee of banking regulators.
Mersch said he did not believe that Basel would rush to define high-quality ABS any time soon.
Should it become clear that it would take too long to improve the regulatory requirements for ABS on a global scale, Mersch said Europe could go it alone.
“So if we see the global approach will not be conducive to helping the recovery in the European economic area, we would have to consider whether a more European approach would be helpful,” Mersch added.
Andrea Enria, chairman of the European Banking Authority, an EU watchdog that writes rules for lenders, said Basel was in the “driving seat” when it comes to capital charges on ABS.
“The point is not about bringing down the charges, it’s whether to distinguish between different classes of ABS and securitization, whether this means that the capital treatment can be adjusted accordingly,” Enria told reporters in London.
The EBA will also give the EU advice by September on capital treatment of securitization, Enria added.
Banks worry that once a definition of “simple and transparent” ABS is agreed then the rest of the market could be shunned by investors.
Greater standardization of ABS products is key to stimulating greater activity in the market, he added. He suggested streamlining reporting requirements or providing standardized ABS prospectus templates.
IOSCO’s Medcraft, a former securitization banker, said the ECB’s possible ABS purchases could help shape market standards and bring about more transparency.
“When the ECB does these things, it can drive disclosure requirements,” he said.
Mersch also called for ratings agencies to provide more transparency on how they derive ratings for ABS products.Just a couple of short weeks ago we looked at the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition 16GB graphics card in its air-cooled variety. The results were interesting – gaming performance proved to fall somewhere between the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080 from NVIDIA’s current generation of GeForce products. That is under many of the estimates from players in the market, including media, fans, and enthusiasts. But before we get to the RX Vega product family that is targeted at gamers, AMD has another data point for us to look at with a water-cooled version of Vega Frontier Edition. At a $1500 MSRP, which we shelled out ourselves, we are very interested to see how it changes the face of performance for the Vega GPU and architecture.
Let’s start with a look at the specifications of this version of the Vega Frontier Edition, which will be…familiar.
Vega Frontier Edition (Liquid) Vega Frontier Edition Titan Xp GTX 1080 Ti Titan X (Pascal) GTX 1080 TITAN X GTX 980 R9 Fury X GPU Vega Vega GP102 GP102 GP102 GP104 GM200 GM204 Fiji XT GPU Cores 4096 4096 3840 3584 3584 2560 3072 2048 4096 Base Clock 1382 MHz 1382 MHz 1480 MHz 1480 MHz 1417 MHz 1607 MHz 1000 MHz 1126 MHz 1050 MHz Boost Clock 1600 MHz 1600 MHz 1582 MHz 1582 MHz 1480 MHz 1733 MHz 1089 MHz 1216 MHz - Texture Units?? 224 224 224 160 192 128 256 ROP Units 64 64 96 88 96 64 96 64 64 Memory 16GB 16GB 12GB 11GB 12GB 8GB 12GB 4GB 4GB Memory Clock 1890 MHz 1890 MHz 11400 MHz 11000 MHz 10000 MHz 10000 MHz 7000 MHz 7000 MHz 1000 MHz Memory Interface 2048-bit HBM2 2048-bit HBM2 384-bit G5X 352-bit 384-bit G5X 256-bit G5X 384-bit 256-bit 4096-bit (HBM) Memory Bandwidth 483 GB/s 483 GB/s 547.7 GB/s 484 GB/s 480 GB/s 320 GB/s 336 GB/s 224 GB/s 512 GB/s TDP 300 watts
~350 watts 300 watts 250 watts 250 watts 250 watts 180 watts 250 watts 165 watts 275 watts Peak Compute 13.1 TFLOPS 13.1 TFLOPS 12.0 TFLOPS 10.6 TFLOPS 10.1 TFLOPS 8.2 TFLOPS 6.14 TFLOPS 4.61 TFLOPS 8.60 TFLOPS Transistor Count?? 12.0B 12.0B 12.0B 7.2B 8.0B 5.2B 8.9B Process Tech 14nm 14nm 16nm 16nm 16nm 16nm 28nm 28nm 28nm MSRP (current) $1499 $999 $1200 $699 $1,200 $599 $999 $499 $649
The base specs remain unchanged and AMD lists the same memory frequency and even GPU clock rates across both models. In practice though, the liquid cooled version runs at higher sustained clocks and can overclock a bit easier as well (more details later). What does change with the liquid cooled version is a usable BIOS switch on top of the card that allows you to move between two distinct power draw states: 300 watts and 350 watts.
First, it’s worth noting this is a change from the “375 watt” TDP that this card was listed at during the launch and announcement. AMD was touting a 300-watt and 375-watt version of Frontier Edition, but it appears the company backed off a bit on that, erring on the side of caution to avoid breaking any of the specifcations of PCI Express (board slot or auxiliary connectors). Even more concerning is that AMD chose to have the default state of the switch on the Vega FE Liquid card at 300 watts rather than the more aggressive 350 watts. AMD claims this to avoid any problems with lower quality power supplies that may struggle to hit slightly over 150 watts of power draw (and resulting current) from the 8-pin power connections. I would argue that any system that is going to install a $1500 graphics card can and should be prepared to provide the necessary power, but for the professional market, AMD leans towards caution. (It’s worth pointing out the RX 480 power issues that may have prompted this internal decision making were more problematic because they impacted the power delivery through the motherboard, while the 6- and 8-pin connectors are generally much safer to exceed the ratings.)
Even without clock speed changes, the move to water cooling should result in better and more consistent performance by removing the overheating concerns that surrounded our first Radeon Vega Frontier Edition review. But let’s dive into the card itself and see how the design process created a unique liquid cooled solution.
Continue reading our review of the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Liquid-Cooled card!!
The Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Liquid Cooled Card
The liquid cooled card shares dimensions with the air-cooled card, though without an integrated blower fan, the likeness stops there. The color scheme is reversed, with a yellow brushed metal body and blue accents and illumination. The top Radeon logo and the blue R cube on the end light up in blue, and as I stated on Twitter, I really hate blue LEDs. They are just uncomfortable to my eyes and I know I’m not the only one. Otherwise, the design of this card is just as sexy as the first Vega FE we looked at.
It still requires a pair of 8-pin power connections to run and the liquid cooling tubing and power to the radiator comes from the front of the card. There is plenty of length to the tubing and cabling, allowing for installation in nearly any chassis configuration.
On the back is a full cover back plate with an exposed area for the GPU tach, a set of LEDs that defaults to blue and indicates the GPU workload of the card. The blue on these is particularly piercing…
Internally we have a unique liquid cooler design. On the left is the pump and block covering the GPU and HBM2 stacks and a blue block covering the power delivery on the card as well. Liquid flows in from the top into the GPU block, through the GPU block outlet on the upper right, down through the VRM cooling, around to the far left, and the back out to the radiator.
This unit on the right is part of the diaphragm pump design that makes this card interesting. Think of this is as a flexible reservoir with a high-tension spring to create pressure back into the system. A diaphragm pump works with one-way check valves and reciprocating diaphragm material to create alternating areas of pressure and vacuum. The T-split you see at the top of the primary pump allows the liquid stored in the overflow area to maintain reliable usage of the cooler through the course of natural evaporation of fluid. This is very similar the kinds of pumps used in fish tanks and artificial hearts, likely a more expensive solution than was found on the Radeon Pro Duo or Fury X as an attempt to correct the deficiencies of older generations (noise, reliability).
This kind of cooler design was only made possible by the extended PCB of the Vega Frontier Edition, either by design or as a happy accident. The noise made by this pump is very different than traditional AIO coolers we have used in the office, more of a “gurgle” than any kind of “whine”. It’s more muted than the Radeon Pro Duo or Fury X, that’s for certain.Posted 09 April 2013 - 08:58 AM
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After publishing yesterday's Motorola bootloader unlock tool, I feel bad that some people are running the unrooted 4.1.2 build for Razr HD. Let's fix that.
This exploit will root the Razr HD, Razr Maxx HD, Atrix HD, Photon Q, and Razr M, regardless of what build (LONG SINCE NOT TRUE) they're running. While these are the only supported Motorola devices, it will also root lots of other non-Motorola devices...feel free to try it and see. ;-)
But first, I thought I'd reflect a bit on the state of the rooting/modding community and my involvement in it. I published my first Android root exploit almost two years ago for the Droid 3 (it also re-rooted a number of other earlier devices). Since then, I've rooted every major Motorola device that's been released, including the Bionic, Razr (multiple times), Droid 4, Xoom 2, Atrix HD (multiple times), Razr HD, and Razr M. With the release of this exploit, every major Motorola device in existence has a viable public root method, and the most recent models now have an unlocked bootloader.
I see this as the end of an era for Motorola rooting and modding. At this point, it is significantly more difficult to find vulnerabilities that may be used to root Motorola devices than when I started two years ago, due to fixes for the all the bugs used in previous exploits. It has gotten to the point where there may not be a "next time" for publishing a Motorola root exploit. Of course vulnerabilities still exist, but as the pool of bugs shrinks, the number of people capable of finding them grows smaller and the time investment required increases. As a result, I have no plans to continue publishing Motorola root exploits after this release.
I have hopes that the acquisition of Motorola by Google will gradually lead to changes in policy allowing more open devices. If it doesn't, I encourage everyone to speak with your wallets when purchasing your devices: if an unlocked device is important to you, buy an unlocked device instead of expecting someone to accomplish a difficult hack.
The |
th of April)
Tweaked the down attack, so it can’t be spammed anymore
Forward air attacks are more fluent now
He received the royal treatment and got a massive makeover
Build Version: v0.22
Introducing Brawlout TV (Beta): Watch live matches, and all recent public matches ever played, from our top players and you
No more Diconnect misspells
Removed ‘Are you ready?’ countdown when unpausing during replays and practice mode
Fixed bounce force calculations and hurt animations not playing correctly because of this
You no longer fall in idle/’straight up’ pose while in air
Fixed Practice mode bug where AI wasn’t spawning
You can now do the sprint/dash attack while in rage mode
Build v0.21
Knockback trajectories improved, especially for horizontal forces
Bounces on Ground no longer cut the knockback forces (they’re way more powerful now)
Fixed horizontal movement during certain attack moves (like Sephi’ra Air Attack D)
Characters don’t fall in idle poses mid-air
Can now view the exact inputs for all players in Practice mode and Replays (it’s even easier this way to discover new techniques or to post bugs)
Players are no longer assigned keyboard controls if all controllers disconnect
Menu issues after returning to lobby fixed
Fixed freezes caused by grabs
Improved knockbacks for:
Attack Air U
Attack Air B
Attack Air N Part 5
Attack U Part 2
Slam Down Part 3
Grab on Back Suplex
Attack Side
Improved Recovery movement forces
Improved Knockbacks and movement forces for Attack Air Forward Part 1,2,3
Fixed Moving Sand ‘trap’ timing
Special Air D knockback reduced
Improved Recovery movement forces
Build v0.20
Improved air dash forces to make them smoother and more responsive
Fixed collision errors for hitboxes
Can now view all Practice matches Replays (currently only working with a single AI opponent)
Fixed several issues with combo breaker moves
Fixed bugs where air moves were not responsive
Added new sounds for hits
Can now visualize hitboxes and hurtboxes while in Practice mode
Fixed various cases where controllers disconnect and game is no longer responsive
Made the customize controls screen easier to manage and view
Controllers don’t react when the application is not in focus (viewing other Windows apps).
Fixed several Out of Sync issues
Improved knockbacks for several moves
Fixed many grab visual issues
Can now grab characters which were already grabbed by others
Extra special theme song for Paco’s Aztec temple stage
Improved Recovery movement forces
Can now do the recovery in 360 degrees (can teleport in any direction)
Less knockback on her Air Down attack
Improved all sand visual FX
Improved Recovery movement forces
Fixed Whip Trail FX not showing up
Improved Recovery movement forces
Can now do the recovery in 360 degrees (can fly in any direction)
Slightly lowered jump height and air speed
Fixed visual mesh issues caused by some animations
New theme song for the ice stage
Build v0.19
Fixed projectiles hitting characters during their death animation
Fixed snappy animations when bouncing on ground
Fixed some confirm menu buttons not reacting to controller inputs
You can further customize input mappings for controllers
Added world regions for better matchmaking performance
Fixed out of syncs caused by projectiles
Now you can set the teams and game modes in private lobbies
Fixed grabs interrupted by entering Rage Mode errors
Edge Down Special is no more – will be replaced soon with something less spam-able
Build v0.16
You can now scroll through replays like in a Media Player
Fixed input mapping errors
Fixed win screen input issues
You now get controller disconnects popups
Characters don’t appear to slide when bouncing several times
Combo Breaker removes knockback FX trails
Added joystick rumble/vibration support (you can turn it off in settings if it’s massaging you too much)
Rage now charges as normal in timed game mode
Fixed total score shown on the win screen
Fixed strange teleports on platform edge
Fixed timed mode desyncs
Fixed desyncs caused by random numbers
Fixed chaining multiple recoveries (up specials) when landing on platforms
Fixed the up angle triggering its recovery (it’s now wider)
Can now enter rage mode while stunned
Build v0.14
DI (Directional Influence) is now a feature! The character which receives damage can change/affect the direction he’s flying, if moving the control stick just when the knockback starts (right after the hit)
Characters don’t do grounded moves when the platform under them breaks or disappears (they now fall down)
You can’t trigger a strong charged attack if you release the attack button supper quick (~3 frames)
If you quickly change directions when starting a side attack, the character now turns the right way
Characters no longer teleport when touching the platform edges
Added custom input mapping for all controller types
The pause menu UI now works when watching replays
FPS Cap now works
Added Steam game start options for DirectX 9 related crashes
You can now pick your controller preset during Character Select, for each player
There’s a new monthly leaderboard for Top Hardworking Fighters
Fixed game crash on startup (due to changed resolutions which no longer existed)
Fixed various UI desyncs in lobby
Fixed various Out of Sync errors during gameplay
All players chose their preferred level, and then a random one is picked out of those
You now see a nice, detailed friends invite screen for private matches
You now receive game invites in-game, instead of the Steam overlays
Added Team Play with friendly fire on and off (local and online)
The replays weren’t able to play the right game modes
Fixed pathfinding when running in practice mode
Fixed ghosting in practice mode when changing opponents
It no longer crashes on the Aztec stage
Fixed some Suplex grab rotation errors
Other characters combo breaker weren’t interrupting Paco’s grabs
Fixed remaining jumps after a grab
Fixed Recovery Exploit – you can no longer chain recoveries when touching platforms
Fixed invulnerability bug caused by Paco’s grab
The snowball sprint special wasn’t triggering when sprinting (only when he started)
Build v0.11
Replays now get saved even if an out of sync or other errors occur (so you can send them to us)
The Steam player names are now displayed on top of their characters. You can turn this on and off in the Gameplay Settings menu
Fixed some animation rotation errors
Fixed invincibility bug when failing to do a grab
Build v0.10 #nerfpaco
4 player online matches in Private Lobbies (invite up to 3 other friends to start such matches)
Fixed menu navigation issues for online matches
Sudden Death in Timed matches doesn’t crash anymore
The Anuran Stage (green temple) doesn’t have that side platform anymore – that was from another part of the stage, when it starts to shift
Throwing grabbed opponents off stage doesn’t kill them at low percentages anymore
Grabbing an enemy on his back is tied to the rage meter. When running out of rage, Paco drops his opponent. This makes it harder to keep walking around the stage with opponents on his back. The minimum time is 1 second and max time is 5 seconds.
The Special Down Ground Slam doesn’t throw opponents off stage with such great knockbacks and their stun time is really low when being thrown off the edge
Suplex: New move when grabbing opponents on its back and pressing down
You can’t get hit and then keep grabbing the opponent (preventing moves such as Piledriving into SpaceTM)
The animations for opponents grabbed on his back are now playing correctly
Down Aerial attack has less knockback = less hitstun, so you can’t kill opponents at low percentages anymore
After grabs, opponents don’t move on the Z axis (depth) anymore
Fixed an error where doing a tongue grab followed by a piledriver would make the opponent invincible
Grabbing another Paco who already grabbed another character isn’t possible anymore
His Special Up (Recovery) force is higher, allowing him to fly higher
Fixed a bug where he could only do the chain grab when sprinting
Can’t walk on the edge of stages, and then go under them when placing an ice pillar near the edge
His Up Smash Charge attack can’t be interrupted by other moves anymore
Down Aerial attack has less knockback = less hitstun, so you can’t kill opponents at low percentages anymore
Down Aerial attack has less knockback = less hitstun, so you can’t kill opponents at low percentages anymore
When a character flies to the ground and bounces, the movement is now correct (there was previously an error with the trajectory, with differences if facing left or right)
Attacks, dashes and other moves can’t be performed in jump squat (so you can’t do the ground attacks in air anymore)
When you’re in the air, even after a knockback you always only get your double jumps (one jump for all characters except Chief Feathers) – you used to get 2 jumps when you started being knocked back in a grounded state
Wavedash speed decreased by 12%
You can’t pass through a platform and do a down attack mid air anymore
The air jumps are set correctly after a successful throw
Build v0.09
Added private lobbies – join using Steam invites
Redesigned the way controllers and keyboards are assigned when joining the game
Fixed chain grab causing desyncs or freezes in multiplayer
When the grabbed opponent dies, you no longer follow him with your tongue grab
Build 0.08
Fixed various input mapping issues
Refreshed the UI icons for controller tips and custom inputs
Fixed Gamecube input errors (works 100% on the Mayflash adapter, still needs checking for the original Wii U adapter with the vJoy emulator driver)
You can now reset inputs to its default settings
Fixed various desync bugs
Gameplay
Gameplay Fixed extra hitstun for bouncing and getting up (on medium knockback hits) – this means you can’t do those infinite combo strings anymore and teching isn’t required in this state.
Her down air attack goes slightly faster
Fixed invincibility bug caused by his chain grab
Build 0.06
Redesigned the whole controller input mapping system
Added support for GameCube and Xbox controllers
Added support for keyboard input mapping
Refreshed the UI icons for controller tips
Fixed various desync bugs
Fixed menu navigation issues
Added timeouts for disconnects
Added connection quality icon in-game (if it’s red, one of the players has a bad connection).
The pause menu is no longer overlaid on the win screen
It now clearly displays that you can’t start a local battle unless you have at least 2 players
Fixed turning left and right while doing an attack move
His side special freeze is now a charge move: if you have enough rage, you can charge it for 30 frames and keep your opponent frozen for longer. Before it was 2 seconds of freeze time. Now it’s 1 second uncharged and 2 seconds fully charged
His side attack does less knockback/stun
Fixed an issue where his ice pillar could get broken, and he’d keep attacking in air, as being grounded
Now he can only make 2 ice pillars before touching the ground again (preventing camping off-stage)
The grab on back throws are now less powerful, and their stun time is decreased to half
Fixed wavedashing from rolls only
His side special can now be executed easier
Build 0.05
Play against your friends, on the same PC (up to 4 players – we highly recommend using controllers)
Practice mode – play against a simple AI, to practice your combos and moves
Game modes: Stock, Timed and Timed Stock
Play Stock 1v1 matches
Top players leaderboard – to see how you stack up
[trello.com]Richard DeNapoli is calling it quits as Broward Republican party chairman, emailing party members Monday that he won't seek a second term running the local party.
His decision comes on the heels of the 2012 election blowout in which Republicans lost all the critical local races: the 22nd Congressional District, the 34th state Senate district and Broward sheriff.
DeNapoli's decision follows the move by Palm Beach County Republican chairman Sid Dinerstein not to seek another term after 10 years at the helm of the party.
DeNapoli's email billed his decision as the result of a career move that will take him out of the area. He declined to say where. He also said that vice chairwoman Colleen Stolberg won't seek a second term in that job as well.
Among those running for the top Broward Republican Party post are Karen Harrington, who's twice lost her attempts to unseat U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston. She announced her candidacy via email two hours after DeNapoli bowed out.
Another candidate is Rico Petrocelli. The former Plantation councilman and current member of the Broward County Housing Authority is the party executive director, hired by DeNapoli. "I really believe I can bring consensus without division," he said.
DeNapoli can have a big impact on the next chairman. It's up to him to decide when in December the election will take place. And on Monday he said he hasn't made up his mind on an election date.
In his email, the departing chairman said, "This year's elections were not a defeat of our core Republican principles. If Republicans nationally can articulate an optimistic vision for our country's future that appeals to people across all walks of life, we will see future successes at the polls."The opening Monday night game of the season sees us tackle last season’s runners up Man United in a face off which has regularly delivered exciting games during the Moyes era. This five point preview will take a look at the likely line-ups, players to keep an eye, key trends and suggesting betting.
1.Likely United Side / Pre Season form
United predominantly play 4-4-2 although their wide players are so advanced it’s often 4-2-4. At the back, Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have all been injured and with Rafael on Olympic duty/out of form, Antonio Valencia has been deployed in the problem right back spot in pre season. This hasn’t seemed to affect them though and they have kept 4 clean sheets from 6 pre season games. This has enabled Nani and Ashley Young to be deployed in the key wide berths with new recruit Shinji Kagawa mainly featured in “the hole”behind Rooney. I’d expect Danny Welbeck to partner the former toffee up top as with Van Persie probably starting his United career from the bench.
2. Favoured Route to goal
Like us, United attack predominantly down the flanks and unsurprisngly scored the most headed goals (16) in the top flight last season. Rooney will look to come deep and with him, Scholes and Carrick they have great options in terms of distributing to the wide players / Welbeck in advanced areas as was the case in the 4-4. The below visual demonstrates this;
3. One to Watch
Welbeck has done superbly against us in recent seasons and for me he is the main threat. He has scored a brace against us in each of the last 2 seasons plus a couple of assists. He possesses intelligent movement and has the capacity to pull apart rigid defensive shapes. This will be a real concern for Moyes going into this one as despite having the third tightest defence in the top flight last season United’s forwards dragged Heitinga and Jags all over the place in the away fixture and United could have scored more than 4.
4. EFC Gameplan
We usually play a counter attacking style against the top sides and I wouldn’t expect this to change on Monday night. In terms of selection, Neville has been deployed in midfield to disrupt Utd’s passing rhythm in recent times but personally, I’d play Osman (rather than Neville) as he and Fellaini are comfortable in either MC / AMC positions which gives us the chance to quickly switch things from a long to short game or vice versa should it be required.
Defensively we need to keep our shape better than we did at Old Trafford. Heitinga and Jagielka need to hold their position and avoid following United’s forwards away from our goal and thus reducing the space in behind. United’s wingers are always positioned so advanced playing on the line so it’s implicit that we don’t lose the ball in our own half and enable them to engineer fast break situations.
The Right back area is weak for United with Rafael outfoxed regularly by Pienaar last time out. Whilst solid aerially, United’s centre back duo have a vulnerability in terms of pace that we can exploit. We have scored at least 3 in a game vs Utd in each of the last 3 seasons so Moyes clearly knows how to get at them.
5. Betting
With both sides playing with great width, there is always gaps in the alleys between full backs and centre backs for attacking players to exploit. Whilst the 4-4 was a belter this game pits 2 of the leagues top 3 defences from last season so don’t necessarily expect another humdinger goals wise.;
4 Tips To Ponder….
16/5 Everton to win outright (Bet Victor)
Welbeck to score anytime 2/1 William Hill
8/1 Everton to come from behind to draw ( Willie Hills)..this has happened 3 of last 4 seasons
17/20 Under 2.5 goals in the game (Bet365)
AdvertisementsA project to “green” desert areas with an innovative mix of technologies—producing food, biofuel, clean water, energy, and salt—reached a milestone this week in the Gulf state of Qatar. A pilot plant built by the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) produced 75 kilograms of vegetables per square meter in three crops annually, comparable to commercial farms in Europe, while consuming only sunlight and seawater. The heart of the SFP concept is a specially designed greenhouse. At one end, salt water is trickled over a gridlike curtain so that the prevailing wind blows the resulting cool, moist air over the plants inside. This cooling effect allowed the Qatar facility to grow three crops per year, even in the scorching summer. At the other end of the greenhouse is a network of pipes with cold seawater running through them. Some of the moisture in the air condenses on the pipes and is collected, providing a source of fresh water.
One of the surprising side effects of such a seawater greenhouse, seen during early experiments, is that cool moist air leaking out of it encourages other plants to grow spontaneously outside. The Qatar plant took advantage of that effect to grow crops around the greenhouse, including barley and salad rocket (arugula), as well as useful desert plants. The pilot plant accentuated this exterior cooling with more “evaporative hedges” that reduced air temperatures by up to 10°C. “It was surprising how little encouragement the external crops needed,” says SFP chief Joakim Hauge.
The third key element of the SFP facility is a concentrated solar power plant. This uses mirrors in the shape of a parabolic trough to heat a fluid flowing through a pipe at its focus. The heated fluid then boils water, and the steam drives a turbine to generate power. Hence, the plant has electricity to run its control systems and pumps and can use any excess to desalinate water for irrigating the plants.
The Qatar plant has also experimented with other possibilities such as culturing heat-tolerant algae, growing salt-tolerant grasses for fodder or biofuel, and evaporating the concentrated saline the plant emits to produce salt.
The Qatar plant—which is supported by Qatari fertilizer companies Yara International and Qafco—is just 1 hectare in extent with 600 square meters of growing area in the greenhouse. The fact that this small greenhouse produced such good yields, Hauge says, suggests that a commercial plant—with possibly four crops a year—could do even better. SFP researchers estimate that a facility with 60 hectares of growing area under greenhouses could provide all the cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and egglants now imported into Qatar. The results “reveal the potential for enabling restorative growth and value creation in arid land,” Hauge says. "I personally think that it is very important that people promote and invest in these ideas. Protected agriculture (I call it "indoor food production") is an important option for the desert areas, particularly in the Middle East," says Richard Tutwiler, director of the Desert Development Center at the American University in Cairo. "The big question is economic feasibility. How much did it cost to produce 75 kg of cucumbers per square meter?"
SFP is now engaged in studies aimed at building a 20-hectare test facility near Aqaba in Jordan. “This will be a considerable scaling up from the 1 hectare in Qatar,” Hauge says, and big enough to demonstrate commercial operation.
*Update, 11 November, 2:58 p.m.: A quote from Richard Tutwiler, director of the Desert Development Center at the American University in Cairo, has been added to the story.India is looking to further strengthen its ties with Israel by encouraging Jews of Indian origin to visit India for Jewish heritage tours, the Indian ambassador in Tel Aviv said last week. Ambassador Jaideep Sarkar told the third National Convention of Indian Jews in Israel that his government has many programs that allow for easy travel for young Jews of Indian origin to teach their children about their heritage, the Press Trust of India reported.
The initiative to attract the 85,000 Jews of Indian origin to India is the country’s latest strategy to become closer with the Jewish state, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. "We want to tell the world proudly about the rich Jewish life in India; with your efforts we are working to preserve the Jewish heritage in India. We hope to have a package tour to Jewish heritage sites in Mumbai and elsewhere by early next year,” Sarkar said.
"As Jews you are blessed with power of creativity and innovation; as Indians tolerance and balance runs in your blood. As Jews you are strengthened by your religious traditions; as Indians you have the ability to connect with other people from other faiths and beliefs, so it is vitally important that you pass on these precious qualities and values to your children and grandchildren,” Sarkar went on to say, according to Haaretz.
Indian leaders have said they want to preserve more Jewish heritage sites in their country, the Press Trust reported. Some of these sites that have been renovated included two synagogues in the city of Kochi.
Ambassador Jaideep Sarkar meets #Israel|i Nobel laureates - Pres. Shimon Peres (Peace), Prof. Ada Yonath (Chem.) pic.twitter.com/pL4mh3g4O6 — Indians for Israel (@Indians4Israel) April 24, 2015
Since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, ties between Israel and India have warmed greatly. Last year, India made a series of military deals with Israel, which included buying naval and anti-tank missiles, Haaretz reported. With the purchases, India became the buyer of the most military equipment from Israel. India has also become the largest buyer of Israeli drones, Haaretz reported.Joint Statement on Withdrawal of Support for ENDA and Call for Equal Workplace Protections for LGBT People
The following national LGBT legal organizations have signed onto the below statement: American Civil Liberties Union; Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders; Lambda Legal; National Center for Lesbian Rights; and Transgender Law Center.
The provision in the current version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that allows religious organizations to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity has long been a source of significant concern to us. Given the types of workplace discrimination we see increasingly against LGBT people, together with the calls for greater permission to discriminate on religious grounds that followed immediately upon the Supreme Court’s decision last week in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, it has become clear that the inclusion of this provision is no longer tenable. It would prevent ENDA from providing protections that LGBT people desperately need and would make very bad law with potential further negative effects. Therefore, we are announcing our withdrawal of support for the current version of ENDA.
For decades, our organizations have challenged anti-LGBT workplace discrimination in the courts and worked for the passage of inclusive non-discrimination laws at the local, state, and federal level. We do this work because of the devastating toll workplace discrimination has had, and continues to have, on the lives of LGBT people. It is unacceptable that in the year 2014, men and women are forced to hide who they are or whom they love when they go to work.
The current patchwork of legal protections at the state and local level has left LGBT people vulnerable to discrimination. For this reason, we have supported federal legislation to explicitly protect LGBT people from discrimination in the workplace, and have urged President Obama to sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
ENDA’s discriminatory provision, unprecedented in federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, could provide religiously affiliated organizations – including hospitals, nursing homes and universities – a blank check to engage in workplace discrimination against LGBT people. The provision essentially says that anti-LGBT discrimination is different – more acceptable and legitimate – than discrimination against individuals based on their race or sex. If ENDA were to pass and be signed into law with this provision, the most important federal law for the LGBT community in American history would leave too many jobs, and too many LGBT workers, without protection. Moreover, it actually might lessen non-discrimination protections now provided for LGBT people by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and very likely would generate confusion rather than clarity in federal law. Finally, such a discrimination provision in federal law likely would invite states and municipalities to follow the unequal federal lead. All of this is unacceptable.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby has made it all the more important that we not accept this inappropriate provision. Because opponents of LGBT equality are already misreading that decision as having broadly endorsed rights to discriminate against others, we cannot accept a bill that sanctions discrimination and declares that discrimination against LGBT people is more acceptable than other kinds of discrimination.
Our ask is a simple one: Do not give religiously affiliated employers a license to discriminate against LGBT people when they have no such right to discriminate based on race, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. Religiously affiliated organizations are allowed to make hiring decisions based on their religion, but nothing in federal law authorizes discrimination by those organizations based on any other protected characteristic, and the rule should be the same for sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Religious organizations are free to choose their ministers or faith leaders, and adding protections for sexual orientation and gender identity or expression will not change that.
These concerns are not hypothetical. Increasingly, this is what employment discrimination against LGBT people looks like. Take the example of Matthew Barrett. In July 2013, Matthew was offered a job as food services director at Fontbonne Academy, a college prep high school in Milton, Massachusetts that is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston. Fontbonne Academy has employees and admits students of various faiths. Yet, two days after Matthew listed his husband as his emergency contact on the standard employment paperwork, and despite twenty years of work in the food services industry, his job offer was rescinded. Although nothing about the food services job involved religious rituals or teaching, Matthew was told by an administrator that the school was unable to hire him because “the Catholic religion doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.” The current version of ENDA would authorize this sexual orientation discrimination.
As the national outcry against SB 1062 in Arizona (and similar proposals in numerous other states) demonstrates, the American people oppose efforts to misuse religious liberty as an excuse to discriminate against LGBT people. It is time for ENDA (and the LGBT non-discrimination executive order for federal contractors) to reflect this reality. Until the discriminatory exemption is removed so that anti-LGBT discrimination is treated the same as race, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information under federal workplace laws, we think ENDA should not move forward in Congress. In addition, we will oppose any similar provisions at the state and local level. We are hopeful that the many members of Congress who support this historic, critically important legislation will agree that singling out LGBT people for an unequal and unfair exemption from basic workplace protection falls unacceptably short of the civil rights standards that have served our nation well against other types of discrimination for fifty years. We stand ready and eager to work with them to achieve the long-sought goal of explicit, effective federal non-discrimination protections for LGBT people.1. Bleach
My first connection to magazines, maybe my most immediate, is the smell of bleach.
My father worked in a printers’ shop; it was a trade my mother had gotten him into, when she worked at a newspaper. It worked for him, kept him going, and it was a step up; before she got him in, he’d been mowing lawns at golf courses. I did visit him at work, once or twice; after everyone else was gone, when it was his night to have me but he still had to finish some things. I did see him putting pages together. And he brought me things from work to play with, when I was little: a little booklet full of different swatches of color that I could flip through, which I now realize were colors of ink, and a notepad with “Doyle” on it, personalized, which he thought was cool. But I never knew much about his work, or what he did, really. It wasn’t something he talked about when he was home. So mostly, bleach is what I remember. He’d come home, after work, and take out a jug of bleach, and put it on the edge of the kitchen sink. And then — so that he didn’t “look bad,” he told me, “so he could take girls out on dates” — he’d use it to scrub the ink stains off his hands.
I don’t know what my deal is, around class, but it starts here.
2. Kitchens
Living in Ohio is cheaper than living in New York. My first stepfather worked the night shift at a grocery store; it wasn’t understood that we were doing poorly. My best friend’s mother worked the deli counter at a different grocery store. You could live on that money. The woman across the street sold equipment and moonshine at rodeos, and wasn’t married, and some kids in the neighborhood weren’t allowed to play with her kids, because the understanding was that she’d used to strip. The understanding was also that her husband had committed suicide; this always came hand-in-hand with the stripping rumors, was believed by the nice church-going ladies of our block to be connected somehow. If women were not good women, their men would die: This was the lesson here. So, not all of us had office jobs, or the education or background required to get them. But we had our own houses, we were suburban, the idea that we weren’t firmly middle-class would have been an insult to us. Of course we were. Everyone was.
There were a few hints, of course, that our lives weren’t the only possible lives. For one, there was the nice part of town, where the popular kids all seemed to be living by miraculous coincidence. My friend R and I got an in to the nice part of town, by the time we were in high school — C, a girl a bit younger than we were, who was in our girls’ choir. Her house was new, and to us it was massive; two big floors, both with high ceilings, a basement rec room with a real pinball machine and a TV as wide as three people standing with arms linked. C had two kitchens. In retrospect this still seems impossible, something my memory would have put together out of blurred images just to represent how huge her house seemed, but I have tried to remember it differently, and there it is: We were having a movie night at her house, in front of the giant TV, and we wanted to make some popcorn, and her sister was using the microwave. At which point C said, “don’t worry. We’ll just use the other kitchen.”
R and I made faces at each other behind her back. There was an implicit power relation, a con job we were pulling on this girl; she was younger, we were making her cooler by giving her older friends. R had lost her virginity, which made her a real catch; she could tell other girls about it, cash in on her expertise. But the vast majority of our friendship with C involved getting access to her house and marveling at it. Its size, its gleaming fanciness, its miraculous number of kitchens. C didn’t seem to enter into it, as a point of attraction. Not on her own. And our houses, well: We didn’t quite want her to see them. Why should she? She was the one with the big TV.
But we didn’t talk about class. We didn’t have that language. We used the word “rich,” for people like C; this implied quite a few things, not least permission to heap our endless contempt upon the people we described by it. The rich were weak, pampered, shallow, elitist, didn’t have good values, didn’t have to work as hard as we did. We used “poor,” to describe people who were homeless; this was shameful too, implied you were lazy, couldn’t cut it, didn’t work hard enough to get ahead. This was America, after all; anyone could succeed, unless there was something wrong with them. But us, our deal: class didn’t enter into it. We were middle-class. “Middle-class” meant “normal.” It wasn’t shameful in either direction. So it was the term we used. “Middle-class,” we believed, was about character. Not money. Though character and money, we knew, were linked in crucial ways.
3. Trailer
I never thought my father was not middle-class. Or my stepfather, or my mother during the bad years. To think that would have been to insult him, somehow. So the most I could ever think to say, about my father, was that he was different. There was something different, about how he lived.
There was his accent. I was not allowed to pronounce words the way he did, or use the same words, or string them together in the same order: “Ain’t,” and “don’t” instead of “doesn’t” (as in, “that don’t sound right”), were not how nice people talked. Similarly, I was to say “movie thee-ter,” not “movie thee-YAY-ter,” and “baby doll,” not “baby dowl.” My father was from Ohio, same as my mother; this wasn’t about place, this distinction. This was about “sounding nice.” Some people in our town sounded nice, some didn’t.
And my father didn’t have a house. He lived in an apartment. It wasn’t separated from the city, but close to it — I could see stores from his back yard, and garages, and restaurants. This was different, not quite “nice,” not quite comfortable. He also didn’t look right, didn’t look like nice people looked; his hair was too long, he wore leather jackets and jean jackets, he knew men who had tattoos and dated women with big, long hair, like the hair sexy girls had in videos for metal bands on MTV. His brothers rode motorcycles sometimes and broke their bones, they walked around without shirts on saying “ain’t” and “don’t,” one of them had legally changed his name from Joseph to Boozer, to celebrate getting out of court-ordered rehab. He was the one who broke his bones most often, and my brother was named after him — not “Boozer,” sadly, but “Joey.” But the family accepted the name change, embraced it; he was “Uncle Boozer,” and we said hello to cousins around town. Hey, you’re Boozer’s girl. Also, my father didn’t have two parents. I was confused by this part. He didn’t have a Dad and a Mom, I didn’t have a full set of grandparents on that side. But my grandmother wasn’t dead; she was just not there, and we just didn’t talk about it. So what I had was a Grandpa and an Aunt Mimi.
The history, as I have pieced it together, is this: When my father was very young, his mother was hospitalized. No-one would ever tell me what for, and at this point in my life I’m honestly not in touch with anyone who knows, but it was a “breakdown,” a mental illness of some kind. My grandfather had too many children — they were Catholics, after all — and a wife in an institution who was not expected to leave any time soon, and he had to make some choices, financially speaking. Specifically, he had to choose which children he could and could not afford.
My father didn’t make the cut. He went off to Aunt Mimi. She was my real grandparent. My father had cordial relationships with his father, and with his brothers, but Aunt Mimi was the one he loved.
She was fearsome. When I took a Barbie to Aunt Mimi’s place, she told me to put it away, because Barbie had a short skirt on and no panties; “she needs to hide her shame,” is what Aunt Mimi said. She was a salty old broad, legally blind, fed birds religiously because she liked to hear them sing to her, and was very much not in the mood to be pitied or patronized or taken care of, under any circumstances, by anyone in this world. Anyone, that is, except my father. I never saw him with anyone, the way I saw him with Aunt Mimi; not my mother, not any of his girlfriends, certainly not in the presence of other men. He spoke softly and politely, pulled out chairs for her, cooked her a nice meal when he visited. My father was a passionate and excellent cook; it was the skill he was proudest of, and he would insist that I watch him while he put together every meal and narrated it all, telling me what he was doing that lesser cooks wouldn’t know how to do or would leave out; I dated a man for two years, I think specifically because he had this exact same habit, and to this day my good memories of my father all revolve around food. I didn’t realize until much later, that this all came from Aunt Mimi. That he had cooked for her every day, growing up. That was their relationship, not a simple mother-child transaction of caring and being cared for; they were a team, and took care of each other.
I fucked up with Aunt Mimi, the first time I met her. I was greeted, I was shown the bird feeder where the birds came to keep her company, I was shown |
tests and extensive interviews with both psychologists and psychiatrists.
However, Mars One's selection process is quite different. Certified physicians and scientists with years of experience will not select the future Mars colonists — you will. The public will choose the candidates who make it to the final round after a televised gameshow-like reality competition.
There will be a national selection in which 20-40 applicants per country will participate in challenges "that demonstrate their suitability to become one of the first humans on Mars." This whole process will more than likely be broadcast on television, and the the audience will select the one applicant from their respective country that will move forward.
Mars One will still have the final say of who goes to Mars, and crew selection will also depend heavily on how the members get along with each other, a key interpersonal component NASA also looks for when assessing astronaut candidates.
"These people should be comfortable with being observed all the time," says Kraft. "They won't have a lot of privacy."
On paper, a future colonist's day on Mars sounds similar to the life we live on Earth — do a job for eight hours per day, after which they can go "home" to call family or watch television. But, in reality, it's more like an extraterrestrial version of The Truman Show — a life lived under surveillance.
Suicide Mission or Revolutionary Exploration?
Like the vast majority of federal space agency experts, Shepanek believes that a round-trip manned mission to Mars should precede Mars colonization. An extended stay on Mars "would be something to answer after we go for a short period of time," he says.
The astronauts' health is NASA's No. 1 priority, according to Shepanek. When it comes to putting a man on Mars to live, however, there just simply isn't enough information to guarantee that.
"Working for NASA and knowing astronauts as I do, I want to keep them healthy. If given a choice, we like to bring our people home," Shepanek explains. "It's not unlike the field — we leave no one behind. We will take care of health and safety no matter what. Failure is not an option."
Mars to Stay proponents, though, don't believe this one-way journey is a suicide mission. Its supporters point out that, historically, man has gone to the ends of the Earth without the promise of return in the name of exploration. Columbus, Frobisher and Scott embarked upon their missions at the expense of huge personal risks.
That notion of boundless exploration is one of the only things that both federal agency experts and Mars colony supporters can agree on when it comes to putting humans on the Red Planet.
"If the kings of Spain and England could send people around a world that was potentially flat, I couldn't imagine that we wouldn't be capable of going to Mars and coming back," says Shepanek. "People are flexible; they adapt. There are all kinds of people in history who have survived heroically [...] It's amazing what people can do when they have to."
Mashable composite/photo courtesy of NASA; Image of Mars colony courtesy of Mars OneBig banks are apparently too big to jail, even when they bankroll terrorists and drug cartels, while regular people fill the prisons in the world’s largest drug population for mostly non-violent drug offenses.
Aaron Dykes
Activist Post
As a former Anti-Money Laundering Officer at HSBC, Everett Stern was arguably never actually supposed to catch money laundering activity. Instead, with little training but an inclination to make a difference, Stern caught massive levels of fraud, and contacted CIA and FBI officials in the summer of 2010 to alert them of systematic financing for terrorist organization, drug cartels and other shady entities.
HSBC was eventually fined $1.9 billion dollars by the U.S. Treasury, but Stern recently joined Occupy Wall Streets’ Alt Banking protest (See video) – despite being a self-described conservative Republican – to call for criminal charges and accountability over what he says is continued money laundering on the part of HSBC officials.
Luke Rudkowski, of We Are Change, spoke with Everett Stern about his whistleblowing activities, and how he says the bank deliberately set itself up to fail at catching laundering transactions:
Certain companies and individuals flagged for illicit and criminal behavior are officially flagged in the system, and prohibited from authorized trade. But according to Stern, executives inside the system learned how to simply reclassify the coding to allow payments to go through to these entities.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were funneled to terrorist organizations including Hamas and Hezbollah – via the firm Tajco, operated by the Tajideen brothers – as well as drug cartels like Sinaloa and Los Zetas and Russian mobsters.
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At the center of Everett Stern’s (@Twitter) whistleblowing allegations is an account of how HSBC gave the appearance of putting into place a serious anti-money laundering unit, while in actuality it hired low level debt collectors with little to no experience, after it sold off its card card division to Capitol One.
Rolling Stone’s February 2013 article ‘Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail’ helped but Everett Stern’s case in the spotlight. In it, Matt Taibbi explained the circumstances that led to Stern catching the illegal activity:
From the outset, Stern knew there was something weird about his job. “I had to go to the library to take out books on money-laundering,” Stern says now, laughing. “That’s how bad it was.” There were no training courses or seminars on money-laundering – what it was, how to detect it. His work mainly consisted of looking up the names of unsavory characters on the Internet and then running them through the bank’s internal systems to see if they popped up on any account names anywhere.
Even weirder, nobody seemed to care if anybody was doing any actual work.
Later, Stern took it upon himself to look up suspicious names, research their connections on the Internet, and try to find them in the financial transactions database:
Soon enough, though, out of boredom and also maybe a little bit of patriotism, Stern started to sift through some of the backlogged alerts and tried to make sense of them. Almost immediately, he found a series of deeply concerning transactions. There was an exchange company wiring large sums of money to untraceable destinations in the Middle East. A Saudi fruit company was sending millions, Stern found with a simple Internet search, to a high-ranking figure in the Yemeni wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Stern even learned that HSBC was allowing millions of dollars to be moved from the Karaiba chain of supermarkets in Africa to a firm called Tajco, run by the Tajideen brothers, who had been singled out by the Treasury Department as major financiers of Hezbollah. [emphasis added]
Survival Solar Battery Charger - Free Today! Stern, who wanted to become a clandestine CIA agent to fight terrorism, says he’s now under threat of legal action from HSBC, but shrugged it off, telling Luke Rudkowski that he considers blowing the whistle about these activities to be a “national security issue.” Stern previously testified as a federal witness in the U.S. Government’s probe into HSBC money laundering, but unsatisfied, he continues his efforts through the grassroots to demand justice for officials involved and an end to their activities. As Taibbi wrote, “the U.S. Justice Department granted a total walk to executives of the British-based bank HSBC for the largest drug-and-terrorism money-laundering case ever. Yes, they issued a fine – $1.9 billion, or about five weeks’ profit – but they didn’t extract so much as one dollar or one day in jail from any individual, despite a decade of stupefying abuses.” HSBC, based in London, with U.S. offices in Delaware and around the world, is by no means the only major bank involved in money laundering for terrorists and drug dealers. In 2011, the London Guardian reported on how Wachovia – now part of Wells Fargo – also found itself in hot water for “failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme” back in 2006 after Mexican troops intercepted a plane carrying 5.7 tonnes of cocaine and $100 million, which were later traced back to laundering activities through the bank. Charges were brought against the bank, but resulted in only a relatively small fine. The Guardian reported: Criminal proceedings were brought against Wachovia, though not against any individual, but the case never came to court. In March 2010, Wachovia settled the biggest action brought under the US bank secrecy act, through the US district court in Miami. Now that the year’s “deferred prosecution” has expired, the bank is in effect in the clear. It paid federal authorities $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50m fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine. Aaron Dykes is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com, where this first appeared. As a writer, researcher and video producer who has worked on numerous documentaries and investigative reports, he uses history as a guide to decode current events, uncover obscure agendas and contrast them with the dignity afforded individuals as recognized in documents like the Bill of Rights.GiveWell, by far the best charity evaluator working today, has a new top ranked charity, the Against Malaria Foundation. Why is VillageReach, their best ranked charity for several years, no longer at the top? First, GiveWell is ranking more charities and charities are now more willing to provide GiveWell the kind of detailed information on outcomes that GiveWell demands. Thus, more charities are vying for the top spot. Even more important is this:
VillageReach was our top-rated organization for 2009, 2010 and much of 2011 and it has now received over $2 million due to GiveWell’s recommendation. We do not believe that VillageReach has short-term funding needs…
When was the last time that a charity or evaluator told you that due to successful fund-raising there are now more urgent needs elsewhere? Impressive. As I have for several years, I will be following GiveWell’s advice and donating to the Against Malaria Foundation and several of GiveWell’s other top charities.Submission entries for the B-21 bomber naming contest concluded May 5.Active, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen, along with their dependents, submitted more than 4,600 entries in response to the contest announced by Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James during the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in February."We received an overwhelming number of nominations, which to me is a testament to how invested our Airmen are in the future of their Air Force," James said. "Thank you to everyone who submitted, and we're looking forward to announcing the B-21's name in the fall."Air Force leadership is still reviewing the submissions and will select the name that best represents this new capability while also ensuring it meets all regulatory requirements.James and the Air Force chief of staff will select the winner in the coming months, and the name of the 21st century bomber is scheduled to be announced during the AFA conference in September.In the event the selected name was submitted by multiple people, the individual with the best justification for the name will be declared the winner.For the latest updates, visit www.af.milLiving on a boat. What’s it really like?
Living on a boat.
Before we set off from Hull on Cygnus III we were told many times that “We would never actually leave” and “You will be back in a few days”. Well now its six years later and we “did leave” and “did not come back”. I might admit that this was down to my navigational skills that got us lost and we did not know how to get back!
In those five years we have visited numerous countries and many hundreds of ports and anchorages. It is not that we wanted to visit so many places but without signposts in the sea you have to occasionally go in and find out where you are!
Living on a boat is a simplistic way of life.
Since leaving we have had to change our lifestyle quite a bit from the way we lived in a house to a more sedate and simplistic way of doing things. It is not that we are tree huggers or paid up members of Greenpeace. It is just that we don’t have a choice.
What is the difference between living on a boat and living in a house?
I have written a post previously about how you can practise living on a boat from the discomfort of your own home. So how is actually living aboard a boat that different from being in a house? Let me explain by going through a normal day….
Are we still in the same place?
When living on a boat the most important thing to do before anything else in the morning is to make sure we are still in the same place. This is quiet important to us. I doubt that many people in houses wake up saying “George, the house has moved again” but if we get our anchoring wrong we get woken up by a drunken stag party of boat eating rocks trying to get in.
What’s that floating by?
The first thing most people do after waking up is to go to the bathroom. (Did you know a minute is different depending on what side of the bathroom door you are on?) We still have to go as well but where as in a house you push a button and think no more of it we have to think carefully. If we are in a port or anchorage with people swimming the last thing they want is a smelly, brown haze emanating from our boat all around them. We have to make sure it goes into a holding tank so we can lose it out at sea. (A tip here with guests who want to swim when you need to leave is to throw a few sheets of toilet paper with brown sauce in the water when they are not looking. Point it out to them and your guests tend to scramble aboard very quickly).
Jumping in the shower.
Taking a shower is a win for us. It may not take long in a house but for us we just jump off the boat into the sea. There is nothing better. The only thing we have to be careful of is the use of fresh water to shower off afterwards. We carry a limited amount so when our fresh water is getting low we can spend a day or more trying to find somewhere we can fill up.
Shopping is a major exercise.
The next thing you may do in a house is put the kettle on for a hot drink. We can do that provided our gas has not run out but what if you have run out of milk or something for breakfast? Well you jump into the car and go to the shops getting back before the kettle has boiled. For us it is a major expedition that has to be pre-planned. We are probably anchored in some secluded bay so we have to get the dinghy out and take it ashore finding somewhere safe to leave it. We also have to remember to take all our accumulated rubbish ashore with us as on a boat it soon smells like a sumo wrestler’s nappy. Then there is the walk to find a shop in a strange place and carrying whatever groceries we need back. The episode can take half a day as real men will only make one trip no matter how much they have to carry.
Short on clothes.
So for those in a house you may need to get changed into your work clothes. I will already be in mine, a pair of shorts. We definitely win here.
Johnny Cash is driving us to work.
Then you have to get to work which may be a 20 mile drive. Just enough time to listen to a Johnny Cash song. On a boat we may decide to sail to another bay. The weather probably will not bother you in a car but we have to check it first to see if we can survive it on our sail. We have to check everything is put away so some forgotten saucepan or cup will not decapitate you during the sail. Unless you are very late for work I doubt you will ever get your car over at a 45 degree angle along the way. Your quick 20 mile car journey may take us between 4 and 6 hours but we have had to listen to every song Johnny Cash ever recorded and contemplated suicide several times. On arrival you put the handbrake on and unless you are in a crime hotspot you will be pretty sure your car will still be there when you get back. When we reach our destination we have to pad around like a cat on a pillow looking for the right spot to anchor. As soon as you apply the handbrake you are out the car and away. For us we have to check each time the wind and weather changes we are still in the same spot and we are not going to swing round and hit our neighbour’s boat.
Washing away the day.
So now it is early evening and you have arrived home after a gruelling day at work. Just one or two more things to do and then you can finally relax. First you may have to do some clothes washing but you can throw it in a machine. We have already done our washing. Those shorts we have been wearing for the last three months whilst living on a boat get washed each time you swim and ironing means pegging them out in the sun.
Tell me that story again, and again, and again.
You may put “Deadenders” or “Cremation Street” on your television to relax and help you escape reality. For us we will look round at our reality and pay a visit to a nearby boat unless they get to you first. Either way you make new friends from all over the world, drink plenty and best of all you can tell all your old stories to someone new. For me with the memory of a goldfish with Alzheimer’s this is a blessing. The only thing left is to stagger and fall into the dinghy and try to find your own boat again. This is no easy task in the dark and getting alongside and on board is like pushing hot marshmallows in a money box. It can all end up in a terrible mess.
So how was your day …..
How will you know when you truly living on a boat?
If your living on a boat these descriptions may ring your ships bell?
When staying in a house you always come down stairs backwards You find yourself bleeding from random places at random times. You and your wife define “taking a break” as moving about six feet apart and looking in opposite directions. You avoid telling people you live on a boat just so you don’t have to explain to them you actually sleep on it as well… again. You think butter only comes in soft or liquid form. You only have 3 cooking pots. When invited to dinner at someone’s house you spend all night turning unnecessary lights off. When invited to dinner at someone’s house you ask if you can do your laundry. The doctor assumes your body covered in random bruises is a sign of physical abuse. You are the only one who doesn’t want to win the big screen TV at the charity raffle. You think “Game of thrones” is something you do when two people need the toilet at once. Kids think you’re the coolest person on earth. Adults think you have lost your marbles. When you don’t like the neighbourhood you just move. You are content knowing that sailing is code for boat repair in exotic places. You can assemble a gourmet dinner using only one pot and mouldy cheese. Doing laundry involves a net bag, a moving boat, and 50 feet of line. When asked for a piece of paper, you ask if they want course or fine. You don’t want anything for Christmas that isn’t on a Kindle. Cardboard boxes, wrappers, and packing are thrown away before getting onto the boat. You define a good anchorage as one where you can get Wi-Fi. Your wallet contains more boat cards than business cards You know what a boat card is. When visiting ashore, you wake everybody at daylight screaming “We’re aground “when you open your eyes and don’t see water. You define an easy chore as one where you don’t have to pull everything out of the locker first. You covet new solar panels more than a new car. You can identify boats by the sound of their halyard slapping against their mast. Removing things from the refrigerator is like playing Jenga. In shoe shops you go straight to the flip-flops. You accidentally put your life jacket on when you get in a car. You walk in the rain all the way back to your boat, carrying a backpack, a load of laundry, groceries destined to fall out of their bag at any second… all while thinking how lucky you are. Filling the water tanks is a full day’s work. The only thing you do religiously on Sundays is wonder what day it is. The first thing you do after setting the anchor is to see what other boats you know. You talk to your boat and give parts of it stupid names. You understand and pay attention to the entire weather forecast. You spend weekends sitting in your cockpit with a boat hook beside you, waiting to fend off the next holiday charter boat. Every time you consider buying something you have to decide what you’ll get rid of to make room for it. When visiting ashore you look for instructions on how to use a push button toilet. A three minute hot shower is pure indulgence. You covet your neighbour’s engine more than his wife. Ice cubes are the ultimate luxury. You have to strap a bag full of water to your boom & wait a few hours before you can take a hot shower. You’ve googled to see if there are any companies that make triangular bed sheets. You know that duct tape was invented by God. You only bring out real cups for fancy occasions. Trying to find a partner to sail away with you isn’t being romantic, it’s kidnapping. Your computer homepage is the Weather Service You’ve spent mornings standing naked on the deck of someone else’s boat, adjusting halyards, lashing lines & freezing your ass off. You have given up trying to defend your lifestyle and are content with smugly thinking…..they don’t know just what they are missing. Having sex always rocks your boat.
Voted in the top 20 best sailing websites.
We have just had some really good news in that Boats and Outboards have voted us in their top 20 best sailing blogs. Clicking on the link will take you there and you can of course see and read other great sailing blogs.
As always we really like to hear your thoughts so please leave a comment below or send us a message. We are always happy to answer any questions about living on a boat.Timing, timing, timing. That’s what defines a fantasy sleeper. If you’ve read my annual sleeper column the past few years, you know I don’t identify sleepers the way most people do: to me, a sleeper isn’t always just a guy very few people have heard of. No, in my world, sleepers are players who offer unexpected value because they can be drafted at the perfect time – later than they should be, because they’ve slipped through cracks for whatever reason.
I define sleepers as:
1. Players who will outperform their average draft positions
2. Players who will outperform some players drafted before them
3. Players you can steal cheap at the end of drafts to reap major profits
I’ve cross-referenced my fantasy top 200 for 2017-18 with the current average draft positions (ADPs) for Yahoo pools to identify sleepers. And remember, while a sleeper can be a no-name, it doesn’t have to be. Last season, I ranked Leon Draisaitl 104th when he was being drafted 168th on average. He was a sleeper because I expected him to perform as a ninth-rounder in 12-team leagues when he was being picked in the 14th round on average. With that logic in mind, here are 10 sleepers to watch in 2017-18.
Oliver Bjorkstrand, Columbus Blue Jackets (THN rank: 170; Yahoo ADP: undrafted)
All this kid does is score at every level. He was a monster performer in major junior with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. He had 10 goals in 17 games during the 2016 AHL playoffs to help the Lake Erie Monsters win the Calder Cup. His brief NHL stints over the past two seasons have added up to 10 goals in 38 games, putting him on a 20-plus goal clip for a full season.
The Blue Jackets are a deep, versatile team at forward, but with respect to the dynamite Cam Atkinson, they don’t have a sniper quite like Bjorkstrand, a guy who could mature into someone who makes the opposition tremble every time he has the puck. Bjorkstrand is ready for a full-time NHL role and, when he gets one, it will make sense to play him on a scoring line. The dream scenario would land him with Alexander Wennberg and Artemi Panarin, but even a second-line assignment would work just fine. Bjorkstrand is pretty much free at the draft table, meaning there’s no risk to picking him, and he has the ceiling to score 25 or 30 goals this year.
Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils (THN rank: 121; Yahoo ADP: 158.7)
Chris Kunitz and Connor Brown are currently coming off the board before Hischier on average. Yes, it’s smart to temper expectations for No. 1 overall draft pick Hischier to avoid comparing him to Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. But Kunitz? Good gravy. Hischier is still plenty good if he’s going No. 1 overall in real life. He’s a creative, shifty scorer who could become a Danny Briere or Claude Giroux type. And Hischier has a tremendous opportunity in front of him. Travis Zajac’s long-term injury eliminates major competition for the Devils’ first-line center gig with Taylor Hall on the left wing. Hischier should be going a couple rounds earlier in drafts based on his projected role alone, and he has the talent to run with the job. I expect his ADP will rise during training camp as puff pieces about him start piling up.
Bo Horvat, Vancouver Canucks (THN rank: 110; Yahoo ADP: 163.1)
Horvat? A sleeper? He’s the Canucks’ best forward and went to the NHL All-Star Game last year. But, hey, drafters are treating him like a nobody, meaning you can steal him in casual leagues, so he deserves sleeper status for a second straight year. If he didn’t overtake Henrik Sedin for first-line pivot duty last year, it happens in 2017-18. Horvat is a heart-and-soul leader and likely the future captain of this team. He’ll probably never be a point-per-game player, but he has another echelon to climb. A 60- or 65-point season feels doable.
Jussi Jokinen, Edmonton Oilers (THN rank: 182; Yahoo ADP: undrafted)
Jokinen is 34, just got bought out by his previous team and could play as low as the third line in Edmonton. So why the sleeper treatment? First off, anyone sniffing the Oilers’ top-nine forward group should be drafted in medium to deep leagues, so it’s inexcusable to see that not happening with Jokinen right now. Secondly, he can play all three forward positions and knows his way around a power play. Depending on how Oilers coach Todd McLellan deploys his lines, we could see Jokinen playing the left wing on Connor McDavid’s unit. Maybe Draisaitl ends up the second-line center, and Jokinen plays with him and Milan Lucic. Maybe Jokinen centers Ryan Strome or Jesse Puljujarvi. The permutations are fascinating. It’s thus worth grabbing Jokinen as a late-round lottery ticket and watching how the line combos play out in the pre-season.
Clayton Keller, Arizona Coyotes (THN rank: 118; Yahoo ADP: 172.3)
Why hasn’t the light bulb turned on for drafters with Keller? He has first-round pedigree, picked seventh overall by the Coyotes in 2016. He was a dominant NCAA player at Boston U. His skills are most commonly compared with Patrick Kane’s. Our scouting panel of NHL scouts and executives rated Keller the No. 1 overall NHL-affiliated prospect last winter.
Maybe fantasy owners see Derek Stepan, Christian Dvorak and Dylan Strome as threats to Keller’s playing time down the middle? Don’t worry about that. Not only does Keller have superior raw skill to Dvorak’s and Strome’s, but Keller doesn’t have to play center. New Desert Dogs coach Rick Tocchet will find a way to fit Keller onto a scoring line, even if that means the wing. He’s my pick to win the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie this year.
Anthony Mantha, Detroit Red WIngs (THN rank: 133; Yahoo ADP: 167.1)
Mantha potted a respectable 17 goals and tallied 36 points in 60 games last season while posting outstanding possession numbers. There’s a lot of room for him to grow based on how good he is at driving shot attempts in Detroit’s favor. While he didn’t fast-track to the NHL as a teen, he was a first-round pick in 2013 and was a big-time scorer in the junior ranks. Absolutely nothing about Mantha feels fluky, and it’s not like his shooting percentage was unsustainable at 12.8. It could actually improve given Mantha’s natural skill. He’s a good pick to lead Detroit in goals this year. I could see him getting 25, no problem. Drafters seem scared off because the Red Wings look like they’ll struggle again. But non-playoff teams aren’t always fantasy graveyards. Mantha should turn a nice profit at his modest ADP.
Brayden Point, Tampa Bay Lightning (THN rank: 129; Yahoo ADP: 167.7)
I see what’s happening with Point in fantasy drafts. The concern is that healthy Steven Stamkos + Tyler Johnson’s presence pushes Point into the third-line center role, right? Don’t worry. Point is too good not to be a fantasy factor. He had nine goals and 16 points in his final 15 games of 2016-17 as a rookie. There’s a good chance Tampa simply moves him to the wing to ensure he gets top-six minutes. He could also surpass Johnson as early as this year in the pecking order, anyway. Point is a special little player. I’ll be reaching for him in drafts this year.
Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche (THN rank: 125; Yahoo ADP: 169.3)
There’s probably a link between this time of year and that silly-low ADP for Rantanen. Most savvy GMs wouldn’t draft their leagues this early, so there’s a good chance the leagues drafting a month before the season starts have a lot of casual fantasy players. Those same people might look at Rantanen’s modest 20 goals and 39 points on a last-place team and shrug their shoulders.
But we know better. We know Rantanen is a big, powerful future star who dominated the AHL two seasons ago and who finished 2016-17 on Colorado’s top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Sven Andrighetto. We know Rantanen led his team in goals at age 20, and that he scored six of those goals in the last eight games of the season. Rantanen is a first-line NHL talent, and he’ll continue his progression this season. He’s already established a floor of about 20-20-40, so 25-25-50 doesn’t feel like an aggressive projection at all.
Sam Reinhart, Buffalo Sabres (THN rank: 130; Yahoo ADP: 164.6)
Reinhart lands on the sleeper list a second straight year because he didn’t elevate to fantasy stardom like he was supposed to last year. It wasn’t really his fault. Blame his stalled development on Jack Eichel’s ankle injury. Once Reinhart got his center back, everything went as planned. He had 37 points in the 58 games that followed. That’s a 52-point pace, and it represents Reinhart’s floor now. I expect a true breakout for him and Eichel this season.
Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers (THN rank: 126; Yahoo ADP: 168.1)
Drafters are ruthless. A guy misses a chunk of a season with injury, and people treat his abbreviated numbers like they’re his full-season total. Their loss, our gain. Zibanejad was on pace for better than a 60-point season before breaking his leg last November, and now he gets the Rangers’ No. 1 center gig to himself with Derek Stepan off to Arizona. Zibanejad is one of the cheapest first-line centers to draft right now. He shouldn’t be. Snatch him up if he keeps falling outside the top 150 selections.
THE HEAD-SCRATCHER TOP FIVE
Some of the ADPs are so absurd that I can’t apply a sleeper label in good conscience. I don’t know what people are doing here, but I want in their leagues, and I want to play for money:
Viktor Arvidsson, Nashville Predators (THN rank: 67; Yahoo ADP: 103.1)
Max Domi, Arizona Coyotes (THN rank: 65; Yahoo ADP: 159.8)
Anders Lee, New York Islanders (THN rank: 122; Yahoo ADP: 165.0)
Vincent Trocheck, Florida Panthers (THN rank: 93; Yahoo ADP: 169.8)
Alexander Wennberg, Columbus Blue Jackets (THN rank: 80; Yahoo ADP: 163.2)
THE GOALIE SLEEPER
Goalies never make my official sleeper list because I never rank them as highly as standard leagues do, but we can still identify value-pick netminders relative to where they’re drafted. Last year, I championed Cam Talbot. You’re welcome. This year: Mike Smith. He’s the 18th goalie off the board right now, which is totally understandable given the bland numbers he’s posted for years on bad Arizona teams. But he has a shot at a massive resurgence on what should be easily the best team he’s ever had in front of him, which includes a top-four of Mark Giordano, Dougie Hamilton, T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic on defense. Smith should at the very least should be a cheap source of 35 or more wins, and maybe he puts it all together to show us he was good this whole time and simply masked by a poor supporting cast.
THE ALL-DEEP SLEEPER TEAM
For anyone complaining the sleepers above aren’t real sleepers, here’s a group of more obscure names to watch and target at the end of your drafts. Yes, I realize most of these guys will be gone in dynasty leagues:
G: Antti Raanta, Arizona Coyotes
D: Julius Honka, Dallas Stars
D: Shea Theodore, Vegas Golden Knights
F: Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders
F: Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets
F: Jakub Vrana, Washington CapitalsTOPIC: What Is The Best Workout To Get Big & Ripped At The Same Time?
The Question:
Lower reps for getting big, higher reps for getting ripped... right? The general idea seems easy, but how can one combine the two ideas together?
What is the best workout to get big and ripped at the same time? Be specific. List exercises, sets, reps, etc...
Who would you recommend this workout to? Explain.
Is this workout as effective as bulking and then cutting?
What other factors need to be perfect in order to achieve the ripped look?
The Winners:
soundcheck129 View Profile History in Effect View Profile
Prizes:
To use your credit, e-mail Justin @ justin.podzimek@bodybuilding.com for more info.
1st Place - soundcheck129
View This Author's BodySpace Here.
Contrary to popular belief, getting big and getting ripped don't have to be mutually exclusive. Let's face it - no one really wants to be in a constant cycle of bulks and cuts, especially if you want to have an active social life. But it's really not necessary to add pounds of unwanted fat just to diet intensely in pursuit of a fine physique.
What Is The Best Workout To Get Big And Ripped At The Same Time?
There's a disturbing trend in the bodybuilding world - the embrace of absolutes. You may be under the impression that there are only two ways of training, high reps/low weight and low reps/heavy weight. The first, you've probably heard, is for getting lean, while the latter is reserved for those attempting to get big. But what about mixing the two? That gray area is what we're about to explore. Before you can get big AND get ripped, you've got to get SMART.
Before You Get Big And Ripped You Gotta Get Smart.
In order to get big and ripped, we're going to use a routine that focuses on compound lifts but also touches upon isolation exercises. With some days reserved for heavier weight and low reps, and some with lighter weight and high reps. Off days will feature cardio and abdominal exercises. While your preferences may be different, I like to begin each new exercise with two warm-up sets to concentrate on form and ROM.
Day One: Pull 1
Deadlift: 3x6
Seated Row: 3x6
Barbell Shrug: 3x6
Lat Pulldown: 3x6
Stiff-Legged Deadlift: 3x6
Dumbbell Curl: 3x6
Day Two: Cardio and Abdominals
30 Minutes HIIT (Bike/Treadmill)
3x Ab Circuit:
Leg Raises
Weighted Crunches
Reverse Crunches
Side Bends
Day Three: Push 1
Squat: 3x6
Bench Press: 3x6
Calf Raise: 3x6
Arnold Press: 3x6
Seated Leg Press: 3x6
Triceps Extension: 3x6
Day Four: Cardio and Abdominals
30 Minutes HIIT (Bike/Treadmill)
3x Ab Circuit:
Leg Raises
Weighted Crunches
Reverse Crunches
Side Bends
Day Five: Pull 2
Lying Leg Curl: 3x12
Bent Over Row: 3x12
Stiff-Legged Deadlift: 3x12
Pullups (Weighted): 3x12
Dumbbell Shrug: 3x12
Barbell Curl: 3x12
Day Six: |
our nation’s largest circulation newspapers have begun to call many of these disfavored speakers “provocateurs” — meaning “one who provokes.” This label in news reports serves to subtly shift responsibility for the disturbances to the speaker, rather than the violent, black-masked thugs who pepper-spray and beat their opponents down in the street, smash windows, set fires and destroy property.
The leftwing bias on university campuses has long been known, of course. Nearly 40 years ago, as a freshman at Westminster College — where Winston Churchill had delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech, warning of the danger of communism — most of my professors were socialists, Marxists and communists.
Since then, academia has done the seemingly impossible: moved further to the left. By all reports, this bias now affects not only which outside speakers might address students, but what students feel safe in saying on campus and in class and even writing in their papers — graded by the equivalent of the Gang of Four (the communists, not the band).
And with the success that violent suppression of speech has met thus far, expect things to get much worse. Already, the campaign to shut down “non-progressive” speech has metastasized beyond the leftist province of higher education.
Last week, the people of Portland, Oregon, celebrated their Rose Festival... well, within limits. And those limits were imposed by the threat of force from vigilantes on the left acting brazenly and publicly.
“The annual 82nd Avenue Rose Parade and Carnival scheduled for Saturday have been canceled because of threats against the Multnomah County Republican Party, a longtime participant in the parade,” the Portland Tribune reported. “In a Tuesday afternoon email, the 82 Avenue Business Association, which sponsors the Rose Festival-sanctioned event, said it canceled the entire event because [it] could not guarantee the safety of the community.”
The threats of violence came from the Direct Action Alliance, an “antifa”-styled group that “created a Facebook event called ‘Defend Portland from Fascists at the Avenue of Roses Parade.’ The group wanted to disrupt the march because of ‘Nazis and fascists’ participating.”
By “Nazis and fascists,” they mean you.
When members of one of the two major parties cannot march in a public parade because of the supposed inability of local police to prevent the threatened carnage on the streets, if they do, the issue of political violence ought become more paramount.
“This is nuts,” said Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld last week. “What we’re seeing is the first anti-free speech movement. And it’s from the progressive punitive mob coddled for decades by the media, entertainment industry and government. On campuses and their towns, the American flag is slowly being replaced with a white one. Speeches, now parades, what’s next?”
Speak now or forever hold your tongue.Looking for news you can trust?
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On Friday, author and religious scholar Reza Aslan appeared on Fox News. The interview has been getting some attention over the weekend, and it isn’t hard to understand why once you start watching it. The whole thing is worth a look:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Aslan is promoting his recently released nonfiction book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, which examines Jesus Christ’s legacy as a political insurgent. The book has generated some controversy and accusations of faith-based bias.
There are a lot of things wrong with the 10-minute FoxNews.com Live interview (conducted by Fox religion correspondent Lauren Green), none of which are perpetrated by Aslan. But the most damning part is toward the end, when Green says the following after several minutes of implying that Aslan’s own religious beliefs compromise the objectivity of his work:
I believe that you’ve been on several programs and have never disclosed that you were a Muslim.
(And in the interest of “full disclosure”—a term Green uses to justify her supposed outing of Aslan as a covert Muslim—I have interviewed Aslan on the subject of Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi, a man Aslan said belonged “in an insane asylum.” I failed to disclose in that blog post that Aslan is a Muslim; I did, however, note that he is of Iranian descent. Mother Jones has also chatted with Aslan here.)
Green was echoing this piece published on FoxNews.com that claims the “liberal media” has failed to mention that Aslan is of the Islamic faith. Now, forget for a moment that Aslan’s personal religious beliefs and practices aren’t actually relevant to this conversation. (It’s about as relevant as asking why Green doesn’t use the beginning of every Fox segment she hosts to disclose that she was once the third runner-up in the 1985 Miss America competition.) The internet is chock-full of interviews with, articles written about, and works penned by Reza Aslan that “disclose” that he is a Muslim scholar. This is not a fact that he is shy about.
Furthermore, it is a spraining stretch to label Aslan as a hackish Muslim scholar devoid of objective reasoning. Whether you agree or disagree with him on major points of historical or religious debate, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that he is a thoughtful and humane thinker. For instance, here’s footage of him debating atheist author and neuroscientist Sam Harris in 2007 (in which Aslan does, incidentally, at one point take a dig at Fox News’ coverage of Muslims):
In the grand (or not-so-grand, even) scheme of things, this Aslan episode on Fox isn’t a landmark moment in anything. It was a poorly conducted interview, of which there are many. It was a moment in which a Fox News employee acted ridiculously while talking to or about Muslims, and that isn’t exactly new. But it does do more to highlight the widespread Google problem of right-wing hysteria: So much humiliation could be avoided if certain pundits and media personalities just devoted 10 seconds of their day to fiddling with this website—particularly if they want to learn about the folks they interview on highly-rated channels and websites.
I’ve reached out to Lauren Green for comment. I’ll update if she gets back to me.Story highlights Crash happened in Semnan province in northern Iran, east of Tehran
It's not clear what caused the crash
Tehran, Iran (CNN) Two trains collided in northern Iran on Friday morning, killing 44 people and injuring dozens of others, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Flames blazed and black smoke poured from at least one train car in the province of Semnan, east of Tehran, video distributed by Reuters and official Iranian news channel IRINN showed.
Eighty-two people were injured, Tasnim reported, citing Pir Hossein Koolivand, the country's director of emergency services. All but 17 had been released from hospitals by Friday evening, Koolivand said.
At least one of the trains had passengers, some of whom were burned by the fire, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing Ali Yahyaei of the Red Crescent Society.
Helicopters and ambulances rushed injured people to hospitals. Frosty conditions slowed firefighters' access to the scene, IRNA reported. Temperatures were below freezing even in the afternoon.
Read MoreDrew Angerer/Getty Images The White House began to roll out its fiscal-year 2018 budget on Monday, setting the stage for a battle over a proposed increased defense spending at the expense of massive cuts to domestic programs.
While the full budget is expected to be released and distributed to Capitol Hill lawmakers on Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget's director, Mick Mulvaney, highlighted some of the details during a call with reporters on Monday.
The budget, officially dubbed "A New Foundation for American Greatness," includes massive cuts over the next 10 years to social safety-net programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and the Children's Health Insurance Program while increasing the budget for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. According to Bloomberg's Justin Sink and Erik Wasson, the budget would cut domestic agencies' budgets by 40% in 2027.
The plan is expected to receive pushback not only from incensed Democrats but most likely from many Republicans. Cuts to farm subsidies and student-loan programs will also face pushback from strong interest groups.
While the bipartisan resistance to the budgetary ideas will be huge, the White House's attempt does represent the first bid in a long process to funding the government.
Here's a breakdown of some of the key points from Mulvaney's briefing on Monday:
An assumption of 3% economic growth: Part of the assumptions from the team of President Donald Trump in balancing the budget amid massive tax cuts has been a system called dynamic scoring, which factors in an assumption of stronger economic growth for increased payments to the government. The White House budget proposal, Mulvaney said, was "part of an effort to get to sustained 3% economic growth." Gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2017 grew at a 0.7% annualized rate, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Part of the assumptions from the team of President Donald Trump in balancing the budget amid massive tax cuts has been a system called dynamic scoring, which factors in an assumption of stronger economic growth for increased payments to the government. The White House budget proposal, Mulvaney said, was "part of an effort to get to sustained 3% economic growth." Gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2017 grew at a 0.7% annualized rate, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Massive cuts to Medicaid: The budget proposes an additional $610 billion cut to Medicaid, with $250 billion in savings to offset it. Based on Mulvaney's comments, it appears this is in addition to the $880 billion already cut under the House's American Health Care Act healthcare bill. "We go another half a step further and ratchet down some of the growth rates that are assumed in the AHCA," Mulvaney said. "So if you assume growth rates — I can't remember what the exact measure is — it's a CPI-plus measure. We take a measure that we think is closer to what the actual growth rates look like."
The budget proposes an additional $610 billion cut to Medicaid, with $250 billion in savings to offset it. Based on Mulvaney's comments, it appears this is in addition to the $880 billion already cut under the House's American Health Care Act healthcare bill. "We go another half a step further and ratchet down some of the growth rates that are assumed in the AHCA," Mulvaney said. "So if you assume growth rates — I can't remember what the exact measure is — it's a CPI-plus measure. We take a measure that we think is closer to what the actual growth rates look like." Large cuts to foods stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: According to Bloomberg, the cuts to the food-stamp program in the budget would amount to $193 billion. The program would also phase in a work requirement, according to Mulvaney, so people without dependents would have to be employed to qualify.
According to Bloomberg, the cuts to the food-stamp program in the budget would amount to $193 billion. The program would also phase in a work requirement, according to Mulvaney, so people without dependents would have to be employed to qualify. Changes to federal student-loan repayment: The budget would not only call for overall cuts in federal spending on education but also reshape how people pay back federal student loans, according to Bloomberg, allowing debtors to pay up to 12.5% of their discretionary income toward loans, up from 10%.
The budget would not only call for overall cuts in federal spending on education but also reshape how people pay back federal student loans, according to Bloomberg, allowing debtors to pay up to 12.5% of their discretionary income toward loans, up from 10%. Cuts to federal employee retirement programs and disability benefits: The budget will call for a $72 billion cut over 10 years to the Social Security Disability Insurance. Mulvaney said this would inspire more people to get off disability and back to work. "If the folks who are on Social Security Disability Insurance who are not supposed to be, if they go back to work, they're paying into the system, and they're not taking out of the system," Mulvaney told reporters. "So it does make the programs healthier."
The budget will call for a $72 billion cut over 10 years to the Social Security Disability Insurance. Mulvaney said this would inspire more people to get off disability and back to work. "If the folks who are on Social Security Disability Insurance who are not supposed to be, if they go back to work, they're paying into the system, and they're not taking out of the system," Mulvaney told reporters. "So it does make the programs healthier." $1.6 billion for border-wall funding: "The spending on the border security is $2.6 billion, of which I think $1.6 billion is actual bricks-and-mortar construction," Mulvaney told reporters. "The other $1 billion is infrastructure and technology."
"The spending on the border security is $2.6 billion, of which I think $1.6 billion is actual bricks-and-mortar construction," Mulvaney told reporters. "The other $1 billion is infrastructure and technology." Increased funding for childcare credits and family leave: A project supported by Trump's daughter Ivanka and touted during the campaign, the program would create $25 billion over 10 years in spending for the paid family leave. Mulvaney said the parental-leave program would help get the country to 3% sustained economic growth. "We need men and women who are sitting home thinking you know what, I don't know if I can go back to work because we're getting ready to have a kid," Mulvaney said. "And what happens if I have to stay home? We try and create the environment where people are more comfortable going back to work and staying at work knowing that if they do have a child, they'll be able to spend time with that child under the paid parental-leave program."BEIJING (Reuters) - Foreign executives in China are upset at a new rule that allows authorities to hold passports for up to 15 working days when processing and renewing residency permits, saying it could disrupt essential business travel within China and abroad.
Foreigners walk out from Beijing's Exit & Entry Administration Service Center, September 7, 2013. Foreign executives in China are upset at a new rule that allows authorities to hold passports for up to 15 working days when processing and renewing residency permits, saying it could disrupt essential business travel within China and abroad. Picture taken September 7, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer
The changes are evidence to those who argue China is becoming a harder place to do business, especially following a wave of antitrust investigations that some executives contend have singled out foreign firms.
The increased processing time from five working days had prompted a “flood” of complaints from the expatriate community, said Gary Chodorow, a Beijing-based immigration lawyer at Hong Law Offices.
“What concerns companies is profits. When people are grounded they are not doing business. They are not making money,” he said.
The new rules took effect on July 1. Chinese officials have said they aim to deal with the rising flow of foreigners coming to China and to protect national security and social order.
The Ministry of Public Security handles residency applications, which are renewed annually.
Chodorow said the new rules could hamper travel for foreign executives who oversee offices throughout Asia, especially as cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have encouraged multinationals to establish Asia-Pacific headquarters there.
Foreigners are required to show passports when travelling by train or plane within China, and for registering at hotels.
Chodorow said he didn’t believe the government was using the policy to encourage the hiring of more Chinese executives at foreign firms or to make life difficult for multinationals.
“I think it is possible that the concerns of the business community were not anticipated,” he said.
In late August, Qu Yunhai, the deputy director for the Ministry of Public Security’s Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration, said 15 working days was the maximum authorities would hold passports.
He told a news conference individuals could ask for their passports for emergency travel, although it was unclear how that would work outside normal office hours.
WORKING IN CHINA NOT EASY
Foreign executives already have to put up with a host of challenges working in China, from Beijing’s chronic pollution to strict internet censorship, although the country remains a draw because of its strong economy.
China does not appear to have consulted foreign firms or residents before issuing the new rule.
“The current issue with the 15-day wait is that it is too long. For many people living here that need to travel, it is too big of an impediment,” said Adam Dunnett, secretary general of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.
“There is always something that falls through the cracks or there isn’t an obvious solution for or that somebody didn’t think of. That’s the reason why consultation is helpful ahead of time.”
Despite the maximum period detailed in the regulation, the length of time authorities will hold passports may vary by city, adding to confusion.
Foreigners fill up forms at Beijing's Exit & Entry Administration Service Center, September 3, 2013. Foreign executives in China are upset at a new rule that allows authorities to hold passports for up to 15 working days when processing and renewing residency permits, saying it could disrupt essential business travel within China and abroad. Picture taken September 3, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer
A Ministry of Public Security official in Shanghai, China’s commercial capital, said applicants would have to wait “about seven working days”.
Authorities in Beijing as well as the metropolis of Guangzhou in southern China said the 15-day policy was in effect.
“People grumble, but it’s just accepted as yet another hassle to doing business in China,” said one British executive in the financial services industry in Beijing, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
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— A grand jury has indicted a former Scotland Neck police officer who used a Taser on a 61-year-old man who later died.
Former officer John Turner is facing one count of felony involuntary manslaughter in the November death of Roger Anthony, according to court documents.
Turner responded to 911 call Nov. 21 about a man who had fallen off his bicycle in the parking lot of BB&T Bank. The caller told dispatchers that the man appeared drunk and that it looked like he had hurt himself.
Officers said they repeatedly told Anthony to get off his bike, but when he didn't respond, they shocked him. Family members say Anthony had hearing problems and suffered from seizures. He died a day later.
Turner was placed on administrative leave while the State Bureau of Investigation looked into the matter.The US doesn’t have a problem punishing foreign hackers. The government killed an ISIS hacker with a drone in August. It quickly sanctioned North Korea following the Sony hack. So why hasn’t the United States retaliated against the OPM hackers?
Watching the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on US cybersecurity policy on Tuesday, it seems like the people making decisions are as confused as the rest of us.
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At one point, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) asked Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work if there was a policy in place to deal with incidents like the hack of the US Office of Personnel Management.
“First is to try. First we deny and then we first find out-we do the forensics,” Work said. He spoke with impressive confidence, as if the words he said weren’t a stream of nonsense.
“I’m not asking the methodology, I’m asking the policy,” McCain interrupted, asking Work if the US would respond to OPM-like hacks by counterattacking, or by some other measures.
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“That may be one of the options,” Work said.
Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. was equally vague when McCain questioned him about responding to hacks like OPM debacle.
“I think it’s a good idea to at least think about the old saw about people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks,” Clapper said, noting that the US also practices cyber espionage. This bears repeating: The Director of National Intelligence strongly implied that the US shouldn’t punish other governments for tit-for-tat attacks. Clapper’s argument here is “we spy, they spy back.”
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McCain was not happy with that response. “So it’s okay for them to steal our secrets that are most important because we live in a glass house?” he said. “That is astounding.”
McCain’s frustration was warranted, but high-ranking government officials dodging senate hearing questions is a little too commonplace to call “astounding.” Water on Mars is astounding. These answers from Clapper and Work are simply cagey and evasive.
What came off as confusion is a ploy to hide the clumsy brinksmanship that happens between superpowers. Clapper, McCain, and Work are dancing around the fact that the US isn’t responding to the OPM hack because it’s not strategically advantageous for it to do so, period.
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The theft of 22 million federal employees’ background checks, fingerprints, and other sensitive data is a real threat to national security. The stolen information can be used to blackmail, hack, and track federal employees, including State Department officials. The US doesn’t know exactly whose information was stolen, making it harder to identify potential targets. It certainly qualifies as the type of intrusion President Obama condemned in an executive order authorizing sanctions for cyber-threats earlier this year:
With the new Executive Order I’m signing today, I’m for the first time authorizing targeted sanctions against individuals or entities whose actions in cyberspace result in significant threats to the national security, foreign policy, economic health or financial stability of the United States.
No matter how elegant Obama’s cadence is as he discusses protecting the US from digital threats, it’s not simply how bad a hack is that determines a response. It’s who did it, and whether fighting back is convenient.
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That means this breach will probably go unanswered. Even after reports that the US considered economic sanctions on China and pulled CIA employees from the US Embassy in Beijing following the theft, the US has not even officially blamed China. Instead, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to the US, Obama and Xi announced an agreement that neither government would digitally hijack the other’s intellectual property.
This ensures that China and the US can continue to digitally hijack the other’s intellectual property without escalating the situation further than that. US inaction helps maintain the status quo, which is HELLA SPYING.
We just lost a spy game. The best option may very well be to act like good sports. But this incident highlights an unsettling truth about the rules of cyber warfare: The personal data for citizens will, more often than not, be collateral damage in a game of chicken.
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[Washington Post]“Present Shock” is one of those invaluable books that make sense of what we already half-know. Playing on the title of Alvin Toffler’s influential 1970 “Future Shock,” which sounded an alarm about what Mr. Toffler called “a personal perception of too much change in too short a period of time,” Douglas Rushkoff analyzes a very different phenomenon. The future arrived a little while ago, he posits — maybe with Y2K, maybe with Sept. 11. Now it’s here. And we are stuck with “a diminishment of everything that isn’t happening right now — and the onslaught of everything that supposedly is.” Mr. Toffler warned that we would be unready for this onslaught. Mr. Rushkoff is more analytical than alarmist. He divides his thoughts into five sections addressing five kinds of profound change, and his biggest illustration of present shock has to do with the actual book itself. Because the present is more full of interruptions than the past was, it took him extra time to write. Because its ideas aren’t glib, he says, “here I am writing opera when the people are listening to singles.” And he realizes that data-swamped readers may take longer to finish books now. Coming from him the phrase “thanks for your time” has new meaning.
“Present Shock” begins by simply describing how we have lost our capacity to absorb traditional narrative. It goes on to explain what we have used to replace it. There was a time, Mr. Rushkoff says, when everything had narrative structure, even TV ads. Captive audiences sat through commercials that introduced a protagonist, presented a problem, then pitched a product to solve it. The little story ended well, at least from the advertiser’s point of view. But now viewers may be more angry than bored at such intrusions. They know that “someone you don’t trust is attempting to make you anxious,” so they ditch the ad before it’s over.
The ancient Greeks learned about the hero’s journey from Homer’s narratives. We’ve gotten decades of Homer Simpson, who “remains in a suspended, infinite present,” while his audience moves from one satirical pop-culture reference to the next. Citing “Forrest Gump” as a film that failed to combat late-20th-century feelings of discontinuity and “Pulp Fiction” as one wild enough to usher in a new era, Mr. Rushkoff moves on to what came next: the video game open-ended structure that keeps TV drama in the eternal present. About “Game of Thrones” he says, “This is no longer considered bad writing.” Changes to news presentation are even more dramatic. This book describes the present shock of politicians who — thanks to the 24/7 coverage ushered in by “the CNN effect” that began in the 1980s — “cannot get on top of issues, much less get ahead of them.” He notes that both the political left (MSNBC, with its slogan “Lean Forward”) and right (conservatism devoted to reviving traditional values) share this goal: They’re trying to escape the present.Photo via Flickr user Tradlands
It is with a heavy heart and a guilty glance of understanding that I write for you yet another piece about how good Joan Didion is at writing. She's really good at it. She is so good at it that to read almost anything she writes is to feel relief: You do not have to make allowances for Joan Didion. You do not have to wonder if there is something wrong with you because you find almost everything people claim to be great writing to be not great writing at all. You do not have to entertain the possibility that a series of unremarkable sentences or inappropriate vocabulary words contains some kernel of genius that you cannot access, because there are few of either in Joan Didion's work. Even Joan Didion's new book, South and West, which is very short, just two sets of notes she took in the 70s for two pieces she never wrote, offers this kind of literary assurance: Greatness is out there, you don't have to settle.
I am not a Joan Didion superfan by any means, but I accepted my editor's offer to write about this new book that I probably wouldn't have otherwise read because it is always, at the very least, inarguably nice to read Joan Didion. South and West begins with its much longer section "Notes on the South," which the author wrote while on a month-long road trip through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She could not pin down why she had gone:
There was no reportorial imperative to any of the places I went at the time I went: nothing "happened" anywhere I was, no celebrated murders, trials, integration orders, confrontations, not even any celebrated acts of God. I had only some dim and unformed sense, a sense which struck me now and then, and which I could not explain coherently, that for some years the South and particularly the Gulf Coast had been for America what people were still saying California was, and what California seemed to me not to be: the future, the secret source of malevolent and benevolent energy, the psychic center. I didn't much want to talk about this. I had only the most ephemeral "picture" in my mind.
A forthright passage that elegantly and impressively describes a vague idea. You know what she means, even if you may find this interpretation of the South misguided. As it turns out, Didion did not end up enjoying her trip at all, and her go-getting reporter impulses "atrophied." In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, she found "[a] somnolence so dense it seemed to inhibit breathing." In Biloxi, "The isolation of these people from the currents of American life in 1970 was startling and bewildering to behold. All their information was fifth-hand, and mythicized in the handing down." In Birmingham, there was "[t]he sense of sports being the opiate of the people." In New Orleans, she noticed
a fatalism I would come to recognize as endemic to the particular tone of New Orleans life. Bananas would rot, and harbor tarantulas. Weather would come in on the radar, and be bad. Children would take fever and die, domestic arguments would end in knifings, the construction of highways would lead to graft and cracked pavement where the vines would shoot back. Affairs of state would turn on sexual jealousy... and all the king's men would turn on the king.
She avoided going to Jackson because she was afraid she would be too tempted to buy the first flight out to New York or Los Angeles and thus fail to accomplish her reporting project, which she does not end up accomplishing.
In the LA Times, Michelle Dean describes the book as "mysterious" and ends her review with several questions posed by its "teasing effect" and "enigmatic packaging." (Among them: What if Didion had finished these pieces? Does she wish that she had?") But while I agree that South and West is an odd little thing—though I expect its motives are more explicable than Dean allows for, in that people will of course buy a "new Joan Didion book"—I don't think her piece on the South is not an accomplishment. (Her "California Notes" are forgettable and more meandering, though they still contain invigorating sentences.) I have quoted a lot already for two reasons. The first is that I am from West Virginia, and I like Didion's depiction of the drag of life in the South; most writing about the region by outsiders romanticizes its struggles, and insiders are defensive and not as common. Maybe Didion went in with some of the wispy ideas of Southern mystique that non-Southern reporters can't let go of when it comes time to write their pieces, but here the author's tininess—in "Notes on the South," a "weighing machine" says she is 96 pounds—is an asset: She becomes weighed down by the place. While some may call this elitism or snobbery—and Didion's handling of race in this book is very skittish—it still reflects truths about the South, at least for people like Joan Didion. Every time I go there, I find myself physically exhausted, unable to get out of bed or to stop myself returning to it.
Read more: Rachel Cusk Examines the Power of Motherhood by Ignoring It
The second reason I'm quoting a lot is basically the same as the first, which I could just boil down to "Joan Didion is a great writer." As Christian Lorentzen writes in his September 2015 piece "Toward a Unified Theory of Joan Didion," "The temptation with Didion is always to quote, and at length, to let her sentences overwhelm your own because they're so much better than yours (by which I mean mine)."
That quotability is a gift and a curse. Two years have passed since the period of Joan Didion mania anyone with vaguely literary interests will remember well, and Lorentzen was reflecting on its end. In October 2014, Vogue republished Didion's 1961 essay "On Self-Respect," and its relevance to mainstream feminist priorities—"You do you," self-care, etc.—likely advanced the popularity of Didion's more personal work on Tumblr and Instagram. That month, a Didion documentary, We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live, raised $200,000, more than double its goal, on Kickstarter. In January 2015, Didion was unveiled as the face of a new Céline ad, launching a spate of cautionary pieces about what it means to like Joan Didion. (The Cut's Molly Fischer said it was "a trap;" Haley Mlotek at the Hairpin urged her "fellow sad young literary girls" to "Free Joan Didion.") In February, Chelsea's Danziger Gallery held an exhibition of Julian Wasser photographs, all of Joan Didion. About eight months later, Tracy Daugherty published a biography of the author, The Last Love Song, which was occasion for more reflection on the "fetishization and deconstruction of Didion's image."
Few argued that the obsessive nature of Joan Didion fandom had to do with her writing, or was mainly to do with it, though all of the writers used various phrases—to Elle's Lizzy Goodman, reading Didion is "an exercise in collecting apparently random yet somehow riveting details"—to underscore a mutual understanding of Didion's work. But because these writers were confronted with how they, in Mlotek's words, "had been so thoroughly and effectively target marketed" with the Céline ad, the point was always to figure out what it means to like Joan Didion, not what Joan Didion really means when she writes. "Reading her," Goodman writes, "I feel that if I do as Didion has done, wear what she has worn, stand where she has stood, I might eventually locate myself."
Photo by Flickr user goincase
I have no problem reading an author for selfish reasons—I can think of very few justifications for reading that aren't, ultimately, selfish. What most of these pieces also had in common was that they were written by women, and concerned the supposedly feminine essence of Didion's work. In a 2012 piece in the Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan argued that "to really love Joan Didion—to have been blown over by things like the smell of jasmine and the packing list she kept by her suitcase—you have to be female." Later in the same piece, Flanagan takes (mocking) offense at a male academic asking Didion to remind him what she wore to pass as a hippie in Haight-Ashbury, arguing that "Not remembering what Joan wore in the Haight (a skirt with a leotard and stockings) is like not remembering what Ahab was trying to kill in Moby-Dick."
Both of these assertions are ridiculous, as Christian Lorentzen argues in his 2015 essay. "'Loving' a writer, for me," he writes, "is a matter of returning to her sentences over and over again, not a matter of identification, aspiration, emotion, or taking her words as Gospel truth, but an attraction of attention.
"Perhaps that's a defective—because it's heartless—definition of love," he goes on. "I'd be dishonest if I said this troubled me."
I imagine heartlessness—or at least ruthlessness—is a quality Didion would want us to bring to her work.
I imagine heartlessness—or at least ruthlessness—is a quality Didion would want us to bring to her work. In 1979, the writer Barbara Harrison declared, "Didion's heart is cold," in a piece that also called Didion "the lyricist of the irrational" and argued Didion's "proclivity for 'aimless revelation' does tell us something: to attach oneself only to the unanalyzable incident (especially when one's subject matter intersects with the political passions of our times) is to prefer to love one's pain; it is to caress and nourish one's pain, to find it of infinitely more value than the pain of 'acquaintances [who] read The New York Times and try to tell me the news of the world.'" You could argue that South and West, which does not really deal with any "political passions" of any time directly, supports Harrison's characterization: In a lesser writer's hand's, "Notes on the South" would be positively whiny.
My friend Jo Livingstone recently wrote a piece called "In Defense of Cultural Criticism in Trump's America" for the New Republic, and in it, she argues that cultural critics have a responsibility to resist the nagging sense of pointlessness we've felt since Donald Trump became the president, as well as to ignore the urge to be topical and connect to Donald Trump every discussion of a new art exhibit or book that has little to do with Donald Trump. Art, she says, is about "stak[ing] out" a zone "for a variety of ideas and postures to flex and interact"; similarly, to demand that art always respond directly to specific political moments is akin to "scholars poring over the novels of, say, Jonathan Franzen to discover whether he thought Donald Trump was good or bad, instead of absorbing his depiction of the features of American politics and culture in the early 21st century on its own terms."
I think this is right, and I think these little sets of Joan Didion notes are an example of how ostensibly purposeless writing can go beyond "aimless revelation" and have real value. Harrison's attempted takedown leaves out much about Didion's reporting prowess, particularly Didion's ability to convey an atmosphere in which her ideas and postures can flex and interact. In South and West, that atmosphere is not divorced from the politics of the region or time because Didion doesn't address them directly, or because Didion herself pops up in the narration. Rather, the picture becomes in some ways more natural, more complete. If these notebooks were more targeted, they might give off the same forced, awkward sense of the countless articles that Livingstone regrets in her piece, the ones "explaining how this or that book is crucial reading 'in Trump's America.'"
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In her 1976 essay "Why I Write," Didion says her work is rooted in a desire to investigate the "pictures in my mind," images that "shimmer around the edges," which explains her abortive sojourn to the Gulf Coast. Perhaps this sounds flighty and unanalyzable on its own, but the remarkability of Didion's writing comes from how she balances that instinct with specificity and precision; her details are not "random but somehow riveting"—they are riveting because they are not random at all, because they respond to that shimmering image in her mind as she attempts to support or (in the case of "Notes on the South") refute it. Writing, for her, is "an aggressive, even a hostile act |
effet immédiat.
Le calendrier provisoire du Championnat du Monde de Formule Un de la FIA 2016 a été approuvé comme suit :
3 avril Australie 10 avril Chine 24 avril Bahreïn 1er mai Sotchi 15 mai Espagne 29 mai Monaco 12 juin Canada 26 juin Royaume-Uni 3 juillet Autriche 17 juillet Baku 31 juillet Allemagne 7 août Hongrie 28 août Belgique 4 septembre Italie 18 septembre Singapour 25 septembre Malaisie 9 octobre Japon 23 octobre Etats-Unis (Austin) 30 octobre Mexique 13 novembre Brésil 27 novembre Abou Dhabi
Le CMSA a approuvé la mise à jour de la réglementation relative à la Super Licence en vue de :
- Accorder davantage de flexibilité aux pilotes s’étant qualifiés pour une Super Licence mais n’ayant pas la possibilité de courir en Formule Un. Ces pilotes conservent à présent cette possibilité pendant trois ans (par ex. situation type des pilotes d’essai en F1).
- Augmenter le nombre de Séries incluses dans le système de points de la Super Licence suite aux nombreuses demandes de ces Séries d’être prises en compte.
- Ajuster le nombre de points accordés à certaines Séries déjà incluses afin de mieux rendre compte de leurs atouts.
- Accorder au vainqueur du Championnat de Formule E de la FIA une Super Licence, bien que ce championnat ne fasse pas partie du système de points.
Championnat de Formule E de la FIA
Le CMSA a approuvé la création d’une e-Licence de la FIA, qui sera obligatoire pour tout Pilote souhaitant participer au Championnat de Formule E de la FIA.
Afin de se qualifier pour l’e-Licence, ce qui suit est requis :
- Une séance de formation spécifique FIA concernant les points les plus importants de la sécurité électrique ainsi que les aspects techniques et sportifs de la compétition.
- Avoir accumulé au cours des 3 années précédentes au moins 20 points conformément au système de points FIA servant à se qualifier pour la Super Licence F1, avoir été titulaire d’une Super Licence F1 ou avoir participé à au moins 3 courses de la saison précédente du Championnat de Formule E de la FIA.
Le calendrier du Championnat de Formule E de la FIA 2015/16 a été approuvé comme suit :
Manche Date Pays ePrix 1 17 octobre 2015 Chine Beijing 2 7 novembre 2015 Malaisie Putrajaya 3 19 décembre 2015 Uruguay** Punta del Este** 4 6 février 2016 Argentine** Buenos Aires** 5 19 mars 2016 A définir A définir 6 2 avril 2016 Etats-Unis Long Beach 7 23 avril 2016 France Paris 8 21 mai 2016 Allemagne Berlin 9 4 juin 2016 Russie Moscou 10 et 11 A définir Royaume-Uni Londres
* Toutes les épreuves demeurent sous réserve de l’homologation du circuit par la FIA.
** A confirmer
Championnat du Monde des Rallyes de la FIA
Les principes des règlements technique et d’homologation pour la voiture WRC 2017-2019 ont été approuvés par le Conseil Mondial du Sport Automobile. L’objectif de la nouvelle réglementation est de produire des voitures plus dynamiques, plus spectaculaires et diversifiées. Les principaux points sont les suivants :
Moteur
- Puissance augmentée à 380 ch
- Diamètre de la bride du turbo 36 mm maximum
- Pression de turbo maximale 2,5 b absolue
Carrosserie
- Zone libre définie autour de la coque de la voiture de production pour obtenir une WRC d’une largeur maximale de 1875 mm avec porte-à-faux avant et arrière augmentés.
- Plus grande liberté sur les parties latérales du pare-chocs avant, avec d’éventuels dispositifs aérodynamiques en avant des roues avant. Des ouvertures peuvent également être pratiquées sur la surface de l’aile.
- Aileron arrière fixe plus grand et plus visible.
Le poids total de la voiture sera réduit de 25 kg, il y aura un retour à un différentiel central contrôlé électroniquement et la longueur hors-tout homologuée de la voiture devra être supérieure ou égale à 3,9 mètres.
Championnat du Monde d’Endurance de la FIA
Le CMSA a approuvé le projet de Règlement Technique 2017 pour Prototypes LMP2, tel que rédigé conjointement avec l’IMSA et l’ACO. Le Règlement Technique comprend :
- Sélection de quatre fournisseurs pour le châssis LMP2
- Fournisseur unique de moteur, faisant actuellement l’objet d’un appel d’offres
- Un moteur plus puissant, jusqu’à 600 ch à compter de 2017
L’épreuve des 24 Heures du Mans 2016 sera disputée du 18 au 19 juin 2016.
Championnat du Monde des Voitures de Tourisme de la FIA
La dernière manche du Championnat du Monde des Voitures de Tourisme de la FIA 2015 disputée au Qatar se tiendra désormais les 26 et 27 novembre à Losail.
L’épreuve a été déplacée en raison d’un chevauchement de date avec un événement local. La date du vendredi a été demandée car elle fait partie du week-end au Qatar. Ceci permettra également d’éviter que l’épreuve se déroule en même temps que la dernière manche du Championnat du Monde de F1.
Championnat de Formule 2
Le CMSA a pris acte d’une mise à jour concernant l’appel à manifestations d’intérêt relatif à la création du nouveau Championnat F2, conçu comme le dernier échelon en catégorie monoplace FIA avant la Formule Un.
GP2 Series Limited s’est porté candidat auprès de la FIA pour devenir le promoteur du championnat ; des discussions sont en cours, l’objectif étant de garantir le meilleur Championnat de F2 de la FIA possible.
Championnat d’Europe de Formule 3 de la FIA
Le CMSA a approuvé les principes du renouvellement de l’accord de promotion avec ITR. L’accord sera soumis au Sénat de la FIA pour confirmation.
La prorogation du contrat avec le promoteur actuel renforcera encore davantage le championnat et lui conférera une visibilité accrue via des canaux médiatiques et de distribution améliorés.
La FIA se réjouit de continuer de collaborer avec ITR, le Championnat d’Europe de Formule 3 de la FIA poursuivant sa croissance déjà forte.
Commission GT
Le format de la Coupe du Monde FIA GT ayant déjà été approuvé, le CMSA a annoncé l’ouverture des inscriptions pour les équipes et les constructeurs pour la course disputée à Macao du 20 au 22 novembre.
Les inscriptions pré-engagement pour les constructeurs ouvriront le 26 juin 2015 et seront clôturées le 20 juillet 2015. Chaque constructeur pourra engager un maximum de trois voitures.
La liste officielle des constructeurs sélectionnés et le nombre de voitures par constructeur sélectionné seront confirmés par la FIA, sur proposition du Comité de Sélection de la Coupe du Monde FIA GT, le 20 août 2015 au plus tard.
Chaque constructeur sélectionné sera invité à inscrire la/les équipe(s) sélectionnée(s) (une équipe pourra avoir de 1 à 3 voitures) et le pilote par voiture au plus tard le 15 septembre 2015.
CIK-FIA
Le CMSA a approuvé le règlement applicable à la classe de Karting Cadet présente au plan mondial, au taux de participation déjà élevé au niveau national, mais sans réglementation CIK-FIA unifiée.
Le CMSA a approuvé le lancement de la nouvelle génération de moteurs de Karting dans les catégories Senior et Junior, l’objectif étant d’étendre l’utilisation de ces mécaniques. Pour plus d’informations sur les moteurs, consulter : http://www.cikfia.com/newsroom/view/article/a-new-era-is-emerging-for-direct-drive-karting.html
Commission des Courses de Camions
Le Conseil a approuvé les principes de la désignation d’un Promoteur pour le Championnat d’Europe des Courses de Camions de la FIA.
Le Promoteur sélectionné est la European Truck Racing Association (ETRA) – l’approbation est sous réserve de confirmation du Sénat de la FIA.
L’ETRA est une société créée conjointement par les actuels organisateurs d’épreuves du Championnat d’Europe des Courses de Camions. Elle est actuellement gérée par les représentants de l’épreuve du Nürburgring (ADAC).
Le calendrier du Championnat d’Europe des Courses de Camions 2016 contiendra un minimum de sept épreuves en Europe et est soumis à l’approbation de la Commission et du CMSA.
La prochaine réunion du Conseil Mondial du Sport Automobile est prévue le 30 septembre 2015 à la FIA Paris.Image caption Should the religious festival be a money-spinner?
Indian religious leaders have reacted angrily to a proposal to sell broadcast and advertising rights to the world's biggest religious festival.
Commercialising next year's Kumbh Mela would be highly offensive, they say.
The ancient Hindu gathering takes place in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, attracting tens of millions of people.
The BBC has learned that the state government wants to offset the cost of the event by selling media access - critics say they have no right to.
In May Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Jawed Usmani sent a letter instructing the local administration to "generate revenue by auctioning advertising and telecast rights" to the event, BBC Hindi's Ram Dutt Tripathi reports.
'Impossible'
The Kumbh Mela has been held on the banks of the Ganges for thousands of years. It is at its largest once every 12 years when it attracts tens of millions of people.
In 2001, more than 40 million people gathered on the main bathing day at Allahabad, breaking a world record for the biggest human gathering.
At the 2013 event, the numbers are expected to be even higher.
In this mela different cultures come together - and how can one organisation monopolise it? Prof Dhananjay Chopra, Allahabad university
Although it is a religious festival, the state supports it by providing amenities, from security to sanitation.
Religious leaders have always opposed attempts by the state or big business to cash in on the event.
They say the festival does not belong to the government and they have no right to sell access to it.
So the government plan leaked to the BBC to raise money by auctioning exclusive broadcast rights is already proving controversial.
Senior state government officials, too, have written to the Uttar Pradesh administration, expressing their reservations over the proposals.
Some police officials are also believed to view the plan as unworkable. They fear that if it causes religious offence that could become a law and order problem.
It is also unclear how a deal would be implemented on the ground.
When many millions of people gather in the open air, it will be impossible, critics argue, to stop unauthorised people from filming the main events.
Analysts say the government plan is likely to cause widespread offence and could spark a legal battle about religious freedoms.
"This is not an ordinary mela but a gathering where social concerns are very important," Allahabad university professor Dhananjay Chopra, who has written a book on the Kumbh Mela, told the BBC.
"In this mela different cultures come together - and how can one organisation monopolise it?
"These days, when every citizen has tools to broadcast themselves, the plan is impossible to implement."WASHINGTON (AP) — A top House Republican has demanded details on the use of private emails by some of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina conservative who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the top Democrat on that panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, cite a recent Politico report that Jared Kushner set up a private email account after the election to conduct work-related business.
The New York Times reports that at least six of Trump’s closest advisers, including Kushner, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, used private email to discuss White House matters. Bannon and Priebus no longer work at the White House.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for setting up a private email server as secretary of state, a decision that prompted an FBI investigation that shadowed her for much of the campaign. Gowdy is best known for his two-year investigation into the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in which he focused heavily on Clinton’s role as secretary of state.
In letters Monday to White House general counsel and State Department, Gowdy and Cummings said they want details on all employees.
“With numerous public revelations of senior executive branch employees deliberately trying to circumvent these laws by using personal, private, or alias email addresses to conduct official government business, the committee has aimed to use its oversight and investigative resources to prevent and deter misuse of private forms of written communication,” the lawmakers wrote.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had no immediate comment Tuesday on the request by Gowdy and Cummings.
“All White House personnel have been instructed to use official email to conduct all government-related work,” she said. “They are further instructed that if they receive work-related communication on personal accounts, they should be forwarded to official email accounts.”
Sanders told reporters Monday that the use of private email accounts by staff was “to my knowledge, very limited.”
“White House counsel has instructed all White House staff to use their government email for official business, and only use that email,” she said, adding that “we get instructed on this one pretty regularly.”
Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, on Sunday confirmed Kushner’s use of a personal email in his first few months of the administration. He said the emails usually involved news articles and political commentary. Lowell also said any non-personal emails were forwarded to Kushner’s official account and “all have been preserved in any event.”
Sanders would not say whether the White House would release Kushner’s private emails that dealt with government business.CIA Director Mike Pompeo speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on April 13, 2017.
It’s Flip-Flop Week in the Trump White House, and in keeping with this theme Mike Pompeo used his first speech as CIA director to go after WikiLeaks, calling it “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”
“WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service,” Pompeo said during his remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday. He noted that the organization had encouraged people to steal CIA secrets (such as the recent revelation that they can hack your TV) and “it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States while seeking support from antidemocratic countries.”
Pompeo also took aim at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, calling him “a narcissist who has created nothing of value,” as well as a “fraud” and “a coward hiding behind a screen.” “In Kansas, we know something about false wizards,” added Pompeo, who was a U.S. representative from the state until Trump tapped him to lead the CIA.
This certainly isn’t a strange view for a U.S. intelligence official, but it’s odd to hear it coming from Pompeo. As WikiLeaks pointed out, last summer he tweeted out a conservative blog post about the Democratic National Committee emails stolen by Russia and posted by WikiLeaks.
Tweet sent by CIA Director Mike Pompeo on 24 July 2016 https://t.co/sTMHw2nvOG pic.twitter.com/Qd0mYRl5QF — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 13, 2017
The tweet has since been deleted, and during his confirmation hearing in January Pompeo suggested he didn’t remember it.
Trump has made a similar but less dramatic shift. During the campaign he declared, “We love WikiLeaks,” and in January he appeared to side with Assange over the U.S. intelligence agencies regarding their conclusion that Russians hacked the DNC. Last month, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Americans should be “outraged” by the leak of CIA spying techniques, but Trump hasn’t explicitly condemned the group.
On Thursday Pompeo said his relationship with President Trump is “fantastic” despite his previous clash with intelligence agencies. “No, don’t laugh,” Pompeo said. “I mean that.”Microsoft has refused to certify HTC as a Windows 8 Tablet OEM, according to sources that spoke to Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.
Windows 8 tablets – both ARM and x86 powered – have been the center of attention at Computex, which wraps up this weekend in Taipei.
The sources that spoke to Bloomberg allege that Microsoft is not allowing HTC to develop Windows 8 tablets because of the concern that “HTC doesn’t sell enough devices or have ample experience making tablets.”
Naturally, the company is refuting Microsoft’s claims.
“HTC has sold more than 40 million Windows Phones over the last ten years,” HTC said in a statement. “We are committed to future versions of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform more than ever.”
HTC was the first manufacturer to have a Windows phone on the market in 2002, and an Android phone in 2008.
As HTC was already forced to cut its revenue projections for the next quarter by 13-percent, some analysts see this as a potential death knell for the company.
“Every consumer knows about Samsung’s Galaxy platform and the iPhone, and you are starting to see consumers coalesce around them,” said Avian Securities LLC analyst Matthew Thornton to Bloomberg, who yesterday cut his rating on HTC to negative. “Things just get worse from here. It’s a very bleak outlook.”
Other analysts have a more nonchalant, even sanguine view of the situation.
“It’s no big deal,” IDC analyst Melissa Chau told The Register. “RIM found tablets a big distraction while it was trying to improve its phone business and I feel the same way about HTC.”
“I don’t see this will impact HTC’s success. It is a very consumer targeted brand and people are looking at Windows 8 as an enterprise solution so even if it’s excluded that’s not HTC’s target market,” said Ms. Chau.
According to IDC, in the first quarter HTC’s smartphone shipments dropped 23 percent while Samsung’s more than tripled and Apple’s increased by 89 percent.Location of Camarón in Mexico
The Battle of Camarón (French: Bataille de Camerone) which occurred over ten hours[1]:21 on 30 April 1863 between the French Foreign Legion and the Mexican army, is regarded as a defining moment in the Foreign Legion's history. A small infantry patrol, led by Captain Jean Danjou and Lieutenants Clément Maudet and Jean Vilain, numbering just 65 men[1]:5 was attacked and besieged by a force that may have eventually reached 3,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry, and was forced to make a defensive stand at the nearby Hacienda Camarón, in Camarón de Tejeda, Veracruz, Mexico. The conduct of the Legion, who refused to surrender, led to a certain mystique — and the battle of Camarón became synonymous with bravery and a fight-to-the-death attitude.[2]
Background [ edit ]
As part of the Second French intervention in Mexico, a French army commanded by the General Forey was besieging the Mexican city of Puebla.[1]:xxii The Legion's 1st and 2nd Battalions, under the command of Col. Pierre Jeanningros, had arrived on Veracruz on 26 March.[1]:2–3 The 2nd Battalion, under the command of Maj. Munier, was assigned to protect the road from Tejeria to Soledad, while the 1st Battalion protected the road onwards to Chiquihuite.[1]:4–5
In support of the siege, the French sent a convoy, under the command of Capt. Jacques Cabossel, with 3 million francs in gold bullion, siege guns, and sixty wagons of ammunition.[1]:11–12 Two companies of fusiliers were to escort the convoy from La Soledad to Chiquihuite.[1]:7 However, Jeanningros sent the 3rd company of the 1st Battalion to reinforce the convoy guard when Indian spies told him the Mexicans would ambush the convoy.[1]:7 As the company had no officers, Captain Jean Danjou, adjutant major of the 1st Battalion, volunteered to command.[1]:11,15 Sous-Lieutenants (2nd Lts.) Napoleon Vilain and Clement Maudet soon volunteered to join him.[1]:16–17
Six miles northeast of Camarón, was La Joya, headquarters of Col. Francisco de Paula Milán's Center Brigade, consisting of National Guard troops from Cordoba, Xalapa, Coscomatepec de Bravo and Veracruz, plus dragoons and lancers.[1]:12–13
The battle [ edit ]
On 30 April, at 01:00, the 3rd company — 62 Legionnaires and three Legion officers — was en route from Chiquihuite for Palo Verde, 6 hours and 22 miles away.[1]:26 At 05:45, they reached Camerone and the La Trinidad Hacienda, its 50 meter long walls forming a square, enclosing a two-story ranch house on the north and an open stable on the south, long ago abandoned.[1]:36
They reached Palo Verde as planned by 07:00, and proceeded to prepare their morning coffee.[1]:39–40 Coffee was interrupted by the sighting around 08:00 of Mexican cavalry, Capt. Tomas Algonzanas' Cotaxtla Squadron of 250 rancheros, to the north heading to the southeast, but they continued southward, passing the road a half mile away.[1]:41–43 Seeking a more defensible position, Danjou moved his men back west, along the forest north of the road, to the hacienda's ten foot walls.[1]:37,42 Milán, meanwhile, decided he must eliminate Danjou's men, before they could discover the size of Milán's forces and their planned ambush of the convoy.[1]:48 Milán sent his dragoon squadron and four infantry battalions to join Algonzana's lancers.[1]:49 Danjou's plan was to draw the Mexican forces away from the convoy.[1]:48 The Legionnaires reached the hacienda by 09:00.[1]:50
Danjou decided to proceed west on the road towards Paseo del Macho, but had only proceeded a short distance before discovering Algonzana's cavalrymen north of the road, whereupon Danjou ordered his men to form a hollow square.[1]:54 Charging in two columns, the Mexicans "were stopped short" by salvos, and then withdrew, allowing the 3rd to withdraw to the cactus-filled ditch on the south side of the road, and make their way back to the hacienda.[1]:56–57 However, on the way, sixteen of Danjou's men were captured, and Danjou faced another Mexican cavalry charge sweeping around the south side of the hacienda.[1]:58 This second charge was again met by rifle fire from Danjou's square, forcing the Mexicans to ride away.[1]:59 Upon reaching the hacienda, the Legionnaires were surprised to discover Mexicans occupying the ranch house.[1]:61
Milán arrived with the dragoons at about the same time the bullion convoy headed back to La Soledad, after being warned of the 3rd's difficulties.[1]:66 Seeing that he was totally surrounded, Capt. Danjou "urged his men to take an oath to fight to the death rather than surrender...he made them swear their fealty on his wooden hand.[1]:69 Danjou then shared his bottle of wine, and encouraged his men with "those noble words that warm one's heart and makes the final sacrifice less difficult to face."[1]:70
Milán sent Capt. Ramon Laine to negotiate a surrender,[1]:67 who explained to Danjou, "you will be needlessly slaughtered."[1]:70 Danjou replied that he "had plenty of ammunition and shall continue to fight." [1]:70 Whereupon, at about 11:00, the Mexicans charged the gateways on the west end of the hacienda, and the breach on the south.[1]:71 Though the attack was held off, Danjou was hit in the chest and soon died.[1]:75 Lieutenant Vilain assumed command.[1]:76 Casualties mounted on both sides, but amongst the Legionnaires, "water and food, the two most required necessities, were not to be found. Thirst, heat exhaustion, and sunstroke had replaced them."[1]:77 Their mules had run off after the first encounter with the Mexican cavalry, and then Col. Milán's Center Brigade infantry, 1200-1400 men, arrived at the hacienda.[1]:56,78 When Capt. Laine offered the legionnaires a second chance to surrender, Sergeant Vincent Morzycki responded in the spirit of Pierre Cambronne, with "Merde".[1]:79 After four hours of fighting, thirty-two Legionnaires remained fighting.[1]:81 By 14:00, only twenty could still fight.[1]:83 At 14:30, Lt. Vilain was struck dead and Lieutenant Maudet took command.[1]:84
By 17:00, the roof of the ranch house had been burned away, the Legionnaires were down to twelve men, and Col. Milan ordered his men out of the hacienda, and offered the Legionnaires a third chance to surrender.[1]:85–86 In the next onslaught, Corporals Everiste Burg, Karl Magnin and Heinrich Pinzinger, plus fusiliers Leon Gorski and Hippolyte Kunnasseg were captured.[1]:86–87 By 17:30, only Lt. Maudet's men remained in the stable.[1]:87
By 18:00, with ammunition exhausted, the last of Danjou's men, numbering only five, including Lt. Maudet, desperately mounted a bayonet charge.[1]:90 Two men fell outright, while the rest were surrounded.[1]:91 One of them, Victor Catteau, had leapt in front of Maudet in an effort to protect him, and died in the Mexican barrage.[1]:91 Major Campos ordered the Legionnaires to surrender, to which Corporal Phillipe Maine answered, "We will surrender if you leave us our weapons and our equipment. You also have to promise to take care of our wounded lieutenant."[1]:91
When Campos brought the trio to Milán, he asked, "Is this all of them? Is this all of the men who are left?" Then, in amazement, he exclaimed, "These are not men! They are demons!"[1]:92–93
Aftermath [ edit ]
As promised, Lt. Maudet was treated on the battlefield by Dr. Francisco Talavera, also the Maj. commanding the Cordoba unit, before succumbing to his wounds on 8 May.[1]:95–96 Drummer Lai was left for dead, but found by Jeanningros on 1 May.[1]:97 Seventeen legionnaires were taken prisoner to La Joya.[1]:97 Most were freed in a prisoner exchange on 14 July 1863.[1]:97
Legacy [ edit ]
When the Legion moved to France, Capitaine Danjou's wooden hand was taken to Aubagne, where it remains in the Legion Museum of Memory.[1]:98 The hand is the most cherished artifact in Legion history[1]:51 and the prestige and honor granted to a Legionnaire to carry it on parade in its protective case is among the greatest bestowed on a Legionnaire.
30 April is celebrated as "Camerone Day", an important day for the Legionnaires, when the wooden prosthetic hand of Capitaine Danjou is brought out for display.[1]:99
In 1892, a monument commemorating the battle was erected on the battlefield containing a plaque with the following inscription in French:
Ils furent ici moins de soixante
Opposés a toute une armée
Sa masse les écrasa
La vie plutôt que le courage
Abandonna ces soldats Français
Le 30 Avril 1863
A leur mémoire la patrie éleva ce monument
(English: "Here there were less than sixty opposed to a whole army. Its numbers crushed them. Life rather than courage abandoned these French soldiers on April 30, 1863.[1]:103 In their memory, the motherland has erected this monument")
The railing from the Legion grave at Camarone can now be found at the village of Puyloubier near Aix-en-Provence.
The site of the battle can be visited at the village of Camarón de Tejeda, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. This village was formerly known as El Camarón, and later as Adalberto Tejeda, Villa Tejeda or Camarón de Tejeda.
In the village there is a monument erected by the Mexican government in 1964, honoring the Mexican soldiers who fought in the battle. There is also a memorial site and parade ground on the outskirts of the village. The memorial has a raised platform, which covers the resting place of the remains of French and Mexican soldiers disinterred in the 1960s. The surface of the platform has a plaque in Latin. Diligent search of the area has failed to locate the plaque with the oft-quoted 1892 French language inscription referred to above.
Every year on 30 April, the Mexican government holds annual ceremonies at the memorial site, with political speakers and a parade of various Mexican military units. The village holds a fiesta on the same day. The ceremonies are sometimes attended by representatives of the French military, and the site is also visited by retired veterans of the French Foreign Legion. It is also tradition that any Mexican soldiers passing by the area turn towards the monument and offer a salute.
The village of Adalberto Tejeda (also known as Villa Tejeda, Camarón de Tejeda, or simply El Camarón)[1]:8 is located on secondary roads about 25 to 30 km west of the town of Soledad de Doblado, Veracruz, and about 64 km. west of the city of Veracruz. The 1964 monument is in the center of town. The memorial and parade ground, known as El Mausoleo (the Mausoleum), is a few blocks away on the edge of the village, near the town cemetery. The coordinates of the village of Adalberto Tejeda are Lat. 19.0216°; Long. -96.6154.
"To this day, the battle of Camerone is hailed as an exemplary example of 'Fidelity to the Mission', which came to form the central myth of the Legion."[1]:7 The 1st Foreign Regiment has the Mexican eagle on its unit badge, and the "Camerone" battle streamer sits on top of their standard.[1]:8 The names of Danjou, Vilain, and Maudet are on a plaque on the second-floor wall in the Court of Honor at Les Invalides.[1]:100
The battle is the centre-piece of Ian Colquhoun's 2014 English-language historical novel 'Le Boudin - The Demons of Camerone'.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh 0-275-95490-0 Ryan, James W., 1996, Camerone, The French Foreign Legion's Greatest Battle, Westport: Praeger Publishers, ISBN ^ Windrow, Martin (2005). The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. Da Capo Press. pp. 198–200. ISBN 0-306-81443-9.
Further reading [ edit ]
Brunon, Jean (1981). Camerone. Paris: Editions France.
Patay, Max (1988). Camerone 1863. Paris: Socomer editions.
Coordinates:Depends on what you mean by "scripting language". If you mean I'm going to be extensively typing it in at a shell prompt, I want the mysterious but utter conciseness of Bash or zsh; if you mean I'm going to have to embed it in 2000 apps in each of which it will typically be used for "customization" scripts of 2 or 3 lines, I probably want the minimalist simplicity of Lua (I may not like programming in Lua all that much, but 2-3 lines is indeed "scripting" more than "programming", and the near-zero cost of embedding Lua in anything will then dominate).
Python, like Perl or Ruby, is mostly used to write MUCH more substantial "scripts" (impossible to distinguish from "programs", except maybe by total bigots;-) -- in which case, very different considerations apply wrt "real" scripting languages such as bash or zsh, or lua or tcl for a different definition of "scripting language". Basically, if what you want is a dynamically (but strongly) typed language, with full capacity to scale up to very large software systems, and yet quite good at "playing with others"... then you surely have a particularly weird definition of "scripting", my friend!-) But that's the arena where Python, Ruby and Perl mostly play -- and where one could debate one against the other (but any one of them would crush any other popular language I know -- yeah, I've known and loved and used rexx, scheme, Smalltalk, and many many others, but none could hold a candle to the Big Three I just mentioned in this arena!-).
But unless you clarify your terminology, "scripting language" remains an empty, meaning-free sound, and any debate surrounding it utterly useless and void of significance.Shelley Smith reports from Derrick Rose's civil trial, in which he and his two friends were found not liable, and comments on what's next in the case. (2:01)
An eight-member jury in Los Angeles federal court has found New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose and his two friends not liable in a civil lawsuit that accused them of gang-raping Rose's ex-girlfriend when she was incapacitated from drugs or alcohol.
The jury began deliberations Wednesday morning, and its decision was announced at about 4:30 p.m. ET.
"I am thankful that the jury understood and agreed with me,'' Rose said in a statement to The Associated Press. "This experience and my sensitivity to it was deep. I am ready to put this behind me and focus on my family and career.''
Editor's Picks Hornacek: Rose can now focus on basketball Jeff Hornacek said Wednesday that the New York Knicks are ready to welcome Derrick Rose back with open arms.
Jurors posed for photographs with Rose one at a time in the courthouse lobby after the verdict was announced.
One of the two men among the eight jurors who identified himself only by his first name and age, Jared, 25, said the panel tried to look at the case in the plaintiff's favor but in the end could not believe her and felt her tears were not genuine.
"It felt like she was playing us,'' Jared said. "The second her lawyer started questioning her, she would start crying. I mean, granted, that could be realistic, but I feel l'm pretty good at reading people, and I felt as if it was false.''
Before he ended the proceedings, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald wished all parties the best but added for Rose, "Except when the Knicks play the Lakers."
Rose's ex-girlfriend said he and his two friends raped her in August 2013 at her Los Angeles apartment after she passed out from drugs or alcohol.
Neither side denied the three men had sex with the woman, but the issue was whether she consented or was too intoxicated to do so.
Defense lawyers painted the woman as a liar who tried to sway jurors through her tears to get at Rose's fortune. They claimed she was angry that he had dumped her and that she set him up and brought the lawsuit in hopes of a big payoff.
The woman's lawyer called the men "sexual deviants'' and said they conspired to rape her after she was drunk and incapable of consenting to sex.
Rose was in court, looking down, as the verdict was read. As soon as the first question was answered by the jury, his attorney got up and shook the hand of each of the three defendants.
"All three men were innocent from day one,'' Rose's attorney, Mark Baute, said. "We're very happy that the system worked.''
The woman's attorney, Waukeen McCoy, said he will explore appeal options.
"I think it's a shame |
all-star game in 2012—1.48 million versus 2.45 million, respectively.
Quoth The Globe and Mail:
Another big event did not go well for Rogers, as the audience for the Winter Classic outdoor game between the Washington Capitals and the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 1 drew just over 1 million viewers, down almost 2.6 million from the 2014 game, which had 3.6 million viewers... Since Rogers budgeted for a 20-per-cent increase in viewers this season and went to advertisers with a similar increase in rates, the declines are continuing bad news.
Naturally Rogers challenged the accuracy of Numeris’ data instead of admitting to any actual problems. But numbers from Cartt back up Numeris: “The percentage of Canadians who said they followed NHL specifically on TV has declined from 50% to 44% between December 2013 and 2014. This would seem to be directionally in line with Numeris ratings, which show a significant year-over-year slippage for NHL hockey ratings,” Cartt says.
This drop in TV viewers is not necessarily a net drop: according to SRG research, the number of Canadians who follow NHL game on a digital, social, or mobile platform increased from 23% to 26%. As usual there are generational differences: for the first time ever, more Canadian Millennials now follow the NHL on digital, mobile and social channels than on TV.In the long run, everyone in our mathematically modeled economy ends up worse off. Yes, technology is far better, but there’s less capital available for production.
Investing
I was leaving my dry cleaner’s when I saw her — our local meter maid writing a parking ticket. She smiled. I grimaced. Had she hit my car too? I instinctively drew my cellphone and checked my Park Boston app. Relief. My car was good for another half-hour.
No longer worried about me, I started worrying about her. Would she still be working in six months? Surely, they’ll put cameras on the parking signs and electronically bill us for parking, as well as for parking too long.
Six months? Well, the Mass Pike automated virtually overnight. And amen to that! No more bumper-to-bumper, three-hour Thanksgiving traffic jams with everyone heading south squeezing through the Sturbridge tolls. But, again, I was thinking about me, not the hundred or so toll takers who lost their jobs, not to some Mexican sneaking across the border or some Indian in Calcutta answering service calls, but to he who must be named — the silicon chip.
Then my mind wandered back to parking: “Wait. In a few years, we won’t have cars. We’ll all be hailing driverless, electric vehicles using our phones, watches, glasses, thumbs, whatever. They’ll be roaming the streets and never need to park. Great for the climate, great for congestion and I’ll be able to work in the back seat on my way to work.”
But these pleasant thoughts were instantly followed by a scary one: “Yikes! I, too, can be replaced. Boston University can teach “my” students online. The students won’t even need to attend class. They can learn in their dorms or back home in Singapore or whenever. Like the meter maid, I’m headed for the dustbin.”
This is the worst of times when it comes to job security. Take transportation, which employs one in seven Americans. Every car company plus Waymo (aka Google) is developing driverless cars, vans, trucks and buses. Uber’s Travis Kalanick is testing automated cars in Pittsburgh. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos wants to deliver us packages by drone.
How much longer will we have taxi, Uber, truck, subway, delivery or any other type of driver? My guess is 10 years. By one count (a recent study out of Oxford University), close to half of all U.S. jobs will be automated in two to three decades. Makes sense. Smart machines can already bomb our enemies and rub our backs. It’s hard to think of many things they can’t already do or won’t be able to do. Personally, I’m hoping for armies of robot clergy that we can program to pray for us 24/7. We’ll need their prayers.
Mind you, I’m not a complete Luddite. After all, we’ve seen plenty of labor-saving automation arise without sustained loss of jobs. In 1870, half of U.S. workers were in agriculture. Today’s figure is 2 percent. True, but how about horses? Back in 1900, we had 21 million working horses. By 1960, it was 3 million. Today? Too few to count.
Are we going the way of the horse? And what about the deep economic question that today’s CEO masters of the universe aren’t asking: Who will buy the goods and services their companies produce if everyone is out of work or, at least, out of good work?
I asked this question in a recent co-authored paper (”Robots Are Us”) posted at kotlikoff.net/research. My three fellow co-authors and I modeled robots as smarter versions of us. In our paper, we showed that robots’ development will make the economy boom as their creators reap large rewards.
But, over time, robots will become so plentiful that the tech bubble bursts. This lowers the wages of techies and everyone else. These lower wages, in turn, limit the ability of workers to buy what’s produced. Consequently, they consume and save less. Less saving means less investment in different forms of capital.
In the long run, everyone in our mathematically modeled economy ends up worse off. Yes, technology is far better, but there’s less capital available for production.
This scenario, in which robots gradually produce collective ruin, does come with a silver lining. If the government redistributes some of the riches from those making a killing off new technology to those getting killed by it, smart machines can make everyone, even our kids, better off. But there is no sign of a Robin Hood in the White House. So we, the masses, are on our own. We best figure out something, like presiding over funerals, that robots will never do well.New Scouting Staff
After the departures of Jim Nill and Joe McDonnell in the scouting department, the Red Wings have hired Tyler Wright and Jeff Finley as their replacements. Wright will be the new Director of Amateur Scouting, and Finley will be the new Chief Scout.
According to Ken Holland: “Tyler’s been in the business, both have been in the National Hockey League. Tyler’s been a chief scout. He’s been a director of player development. He’s been in the business seven, eight, nine years scouting. Jeff Finley’s been an assistant coach in Kelowna. He’s been working there for three years. He also served as the Red Wings’ Western Canadian scout.
“We’ve hired Andrew Dickson, who worked for Columbus (alongside Wright), he’ll scout in the Ottawa area. We’ve got David Kolb in Minnesota. We’re close to hiring someone in the New England area. Marty Stein will be part-time out west.” Sam Lites (son of Jim Lites, former COO of the Red Wings) will be a college scout. Detroit has also hired Kelly Harper (played for Michigan State in the early 90s) to be a part-time scout based out of Toronto.
I talked to Joe [McDonnell] about staying and offered him a job. And ultimately he wanted to maintain his relationship with Jim Nill.”
Holland also believes Detroit got five bonus years from Nill. “Teams were calling, four, five, six years ago,” he said. “Jim Nill made a decision for a variety of reasons that he wanted to stay, but it was obvious that if he wanted to be a general manager, he was going to go.” Wright was a former 12th overall draft pick (1991) with the Oilers. He scored 115 goals and 271 points in 233 career games over the span of a 14 year NHL career with Edmonton, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Anaheim. Finley was drafted by the New York Islanders in 1985, playing for the Isles, Flyers, Jets, Coyotes, Rangers, and Blues over the span of 17 years. He scored 13 goals and 83 points in 708 career games as a defenseman.
Day 2 of the Development Camp took place earlier today in Traverse City. Team Lidstrom had the ice from 8:00 to 9:50, while Team Yzerman had the ice from 2:00 to 3:50.
The first 45 minutes of both practices focused on Tomas Storm’s drills. Power skating and puck control comprised the bulk of the time. The last 50 minutes saw the ice split into three sub-sections, each with a different drill set up and a different coach.
One section was used by Chris Chelios and the defensemen. Another was used for deflection practice and accuracy shooting where Jeff Blashill was splitting time with the two stations. The last space was used by Tomas Holmstrom and forwards practicing screening the goalie and, well basically what Holmstrom did his entire career minus a defenseman knocking them flat on the ice.
During the power skating drills, I was surprised at how nimble 6-foot-9 defenseman Ildar Telyakov was. He made smooth transitions and looked light on his feet. Darren Helm participated in the first session, but was not present during the second one (don’t worry it’s not because he got hurt again).
During the second half of the practice, Martin Frk really impressed me. He was working on deflecting wrist shots into an empty net. He successfully tipped in 30+ shots in succession, from every different angle and speed. His hand-eye coordination is unparalleled among these prospects. In fact, I’ll venture to say I haven’t seen such good net-front hand-eye coordination since Holmstrom’s playing days.
Michelle, from the Winging It In Motown blog, was nice to film much of this drill for video proof (as well as a few other videos that can be found at the bottom of this article).
The 3-on-0 breakout with two forwards and one trailing defenseman is a great way to gauge skill, speed, passing, and coordination all at once. The player who impressed me the most after this drill was 2013 4th Round Pick David Pope. Pope’s wrist shot is powered with deadly accuracy.
Here is some Q&A to help you learn more about these prospects:
Anthony Mantha
I asked first-round pick Anthony Mantha what role he prefers to play: sniper or power forward. “It’s really what the spot is going to be. The only spot that’s not going to be taken. If it’s to be a sniper, I’ll try to be a sniper. If it’s a power forward, I’ll change my play to become a power forward. It’s really to play in the NHL that I need to adapt my game to.”
If you had a choice? “For sure if I had the choice, I would be a sniper, because it’s always more fun scoring goals than being a power forward and dropping your mitts. In the future, I’ll be able to do both. At the junior level last year I played more of a sniper game, so I can bring that to the NHL.
Ryan Sproul
What do you need to work on the most? “I work on everything. You’ve got to be versatile out there. My strength in my shot and probably my skating, and I still work as hard as I can on both of those. Just because you’re good at one thing, you don’t stop working on it.
Which NHL player do you model your game after? “It used to be a guy like Mike Green, but I’ve kind of tried to turn my game into more like a Shea Weber. Clearly he’s got a great shot, but he’s also a leader and he’s a big physical presence as well.
Philippe Hudon
What are your goals for the week? “Get better, show that I’m getting better, that I want to sign as soon as possible to move up in the ranks.”
What area of your game needs the most work? “Skating, and staying composed…I just want to build a little more of my hockey IQ and build on all the other things that I’ve been working hard on: net-front presence, shot, physical presence…”
Which NHL player do you model your game after? “I think Holmstrom is actually a pretty good example as well as power grit players that drive the net and aren’t afraid to get in the dirty areas, that are blue collar workers.”
Tyler Bertuzzi
What are the strengths in your game? “Just being an agitator I guess, playing tough.”
Which NHL player do you model your game after? “When he was in the NHL, Wendel Clark for the Leafs.”
Nick Jensen
Reason for not playing in Friday’s scrimmage: “Strained shoulder. When we [he and Bertuzzi] got in the scrap yesterday, my grab hand, I think I might have yanked a little too hard, might have pulled something. I didn’t really feel it until about five minutes after the fight.”
What are your strengths? “I like to say my skating is definitely one of my strengths. I like to say I have good, smart skills with the puck, making good plays. Obviously it always needs to be worked on. I got to work on my passing. I’ve been working on that a lot over the summer, so hopefully I can come in and be a top puck-moving defenseman.”
Mark McNulty
Is there an NHL player that you would compare your style of play to? “I’d like to say a guy like Chris Pronger.”
More of Michelle’s Videos from Day 2 (Follow her @Slapshotg0al)
Half-boards scrimmage
Chelios’s Defense Drills – all defensemen
Shooting Drills – Pope, Shine
More Shooting Drills – Bodin
Deflections Part 1 – Pope, Loney, Hudon, Nastasiuk, Shine
Deflections Part 2 – Hudon
Deflections Part 3 – Nastasiuk
Deflections Part 4 – Frk, Bodin, Dean Chelios, Mantha
Follow me on Twitter @yungspork. This is my last day of coverage, and I’ll be covering the scrimmage game tonight.Parents should be paid $7000 a year for every child to ensure the Australian race survives, maverick independent MP Bob Katter says.
The Queensland MP today told parliament the cost of raising a child was horrific and unless the government was ready to hand out $2.6 billion to parents, Australians would become a dying race.
Mr Katter said in 10 years' time Australia would officially become a vanishing race when the generation of baby boomers die.
He said immigration would not solve the problem because, "they won't be Australians, they'll be migrants".
Mr Katter said when he was a young parent he and his wife received substantial tax benefits to raise their five children but today families with two incomes and no children, known as double income, no kids or DINKs, paid the same amount of tax as a one-income family supporting a stay-at-home parent and children.Today we chat to Japan based vegan chef and instructor Ryoya Takashima from PeacefulCuisine.com. Ryoya also has a very popular YouTube channel where he demonstrates his amazing vegan recipes.
Ryoya’s cookery videos are some of the most stunning on YouTube and are all vegan or raw vegan. Ryoya’s recipes are absolutely delicious and are low in fat and sugar.
Can you tell us a little about your background and your experience as a vegan chef?
I was born in Japan in 1983, and had a very ‘normal’ upbringing. When I was 20 I went to Australia to study English on a working holiday visa. After going to English School for a few months I started to work at a café as a chef assistant. I learnt a lot of cooking skills and techniques from head chefs who came to teach from all over the country. I cooked animal foods at that time.
I then went to New Zealand for another year, and once I got back to Japan, one of my friends offered me a position as a chef at a macrobiotic café that was due to open in Yamanashi prefecture. I worked there for about 2 years. It was a really small café so the owner and I had to do everything ourselves. I think working in that environment really helped me to hone the skills I needed to improve as a chef.
I then moved to Tokyo and started teaching vegan and raw vegan cooking class. During this time I started to shoot vegan recipe videos to upload onto YouTube.
I went to macrobiotic cookery school (Kushi Macrobiotic) when I lived in Yamanashi. And then got interested in raw food so I went to Living Light Culinary Art Institute in California for 3 weeks.
Can you share with us some of your greatest culinary heroes?
To be honest, I don’t have any culinary heroes in mind. But, I would like to be a vegan version of Jamie Oliver. I love his cookery programs and his approach to educating people about food. I’m really interested in doing something similar in Japan.
From my point of view, it is obvious that people are eating too much animal foods, which is having an effect on their health and wellbeing. I never say ‘don’t eat animal foods’, but I just want to let people know that there is always a fun, joyful and easy way of eating that can lead to a healthier life.
Can you recommend any excellent vegan cookbooks?
I can’t recommend any particular cookbooks. All cookbooks are beautiful and helpful.
The following are not cookbooks but I highly recommend them for anyone interested in diet and nutrition as well as spirituality and personal development:
“Diet for a New America” by John Robbins
“Conversations with God” by Neale Donald Walsch
Why did you want to become vegan?
When I was 23, I read two books that I recommended above. As I continued to read, I couldn’t help but becoming a vegan. When I was reading, all of a sudden, I became determined to become vegan. That was seven and a half years ago.
The first reason really is the environmental issues caused by producing animal products. Producing animal foods really need lots and lots of energy. To make 100g of beef, you’ll need 1000g of plants to feed the cow. Instead, we could be eating those plants! Cows should only eat grass but nowadays they are fed beans and millet to make them fat. I just think this ill-use of resources is absolutely ridiculous.
The second reason is animal welfare. I learnt how animals are treated in farms. Mass production, mass consumption and mass food waste. Animals are treated like Industrial products.
Whereas in reality they feel everything in the same way as we do. I really don’t mind if some people who need to eat animal foods in order to survive such as for people who live in places where it is hard to grow crops and get enough food. But I strongly hope that people become aware that we actually don’t need ‘animal food factory’ products that can often lead people to become unhealthy and waste huge amounts of plant and animal life.
The third reason is for the health benefits, which I have found immediately obvious.
What difficulties have you experienced since becoming vegan?
Actually I’ve never had any difficulties since I became vegan. I was utterly determined to become vegan. My mind was completely changed in my 20s and I can say that I will never go back to animal products.
Since becoming vegan I’ve never thought ‘uhh I want to eat meat! (or fish, egg and dairy)’. I just think that animal foods are no longer the food for me.
I do try not to push my viewpoint on others. Forcing someone to your way of thinking never leads to good results. Instead I like to just show people through my YouTube channel as well as from my vegan cookery classes, that I eat only plant foods and I am healthy enough.
People can choose their own relationship with food. It is entirely their own choice. We all have freedom to choose how we live. It is okay if you choose to eat animal foods your entire life. It is your choice.
But it is important to take responsibility for your own health. Blaming other people for your own choices is not a smart idea. So I have decided that I will simply show others my vegan diet and hope that more and more people will follow my way of cooking. After all it is really fun and joyful to cook vegan.
Can you share with us one of your staple everyday vegan recipes?
My California Rolls are a delicious and healthy everyday meal.
Are you working on any exciting upcoming projects you would like to share?
I’ve been really focusing on creating beautiful vegan recipes on YouTube so I would be really happy if you would visit my channel!
Find Ryoya
www.Youtube.com/peacefulcuisine
www.peacefulcuisine.com
AdvertisementsPresident Donald Trump prizes two qualities above all else: loyalty and discretion—don’t cross the boss, and don’t leak. Whether he’ll find either in his new communications director is an open question.
On Sunday, New York investor and media personality Anthony Scaramucci declared that he will root out White House leakers in his new post. “We’re going to stop the leaks. And if we don’t stop the leaks, I’m going to stop you. It’s just really that simple,” he said on an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.
But aides to 2016 presidential candidates whom Scaramucci endorsed before coming around to Trump say he was suspected of leaking internal information, and left out of some internal discussions for fear that he would pass along those sorts of details to reporters—or that he already had.
Scaramucci did not respond to questions about this story.
He threw his weight behind the Trump campaign only after his first two preferred candidates, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, dropped out. Between his stints raising money for those campaigns, he was in talks with a third, that of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Former senior aides on all three of those campaigns say Scaramucci gave the impression of a hanger-on trying to methodically get in the good graces of whichever candidate he saw as most likely to prevail. Only when Trump had the nomination all but secured did Scaramucci sign on with his campaign.
“He was trying to pick the winner,” according to a former senior Rubio aide, who said Scaramucci approached that campaign after Walker withdrew from the race in September 2015. Despite intense competition to pick up the support of key fundraisers, the former Rubio aide said, Scaramucci was seen as too self-serving and untrustworthy, and the Rubio campaign declined his support.
Talk of his shifting loyalties was already circulating among Republicans on various sides of the primary due to rumors emanating from the disbanded Walker campaign that Scaramucci had leaked information to the press and otherwise caused headaches for the campaign.
“He was suspected of leaking and stirring up drama with the donors,” a former senior Walker campaign aide recalled.
Another senior Walker aide said Scaramucci was suspected of airing some of the campaign’s dirty laundry. “There were a lot of people unhappy with how the campaign was being managed. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was stoking those things with the press.”
Scaramucci’s reputation in GOP political circles as a press leaker may have originated in 2012, when he tipped off a Bloomberg reporter to the time and location of a fundraising event for the Republican super PAC Crossroads GPS, according to a report in Politico at the time. At the event, Crossroads chief Karl Rove made disparaging remarks about then-GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin, who was under fire for comments questioning whether a woman could be impregnated by rape.
The comments, which were posted by Bloomberg, were immensely embarrassing for Rove, who apologized to Akin. Scaramucci, in turn, apologized to Rove.
Beyond his apparent penchant for leaking, both Walker aides say Scaramucci appeared to be laying the groundwork for his jump from the Walker campaign. Trump officially entered the race in June. Within months, the aides say, Scaramucci had met with Trump even as he fundraised for Walker, raising questions about his loyalties.
After the first Republican presidential debate in August 2015, the Walker aides said, Scaramucci met with Trump at his New York campaign headquarters. That meeting “was always curious,” one of the Walker aides said.
When the meeting was discovered, rumors flew internally that Scaramucci was going to be jumping ship for the Trump campaign. Things were already starting to go awry for Walker—his campaign was burning through money at an unsustainable rate—and the rumors became an “unnecessary distraction,” one of the Walker aides said.
That talk was quickly tamped down, the aide noted, and Walker’s team was assured that “he wasn’t switching and it was just rumors.” But “looking back at the arc of this guy’s conduct, it certainly raises some more questions as to what really transpired.”
“He seems like a ladder climber to me,” the aide said, “someone who’s in it for his self-interest.”
That’s certainly nothing new in politics, but even among campaigns scrambling to secure high-dollar financial support in the early stages of the presidential campaign, Scaramucci was seen as too untrustworthy.
When Walker withdrew from the race in September 2015, Scaramucci didn’t jump directly to the Trump campaign. First he offered his services to Rubio, the former aide to that campaign recalled, before signing on with Bush, Rubio’s home state nemesis.
Bush aides say they were acutely aware of Scaramucci’s reported conduct on the Walker campaign.
Scaramucci “had a reputation for leaking that we were cognizant of,” Tim Miller, the Bush campaign’s communications director, told The Daily Beast. Scaramucci was reportedly left out of discussions with other campaign fundraisers out of a concern that he would leak to the press.
In spite of that reputation, Scaramucci has now taken on the mantle of internal White House anti-leak enforcer. And he has professed his extreme loyalty to the president despite a reputation for hedging his political bets.
Scaramucci joked about his late Trump endorsement during a White House press briefing on Friday, when he was officially given the White House communications director post. “He brings it up every 15 seconds,” he said of Trump. But “I’m a team player,” Scaramucci added. “I believe you have to subordinate yourself to the greater good of the team.”
The president tweeted a defense of his new top communications aide. Scaramucci “wanted to endorse me 1st, before the Republican Primaries started, but didn't think I was running!" the Trump wrote.
In fact, Trump had been in the race for nearly a year before Scaramucci got behind his candidacy. The new White House communications director had taken a litany of policy positions contrary to the president’s agenda. He has financially backed some of the president’s most aggressive antagonists. And he had even taken shots at Trump himself.
“I was an inexperienced person in the world of politics,” Scaramucci told reporters on Friday of some of his past Trump criticism. “I was supporting another candidate. I should have never said that about him. So Mr. President, if you’re listening, I personally apologize for the 50th time for saying that.”
While that was likely the answer Trump was looking for, Scaramucci’s reputation for leaks and allegiance-shifting seems to deviate from what the president has generally sought in his top aides.
The president commands loyalty. Scaramucci, one of the Walker aides remarked, exudes a “pretty self-serving personality.”uTorrent 2.0 went gold a few days ago, and the latest stable version of the incredibly popular torrent client introduces several useful new features for those who haven't been playing around with the beta.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)
The first and most technical, but also most important, is the introduction of uTP. The uTorrent Protocol will natively prevent one person's connection from crowding out all the others. In a blog post, Simon Morris, the vice president of product management for uTorrent's parent company BitTorrent, predicted that uTP would result in faster average download speeds. This network congestion mitigation could result in Internet service providers being less hostile to torrenting, he said, and he hoped that it would result in a friendlier environment between network operators and the network users.
Basically, uTP will slow down all torrent traffic until whatever is causing the congestion is cleared up.
However, while uTorrent's programmers are banking on uTP changing the torrenting world for the better, they've also been pragmatic in adding features to version 2.0. The transfer cap feature, accessible from the Preferences menu under Options, allows users whose ISPs have set download and upload limits. Importantly, the feature also includes the ability to track the upload and download rates over a recent time period. The default is set to 31 days.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)
Skins have sort of come to uTorrent 2.0, but don't expect a simple interface for switching them around. There's no "skins" menu option, so they must be added manually. Once you've selected one from the uTorrent skin site, it must be saved to your uTorrent folder. On Windows XP, that's C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\uTorrent. On Vista and Windows 7, that's most likely E:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\uTorrent. If you're not sure, on any Windows system you can type %appdata% into your search box and hit enter. Once you restart uTorrent, you should see the new skin in use.
There's a redone installation process, as well. New users will find a built-in speed test and other automatic tweaks for high-traffic uploaders, although be warned that you'll still be opted-in to the Ask.com toolbar. The full list of changes in uTorrent 2.0 can be found here. Users who like to live on the edge can grab the uTorrent 2.1 beta, as well.Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha shakes hands with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. (Government House photo)
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has insisted that he told US President Donald Trump that he would announce the election date late next year, not that the election will be held next year.
His confirmation has sparked criticism that his roadmap contradicts the Thai-US joint statement issued earlier.
Gen Prayut took a few minutes of his televised programme on Friday night to clarify his remark made during his visit to the United States about the political roadmap and a general election.
He said he assured Mr Trump during his visit the Thai government was adhering to the roadmap to democracy and there would be elections next year.
"President Trump didn't ask me about the issue, but I was able to assure him of the current administration's commitment to the roadmap, informing him that there will be elections by the end of next year, but by that I mean an election date would be announced late next year," he said.
"From then, the election will be held 150 days following the announcement," Gen Prayut said.
His remark implied the election would take place in 2019, later than previously indicated.
The prime minister told a group of Thais in Washington, DC earlier that the organic laws needed for a general election would likely not be enacted until November 2018.
Gen Prayut came under heavy criticism for causing confusion about when the national polls would take place. His timetable did not correspond to what the critics believed.
According to the 2017 constitution, elections must be held within 150 days, or five months, of the organic laws being passed. Those laws are expected to be completed within eight months of the promulgation of the charter.
While Gen Prayut stressed that only an election date would be announced next year, critics cited a joint statement between Thailand and the US issued after the meeting of the two leaders to claim Gen Prayut promised the polls would be held next year.
Pheu Thai's former energy minister Pichai Naripthaphan yesterday called on the government to clarify Item 8 on the US-Thai joint statement released on Oct 2.
Item 8 reads: "Recognising Thailand's strategic importance to the United States and the region, President Trump welcomed Thailand's commitment to the roadmap, which, upon completion of relevant organic laws as stipulated by the constitution, will lead to free and fair elections in 2018. The two leaders also recognised the importance of protecting and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms."
Mr Pichai said the Foreign Ministry should review the conversation between the two leaders and inform the US if there is a misunderstanding about the issue and set the record straight.
He said the government's flip-flop on the election would further erode the international community's confidence in the country.
Former Democrat MP Charoen Khanthawong yesterday urged the prime minister to commit to the current roadmap that would see the election take place next year.
If elections were to be postponed for whatever reason, the government should let the public see for themselves what contributed to the delay, said Mr Charoen.
"The people want to see elections because they don't think the government is doing enough to address the problems. If things don't pan out as said, the people will be disappointed. I don't want his popularity to slide," said Mr Charoen.
Meanwhile, Gen Prayut, during the televised programme, rejected criticism that his visit was to negotiate weapon purchases with the US, saying state procurement plans must undergo due process.Washington Wizards’ Lack Of Hometown Support Is Troublesome
When Kobe Bryant hit a three pointer late in the fourth quarter to put the Los Angeles Lakers up 101 – 99 over the Washington Wizards, the sellout crowd went crazy. After the Wizards’ all-star point guard John Wall found center Marcin Gortat underneath to tie the game at 101….there was no reaction from the crowd.
Bryant then came back and would score the go-ahead bucket that would eventually seal the game for the Lakers. The crowd was happy and the Lakers were celebrating their third victory of the year. Problem is, this game took place in in the Verizon Center….the Wizards home turf.
Scenes like Wednesday night are becoming far too common at Washington Wizards home games. “Fans” of other teams come to the Verizon Center to cheer on their team while shunning the home squad. They are usually the loudest, brashest “fans” and seem to enjoy watching the Wizards struggle and then eventually losing at home to these teams.
The excuses for this range from everything like “I’ve always been a fan of Team XYZ” to “The ownership has made this franchise a mess so I don’t support them” to “I just like player X”. On a purely surface level, basketball provides entertainment for people and most casual NBA fans don’t want to have deal with heartbreak and mediocrity when backing a team while shelling out money, so they latch on to the winners for that luxury.
Past championship teams such as the Lakers, Spurs, and the Bulls have huge followings not just in the DC area, but league wide and is to be somewhat expected.
However, the problem is, you have teams such as the Raptors and the Thunder (teams with no championships) come to town with more fans and fanfare than the Wizards usually have at home.
While the DC crowd should appreciate the stars of the league, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the Washington Wizards and the current guys on the team.
In one of the most bizarre cases I have ever seen, two time all-star and current Wizards franchise player John Wall went to the free throw line late to try to put the Wizards up one late in the game.
Once the ref handed him the ball, the boos came pouring in.
Loud boos.
Regardless of who’s in town or what team you pull for, the franchise player, who by the way was having an excellent game keeping his team close, should not be booed. Ever. It’s no secret that the NBA is a star league that pushes its star players as attractions, but shouldn’t John Wall now be included in the “must see live” player list along with players such as Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, etc.?
Wall has been struggling a bit this year, but he has gotten back to what has made him one of the league’s best young point guards and has had back-to-back 30+ point games with 10+ assists. Not many guys in the league can approach that stat line. He has been the Washington Wizards’ best player for the past five years and he has even been honored by the NBA for month of October for his off-court charities and involvement in the community.
After the game, a few Wizards were being interviewed and while most had high praise for Kobe and what he’s meant to the league, they also mentioned that they noticed the crowd and how it felt like an away game. Strangely, most of the DC area teams: the Nationals, Capitals and of course the Redskins, have some of the most loyal, rabid, and patient fans in the country but want nothing to do with the Wizards and what they have going on.
Looking at recent performance, the Washington Wizards have been the most successful team in the area.
Getting into the second round of the playoffs in each of the past two playoffs, they have accomplished something that not even the Capitals have done regularly: advance in the playoffs.
After the Wizards advanced to the second round of the playoffs in each of the past two years, DC was buzzing and all of a sudden the Wizards were loved and people were claiming that that have cheered on the Wizards for years!
While the Wizards haven’t been one of the great teams of the NBA in the past few years, they are definitely a team on the rise.
They have young talent such as Wall (25-years-old), Bradley Beal (22-years-old) and Otto Porter (22-years-old) in place and all of them have been playoff tested.
The Wizards will also have enough cap room to sign…ahem….somebody next summer and could potentially be Finals contenders depending on what happens.
With that said, players (and potential free agents) from other teams around the league notice things such as the Wizards being booed at home, the full DC crowd not arriving at the game until late in the second quarter, and the general non-excitement in the arena for the home team.
While that may seem small to fans, support is a huge deal to NBA players. When Kevin Durant brought up that it was disrespectful to the current Wizards team how crazy the DC crowds were rooting for him, his observation should have raised some red flags for DC fans. While I did say that I was one of the people that wanted to continue to welcome the “KD2DC” movement, I wouldn’t boo or ridicule the current team to do so.
I think the Washington Wizards were on the right track curbing “fans” of the other |
in Berlin, Germany. Picture: Sean Gallup
8.23am: US voters are being warned it may be illegal to twitter, instagram or in any way photograph and distribute photos of their ballots, The Los Angeles Times reports.
The Citizen Media Law Project states that showing a marked ballot to others is ruled as illegal in many US states.
media_camera Big Bird is photographed in a US election voting queue. Picture: cj28mtl via Instagram
8.21am: Election officials in New Jersey say they will be unable to process more than 3000 faxed and emailed votes by the end of election day.
With only eight officials on the count, each vote takes about 15 minutes to verify. Fax and email has proven a popular voting method in the hurricane-afflicted state.
The official email address shut down due to overload. The county clerk redirected emails to his personal hotmail address.
8.11am: Exploiting every last moment of the campaign, Republican Mitt Romney hit the road on election day, racing out to Ohio for a final shot at the crucial battleground. "I'm so optimistic, not just about the results of the election, but optimistic about what's ahead for America,'' Romney said. "I'm buoyed by the spirit of people across the nation - the enthusiasm, the support, the energy. It's just amazing. Thank you.''
media_camera Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walks away after waving to a crowd gathered at a nearby parking lot after his campaign plane arrived at Moon Township, Pittsburgh International Airport. Picture: Charles Dharapak
8.05am: After a long and costly presidential campaign, President Barack Obama indulged in his favourite election-day pastime: unwinding on the basketball court in Chicago. There also may be a hint of superstition in his commitment to the habit. As the story goes, the one time Obama did not play on election day was January 2008 during the Democratic primary in New Hampshire, where Hillary Clinton beat him.
media_camera Workers complete the final details on US President Barack Obama's election night event at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Picture: Saul LOEB
7.49am: Preparations for the election after-party have already begun. The picture below was posted on Twitter showing security guards assembling for Mitt Romney's election night get-together.
media_camera How many security officers does it take to protect Mitt Romney's election night party? Too many to count. @LisaMillar via Twitter
7.39am: An electronic voting machine in Pennsylvania has been captured on video changing a vote for President Obama to a vote for Mitt Romney. The video was posted to social media forum Reddit where it was initially claimed to be fraud. NBC reports the machine was taken out of service and the fault was diagnosed as a "mis-calibration".
media_camera Lines begin to form as polls open on in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Picture: Jessica Kourkounis
7.33am: Popular US television journalist Dan Rather has said his "gut" tell him that today will be a good day for Mitt Romney. "Something in my gut tells me that it's going to be a good day for Romney. But as a reporter, you don't report your gut. The polls all indicate, yes, Obama, he has several paths to victory. Romney has only one. But don't taunt the alligator until after you cross the creek," he said on MSNBC's Morning Joe show.
7.16am: United States voters are not just choosing who will be their next president. Bundled along with the Romney v. Obama question in a variety of states are 172 different votes. They include:
Gay Marriage: Voters in Maine are expected to approve a referendum seeking to legalise same-sex marriage.
Voters in Maine are expected to approve a referendum seeking to legalise same-sex marriage. Legalising marijuana: Voters in three states - Colorado, Oregon and Washington - will be asked if recreational use of marijuana should be decriminalised. Three other states - Arkansas, Montana and Massachusetts - will vote on allowing its use for medicinal purposes.
Voters in three states - Colorado, Oregon and Washington - will be asked if recreational use of marijuana should be decriminalised. Three other states - Arkansas, Montana and Massachusetts - will vote on allowing its use for medicinal purposes. GM food labels: If California voters choose to require warning labels on foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, consumers across the nation will likely start seeing similar notices.
If California voters choose to require warning labels on foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, consumers across the nation will likely start seeing similar notices. Abolishing the death penalty: California voters will also be asked if it is time to repeal the state's death penalty. There are currently 724 people on the state's death row.
California voters will also be asked if it is time to repeal the state's death penalty. There are currently 724 people on the state's death row. Abortion restrictions: Voters in Florida will be asked to weigh in on a plan to ban state funds from being used not only for abortions, but also for any health insurance plans which cover the service. Montana voters will be asked to ban doctors from performing an abortion for girls under the age of 16 without notifying their parents or guardian 48 hours earlier.
media_camera Members of the National Guard walk past a house damaged by Superstorm Sandy as it is painted with an American flag in the New Dorp section of Staten Island, New York. Picture: Seth Wenig
7.10am: Early turnout in regions affected by Superstorm Sandy appear high, despite some malfunctioning machines and confusion over where to go. At least one polling site with power was lit with flares.
Some voted by flashlight. Some polling places were in tents, and some voters were in tears.
"Oh my God, I have been so anxious about being able to vote,'' said 73-year-old Annette DeBona of hard-hit Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, who was there at dawn. "This is the happiest vote I ever cast in my life.''
media_camera Election workers help a voter, right, finalize his affidavit ballot at a consolidated polling station for residents of the Rockaways on Election Day in the Queens borough of New York. Picture: Jason DeCrow
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Originally published as AS IT HAPPENED: Obama's victory<<incrementTime>>You give the holographic touch interface a few swipes as you scan through the projects Mac left open in her last session. It's all esoteric, badly commented code, with unintelligible subroutine names and weird pointer encryption. Mac was either a savant or completely insane.
After a few fruitless minutes of sifting through incomprehensible code, you throw your hands up in the air and decide to just take the program for a spin.
You bring your two hands together and clasp them in a prayer-like gesture. A few hundred years ago this might have meant something pious or spiritual; here, it was the standard gesture for "Build and Run". The touch interface folds away as the machine starts compiling the thousands of files. Without warning, you feel a jet of hot air blow over you as the computer's six fans start running at full blast. Large quantities of debug output scrolls in front of your eyes, moving too fast to be parsed.
This could take a while. Might as well [[get some food.]]
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iga (“The Final Girls”), Karen Gillan (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), Burn Gorman (“The Dark Knight Rises”), and more. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.
READ MORE: ‘In a Valley of Violence’ Trailer: Ethan Hawke & John Travolta Star In New Western From Horror Aficionado
“In a Valley of Violence” first premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March before traveling to BAMcinemaFest and the Fantasia International Film Festival. It will be released in theaters, On Demand, and Digital HD on October 21 from Focus World.
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Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.Car Dealers Are Ruining the Queens Boulevard Bike Lane in Elmhurst After a 311 complaint about car dealers using the bike lane as an extension of their lots, NYPD officers reported "no evidence" of bike lane obstruction.
DOT redesigned 1.2 miles Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst last summer with bike lanes running along the service road medians. As the city extends this redesign along one of the only continuous east-west routes in Queens, the Queens Boulevard bike lane promises to make biking a more viable travel option for hundreds of thousands of people.
But not if car dealers use it as a showroom.
In this video from Jessame Hannus, you can see the cars that auto dealerships have left clogging the Queens Boulevard bike lane.
Engineering is a great tool of @VisionZeroNYC but won't work without @NYPDnews enforcement @BilldeBlasio Cars for sale on Queens Blvd! pic.twitter.com/c2c6hJwFV1 — Jessame (@belleoflonglake) April 9, 2017
Appropriating public streets and sidewalks is a longstanding practice along major streets like Queens Boulevard and Northern Boulevard, and Hannus tweeted this morning that a dealership “has always used that space as extension of their lot.”
With six dealerships in the immediate vicinity, however, the exact culprit is not clear.
NYPD hasn’t sent a strong signal that this illegal use of the bike lane should stop. The online ticket for Hannus’s 311 complaint yesterday afternoon said officers arrived at the location within a half-hour and “observed no evidence of the violation.”
Initial data show that the redesign of Queens Boulevard has made the street safer, but if car dealers are allowed to store their inventory on it, Queens residents won’t get the safe, continuous bikeway they deserve.In the wake of a wave of Islamic terror attacks from Paris to Mali to Israel and elsewhere, the United Nations General Assembly - with its usual unerring moral compass - adopted six resolutions Tuesday, all of which condemned Israel.
Israel National News reports that the UN made not a single mention of the Palestinian attacks that have left 22 Israelis dead and hundreds wounded. No countries other than Israel even received any of the General Assembly's attention. Five of the the UNGA resolutions were sponsored by the Palestinian Authority, while the sixth was sponsored by Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, observed that,
"Surreal barely captures the scene: the world is under assault by terrorists killing in the name of Islam and martyrhood — as Palestinians did this week while stabbing Israeli Jews — and the UN’s response is to reflexively condemn Israel in six separate resolutions, all of which are one-sided."
One resolution - adopted by 105 votes to 6, with 56 abstentions - condemned Israel for retaining the Golan Heights, and demanded that Israel hand it over to the Syrian regime. The resolution elicited warm words of praise from Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari, who expressed his "heartfelt appreciation and gratitude" to the UN for its Golan resolution, and without any sense of irony accused Israel of "occupation killing policies," "expansion," "racism," and "aggression."
Another vote - passing 153 to 7 - claimed that Israel has "no right" to "impose" its sovereignty over "the Holy City of Jerusalem."
Neuer continued:
"It’s astonishing. At a time when the Syrian regime is massacring its own people, how can the UN call for more people to be subject to Assad’s rule? The timing is morally galling and logically absurd. What is also outrageous is that these resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the UN proves itself oblivious to the hundreds of Palestinians who continue to be slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces."
He accused the UN of being hijacked by an "automatic majority" of fiercely anti-Israel dictatorships:
"The farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the UN's automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations remains the scapegoating of Israel.This page will automatically refresh every 60 seconds.
Ho, ho, ho! Happy Hockey Day Minnesota to all in the State of Hockey legion! I hope the ghost of Frank Brimsek came down your chimney last night and brought you all of the things you put on your Hockey Day Minnesota list. Maybe it was a new pair of skates, or a composite stick or Cooperalls. I sure hope a live in-game commentary was also on your list because that's what I'm giving you. Sorry it's not wrapped, and if it's not the right size, leave the tags on so you can return it for one that fits.Plus, the commentary is just the first part of my gift to you. You'll get the second part in a couple hours in the form of another Wild victory over the St. Louis Blues. I will hand deliver it from my beloved perch in the Al Shaver Press Box at Xcel Energy Center. Now, I've got absolutely nothing against the fine people of St. Louis, Missouri. They make some pretty good malted beverages down there. But this is Hockey Day Minnesota, not Hockey Day Missouri. This day belongs to us, and we will own the moment tonight. You heard it here first, but Minnesota boy Matt Cullen lights the lamp twice tonight, including the game-winner.Nik Backstrom, who got a night off last night, will be manning the crease tonight for the good guys in green. Backy has been unbeatable lately, so why wouldn't he be starting a big game like this? That was a rhetorical question, by the way. And if you don't know what rhetorical means, don't worry about it. I still don't get it.As for the lineup in front of the Wild goaltender, it's going to remain unchanged. All the healthy bodies are in there, while guys like Guillaume Latendresse (abdominal), Marco Scandella (concussion) and Marek Zidlicky (shoulder) are all out with injuries. The word is that Latendresse will meet with a doctor on February 21 to discuss when his potential return might take place.As I mentioned earlier, the Wild are dressed to the nines in their green third jerseys. The Blues are in the road whites trimmed in blue and yellow with the musical note on the chest.This being the greatest day in hockey, we've got the three Minnesotans on the Houston Aeros - Jarod Palmer Nate Prosser and Chad Rau - to get us going with the "Let's Play Hockey" declaration. By the by, you can watch those three carry the Aeros to a seventh straight victory tomorrow afternoon at Xcel Energy Center.All right, this sellout crowd is rockin'. Getchya popcorn ready.18:23 - From his own end, Clayton Stoner floats the puck high through the neutral zone as he absorbs a hit from former North Dakota Fighting Sioux, T.J. Oshie. At the St. Louis blueline, Martin Havlat calmly waits for the puck to return to earth, and he catches it on his stick for a partial break. He's got Kyle Brodziak on the left, but he lets a quick backhand go that just misses wide.16:38 - Does anybody have better puck instincts than Wild captain Mikko Koivu? He reads a St. Louis breakout perfectly in the slot and has a wide open lane to the net. Perhaps trying to catch Jaroslav Halak off guard, he winds up and drills a slapper, but the Blues keeper gets the leg pillow down to make the stop.13:55 - The Wild's top line is dominating every time they hit the ice so far tonight. This time, Andrew Brunette does what he does behind the net, emerging from the goal line with Brad Boyes draped all over him. Shielding the puck expertly, he spins around to the forehand and lets a low shot go that Halak sponges up.12:13 - The Blues finally get some life in their sticks, getting their first shots on goal on their first power play. The shots come in a chaotic flurry, but Backstrom calmly stays with it and ends the action with a big glove save on a point blank shot from Matt D'Agostini.11:39 - Back at full strength, the Wild are back on the attack. Koivu has Havlat on his right on a two-on-one. He tries to send a pass over, but it's blocked by a sliding Carlo Colaiacovo. The puck pops up in the air and Koivu connects with a swipe in the air, but Halak makes another big stop. Koivu has been a beast tonight. He is everywhere.6:27 - We might have a review whenever play stops again. Alex Pietrangelo dances in toward the net and then gets off a wicked backhander that beats Backstrom, hits metal and bounces out. The play continues, but it sure looks like the puck hits the back iron and then bounces out......The whistle blows and it's a TV timeout. Let's see if they go to a review...Apparently not. Play starts right back up after the break without any kind of protest.4:47 - The gloves are off. Cam Barker takes exception to the way that D'Agostini drills him from behind into the backboards. He immediately gets up and starts delivering some hacks and cross checks to D'Agostini, who gets the puck. That brings Barker in for one more big hit, and the gloves finally hit the ice. The two tangle for awhile, and D'Agostini appears to land a few to the back of Barker's head, but the two both go down in a heap.3:12 - This one is getting heated, yo! Brad Staubitz delivers a big hit behind the play on Colaiacovo. They both go down, and Stauby is slow to get up, but he's being helped up by Cam Janssen, who wants to brawl. And this is a brawl. These two throw haymaker after haymaker, and it looks like Janssen is going to get the decision. But Staubitz rebounds and crushes him with a knock out blow. This game has the feel of one that may see a few more tussles.0:00 - Just as the horn sounds, former Wisconsin Badger Brad Winchester takes a flying leap at Nick Schultz behind the Wild net. They both go down, and Koivu is right there to deliver a few shots to Winchester's head. Everybody comes in, but nobody will drop the gloves this time.19:22 - The Wild comes out with fire once again, and of course it's Koivu leading a two-on-one into the St. Louis zone. He puts a pass right on the tape of Antti Miettinen who puts his shot off the right post.17:54 - Backstrom's entire body is in the net right now, but the puck isn't. The puck is pinballing around in the crease, and two other Wild players are down in the blue paint with Backstrom, but the puck is somewhere on the outside.15:02 - A blast from the point off the stick of Brent Burns hits traffic in front and skips over to a wide open Havlat. He cranks a shot toward the empty net, but Halak slides over in time to get his face in the way, causing a loud crack. They stop play so Halak can get his affairs in order, because that one cannot feel good.13:08 - Koivu has the puck and is leading a two-on-one for the 82nd time tonight. He's got Spurgeon on his right, but the St. Louis defender goes down to take the pass away. Koivu decides to fire a shot, but Halak absorbs it and won't give Spurgeon the chance at a rebound for his first NHL goal.12:21 - More shenanigans after the whistle as Winchester is creating all kinds of trouble in front of Backstrom. He and Greg Zanon are going at it pretty good, and then Staubitz comes in late and wrangles him up with a headlock. Stauby is going to be the only guy to get the gate on this one for being the late guy in.5:45 - The oooohhs rise from the stands as Alexander Steen cranks a one-timer from the right side and rings it off the post.0:00 - What a rip-roarin' good time this one has been. Still 20 minutes left, but the Wild has it going on tonight. Just keep that up and we're looking at two more big points.15:24 - The Blues get another power play, and that means they're pressuring again. They don't get too many opportunities, but just as Burns comes out of the box, Boyes unloads a one-timer from the left side that Backstrom stops with a sliding pad save. As per usual, Backy has been stellar, and the Wild's best penalty killer.10:34 - Oh yes! Clutterbuck absolutely unloads on Oshie in the corner and the crowd adores it. After a whistle, the two players are smiling at each other as they talk, but I don't think the smiles are the friendly kind of smiles. More than likely, they are of the sinister variety.8:28 - The Wild is showing no signs of sitting on this two-goal lead. They are looking to insert the dagger, and Clutterbuck nearly does. He races ahead of Pietrangelo to get to a loose puck in the Blues' zone, and then puts a high backhand on goal that Conklin gets just enough of with a shoulder save.4:32 - Unreal. After Clutterbuck delivers two clean hits on former Minnesota Gopher Erik Johnson and Barret Jackman in the St. Louis zone, he heads back toward the bench. Johnson is also going toward his bench, but he delivers a vicious slash to the back of Clutter's leg that everybody, including referee Gord Dwyer sees. Yet, there is no call. It's acceptable to slash the game's best checker, even if his hits are clean, apparently.2:08 - Conklin heads off for another attacker.0:00 - You knew this was coming. The tempers boil over in front of Backstrom with Steen taking some vicious shots at Zanon. That brings everybody in and Stoner starts tangling with former Minnesota State Mankato Maverick David Backes. Stoner delivers a huge blow and cuts Backes, adn the two go down in a heap. Meanwhile, Steen is gliding by the Wild bench and yapping away. As Stoner exits the rink, he waves his arms to the crowd, getting a huge ovation. The biggest crowd of the season (19,322) is going home happy, and this Wild team is going to the playoffs, mark my words.Whole Foods Market, which had planned to open a store at Northland Village Mall in northwest Calgary, says it is no longer considering that site.
The American supermarket chain has been in Canada for 10 years in B.C. and Ontario. It had planned to open a store in Calgary in the summer of 2017.
Ann Marie Ricard, speaking for Whole Foods, says that has changed.
Artist conceptions for the proposed redevelopment of Northland Village Mall released in March included plans for Calgary's first Whole Foods market. (Dialog Design/City of Calgary)
"Following a series of timing challenges we faced with the landlord at our Calgary site, we opted to terminate the lease," she said in an email.
Devin Hutt of Primaris Management, which operates Northland, confirmed Whole Foods will not be part of the mall's redevelopment. However, he did not say if another grocery chain has been secured for the location.
"Whole Foods Market remains committed to expanding in Canada with four stores in development and we continue to explore additional sites in the market," said Ricard.
The four stores underway are in Edmonton, Victoria, North Vancouver and Toronto. The opening date for the Edmonton store has not yet been released.Virginia may have swung from red to blue in 2008, but its new governor has taken action via executive order that revised the state’s anti-discrimination policy to explicitly remove “sexual orientation” from the list—now putting the jobs of state gay and lesbian workers at risk.
The order rescinds the policy of his predecessor Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who promised to be “fair and inclusive” in his inaugural address and then—as one of his first actions—added veterans and sexual orientation to the state’s non-discrimination policy.
Gov. Bob McDonnell swears the new policy isn’t “anti-gay” and that he’ll make sure the workplace is still fair for everyone—which begs the question of why remove it in the first place unless it’s just a ploy to play to his hard right political base?
Virginia is still a state with large swaths of deep conservatism, as shown by Delegate Bob Marshall, who claimed at a press conference that disabled children are God’s punishment for abortions:
“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican. “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
Marshall presents his argument without any support facts, of course. What he’s referring to, however is a 2007 study done by Virginia Commonwealth University, and oddly enough, it doesn’t refer to “handicapped” or “disabled” children. Instead, it shows a link between abortions and low birth weight or “preemie” babies. The study also primarily relies on old data from the 1960s when abortion was illegal and some procedures may have been “cruder than abortion procedures today,” causing more injury to women who underwent them.
Clearly, the data doesn’t back up what Marshall is saying—abortions don’t lead to “handicapped” babies, just premature ones who may well go on to become healthy children. Also, the data in the study is flawed and similar studies have showed a weaker link between abortions and low birth weight, and other studies show no link at all.
However, Marshall isn’t content to spout spurious science, he has to get in his Bible verses as well. He gets this part just as wrong as he gets his science. It’s true that the Bible orders the first born to be set aside for God. Numbers 8:17 is explicit in this: “For all the firstborn among the Israelites are mine, both human and animal.”
Marshall tries to tie this concept to modern families. First, the verse only refers to first born males. First born females were not commanded to be dedicated to God, because in a patriarchal society, females are just not that important to the hierarchy. In fact, they were mere chattel. So, it begs the question, does the study show that more women who abort a male fetus who was to be the first born bearing more “disabled” children than women who abort a female fetus? It seems to me that if God’s true concern was for “firstborn” sons to be dedicated to him then he’d be especially upset that the males are being aborted, but not so upset about the female fetuses since they’re not supposed to be consecrated to God. Studies should bear this out if indeed God’s wrath is at work here.
But, that may be asking for Marshall to put too much context to his words. It may also be asking too much for Marshall to really understand the scripture he wants to quote. It’s easy to toss around memorable Biblical phrases like “all the firstborn are mine,” but it leaves out very big issues of context—namely that the verse really says it’s only the first born among the Israelites that are God’s. It doesn’t say anything about America’s first born. Context is a tricky thing and usually doesn’t fit well into whatever modern point we’re trying to read into the ancient text.
If Marshall is serious about returning to a practice of dedicating first born sons to God, then the whole ritual needs to be done. The first fruits of harvest and animals are “dedicated” to God by ritual sacrifice of those plants and animals. The first born humans are not killed, but a lamb is slain in their place. Is Marshall really advocating for a return to animal sacrifice to dedicate the first born son to God? I certainly hope not.
It is, of course, through this ritual that Christians came to identify Jesus as “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15), and in his sacrifice for the world’s sin he becomes the “Lamb of God.”
To suggest that God punishes families for abortions by giving them “disabled” children later is just another example of how the religious right abuses scripture, either because they really don’t understand the context, or because they intentionally distort the scripture to fit their own prejudices. Whatever Marshall’s motivation, ignorance or manipulation, his words only prove once again one ought to exercise caution when mixing religion and politics. Just as we should not seek to divide the world easily into red state/blue state, conservative/liberal, or Republican/Democrat, we should be wary of declaring that we know God’s intentions, especially when the science doesn’t back us up.MUSIC
Get in the zone like CR7
“Ricky Martin’s tunes are very catchy; Livin’ La Vida Loca is my favourite.” And his favourite song ever “without a doubt”, which is a “real inspiration” to him? R. Kelly’s I Believe I Can Fly.
More after the break
78cm
How high CR7 can jump – more than the average NBA player
EXERCISE
Get CR7’s six-pack
Action Position yourself upright in the Captain’s Chair, bodyweight suspended on the forearm pads. Keeping your legs together and back straight against the pad, raise your legs until level with the abdominals, finishing with a small curve of the pelvis off the pad, ‘crunching’ the abs and pushing the pelvis upwards. Slowly lower legs to the start position.
Sets 3-4 Reps 12-15
Frequency 3 times a week
GROOMING
Get the wet look
“Ronaldo has his hair short at the back and sides, with a clear disconnection on one side of the parting as it sweeps over his head like a breaking wave. Use OSiS Dust It matt powder by Schwarzkopf to give your roots real density. For CR7’s wet look, load your hair with OSiS G.Force gel.”
80mph
The speed of Ronaldo's knuckleball
NUTRITION
Just like mama used to make CR7’s mum’s bacalhau a bras“This Portuguese salt cod dish, bound together by protein-rich eggs, is a great source of low-calorie protein and Omega 3. The matchstick potatoes are a good form of carbs; monounsaturated fat in the black olives can lower blood pressure; and the onions are high in fibre, Vitamin C and anti-oxidants.”
EXERCISE
Leap like Ronaldo
Action The Power Clean will help you to transfer force through your body when you jump. Start with your feet under a barbell, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Grab the barbell and explode upwards to bring it up onto your collarbone. Lower weight to start position and repeat.
Sets 2-5 Reps 2-5
Embedded video for Performance Lab: Cristiano Ronaldo
For more football tips see:
Rampage like Ronaldo
Boost your body to out-power all-comers
Rise above the rest
Train like a superstar: Essential cardio
Eat like a superstar: Muscle fuelAfter all, at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, Hamilton had size, skating range and offensive ability, having scored 58 points in 67 games for his hometown Niagara team in the Ontario Hockey League during the 2010-11 season.
When the Boston Bruins selected Hamilton with the No. 9 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, they felt they had fortified their defense for the next decade or more.
When the Boston Bruins selected Hamilton with the No. 9 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, they felt they had fortified their defense for the next decade or more.
After all, at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, Hamilton had size, skating range and offensive ability, having scored 58 points in 67 games for his hometown Niagara team in the Ontario Hockey League during the 2010-11 season.
After being drafted, Hamilton returned to Niagara and only raised expectations with 72 points in 50 games in 2011-12. Midway through the 2012-13 season with Niagara, he was on a better than a point-per-game clip and helped Canada win a bronze medal at the World Junior Championship.
His 2 1/2 seasons in a Bruins jersey further hinted at his potential: He had 22 goals and 83 points in 178 games. Following the 2014-15 season, with Hamilton days away from becoming a restricted free agent and negotiations with the Bruins having stalled, he was on his way to the Calgary Flames for three draft picks.
Hamilton then signed a six-year contract with the Flames. He spent the next three seasons with Calgary, had an NHL career-high 50 points (13 goals, 37 assists) in 2016-17 and led all NHL defensemen in goals (17) in 2017-18.
But the Flames traded Hamilton to the Carolina Hurricanes on June 23, 2018, along with forward Micheal Ferland and prospect Adam Fox for defenseman Noah Hanifin and forward Elias Lindholm.
NOTES & TRANSACTIONSGo Ahead—Add a Splash of Color
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To get started, go to Appearance → Themes, click the Live Preview links or the Customize button for your current theme, and select the Colors & Backgrounds panel. Custom Colors is part of the Custom Design upgrade. When you save changes, your colors will be stored and then you can apply them live on your blog once you have purchased the upgrade. See the Custom Colors help page for more details.
Whether you want something bold, understated, or with just enough oomph, you can make your message stand out from the crowd by selecting colors that fit your style.
Choose your colors with purpose. Worlds of difference await!Here I talk about the basic combat mechanics of Beastmancer.
Posted by Autarca on Jun 4th, 2016
Hi
This is my first turn based game so there's a lot that can change and many problems that are yet to appear during the development. By making this article I'm trying to get some opinions and ideas that I may be missing at the moment and also share what makes the combat different from other turn based games.
What's my plan for the combat:
The general idea is that you will have a limited number of monsters that you can field, this number will start small (probably only 2 at the beginning) but it will increase when your character starts gaining levels (yes, your character and your monsters can level up).
Queue: When a battle starts all the monsters and beastmancers are put in the same queue ordered by an Initiative stat. The player and enemy beastmancers are also included because while they can't receive direct damage, they can intervene in a fight by attacking, healing, casting spells or summoning/recalling monsters.
Perma-death for creatures: my idea is that if one of your creatures is killed during combat, its lost forever. This should increase tension during a fight and force the player to capture a good number of monsters and level them equally instead of just focusing in a few elite creatures. I know this feature can be divisive so I'm entertaining the idea of having costly revival spells (for combat only) or even a shrine where you can resurrect your fallen creatures for a price (be special items and/or money).
Melee creatures: some of your creatures will be stronger and therefore will be used as "tanks" by dealing and receiving direct damage. While making them attack directly is more dangerous, they can do more damage and also have a small chance of making critical attacks.In these cases the camera gets closer and executes a cinematic animation.
Ranged creatures: other creatures will have a default ranged attack (shooting arrows, spitting fire, etc), these attacks are a good way to weaken an enemy before engaging it but they'll only work if your monster is not engaged by itself, that is if one of its neighbor tiles is occupied by an enemy, the ranged creature will be forced to used a melee strike as defense.
Special attacks: some creatures will be able to cast spells with a cooldown from the beginning while others will acquire these special attacks and spells after leveling up. There will be also status effects like poisoned, stunned, etc. that will last a few turns.
Objectives: if you lose all your monsters in the field you will leave your beastmancer undefended and therefore lose the battle. In the same way, killing all the enemy monsters makes you win and be able to loot the enemy corpses (or have a "chat" with the enemy Beastmancer, I'll explain more of this in a future article). But a secondary objective is to capture new monsters, to do so you will have to use a turn of your beastmancer and use a magical crystal to try to bind the soul of a wild monster. These crystals can be of different quality, some of them get destroyed after failing to catch a monster while others can be reused, some of them are rare and can be used to capture stronger monsters, I think you get the point... you can't bind the souls of monsters already binded by another beastmancer.
What's ready at the moment:
Right now I have a pretty simple pathfinding system but that is enough for what I need, the arenas won't be too complex: a flat grid with some obstacles and each faction on one side. In that case I'm playing safe by following the inspiration I have from Heroes of Might & Magic.
I also have the mechanics for basic melee, critical and ranged attacks as you can see in the videos included in this article.
I also have the basic transition between exploring a map in real time and a turn based battle (gotta make it look better though).
What I need to do:
I need to start working in the UI, I only have a mockup of it at the moment. This is tedious work but I better get it ready soon before I lose momentum.
I also need to find a way to deal with bigger monsters: so far my monsters all occupy a single cell of the grid at a time but some monsters will be bigger and therefore will occupy 4 cells. I need to figure out how to do it without breaking my current grid and pathfinding system. I have some ideas of how to do it though and I'll start testing them during this week.
The big challenge is gonna be the AI. This project is way different to Nomad Fleet, in that game every ship had the same real time AI based on a finite state machine, steering behaviours for movement and physics for projectiles. This game has none of that, all movement and projectiles are moved exactly by code (physics just wouldn't be precise enough for a grid based game) and all the monsters are "brainless", they have no decision logic, they just move or execute animations based on orders. I need an AI that is able to execute the same orders than the player and has the same limitations. I think that a finite state machine or any other traditional AI won't cut it, maybe a sequential logical process (like an expert system) would fare better: basically the AI should start working when its the turn of one of its monsters then evaluate the function of that monster (tank, ranged, healer, etc), check for enemies and allies in range and execute an action based on a simple database of what a normal player would do (attack weakest enemy, heal weakest ally, etc).
What could be nice to have:
Flanking: I'm still not sure about this but it could be nice that attacks make more damage or have an increased critical chance if they are made from a flank or the rear. Now in realistic combat, flanking an enemy is not easy so I should explore the posibility that an engaged enemy pays a cost when trying to flank (for example in Age of Wonders 3, the enemy can have a free attack if you try to disengage them).
Faster combat: this was suggested to me by some people, more than increasing the speed of movement and animations (which can be easily made and controlled by a slider) I think what people really want is combat that feels more impactful and dynamic. This is not something specific to fix but is something that I'll have to keep in mind during my iterations and polishing of the game.
That's it for now, in a future article I will tak about the non combat aspects of the game: story, dialogue, inventory, etc. For the moment I would like to ask you for feedback about my ideas if you have the time.
Regards,
JorgeComing into the game at Chelsea last weekend, most Liverpool supporters would admit they were not confident they’d win all of the following three games. (Chelsea Away, City Home, Chelsea Away). Two-thirds of the way through and Liverpool beat Chelsea away and have now drawn to City at Home. A dominating performance from Liverpool left many supporters disappointed as they’d say Liverpool deserved the victory and the accompanying three points.
A similar outcome to many of Liverpool’s previous games this season; drawn when they had a substantial number of chances to win the game. However, the performance against a team that had 23 goals in 6 games away from home was brilliant. Additionally, Liverpool looked to be in control through most of the 93 minutes.
Defence
The Skrtel-Agger partnership has been a strong one. There should be no doubt that the two of them should be starters. They’ve helped Liverpool maintain their defensive strength in the Premier League and have not looked shaky as a unit as they may have before. That’s not to say that Carra is at fault here though. I think Steve Clarke has done a great job at disciplining the defense.
City’s goal came from corner. Some poor marking from some of the outfield players caused that.
Looking at the heat maps, Liverpool’s high defensive line is very apparent. Considering they were in control for much of the game, it is understandable.
(Enrique-Agger-Skrtel-Johnson)
The fullbacks had a good game as well. They were constantly running up and down the flanks and providing attacking threats. The two full backs created 3 chances among themselves. What did stand out today was some of Enrique’s carelessness in passing. He left passes short a couple of times that put the back line and keeper in tough situations. His pass completion reflects that. At 72%, it was lower than his season average thus far. Both fullbacks put in a total of 4 crosses each.
What did stand out from my observations today was Johnson’s defending. Enrique was his usual self, but Johnson’s defending seems to be improving. He made a couple of great last ditch tackles to prevent crosses.
Overall, the defence did their job well. Coming up against a team whose scoring records this season are off the chart, Liverpool did well to prevent any scoring from open play.
Midfield
(Downing-Adam-Lucas-Hendo-Kuyt)
When the line-ups were first shown on air, it looked like Kenny had set Liverpool up in a 4-4-2 with Henderson playing out on the right and Kuyt up top with Suarez. However, as the game picked up, it was apparent Liverpool were playing some sort of a 4-5-1. That saw Kuyt and Downing take up the wide positions and Charlie, Lucas and Jordan take up the central ones.
That 3 man midfield is the reason why I believe Adam shone against City. Looking at the heat maps it’s clear Adam spent much of the game playing in an advanced position in comparison to Lucas. Henderson provided cover in the center as well. As such, our central players were able to keep the likes of Silva and Yaya Toure quiet for much of the game. The support in midfield allowed Liverpool to build up play without compromising the back four.
Lucas in particular had a tremendous game. With a pass completion of 92%, tackle and aerial win rate of 100%, he dominated the center of the park. He kept possession well, broke up play and recovered well. He is definitely my favorite defensive midfielder in the league. Neither Adam nor Jordan boasted similar stats, but it’s understandable considering the two of them were more involved in the attacking plays. The three central players created a total of 4 chances among themselves.
It’s safe to say that most of Liverpool’s attacking game develops along the wings. Downing had an open play pass completion of 87% with Kuyt trailing behind at 79%. Kuyt made some careless passes that messed up some forward moves. Furthermore, playing on the wing, he only managed to put in a grand total of one cross. Downing on the other hand put in a total of 8.
The difference is understandable though. Downing usually sticks to the side lines and puts in crosses. Kuyt on the other hand usually cuts in from the wings and plays in a pass and move manner. It explains why his heat maps show him to be in central positions a lot more than Downing.
With that said, I wouldn’t say Kuyt had |
are over-aggressive and get taken down. But he throws with blind aggression because he’s not worried about wrestling with you or fighting on the ground. He’s not really a striker, but he has no problem throwing strikes."
For all the praise he heaps on his opponent, Lauzon is also confident that he can edge out the TUF 1 champion. "I think we’re both very similar, skill-wise," he said.
"I think I’m a little more straight with my punches and a little bit faster with my punches. I might have to hit him 15 times to have any kind of impact on him, to make a difference where it affects him in any way, but I think I’m a little bit quicker to the punch. He’s trying to kill people out there with his style. He’s like the living embodiment of the Fighting Irish logo. That’s legit how he wants to fight – with big uppercuts. He has a quirky kind of style.
"I’m interested to see how my wrestling does against his. I’m interested to see how my jiu-jitsu does against his, and how my boxing does against his. I think it’s a really great fight. I think it’s a really exciting fight."window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-5', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 5', target_type:'mix' });
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Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Image 2 of 15 Kanojia founder and CEO of Aereo Inc. walks up to one of two cabinets where Aereo's antennas receive television signals. Kanojia founder and CEO of Aereo Inc. walks up to one of two cabinets where Aereo's antennas receive television signals. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 3 of 15 Inside the cabinets are racks of circuit boards with thousands of tiny antennas, and equipment that converts the TV signals into video in the MP2 standard format. Inside the cabinets are racks of circuit boards with thousands of tiny antennas, and equipment that converts the TV signals into video in the MP2 standard format. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 4 of 15 The cabinets, which are easy to add to Aereo's platform atop its data centers for expansion, are connected by 10-gigabit fiber-optic cables to servers inside the data center. The cabinets, which are easy to add to Aereo's platform atop its data centers for expansion, are connected by 10-gigabit fiber-optic cables to servers inside the data center. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 5 of 15 Image 6 of 15 Kanojia says the back side of the cabinets have coverings that are "invisible" to TV signals. The data center location - which is kept secret - was picked partly because it gets good TV signals from area stations. less Kanojia says the back side of the cabinets have coverings that are "invisible" to TV signals. The data center location - which is kept secret - was picked partly because it gets good TV signals from area... more Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 7 of 15 Aereo's server area in the data center is in a small cage. The servers receive the MP2 signal and transcode it into MP4 video. Aereo's server area in the data center is in a small cage. The servers receive the MP2 signal and transcode it into MP4 video. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 8 of 15 The MP4 video is then stored on 3-terabyte hard drives with separate partitions for each customer. The MP4 video is then stored on 3-terabyte hard drives with separate partitions for each customer. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 9 of 15 The small antennas are made of copper and coated in silver, bent into an M shape. The small antennas are made of copper and coated in silver, bent into an M shape. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 10 of 15 Image 11 of 15 Kanojia previously founded an interactive advertising agency, Navic Networks, which was sold in 2008 to Microsoft. Kanojia previously founded an interactive advertising agency, Navic Networks, which was sold in 2008 to Microsoft. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 12 of 15 Kanojia said he came up with the idea for Aereo after dropping cable and moving into a house where he couldn't pick up broadcast signals over the air. Kanojia said he came up with the idea for Aereo after dropping cable and moving into a house where he couldn't pick up broadcast signals over the air. Photo: Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle Image 13 of 15 This image provided by Aereo shows a screenshot from the iPad with Aereo.com streaming Bob the Builder on New York s PBS station, WNET 13. This image provided by Aereo shows a screenshot from the iPad with Aereo.com streaming Bob the Builder on New York s PBS station, WNET 13. Photo: AP / AP Image 14 of 15 Aereo's tiny antennas are made of copper and coated in silver. Aereo's tiny antennas are made of copper and coated in silver. Photo: Aereo Image 15 of 15 Supreme Court rules Aereo's streaming service is illegal 1 / 15 Back to Gallery
Aereo, the startup that uses individual, tiny antennas to stream live TV over the Internet, was ruled an illegal service in a 6-3 United States Supreme Court decision on Wednesday.
It’s a win for traditional broadcasters and cable TV operators who had argued that New York-based Aereo was redistributing their content without payment or permission. Aereo lost in the Supreme Court despite earlier wins in federal district courts.
In an interview with the Chronicle earlier this year, Aereo CEO and founder Chet Kanojia said there as no “Plan B” if the court did not rule in the company’s favor. Houston is one of 11 cities in which Aereo operates, and it was not immediately clear when or if the local service would be switched off. About 40 minutes after the ruling was announced, Aereo’s service was still active in Houston.
Aereo works by capturing over-the-air broadcast signals using dime-sized antennas – one for each customer – and storing the content on local servers. Customers pay as little as $8 a month to watch live broadcasts streamed over the Internet, or saved for later watching via virtual digital video recorders.
Broadcasters were worried that a legitimate Aereo would threaten lucrative retransmission fees paid to them by cable companies. If the court had ruled in favor of Aereo, broadcasters argued, then cable companies could use similar technology and quit paying the fees.
Some broadcasters – including CBS and Fox – had threatened to take their operations off the air and go cable-only if Aereo won.
In a statement, Kanojia called the decision “a massive setback for the American consumer”:
We’ve said all along that we worked diligently to create a technology that complies with the law, but today’s decision clearly states that how the technology works does not matter. This sends a chilling message to the technology industry. It is troubling that the Court states in its decision that, ‘to the extent commercial actors or other interested entities may be concerned with the relationship between the development and use of such technologies and the Copyright Act, they are of course free to seek action from Congress.’ (Majority, page 17) That begs the question: Are we moving towards a permission-based system for technology innovation?
His statement didn’t indicate what would happen to the local operations, but he did say that “our work is not done.”
“We will continue to fight for our consumers and fight to create innovative technologies that have a meaningful and positive impact on our world,” Kanojia said.
Aereo does have the option to pay retransmission fees, as do cable companies, but that likely would cause a big jump in the prices Aereo charges its customers.
Broadcasters and cable companies hailed the ruling. In a statement, the Walt Disney Company – with owns the ABC television network, a plaintiff in the case – said:
We’re gratified the Court upheld important Copyright principles that help ensure that the high-quality creative content consumers expect and demand is protected and incentivized.
Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer rejected Aereo’s notion that its process merely outsourced an antenna and DVR, technologies TV watchers have the right to use in their own homes. Breyer said changes to copyright in a 1976 law cover a service such as Aereo, which is effectively the same as a cable company.
You can read the full Supreme Court decision below.
Aereo decisionSwad Komanduri isn't trying to reinvent the wheel with his first startup. He's just trying to reinvent the rice cooker.
Komanduri came up with the idea after his father was a diagnosed with diabetes. His father is a vegetarian who eats Indian dishes composed mainly of rice, which his doctor suggested he cut from his diet.
The Komanduri family had a better idea. Instead of preparing the rice in traditional cookers, they started cooking the rice
, so it's still slightly firm. The end result is a significant reduction in its glycemic index -- as much as 30 percent. Within a few months, Komanduri's father returned to pre-diabetic health levels.
"It immediately improved my dad’s health," says Komanduri.
But cooking rice in a pot requires some maintenance. Given his family's proclivity for the grain, that added up to a couple of hours each day of watching rice cook.
"You can't just put it on the oven and go to the gym," he says.
So Komanduri, who worked in robotics in high school and got an engineering degree, started to tinker.
He is also a fellow with the 2014 class of Venture for America in Detroit. The nonprofit pairs promising college graduates with startups in economically challenged areas like Detroit in search of talent. Komanduri has spent the last two years working for NextEnergy and is nearing the end of his fellowship. He had been weighing different opportunities to launch his own company, and then the rice cooker idea popped into the center of his family’s life.
Komanduri launched a
to produce the initial prototypes with an eye on commercializing them within the next year. He hopes to raise $5,000.
Source: Swad Komanduri, founder of Simple Kitchen
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at
.Maximum liability is £140m in the UK, but Fukushima clean-up and compensation costs are running to tens of billions – and the state is footing the bill
Two years ago today a huge tsunami devastated Japan, killing many thousands and causing one of the world's worst nuclear disasters. Japan's people will grieve for many years and they will be paying for the nuclear clean-up for many years. Yet, as negotiations over how much subsidy new nuclear power stations in the UK will get from energy customers, the financial liability of reactor operators for accidents remains tiny.
Things were supposed to have changed following Chernobyl in 1986. The international nuclear community recognised its deficiencies and proposed reform of the governance structures in a number of areas, including international nuclear liability regimes. The definition of damage was to change, with the minimum amount utilities would have to pay in the event of an accident was to increase and the timescale in which those affected could claim damages was to lengthen.
But 27 years after Chernobyl and two years after Fukushima, the proposed changes to the liability regimes are still to be adopted by the signatories of the international conventions. Consequently, in the UK, the current maximum that a nuclear operator is liable is still only £140m. The government is seeking to revise the maximum limit, but is waiting on the post-Chernobyl revisions to be adopted by other countries. If it is introduced, it will raised the operator's liability ultimately to £1bn.
As of October 2012, approximately £9.4bn (1,335 bn yen) had been paid out in compensation as a result of the Fukushima accident and this is expected to double in the next year. At this stage the final cost can only be roughly estimated, but the utility company, Tepco, has suggested that cost for compensation and decontamination maybe in the order of £70bn (10 trillion yen).
As can be seen in the case of Fukushima, the financial compensation already paid out is far higher than even the proposed higher limits for a utility in the UK and the amount the accident may ultimately cost is likely to be an order of magnitude larger. Therefore, in the event of a major accident, as in Japan, it is the state that must step in and foot the bill.
The issue of third party liability and the financial responsibility of nuclear operators and suppliers is important not only because it should set in place adequate financial safeguards to guarantee compensation and pay for remediation work in the event of an accident, but also because it affects the types of investment being chosen by the power sector.
Not having to be responsible for potential damages is a government or societal subsidy, because if the utilities and nuclear operators were required to set aside funding and/or take out additional insurance, to cover such eventualities, it would reflected in a higher price for nuclear electricity. Other power sources, such as renewables – and increasingly the fossil fuel sectors – are being required to internalise into their prices their environmental costs. Unless this is done across all sectors and across all forms of environmental damage, it will further distort investment decisions.
It has been a strange couple of years for nuclear power in the EU, with some countries firmly turning away from nuclear power (such as Belgium, Germany and Italy) while others, such as the UK, have continued to plan and develop their nuclear power programmes. However, what is clear since Fukushima, and increasingly clear in the UK, is that the cost of new build has gone up significantly and the potential accident costs are not reflected in the price being paid for nuclear electricity.
• Antony Froggatt has written about nuclear liability for Greenpeace International and is the co-author of The World Nuclear Industry Status ReportSport Science, which is a series of videos and shows that explores certain aspects of science behind sports, came out with a video today about Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins. I'm sure it comes as a surprise to exactly no one that it focused on his freak athleticism
You can watch the video here, over at ESPN.
The highlights:
At 6'8, Wiggins has a stride length of 8 feet, a full foot longer than Kevin Durant's, who is an inch taller. This enables Wiggins to take the ball from beyond the three point line to the basket in just two steps.
When Wiggins accelerates to the basket with the ball, he tops 20 miles per hour. This is on par with NBA All-Star Chris Paul.
With a 7 foot wingspan and a 40+ inch vertical, Wiggins can grab passes that are over 12 feet high (2 feet above the rim).
This also gives Wiggins a range of over 3,900 cubic feet, which is on par with LeBron James and 8% more than the average NBA center.
They were also impressed with his body control. They showed a clip of Wiggins being able to rotate his shoulder 90 degrees in midair in less than.20 seconds.
None of this is that surprising, but it's pretty cool. The nugget about his range being on par with LeBron James was pretty interesting.
Just a fun little video to feed you content-hungry folk this week. There's gonna be a ton of posts this week. I'm currently working on a way too detailed scouting report about Eastern Kentucky. It probably will be more detailed than any scouting report on a 15 seed this year.
You of course can follow me on Twitter @TJFsports.A leading Ottawa architect has accused the National Capital Commission of trying to keep the public in the dark about an impending vote by its board of trustees on the design of the controversial Memorial to the Victims of Communism.
Barry Padolsky, who strongly opposes the planned memorial’s prominent location on Wellington Street, said Ottawa-Vanier MP Mauril Bélanger told him design approval for the memorial will “definitely” be on the board’s agenda when it holds its next public meeting Thursday.
Despite that, an NCC official said Friday the agenda for the board meeting had not yet been finalized and wouldn’t confirm whether the memorial’s design would be considered.
“There appears to be some motivation by the NCC to minimize the public awareness of this event,” Padolsky said in an email to memorial opponents.
Agendas for NCC board meetings are typically posted on the agency’s website on the Friday before meetings. But spokesman Jean Wolff said the agenda for Thursday’s meeting won’t be made public until Monday.
“I will not confirm any items on the agenda beyond approving minutes of the last meeting and the regular report from (CEO Mark Kristmanson),” he said. “The others have not been finalized at this moment.”
Wolff wouldn’t elaborate on the reasons for the delay, saying it has happened “many times” that board agendas aren’t posted until the Monday before meetings.
“Staff work on a lot of things quite diligently,” he said. “Sometimes it takes longer than other times to finalize that an item is ready for presentation to the board. It happens.”
Wolff denied that the NCC is trying to conceal the possibility that the board could sign off on the memorial’s design on Thursday, saying that public meetings of the board are advertised months in advance.
The NCC advertised the board meeting, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., in the June 17 Citizen and other local media. But the ad made no mention of any items on the agenda.
Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar said the whole way the memorial has been handled is “fraught with secrecy and a lack of transparency.”
Given the level of public concern about the project, posting an agenda a mere three days before the board meeting “is not sufficient,” Dewar said. “This is an issue that’s been on the radar for quite a while.”
If the board does consider the memorial’s design Thursday, Dewar wants the trustees to halt the project immediately.
“Due process has not been followed. It’s been circumvented,” Dewar said. “This was a deal done by ministers within cabinet without consultation.
“There’s only one decision for the board to make, and that is to reject this application entirely and tell them to go back to the drawing board.”
While the NCC board could certainly do that, it might not make any difference. The National Capital Act gives cabinet the authority to overrule the NCC on changes to the use of public lands or “buildings or other work” erected on them.
Catherine McKenna, the Liberal candidate in Ottawa Centre, also expressed concern about the NCC’s lack of transparency on the memorial.
“There are a lot of people in Ottawa Centre who are very concerned about this issue, and we cannot get a straight answer.”
McKenna sent an email to the NCC on June 10, asking whether the memorial would be on the agenda at Thursday’s board meeting. She also gave notice of her intent to ask a question at the NCC’s annual general meeting Thursday evening about NCC consultations with the public about the memorial.
She finally got a response from an NCC staffer nine days later, saying the agenda had not yet been finalized.
The staffer also pointed out that the Department of Canadian Heritage, not the NCC, is the project leader for the memorial and as such, is responsible for consultations and communications about the project. However, the NCC still must approve the memorial’s design before it can proceed.
The NCC has been doing its best to distance itself from the memorial project, referring almost all questions to Canadian Heritage, which assumed responsibility for commemorations from the NCC in 2013.
The NCC’s advisory committee on planning, design and realty considered the memorial’s design at an in-camera meeting in April and recommended some changes, according to Padolsky.
The memorial was originally supposed to be built this year, but the timetable has slipped. Canadian Heritage expects a groundbreaking this year, but the memorial’s main elements won’t be completed until next year.
Related
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDonAnnette Renaud was riding the C train last weekend when a man approached and asked to take her picture. It was Brandon Stanton, of the popular website Humans of New York, and as usual, he asked what was on her mind. That’s when Ms. Renaud, a parent who is on the School Leadership Team at the Secondary School for Journalism, a high school housed in the John Jay educational campus in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, let loose.
She was upset, she said, because students at the school who were trying to qualify for their Advanced Regents diplomas were being undermined by the school’s administration. The advanced diploma requires three years of language study, and the principal at the school had gotten rid of the Spanish teacher at the end of last year and had not replaced her, leaving seniors at the school in the lurch.
“We’ve got a new mayor and a new chancellor,” Ms. Renaud continued. “So we aren’t blaming them. But they need to know how impossible they’ve made it to help our kids. Trying to get something fixed in these schools is like praying to some false God. You call and email hoping that God is listening, and nothing happens.”
Someone was listening. The post immediately went viral, with 150,000 likes on the Humans of New York Facebook page, it was shared more than 16,000 times, and it had strangers from across the city and the country pledging to call the school in protest on behalf of the students. Someone in Michigan started a change.org petition calling on the school to hire a foreign language instructor; another Connecticut petition asked the Department of Education to help the students — it has more than 1,000 supporters. People posted the school’s email address and phone number and some later reported that their emails were bouncing back because of the volume of correspondence.[23.3.2015. 13:30]
[23.3.2015. 11:02]
Vidakovića
samoubojstvo.
klijent
Viktor Tolj
[23.3.2015. 10:18]
nepoznata osoba
Vlatka Vidakovića
"Sudnica"
strašan zločin
kći
pobjegla s automobilom
Poslušajte i..
Glasnogovornica PU OBŽ Vesna Žnidarić Bolarić
Bivši Vidakovićev vježbenik Mato Palić
Svjedokinja iz obližnje optičarske radnje
[23.3.2015. 9:53]
8,30
Radićevoj ulici 10
Vlatka Vidakovića
nema potvrde.
Tekst i foto: Radio Osijek
[23.3.2015. 9:07]
glavne tržnice
do pucnjave.
smrtno stradala
u obližnjem odvjetničkom uredu.
Uskoro više informacija..
Ubojica odvjetnikapočinila jeNepoznata osoba, odnosno ubojica je bio, kojega je odvjetnik branio na sudu u sporu od prije nekoliko godina.Kako neslužbeno doznajemo jutros u 8:30 satiušla je u ured odvjetnika, poznatog suca tv serijei ispalila nekoliko metaka, te ga usmrtila na mjestu, u prostoriji gdje se odigrao ovajnalazila se ispomenute osobe.Nepoznata osoba je nedugo nakon togau nepoznatom pravcu. Za njima je pokrenuta potraga.Jutros okodogodila se pucnjava u. Policija je odmah izašla na teren i u tijeku je očevid.Riječ je o adresi na kojoj je smješten ured poznatog osječkog odvjetnika, no ima li pucnjava veze s njim službenoRano ujutro u Osijeku, kod, kako doznajemo došlo jePrema nepotvrđenim informacijama jedna osoba, a do pucnjave je došloGreece kicked off six months in charge of the European Union on Wednesday declaring that the imposition of austerity, spending cuts and fiscal policy by Berlin and Brussels could no longer be tolerated.
Coinciding with a growing backlash across the EU against the austerity policies mainly scripted in Berlin, the start of Greece's EU presidency reinforced the isolation of German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has dominated the policy response to the EU crisis for the past four years.
Following four years at the sharpest end of Europe's debt and currency crisis and €250bn in bailout funds, the Greek government declared enough was enough.
"Greece does not want to have any more fiscal conditionality," the finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, said on Wednesday. "It is out of the question because it is already too tough."
The cry of exhaustion from a country that went broke, sank into years of slump and mass unemployment, slashed labour costs, and saw incomes collapse by more than a third is finding an echo not only across southern Europe but in the prosperous north, too, as leaders fear for their career prospects.
They have had enough of austerity, leaving Merkel, the main architect of spending cuts as the cure to Europe's malaise, isolated as seldom before in what is becoming less of a financial crisis and more of a political battle for Europe's future direction.
"The acute phase of the financial crisis is now over," the US financier, George Soros, said last week. "Future crises will be political in origin." He foresaw a bleak period of Japanese-style stagnation worsened by constant bickering between EU national leaders.
"What was meant to be a voluntary association of equal states has now been transformed by the euro crisis into a relationship between creditor and debtor countries that is neither voluntary nor equal. Indeed, the euro could destroy the EU altogether."
The political frictions are visible, with leaders using vivid language to try to sway one another and win the argument. Merkel recently likened the situation to that of 1914, complaining of complacency and speaking of sleepwalking European leaders who led the continent into the first world war. She also evoked parallels with growing up under communism in East Germany, a rare public reference to her childhood experiences.
Describing the mood among most EU national leaders, a senior policymaker in Brussels said: "The worst of the crisis is over. So the pressure to take tough measures is off. We've had enough of discipline, enough of sanctions, we're sufficiently unpopular already. The worst is over, so let's stop now."
Merkel, whose steering of the euro crisis propelled her to soaring popularity at home and a third term, has become increasingly resented among elites in other EU capitals, underlining the differences between Germany and the rest.
"The problem in Europe is that there is a government headed by one person," a west European ambassador said in reference to Merkel. "That's the issue and how to deal with it. All decisions are taken by one leader. This is what is happening now."
If that has been a big part of the narrative for the past few years, however, the story went into reverse just before Christmas in the first week of Merkel's new term. She went to a Brussels EU summit determined to push a new policy of compelling structural reforms on the economies of the eurozone. But she found herself supported by not one single other national leader, opposed not only by her foes, but also her friends such as the Dutch, Austrians and Finns.
"It was really a strange discussion," said the policymaker, "difficult from the start, full of prejudice, ideology and fear." Merkel was said to be disappointed. That much is clear from her private remarks to fellow leaders at the summit. A transcript of the exchange, obtained by Le Monde, highlighted her frustration.
She said: "Sooner or later the currency will explode without the necessary cohesion. If everyone behaves as they could under communism, then we are lost."
Merkel's plan was to empower the European commission in Brussels to police structural reforms in eurozone countries and to sweeten the pain of the changes by partially subsidising them. She denied that she was dictating anything, but said it was better to spend €3bn on the changes now than €10bn later.
She was supported by three European presidents, José Manuel Barroso of the commission, Herman Van Rompuy chairing the summit and Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank. None of the trio have to face the voter. All the other elected leaders were against and the plan was shelved.
One prime minister warned that the years of austerity had given rise to increasing populism. In Athens on Wednesday, the deputy Greek prime minister, Evangelos Venizelos, spoke of the growing appeal of neo-Nazis, racists and xenophobes. "In most of the EU we see a new wave of euro-scepticism."
Soros went so far as to blame the German chancellor for this. "Angela Merkel's policies are giving rise to extremist movements in the rest of Europe."
The strength of the new anti-European movements on the far right and the hard left will be tested in the elections for the European parliament in May when they are expected to make gains at the expense of the centre and possibly win the poll outright in countries such as Britain, France, the Netherlands and Greece.
Fear of the impact of more extreme politics helps to explain the current aversion in most of Europe to the crisis solutions scripted in Berlin.A new service that would make major blockbusters available at home on the same day they hit cinemas has been proposed by the Napster founder, Sean Parker, despite reports of major misgivings in Hollywood.
Parker’s startup venture, known as the Screening Room, would offer movies for $50 (£35) in the US, with as much as $20 going to compensate theatrical distributors for their potential losses. Variety reports “serious interest” from studios Universal, Fox and Sony, as well as cinema chain AMC, the second largest in North America with 346 sites.
Amazon buys new Woody Allen film while Netflix hides Crouching Tiger sequel from critics Read more
Hollywood has long shown tentative interest in the concept of maximising revenues from premium home video releases by breaking the longstanding “theatrical window”, but in practice distributors and studios are terrified at the prospect of putting themselves out of business. The current window, usually 90 days, protects cinemas by ensuring movies are not available via video-on-demand and DVD until interest in viewing them at multiplexes has been exhausted.
The Screening Room reportedly promises to protect rights holders against piracy, but the idea of allowing hundreds of thousands of home users access to first-run releases in the era of Pirate Bay and torrent sites is likely to remain a controversial one unless Parker and his team can prove their technology is 100% bulletproof. Deadline reports that Hollywood insiders are extremely concerned that the new service will gain traction.
“This news is so damaging, I can’t tell you right now how unhappy I am,” one major studio distribution executive told the trade bible, with another suggesting the service “would be the beginning of the end, and half of the theatres in this country would close”.
Cinema chains have fought major battles to keep the theatrical window in place. After Netflix bought the rights to the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel Sword of Destiny, in 2014 and announced the film would be available to view on the same day it hit cinemas, US chains AMC, Cinemark, Regal and Carmike all said they would refuse to screen the film. In the end, Netflix abandoned its plans to show the movie in hundreds of North American Imax cinemas and plumped for a small-screen only release last month.
A day-and-date home video service for showing major releases, known as Prima Cinema, already exists in the US. But it is prohibitively expensive at $35,000 and is therefore not seen as a threat by cinema chains.
Parker’s service reportedly hopes to convince distributors that its concept has legs by offering free cinema tickets to users of the Screening Room. The idea is that filmgoers will head to their local multiplex to view a movie as well as seeing it at home, thereby boosting cinemas’ concessions trade. But it remains to be seen if such temptingly dangled carrots will convince Hollywood to abandon a lucrative arrangement which has existed in one form or another since the early days of home video.The stubbornly low number of female computer science students in the United States has generated a pile of academic studies, ample hand-wringing and a wide-ranging discussion in tech and education circles about what can be done to boost the number of women choosing computing careers.
All of which raises a fair question: What difference does it make if women don’t join the tech workforce in the same numbers that men do?
It turns out it makes a huge difference. The dearth of women in computing has the potential to slow the U.S. economy, which needs more students in the pipeline to feed its need for more programmers. It harms women by excluding them from some of the best jobs in the country. And it damages U.S. companies, which studies show would benefit from more diverse teams.
Quite a trifecta.
“Today, two and a half billion people are connected to the Internet,” says David Culler, chair of UC Berkeley’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department. “There are more cellphone users than toothbrush users. You look at how intrinsic information technology is to all aspects of society and all aspects of modern life. Would you want any demographic group to be left out of shaping something that is so important to our future?”
This column, the second part of “Women and Computing: The Promise Denied,” looks at the ways the dramatic gender imbalance in computing is a problem not just for women, but for everyone.
The damage starts with a problem that is already being confronted by the tech industry and other companies that rely on computing talent (which means practically all of them): The economy is creating far more computing jobs than U.S. schools are creating computer science graduates.
True, not all computer scientists work in computing jobs and not all computing jobs are filled by computer scientists, but the mismatch illustrates the potential problem. Based on current trends, U.S. universities will graduate about 400,000 computer scientists between 2010 and 2020, a decade during which 1.4 million U.S. computing jobs will open up, leaving a gap of about a million computing jobs. Together those 1 million jobs would pay $500 billion in wages, according to Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, a nonprofit working to encourage computer science education in K-12 schools.
Without U.S. workers to fill those jobs, employers will face three choices: export the work, import the workers or leave the positions empty.
But where some see a problem, people like Jocelyn Goldfein see a historic opportunity.
Given that women make up not even one-fifth of computer science graduates, she figures, why not turn to the great untapped bench to pick up the slack, the way women did by moving into factory jobs during World War II? Why not begin to encourage women to pursue lucrative and plentiful jobs as programmers, systems analysts, information systems managers and the like?
“I really think this is kind of a Rosie the Riveter moment,” says Goldfein, a director of engineering at Facebook.
The shortage is already evident in Silicon Valley, where companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and others provide big pay and perks to stock their companies with top software engineering talent.
Kimber Lockhart, a senior director of engineering at cloud storage and collaboration company Box, says she spends most of her time working to recruit new talent and to hang on to the talent the company has.
“It’s extremely hard to hire well-qualified engineers,” she says. “And if we could get anybody else in the pipeline, that could make it easier. If that’s women, great.”
Encouraging women to fill those unfilled jobs would have the added benefit of righting a wrong that has persisted for decades. When women are excluded, even unintentionally, from the computing field, they miss out on lucrative tech careers.
Right now, four of the 20 top-paying jobs for women are in computing, a broad field in which only about one-quarter of workers are female. The best tech jobs for women are positions such as computer programmer, software developer, information systems manager and systems analyst, with median pay for women ranging from about $60,000 to about $80,000. The figures are higher for men, ranging from about $71,000 to about $90,000.
Contrast that with the teaching profession, where more than three-quarters of public school teachers are female and where median pay for women is about $48,000 in elementary schools and about $51,000 in high schools. Or consider nursing, where about 90 percent of registered nurses are female and where median pay for women is about $56,000.
Yes, computing offers higher pay than fields dominated by women, but the advantages go beyond that.
“They’re highly paid, highly flexible jobs,” says Maria Klawe, president of Claremont’s Harvey Mudd College and a computer scientist who has boosted female CS enrollment to 43 percent at the school. “You can do computer science with pretty much anything you’re passionate about. I just don’t think that it’s very good that a large segment of our population doesn’t have access to those jobs.”
Beyond the six-figure salaries, stock-option packages and flexibility, women are missing out on a field that many find incredibly fulfilling.
And it’s not just the women who are missing out. The lack of female computer scientists is also bad for the companies who miss out on the chance to hire them into tech roles.
Sandy Jen, who cofounded Web messaging company Meebo and sold it to Google in 2012 for a reported $100 million, likes to point to research that shows companies with women in leadership positions offer investors and shareholders better returns than those without. And, she says, diverse teams are definitely a competitive advantage.
“Homogeneous people think the same way,” she says. “There’s not a lot of cross-pollination of ideas. Whether you’re a woman, a man, short, tall, black, white |
does not take into account any overhead registers or other "house-keeping" type information which must be tracked. However such overhead tends to be negligible when processing the large quantities of data typically encountered in data compression applications.
Thus, one skilled in the art can see that by keeping the appropriate counters, the direct bit encode method of the present invention is effective for reducing an input string by one bit regardless of the bit pattern of the input string. Although a certain amount of "loss" is necessary in keeping and maintaining various counters and registers, for files which are sufficiently large, this overhead is insignificant compared to the savings obtained by the direct bit encode method.
The patent contains even more evasive arguments:
Page 22, line 31:
It is commonly stated that perfectly entropic data streams cannot be compressed. This misbelief is in part based on the sobering fact that for a large set of entropic data, calculating the number of possible bit pattern combinations is unfathomable. For example, if 100 ones and 100 zeros are randomly distributed in a block 200 bits long, there are 200C100 = 9.055 10^58 combinations possible. The numbers are clearly unmanageable and hence the inception that perfectly entropic data streams cannot be compressed. The key to the present compression method under discussion is that it makes no attempt to deal with such large amounts of data and simply operates on smaller portions.
6. A method of compressing a stream of binary data, comprising the steps of: parsing n-bits from said stream of binary data;
determining the value of said parsed n-bits;
based on the results of step B, coding said values of said n-bits in at least one of a first, second, and third target string, wherein coding said value includes generating a plurality of code strings and correlating said value with one of said code strings and dividing said correlated code string variable length codes and dividing at least some of said into at least first and second segments, and assigning at least one of said correlated code string segments to at least one of said first, second, and third target strings, wherein at least one of said plurality of codes is not greater than n-1 bits long. 7. The method of compressing a stream of binary data of claim 6, wherein n=2.
It took three years to the patent office to ascertain the validity of such a patent. A person with basic knowledge in mathematics and data compression can find the flaws immediately upon first reading.
Check here for an analysis of patent 5,488,364 on the same subject.
Jean-loup Gailly
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back to Jean-loup's page2017 Top 25 Under 25: #12 Carl Grundstrom After an impressive showing in the Swedish league, the tenacious forward zooms up our rankings.
Carl Grundstrom was a late second-round pick for the Leafs in 2016, going 57th overall. In a draft with some controversial choices after the first round, Grundstrom was popular, and he’s rewarding the believers with a big jump this year.
Grundstrom is our #12.
Carl Grundstrom Vitals Age: 19
Position: Left Wing
Shoots: Left
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 190 lb
Drafted: 2016, #57
2016 T25: #23 Votes elseldo: 12
Arvind: 13
Kevin: 11
Fulemin: 15
Katya: 11
Acha: 12
Annie: 13
Scott Wheeler: 13
Species: 14
Jared: 9
Brigstew: 15
Gunnar: 11
Background
For much of the past year, Grundstrom has been compared to Zach Hyman. Grundstrom has a very particular set of skills: he will look for the puck, he will find it, and he will kill you.
Er, I mean, he’ll dig it out of the corners. Almost everyone speaks highly of Grundstrom’s bowling-ball physicality in the offensive zone, where he’s willing to contest every inch of ice in order to get what he wants. He crashes the net at every opportunity and can chip in offence doing so. One line his fellow Swedes have said about him, if you’ll forgive some national stereotyping, is that he’s “more Canadian than the Canadians.”
Mike Babcock famously loves hyper-competitive grinders, and it’s very easy to see Grundstrom being the next in that long line. The Leafs gave a tangible sign of how they feel about Grundstrom this spring: they signed him to an entry-level contract at the end of April.
The thing that stands out from his boxcars, though, is his goal total. Grundstrom jumped to 14 goals in 45 games this season with Frolunda. That kind of goal production for a teenager in a top-tier men’s league is mighty impressive, and has started to move people’s expectations for Grundstrom from Swedish Zach Hyman to a more dangerous power forward. Grundstrom’s solid cameo in the AHL playoffs with the Marlies—three goals and an assist in six games—only added to the hype on this score. If the grinder linemate for Matthews, or Marner, or Nylander were capable of putting up real goal totals, well...that would be really something.
You have to pump the brakes on that a bit. Grundstrom was shooting the lights out earlier this year, as detailed by our Katya Knappe here. With a more normal shooting percentage his goal total would sink back in the direction of ordinary, and you might notice that his assist totals are not very impressive. He’s also more of a straight-line skater than an agile one laterally. None of this is a huge knock on a guy as young and as effective as Grundstrom; it just means we have to be realistic about how much production we’re going to get out of him. There’s more than enough to like about him as he is.
Maybe the slightly more worrisome thing: Grundstrom’s intensity and tenacity have not yet made him into the kind of quality defensive winger that we’d hope for, Leo Komarov style. He’s certainly not bad, especially when you see him against fellow U20 players; it’s just that he’s got more room to grow there, and it’s the thing you really want him to work on.
Notwithstanding all that, Grundstrom is a more solid threat to be an NHLer than most of the forwards behind him on this list. He’s exactly the kind of guy Mike Babcock likes and he’s shown enough ability at that to get genuinely excited about. He’s still not a lock, because there are very few locks in hockey, but the signs are good. I would not be surprised to see Carl Grundstrom as a third-line winger on the Leafs within a few years.
The Stats
Carl Grundström via Elite Prospects
�Season Team League GP G A TP PIM ���� Playoffs GP G A TP PIM� �Season Team League GP G A TP PIM ���� Playoffs GP G A TP PIM� �2010-2011 IF Bj�rkl�ven U16 U16 SM 3 1 0 1 0 | �2011-2012 V�sterbotten TV-Pucken 8 0 1 1 12 | IF Bj�rkl�ven U16 U16 SM 6 5 2 7 4 | IF Bj�rkl�ven J18 J18 Allsvenskan 5 0 1 1 2 | �2012-2013 V�sterbotten TV-Pucken 8 10 5 15 6 | IF Bj�rkl�ven U16 U16 SM 3 3 2 5 2 | IF Bj�rkl�ven J18 J18 Elit 19 10 8 18 24 | IF Bj�rkl�ven J18 J18 Allsvenskan 14 3 2 5 18 | Sweden U16 (all) International-Jr 11 4 4 8 14 | �2013-2014 MODO Hockey J18 J18 Elit 8 7 8 15 10 | MODO Hockey J20 U20 Super Challenge 5 2 0 2 4 | MODO Hockey J18 J18 Allsvenskan 10 12 4 16 37 | Playoffs 5 2 2 4 29� MODO Hockey J20 SuperElit 31 6 4 10 6 | Playoffs 1 0 0 0 0� Sweden U17 WHC-17 5 0 1 1 4 | Sweden U17 (all) International-Jr 13 6 4 10 8 | �2014-2015 MODO Hockey J18 J18 Elit 1 1 0 1 0 | MODO Hockey J18 J18 Allsvenskan 3 2 3 5 2 | Playoffs 3 2 2 4 0� MODO Hockey J20 SuperElit 27 21 15 36 53 | Playoffs 4 4 2 6 2� MODO Hockey SHL 24 2 3 5 8 | Sweden U18 WJC-18 5 3 2 5 10 | Sweden U18 Hlinka Memorial 5 0 2 2 2 | Sweden U18 (all) International-Jr 20 9 8 17 20 | �2015-2016 MODO Hockey J20 SuperElit 1 0 0 0 0 | MODO Hockey SHL 49 7 9 16 53 | Relegation 7 1 3 4 6� Sweden U20 WJC-20 7 1 0 1 6 | Sweden U20 (all) International-Jr 20 4 4 8 16 | �2016-2017 Fr�lunda HC SHL 45 14 6 20 6 | Playoffs 14 1 1 2 4� Fr�lunda HC Champions HL 13 4 4 8 6 | Toronto Marlies AHL 0 0 0 0 0 | Playoffs 6 3 1 4 2� Sweden U20 WJC-20 7 3 4 7 12 | Sweden U20 (all) International-Jr 15 11 8 19 24 | Sweden (all) International 2 0 0 0 0 | �2017-2018 Fr�lunda HC SHL - - - - - | Player statistics powered by�www.eliteprospects.com
The Video
This clip begins with an interview with Grundstrom and some initial super-slo-motion highlights, so feel free to skip to 2:22 if you want to just get up to speed. You know, normally I make fun of the invariably-classic-rock-or-metal song choices on highlight videos, but “Raise A Little Hell” actually works really well for this one.
Anyway, you’ll immediately see Grundstrom doing what he does best, which is bashing his way to within ten feet of the net and then whacking the puck in. As you’d expect, he’s by no means a bad finisher, getting his stick on all sorts of bouncing pucks. Also, he does the “sheathing the sword” goal celebration at about 2:53, which is dope.
The Voters
Blogboss Katya Knappe has a balanced take: appreciate Grundstrom for what he is.
Being an early bloomer still doesn't guarantee future growth. He's not suddenly going to score goals. He's not suddenly going to be the best puck carrier. The thing about the Leafs is they seem more willing to roll with who a player is, not get stuck angry they aren't who they wish they'd been.—Katya Knappe
I asked elseldo what he thought of Carl, and he just sent me this:
So, in the interest of owning up: I did not rank Grundstrom last year. He was fresh out of the draft, and I like to take a wait-and-see attitude with new picks outside the first round. But I did say this:
In making these ratings I was constantly, half-seriously wondering "which of these picks is most likely to make me look bad in a year?" Grundstrom is probably the guy I’m most at risk of underrating.
And here we are. Grundstrom is in the process of standing out from the winger pack, and if he had just a little more sustainable offence, I think I’d have him higher still. Even as it is, he looks like a good bet to rise above a crowded position, but winger jobs on the Leafs look like they’ll be at a premium in the next couple of years. All that said: he’s still very young—nine months younger than Jeremy Bracco, for example—and he’s been playing a grown man’s game in a grown man’s league. Mike Babcock is going to love him.It’s summer! Time for all the the ladies to start posting articles about why it’s not a woman’s responsibility to prevent a man from lusting and all the gentlemen to start posting comments about why it’s not a woman’s responsibility, but she sure can help.
I’ve been encouraged to see the pushback, by women, even women in more conservative circles, against the toxic idea that a woman’s clothing choices can cause men to stumble.
But this pushback gets halted when a guy stands up and comfortably announces that while this personal responsibility thing all sounds great, the reality is that normal, healthy guys like him struggle, so women should still cover up. And the ladies go a little silent, unable to argue with this universal battle against sexual temptation that women never face.
The pushback against purity culture dies right then and there, because no woman wants to challenge the idea that men can’t actually control themselves — and that’s a beautiful, God-given part of being a man.
So I’m going to be that woman. I’m going to stand up and look that man in the eye and tell him that his inability to control himself is not normal, healthy, or God-given, and I have no sympathy for his struggles.
Because I don’t. I think more highly of men than that.
My husband didn’t grow up in purity culture. He didn’t grow up hearing that it’s normal and healthy for a guy to struggle with not looking until the offending woman leaves the room. He didn’t grow up hearing he couldn’t control his sexual urges if he caught a glimpse of a woman’s cleavage. He grew up around girls who wore bikinis to the beach and short shorts and tank tops. He grew up being able to look at a woman, notice parts of her body, even formulate a response (like “She’s attractive” or “She’s trying too hard”), and then go on with his conversation with her as if she’s more than her butt and abs.
He doesn’t experience this “all men’s daily battle” regarding women’s clothing choices, because he wasn’t socialized to.
And I think that is a huge thing people are overlooking in this discussion — how much of the “male struggle” can be chalked up not to healthy amounts of testosterone but to socialization?
Even as a female I was socialized to be uncomfortable with women in certain clothing — not because I was sexually attracted to them but because I was taught they were immodest. I would avert my eyes and feel embarrassed and not know how to talk to a woman with cleavage. Now that I’m socialized to be okay with women’s clothing choices, even if they don’t align with mine, I don’t find it awkward at all. They’re just people. They’re just bodies. No need to freak out or be awkward.
I think guys need to learn that it’s fine to notice a woman’s body and find it attractive. Bodies are beautiful. Beautiful bodies elicit responses in everyone. Notice it, and move on with your life. It’s not a sin. It’s not even necessarily sexual. This is how “visual” women deal with attractive men, and you don’t hear them begging guys to put their shirts on at the beach. It’s not socially acceptable for women’s sex drives to show.
I do find it disturbing and creepy and predatory that guys “struggle” so much around women who wear certain clothes. I find it disturbing that that’s normalized as healthy and natural. I don’t feel safe around men who can’t look at my body and engage with me as a human, regardless of what I’m wearing. I don’t feel comfortable around men who are battling not to lust after me.
And I don’t feel that I can control whether I “trigger” that battle or not by my clothing choices. How am I supposed to know what level of dress or undress is “comfortable” for any particular man? Guys will often say, “Oh, I’m not one of those guys who thinks women should dress like frumps. I’m not saying women shouldn’t wear pants or above the knee skirts or tank tops — I can handle those.”
But you know what? Some guys apparently can’t handle pants or above the knee skirts and tank tops. Some guys are more turned on by women in skirts. They’ve told me this to my face.
So what’s “normal”? Is it normal for a guy to struggle when he sees a woman in jeans, or only when she’s wearing a short skirt? Is it normal for a guy to struggle when she’s wearing a one-piece bathing suit and shorts, or only when she’s wearing a bikini? Is there an all-male council who has decided what’s “normal” for a guy to struggle with, and what’s creepy? Because I keep hearing mixed messages from men about what turns them on and what’s modest, and it makes me think the problem isn’t with what women wear but with what men can’t handle.
I think “normal” is a guy being able to interact with a woman comfortably, regardless of what she’s wearing, without waging a battle for his soul. Period. I will not accommodate any other male normal.
Moderator’s Note: This is stirring up a great conversation! In order to keep this a great conversation, I’m going to start deleting comments that make derogatory remarks or personal attacks against others who disagree. Be feisty but gracious!
AdvertisementsLord Sugar has been accused of bullying after calling a young woman "fatty" on Twitter.
The Apprentice star was bombarded with complaints and branded "arrogant" and "sexist" after sending the message to size 16 beauty queen Elena Raouna.
The row began after Miss Raouna, 23, sent Lord Sugar a message that said: "Evening sugar ;-) can I call you that? Lol."
The multi-milionnaire tycoon replied: "yes no problem as long as I can call you fatty."
He later responded to another follower who waded into the row by asking whether there was "any need to reply in that manner" by saying: "get stuffed and mind your own business."
The response sparked a backlash in which Lord Sugar was roundly criticised and called "a miserable old goat".
Miss Raouna, who won Miss British Beauty Curve in 2013, has demanded an apology from the businessman, saying she was "absolutely fuming" about the "cruel" tweet.
She told the Mirror: "'It was just a friendly tweet to say 'hi' but my face froze in shock with his reply and I had to check it was his official Twitter page because I couldn't believe he would be so abusive.
"It's cyber bullying."
.@ElenaRaouna RT:evening sugar ;-) can I call you that? Lol..... yes no problem as long as I can call you fatty — Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) January 5, 2015
She said she was a size 16 – the average size for a woman in Britain – and claimed the tweet was an insult to all women, not just her.
Writing on Twitter, she said: "Sugar doesn't deserve to have the title Lord in front of his name after his childish immature rude choice of message. And no apology!
"Who would want that kind of man as your child's role model? Terrible..."
A spokesman for Lord Sugar was not immediately available.Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has witnessed the rapid growth of an intelligence-industrial complex that fuses government and corporate power. According to the Project on Government Oversight, $300 billion a year is now spent on a “shadow government of private contractors.” At the center of this arrangement is an interlocking web of current and former high-level government officials, major corporations, D.C. think tanks and other inside-the-Beltway operators who have benefitted from the rise of the surveillance state. Here are a few of the most notable:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Richard C. Blum: The Intelligence Power Couple
Life must be good when you are deciding on government cyber-intelligence spending. But it must be even better if your husband is profiting handsomely off those decisions.
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is married to Richard C. Blum, who was substantially invested in URS Corp, which owns EG&G, a leading government technical provider that has been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in security-related contracts. Feinstein never abstained from voting when it affected her husband’s wallet and Blum made $100 million when he sold his shares, as investigative reporter Peter Byrne exposed in his 2007 series the “Feinstein Files.”
Rep. Mike Rogers: Taking Care of His Backers
“These narrowly targeted programs are legal, do not invade Americans’ privacy, and are essential to detecting and disrupting future terrorist attacks,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R. – Mich.) wrote in a USA Today editorial. As chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he was asked to respond to the NSA leaks.
What did his editorial leave out? That, of his top 20 contributors, Rogers received campaign financing from eight of the major private intelligence contractors along with over $100,000 from defense industry Political Action Committees (PACs) in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Rogers recently introduced legislation for the “improvement and reauthorization” of the USA PATRIOT Act, the post-9/11 law that has been used to greatly expand the surveillance state.
John M. “Mike” McConnell: Making the Revolving Door Spin
Mike McConnell’s résumé reads like an advertisement for Washington’s revolving door. In 1996, after four years as the NSA Director, he moved to Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading private intelligence contractor. McConnell was the Senior Vice President at Booz until 2006, when President George W. Bush added him to the cabinet as Director of National Intelligence. McConnell returned to Booz in 2009, becoming vice chairman and earning between $2 to $4 million a year, according to The New York Times. In a 2012 interview with the Times, he dismissed groups calling for greater privacy protections as “special interests.”
Michael Chertoff: In Search of Opportunity
Michael Chertoff certainly gets around. In 2001, he helped craft the PATRIOT Act while serving as Assistant Attorney General in the Bush Justice Department. After a stint as Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009), Chertoff co-founded the Chertoff Group, a consulting firm that, according to its website, “helps our clients identify new opportunities around the world to grow and invest in the security industry.” One of those “new opportunities” turned out to be a multi-million dollar government contract for the controversial full-body airport scanners which were produced by OSI Systems, a client of the Chertoff Group.
The Intelligence and National Security Alliance: Trade Association for Spooks
Washington, D.C. is rife with trade associations lobbying the government to shower favors on their member companies. For the intelligence industry, INSA is the go-to group that has played a key role in facilitating the outsourcing of government intelligence work to private companies. Past chairs of INSA’s Board of Directors include Mike McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence (2006–2009) and CIA Director John Brennan, a key architect of the Obama administration’s expanded use of drones.
Northrop Grumman: Investing in Its Future
Northrop Grumman has made a pretty penny for its work focused on homeland security, as well as drones and naval vessels. According to Business Insider, the company made a total profit of $2 billion in 2012.
The United States’ third largest military contractor, Northrop Grumman spent $17.5 million on lobbying in 2012. It also dished out an additional $4 million in campaign contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, bestowing donations of $10,000 or more on 98 members of Congress, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who received a $20,800 contribution.
Booz Allen Hamilton: Connections Pay Off
As the privatization of U.S. intelligence advances, industry leaders like Booz Allen Hamilton are engaged directly in information gathering and providing analysis and advice to government officials, according to The New York Times. A-list names with ties to Booz Allen include James Clapper, the current Director of National Intelligence and a former Booz executive, and Mike McConnell, a former Director of National Intelligence and the company’s current vice-chairman. It’s quite a business model. In June, the Times reported, “Booz Allen earned $1.3 billion, 23 percent of the company’s total revenue, from intelligence work during its most recent fiscal year.”
The Heritage Foundation: Champion of Privatization
“Efficiently tapping the private sector for national security can be an enormous competitive advantage for the U.S.,” James Carafano, Heritage VP, said on the foundation’s blog.
That’s hardly shocking since this leading conservative foundation receives funding from five major military contractors, including Northrop Grumman, according to Heritage’s 2011 annual report.
Think tanks, often cited in the media, have the ear of both politicians and the public, which is why their funders take such a keen interest in their work.
Brookings Institute: Promoting Bipartisan Consensus
“There is little reason for all but a handful of Americans to lose sleep over [PRISM], and those most likely to lose sleep are also most likely to pose security threats.” No, that wasn’t the Heritage Foundation. That was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institute, a venerable D.C. think tank with deep ties to the Democratic Party and extensive corporate funding. Major donors to Brookings include Booz Allen Hamilton, which donated more than $1 million, according to the 2012 Brookings Annual Report. Brookings received $250,000 from Richard C. Blum and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Contributions of $25,000 to $100,000 each rolled in from Northrop Grumman and four other defense contractors. Blum also serves on the Board of Trustees with Vice Chair David M. Rubenstein, the Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, which owns Booz Allen.
For more surveillance state coverage, see:
New Poster Series: Edward Snowden, by Indy Staff
Glenn Greenwald Reflects on Meeting Snowden, by Glenn Greenwald
Under the Gaze, by Nicholas Powers
Avoiding Online Surveillance: Tips & Tricks, by Tactical Tech Team
For a PDF of this issue, click here.The plaques on these park benches would probably make people sitting down to enjoy their lunch do a double take.
The humorous signs mimic dedications often seen on plaques on park benches - but are actually there to protest Cheshire West and Chester City council’s plans to introduce a Public Space Protection Order, to address antisocial behaviour issues in the local area.
Thousands of local residents have signed a petition against the Public Space Protection Order.
The council have removed the plaques, though local residents found them funny.
One of them reads: "If you shut your eyes for more than ten seconds whilst on this bench, you may be deemed asleep, and risk facing an ASBO. By Order of Public Space Protection Orders under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014."
"We have removed the plaques from five benches and although they may appear humorous, some people may find them offensive." Maria Byrne, Chester Council
Another reads: "This bench is reserved for the young, beautiful and affluent. If you are old, ugly or poor please sit elsewhere."
But our favourite says: "This bench is dedicated to the men who lost the will to live whilst following their partners around the shoe shops of Chester."
• Anger mounts over council plans to 'criminalise the homeless'
• Smile while you busk, or pay a £1,000 fine
The council was worried that people may be "offended" by the plaques, so removed them.
Photo: Wales News Service Ltd.
Maria Byrne, head of place operations for Cheshire West and Chester Council, confirmed the removal of the plaques to the Chester Chronicle.
"We have removed the plaques from five benches and although they may appear humorous, some people may find them offensive.
"It has cost the Council taxpayer money for officers to locate and remove them.
"If anyone knows who is responsible we would like to hear from them."
One of the artists who created the plaques told the paper: “This was all done in good grace and with no malice or thought of financial gain.
“We just hope the residents and visitors of Chester enjoyed them while they could.”Dragon Quest XI Nintendo Direct details 3DS-exclusive features
Go to the worlds of past Dragon Quest games.
Nintendo hosted a Dragon Quest XI: In Search of Departed Time-themed Nintendo Direct today, revealing a host of details specific to the 3DS version of the game. Among those details, it was revealed that players will be able to take on various quests in which they travel to the worlds of past Dragon Quest games.
Here are all the new details:
In 2D mode, there are secret locations called “Hidden Spots” that you can find.
In 3D mode, there are symbol-based encounters. By using the A button, you can perform a preemptive attack.
2D mode uses random encounters.
The bottom screen displays the map. You can switch between the full map and the area map.
There is a “Travel Memories” feature that lets you look back on events in 2D and 3D modes.
The circle pad is used for 3D screen movement, while the d-pad is used for 2D screen movement.
The 3DS version uses “StreetPass” functionality.
The main element of StreetPass sees players interacting with a race known as the Yocchi.
The Yocchi will request that you rescue the Yocchi in critical situations that you encounter along your journey.
The key to rescuing Yocchi is a dungeon called the “Labyrinth Beyond Time.”
You can form a party of up to eight Yocchi from among the Yocchi you gather, and send them off into the dungeon.
In the dungeon, you can choose whether to control the Yocchi directly or proceed automatically. Choosing the latter means both movement and battles are automatic.
There are treasure chests and you can obtain items in the dungeon.
The abilities of each Yocchi differ, and various types exist from weak to strong. They will not return if they’re killed by the enemy. You can gather Yocchi in the field or from other players through StreetPass.
By defeating the “Gate Keeper” awaiting at the end of the dungeon, you will obtain an “Adventure Log Password.”
By giving the Adventure Log Password to the Yocchi elder, you can go the worlds of past Dragon Quest games.(In the Nintendo Direct, we see the player visit the worlds of Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest V.)
There are problems occurring in the worlds of past Dragon Quest games, and resolving them has something to do with saving the Yocchi.
The Nintendo Direct also revealed that starting today, 3DS users in Japan will be able to pre-load Dragon Quest XI from the Nintendo eShop.
Dragon Quest XI: In Search of Departed Time will launch for PlayStation 4 and 3DS on July 29 in Japan. A Switch version is also planned, but has yet to be shown or dated.
Watch the Nintendo Direct below.The Sam's Club logo is seen at a store in Bentonville, Arkansas on June 2, 2011. REUTERS/Sarah Conard
ROMEOVILLE, Illinois (Reuters) - Sam's Club is trying to stand out against its larger, faster-growing rival Costco Wholesale Corp (COST) with trendier holiday merchandise this year, hoping that new goods will spur its members to spend more.
Its previous moves, including improving food and adding "treasure hunt" items such as $6,000 Cartier watches, have failed to spur strong results. Sales and the growth trajectory at the retail warehouse chain, part of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT), continue to lag behind Costco.
"We've been underwhelming our members," Chief Executive Officer Rosalind Brewer said as she toured a new Sam's Club in Romeoville, Illinois, last week. Some goods just have not been "on trend" enough, she said.
When Wal-Mart meets with analysts and investors on October 15, Brewer will give more details about the merchandising strategy for Sam's Club, a membership-only retailer.
The chain is adding 132 new general merchandise goods for the holiday season, up from 56 a year ago. They include everything from sets of "heirloom" Christmas ornaments that look like ones sold in boutiques, to women's UGG boots priced below the $200 or more they sell for at department stores.
Sam's Club has lacked a bit of the "flair" that Costco has, said Wolfe Research analyst Scott Mushkin. Adding new items may help but could be more of an "incremental positive" rather than really moving the needle, he said, without seeing the goods.
Costco has not changed its holiday strategy and is keeping an eye on its rival, Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said on October 9. Sam's Club's discount booklets, launched months ago, are similar to ones Costco has used for years.
"We are going to do what we do," Galanti said on a conference call. "If they keep doing it, it must be working."
Sales at stores open at least a year, a retail metric known as same-store sales, show that Costco has an edge. Costco's U.S. same-store sales rose 5 percent last quarter. Sam's Club's same-store sales rose 1.7 percent last quarter and it expects them to be flat to up 2 percent this quarter.
"The results have not been consistently barn burning while Costco's have," said Cowen & Co analyst Faye Landes. In the past, Sam's Club's formula has not seemed to be "quite as nailed down as Costco's," she said.
Sam's Club, which has 627 warehouses in the United States and Puerto Rico and is opening 15 to 20 more a year, declined to forecast sales or profit margins on the new items. Costco runs 638 warehouses, including 454 in the United States and Puerto Rico, and plans to open 18 more U.S. ones this fiscal year.
Sam's Club, which got its start in Oklahoma 30 years ago, has been trying to stand out as a warehouse of brand names. It is the only club to sell Apple Inc (AAPL) devices and also stocks items such as The North Face fleece jackets from VF Corp (VFC) and Under Armour Inc (UA) shirts.
It hopes to lure members like Sue Skeer to spend more. Skeer said she joined Sam's Club 16 years ago and goes there about twice a week, mainly to buy fruits and vegetables.
"I haven't really found anything that would draw me in" to make many impulse purchases, said Skeer, who lives in Granite Bay, California.
(Reporting by Jessica Wohl; editing by Andrew Hay)The No. 6 Florida Gators (16-2, 5-0 SEC) never trailed on Thursday evening, walking out of the Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, AL with a 68-62 road victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide (8-10, 2-3 SEC)
Florida improved to 8-2 in single-digit decisions this season and ended Alabama’s 14-game home winning streak in the process.
The Gators won their 10th-straight game and picked up a win for the 15th time in their last 16 contests. OnlyGators.com breaks it down with seven quick-hitters:
It was over when: Senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin drained two free throws with 1:54 remaining, extending Florida’s lead to nine points – one short of a game-high. He then connected on two more with 25.9 seconds to go, helping UF keep a three-basket lead. Wilbekin finished with 10 points on 2-of-8 shooting with seven of his attempts and both of his makes coming from downtown.
Prominent player: The Gators decided to shoot over the top of the Crimson Tide’s zone, so sophomore guard Michael Frazier took even more threes than normal. His night ended with a team-high 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting (all from beyond the arc), three assists and two rebounds.
Check out the second half of The Fastbreak…after the break.
Perfect plays: With 4.6 seconds left until the break, Frazier drained a corner three and was fouled on the shot attempt. He made the free throw to complete the four-point play and spot the Gators a seven-point lead at halftime.
Later, Florida led by seven with three minutes to play but turned the ball over under its own basket. Alabama immediately took off on a fastbreak, but senior forward Casey Prather chased down G Trevor Releford, blocking his layup attempt at the rim to save a potentially momentum-changing score. Prather found a way to chip in 14 points, grab six boards and pick up a career-high three blocks.
Standout stat: UF entered Thursday’s game not having attempted more than 26 three-pointers in a single contest. The Gators hit that mark with 9:28 left in the game, shooting a total of 28 triples by the time the final buzzer sounded. Considering Florida averaged just 5.8 makes and 16.1 attempts per game this season, the effort to score from downtown on Thursday night was especially notable.
“What was open was from the perimeter,” explained head coach Billy Donovan. “We made some shots, we moved the basketball pretty well, we had a fairly decent number of assists, we didn’t turn it over a lot. … We didn’t shoot an off-the-chart percentage, but we did make 10 threes and that helped us against the zone.”
What it means: The Gators won another league road game with Donovan improving |
.D., associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, University of Arizona. "In the end, L-DOPA may not be the drug that ends the disease but the pathway identified is likely to be a key observation as the search for a cure continues."
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This research, titled "Mining Retrospective Data for Virtual Prospective Drug Repurposing: L-DOPA and Age-related Macular Degeneration," was supported by National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Human Genome Research Institute, Research to Prevent Blindness, Bright Focus Foundation, The Edward N. & Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation, Wisconsin Genomics Initiative, National Eye Institute, Marshfield Clinic and University of Arizona.
Marshfield Clinic provides patient care, research and education with more than 50 locations in northern, central and western Wisconsin, making it one of the largest comprehensive medical systems in the United States.Visitors interested in shopping at this year’s Arts Festival won’t be disappointed. The Artist Market, which runs every day during the festival from 12-8pm, offers many unique items such as wearable fiber, precious jewelry, and other mediums like ceramics, drawings, mixed media, photography, and paintings. Creators of these pieces come from all parts of the country after applying and being selected to participate. Their art is available for purchase right at the event for you to take home.
Once you’ve finished walking around the market, you don’t have to stop shopping. Many other downtown shops will be open, some late at night and during the weekend, while the Arts Festival is running. The downtown area conveniently offers department stores, boutiques, and retail centers in close proximity. You can also stop to eat at Fifth Avenue Place at 120 Fifth Avenue and check out the many retail shops located inside the center. One of their stores, Crystal River Gems, will be offering special deals on handmade jewelry during the festival. Laurie’s Hallmark is also offering free bracelets every Friday in June with any purchase of at least $10. For a full listing of stores in Downtown Pittsburgh, check out this Shop & Dine Guide from DowntownPittsburgh.com. There is something for everyone in the downtown shopping area during the Arts Festival, from apparel, books, electronics, bakery items, jewelry, shoes, and even wine and spirits.
Here is A List of Downtown Merchants and their Weekend Hours
Saturday Sunday Artist Market 12:00pm-8:00pm 12:00pm-8:00pm Added Touch
120 Fifth Avenue 10:00am-3:00pm Amazing Books
929 Liberty Avenue 11:30am-4:00pm Avenue
120 Fifth Avenue 10:00am-3:00pm Boutique 208
208 6th Street 11:00am-8:00pm 11:00am-5:00pm Boutique la Passerelle
417 Wood Street 10:00am-5:00pm Broadway Army Navy
909 Liberty Avenue 10:00am-5:00pm Brooks Brothers
600 Smithfield Street 9:30am-6:00pm Burlington Coat Factory
339 Sixth Avenue 9:00am-8:00pm 12:00pm-5:00pm Canadian Fur Company
625 Smithfield Street 9:00am-2:00pm Carl W. Herrmann Furs
634 Smithfield Street 9:00am-5:00pm Crystal River Gems
120 Fifth Avenue 10:00am-4:00pm Debwal
125 W. Station Square Drive 10:00am-10:00pm 12:00pm-5:00pm Denim Express
439 Wood Street 9:30am-6:00pm Designer Outlet
311 Forbes Avenue 11:00am-4:00pm Eide’s Entertainment
1121 Penn Avenue 9:30am-6:30pm 10:00am-5:30pm Emphatics
301 Grant Street 10:00am-5:00pm Ends-N-Odds
125 W. Station Square Drive 10:00am-9:00pm 12:00pm-5:00pm Heinz Healey’s
160 Fifth Avenue 9:30am-5:30pm Hometowne Sports
125 W. Station Square Drive 10:00am-10:30pm 10:00am-6:00pm Jos. A. Bank
230 Fifth Avenue 9:00am-8:00pm 12:00pm-6:00pm Joseph Orlando
606 Liberty Avenue 9:30am-5:00pm Kountz & Rider
301 Grant Street 9:30am-5:00pm Larrimor’s
249 Fifth Avenue 9:00am-6:00pm Laurie’s Hallmark
120 Fifth Avenue 10:00am-3:00pm Lydell’s
120 Fifth Avenue 10:00am-3:00pm Macy’s
400 Fifth Avenue 9:00am-6:00pm 12:00pm-5:00pm N.J. Richetti Fine Men’s Clothing
301 Grant Street 10:00am-5:00pm New York New York
125 W. Station Square Drive 10:00am-12:00am 11:00am-8:00pm Oxford Centre Wine & Spirits
320 Smithfield Street 10:00am-5:30pm Pennsylvania Wine Cellars
125 W. Station Square Drive 10:00am-9:00pm 12:00pm-9:00pm Pittsburgh Popcorn Company
822 Liberty Avenue 10:00am-5:00pm Serendipity Accessories
2 PPG Place 10:00am-4:00pm Social Status
717 Liberty Avenue 10:00am-8:00pm ToonSeum
945 Liberty Avenue 10:00am-5:00pm Unforgettable
Oxford Oxford Center 10:00am-5:00pm WEAR on Market Square
433 Market Street 10:00am-6:00pmHundreds of protesters rallied Friday against President Donald Trump’s Long Island visit to discuss MS-13, the gang whose killings have rocked Suffolk County, and to bemoan the president’s linking gang violence with illegal immigration.
About 70 Trump supporters came out too, gathering outside the gates of Brentwood State Park, opposite the protesters who at times chanted “Lock him up” and “Immigrants are not to blame; no terror in our name.”
“I think MS-13 is guilty of great violence and murder and needs to be dealt with, but should not be used as an excuse for his bigoted and racist platitudes,” said Jean Sidebottom, 66, of Ronkonkoma. “It needs to be treated seriously — not for his political agenda.”
James Thompson, 60, of Miller Place, talks about his support for President Trump at Brentwood rally opposite protests pic.twitter.com/87SCDKW8AI — Sarah Armaghan (@ArmaghanS) July 28, 2017
Trump supporter James Thompson, 60, a nurse from Miller Place, held a sign that read: “Respect the rule of law. Respect our President! Trump 2020!”
“I’m here to support the president and the attorney general in their fight against MS-13 and illegal immigration,” Thompson said. “I’m just looking forward to hearing about his support to the takedown of these groups, MS-13.”
The anti-Trump protesters — a coalition of immigrant-advocacy, LGBT rights, women’s rights and labor groups — spoke out against the administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, resulting in a surge of deportations.
Assemb. Phil Ramos (D-Brentwood), a former Suffolk police officer, joined protesters, saying he doesn’t believe that Trump’s agenda helps the anti-gang effort.
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“We are suffering through a gang issue right now and in order for the police to solve these crimes and do their jobs right we are going to need the cooperation of the public,” Ramos said. “If they start to terrorize the community with immigration raids, the victims of gang violence will be reluctant to report it. Trump’s visit here is going to... impede the investigations and the good work that the police have done.”
Trump’s emphasis on an MS-13 crackdown and deportations has a corrosive effect in the immigrant communities, as the public comes to see law enforcement as a threat, advocates said as about 30 people started the day protesting outside the police department’s Third Precinct in Bay Shore.
“Over the past year, we’ve heard the narratives and rhetoric coming from the new administration: Mexicans are rapists; Muslims are terrorists that need to be banned and, now, Central Americans are criminals coming here to bring violence to our communities,” said Nathan Berger, an immigration advocate with Rural and Migrant Ministry based in upstate Poughkeepsie.
Protesters in Brentwood chant, hold signs about immigration, LGBT rights, "Lock him up" outside @realDonaldTrump speech @Newsday pic.twitter.com/c15Jzlxthm — Sarah Armaghan (@ArmaghanS) July 28, 2017
“We know this isn’t true and we know this to be racist,” Berger added, saying to local law enforcement that “if you are going to cooperate with the administration’s requests” on deportations “you are complicit with racism.”
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini, a Democrat running for Suffolk district attorney, objected to protesters linking his department to indiscriminate immigration enforcement, saying its focus are criminals and gang members — not the immigrant community.
“Let’s be very clear. We’re talking about violent gang members,” Sini said. “We are not going to make apologies for cooperating with federal law enforcement authorities on serious, dangerous, violent criminals... We’re focused like a laser on MS-13.”
Sini said he’s “very empathetic” with the immigrant community’s concerns and said only “a very small percentage of the undocumented population” is linked to gangs.
Trump supporter Doodnauth Punwasi, 57, of Central Islip, came to the campus holding a small American flag and hoping to see the president.
Punwasi, who said he immigrated 30 years ago from Guyana, said the killings of four young men in Central Islip earlier this year was near his home and he supports the president’s push to deport immigrants here illegally.
“I think the president’s doing a good job. “If you want to come, come legally and respect the law of America... If you come and create violence for other people, it’s not good.”
With Mark Morales12 Shares
If you’re thinking of buying a new home in the near future, there’s something you need to think about first. Before you even sign a purchase offer to buy a new home, you first need to sell your house – as in the one you own now.
During the brighter days of the real estate market—the 1980s, 1990s and even the early 2000s—people got very accustomed to the high degree of liquidity in the market. It was possible, and even common, for a buyer to schedule “back-to-back closings”—the closing on the new home and the closing on the old home, one right after the other. Often, both closings would happen in the same office. It doesn’t get any better than that right?
I saw a lot of this during my many years in the mortgage business; people often confidently bragged of their ability to sell their old homes in between the time of the contract signing and closing on the new one.
But a few things have changed since the good-old days. Engineering a simultaneous close in this market is an entirely different undertaking.
The mortgage lending game has changed
Even if you’ve carried two house payments in the past—or even if you’ve done it more than once—don’t be so sure you’re lender will be willing to do it again.
One of the biggest reasons people end up in foreclosure is carrying two house payments, and lenders are well aware of this. It’s not that they didn’t know about it in the past—they did—but low default rates and the near religious reliance on automated loan approvals and credit scoring models caused them to turn a blind eye. There were always really high credit scores or miracle bridge loans to enable borrowers to get around the sticky little problem of a double house payment.
The housing meltdown changed all of that. People who were sure they could sell their old houses in a matter of weeks, or no more than a couple of months, suddenly found that they still had it a year or more after closing on the new home.
Something totally predictable happens when you carry two house payments for too many months: you run out of money! Suddenly, owning two homes was no longer a closing convenience, but a trap—one that many homeowners are in right now.
My point: you can no longer count on your lender being as willing to work with your optimistic assumptions on how quickly you’ll be able to sell your old home after closing. They’ve been burned and the rules have changed.
The real estate market has changed
If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention to the news media you’re well aware of the troubles in the housing market. Now add to this knowledge the fact that it’s always been much harder to sell a home than it is to buy one, even in a strong market. This is because as a buyer, timing is within your control; as a seller, timing is within the buyer’s control. In addition, a real estate transaction is actually a fairly complex event where any of a number of details can cause a sale to come unhinged.
All of those issues are magnified in the current housing market. It now takes months to sell a house, and sometimes a lot longer. In this kind of real estate market, timing is rarely on the side of the property seller.
The consequences when you don’t sell your house first
How important is it to sell your home before you put an offer on a new one? Let’s consider the ways if you don’t.
You may be turned down by a lender for a mortgage loan in today’s lending environment The seller of the house you want to buy may decline your offer or include a provision to accept back-up offers if you’re offer is contingent on the sale of your home You may not get as much on the sale of your old home as you expect, setting off a last minute scramble to raise cash—I’ve been to enough closings to know that that’s the LAST thing you want to be doing If you try to set up a simultaneous closing on both the old home and the new one, the sale of your old home could fall apart at the last minute for reasons you never thought of Instead of enjoying your new home, you’ll be consumed with selling the old one, and that will get more uncomfortable as the months pass If you’re house takes too long to sell you could be forced into becoming a landlord—and then you’ll be facing a whole new set of problems
Feel free to look at homes you might want to buy, but be sure to sell and close on your old home before you buy the new one. Then you can present a contingency free offer—and a known down payment—to the seller of the home you want to buy and the entire transaction will be as close to stress free as the home buying experience can get.
Still another option is to sell your current home, then move into a short-term rental. There are companies who provide short-term rentals to people for exactly this purpose.
The idea is to make a clean break by selling your current home first – this removes a major obstacle from the buying process, including the mortgage on your new home. Free from the burden of selling your current home, you’ll be better prepared to buy a new one. And here’s a bonus: You will be a stronger buyer if you don’t have a house you need to sell. That can give you more room to negotiate on your new home.
In the past 5-6 years have you been in a position where you had a house to sell in order to buy a new one? How did you handle it? Older stories don’t count—everything has changed in just a few short years!
( Photo from Flickr by bluegrass@bardstown.com )Foodbank volunteer Linda Wilson, left, talks to Elaine Oliver and her daughter Safiyah Lesley, aged 14 months, after collecting essential food on December 21, 2012 in Liverpool, England. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images LONDON — UK household incomes will not grow for the next two years due to the lasting effects of the 2008 financial crisis, according to a report from an influential think tank.
"If workers' earnings grow in line with the OBR's forecast, we project that real median income growth will be close to zero over the next two years, before picking up after 2018-19," the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in a report published on Thursday,
The long-term impacts on economic growth from the financial crisis are likely to last until 2022, the IFS said.
Median incomes will have grown by just 9.7% in the 14 years since the 2008 crisis, according to IFS projections, which is almost a fifth lower than the long term trend suggests would have been the case if the banking collapse had never happened.
In this case, the "difference is equivalent to £5,900 per year for a childless couple and £8,300 for a couple with two young children," the IFS said in its report, produced for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Here is the chart:
Institute for Fiscal Studies
Any earnings growth will be unevenly distributed, with planned cuts to working-age benefits and the potential for higher inflation in the future hitting low-income households harder than high-income households, the IFS said.
A Treasury spokesman told the BBC: "We are taking action to support families with the costs of living by cutting taxes for millions of working people, doubling free childcare for nearly 400,000 working parents and introducing the National Living Wage - a significant pay rise for the lowest earners."
The findings chime with data from the Office of National Statistics released last month that showed that UK household spending remained level at an average of £528.90 a week in the financial year ending 2016, unable to rise above pre-crisis levels.
The figures show "that in recent years spending has increased from its lowest level of £507.20 seen in 2012," the ONS said.
"However, average spending has not returned to the pre-economic downturn levels of spending seen before 2007," the ONS said.NEW YORK -- Actor Shia LaBeouf has been arrested after allegedly getting into an altercation with another man at his livestream near the Museum of Moving Image in the New York City borough of Queens.
Police say LaBeouf pulled the scarf of an unidentified 25-year-old man early Thursday morning, scratching his face in the process. Police say he also pushed the man, who refused medical attention.
LaBeouf faces a misdemeanor assault charge. It’s unclear if he has an attorney who can comment.
LaBeouf has spent the first few days of Donald Trump’s presidency chanting, “He will not divide us,” in front of a live camera outside the museum. The livestream is for a participatory public art project LaBeouf and two collaborators intend to have running for the next four years.
Police told CBS News the fight wasn’t pro-Trump vs. anti-Trump fight -- everyone there was apparently anti-Trump.Image copyright WILLIAM WEST/AFP/GettyImages Image caption Companies have three months to apply for authorisation if their operations could impact koalas
Timber companies in south-eastern Australia will be subject to stringent new rules protecting koalas.
From April, firms managing blue gum plantations in Victoria state's Green Triangle region will be required to have a "koala management plan" in place, the state government says. That will include using koala spotters to keep a lookout for the animals while trees are being felled, and if one of the furry creatures is spotted then several trees surrounding it must be spared.
Unlike some Australian states, Victoria has an abundance of koalas, and in some parts there are so many that they're running out of trees.
Blue gums - a type of eucalyptus - are one of the few preferred food sources for the notoriously picky eaters, but living in a commercial logging area is risky. In 2013, a major woodchip company admitted its operations had killed and maimed koalas, prompting environmental groups to criticise the government's oversight of the industry.
Victoria's new rules require operators to report all koala deaths or injuries, with penalties for those that fail to do so, Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio tells ABC. They'll also have to carry out population surveys.
But some conservationists tell the broadcaster that a broader approach needs to be considered, including sterilisation, relocation and a major tree-planting effort to replace those that have died off through koala activity.
Next story: Copyright spat forces Bulgaria radio to play old tunes
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.As Sen. Lindsey Graham sees it, making a binary choice between real estate mogul Donald Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for the Republican presidential nominee is like picking between being "shot or poisoned."
"You get the same result," the South Carolina Republican said Friday of the difference between the leading GOP contenders. To Graham, who already gave up on his own presidential bid, either of the candidates loses to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Dishonest beats crazy. Hillary Clinton's going to be seen as a dishonest candidate. If we nominate crazy, which I think Donald Trump's domestic and foreign policy is insane. If we nominate somebody who is a rigid ideologue we lose. Dishonest loses to normal," Graham told reporters. "Just pick somebody normal. Pick somebody out of the phone book and we win."
Graham has endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and made campaign appearances for him.
The South Carolina senator has been bashing Trump for weeks, calling him everything from "unelectable" to "xenophobic." On Friday he focused on Cruz, pointing to the Texan's calculations on issues ranging from immigration to health care to guns to abortion. "He'll be easily portrayed as ideological to a fault," Graham said.
"I'm proudly pro-life. I think it would be very difficult to be elected president of the United States when you're going to require a woman who has been raped to carry the child."
"I know how this movie ends," Graham added. "They will eat his lunch. They will tear him apart. It will be the end of our chance to beat a very flawed candidate. Ted Cruz will not be able to bring this party together and get both parties to do hard things because he can't work with his own party, much less the other party."
Contact Lesniewski at niels@cqrollcall.com and follow him on Twitter @nielslesniewski.
See photos, follies, HOH Hits and Misses and more at Roll Call's new video site. NEW! Download the Roll Call app for the best coverage of people, politics and personalities of Capitol Hill.This story contains interviews with Christian Kästner, assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University; Amy Hirotaka, state policy and advocacy manager at Code.org; and Janet Siegmund, researcher at the University of Passau. In order to expose more students to computer science, 17 states have passed legislation to create basic math and science requirements in the curriculum, rather than count them as electives. But lawmakers in Texas have made computer programming count toward a foreign language requirement, with Kentucky and New Mexico gearing up to follow suit.
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So, is coding language or math? How Human Brains Interpret Coding Here’s how the debate is shaping up. Those in the math and science camp argue that computer science encompasses more than just the “language” the computer can interpret–specifically, it requires learning algorithm logic that necessitates specially trained technical instructors. On the other hand, the “code-is-a-foreign-language” proponents are fiercely stating their case, seeing an opportunity to fill in curriculum gaps left behind by shrinking foreign language departments in schools. While lawmakers and educators alike fight over whether computer programming is considered a foreign language or a math, there has been virtually no scientific evidence to support or refute either case. That is, until now. The Study Researchers at the University of Passau, University of Magdeburg, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, and the Metop Research Institute put their heads together to figure out how exactly computer programmers understand code. Their study was accepted to this year’s International Conference on Software Engineering. This is the first study in which scientists have looked into the brains of programmers, using the imaging tools of neuroscience. You can find the study here in PDF form.
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Primary author of the study, computer scientist Janet Siegmund at the University of Passau, was so interested in the “language or math” debate that she decided to peer into the brains of computer programmers using an MRI, in hopes of shedding some light on the issue. “That was actually my starting point,” Siegmund says. She wanted to know how the brain registered the act of programming, which led her to her current research question, “How do coders understand code?” In the experiment, 17 participants interpreted a few lines of code while lying down inside an fMRI machine. All of the test subjects were university students that had an undergraduate understanding of programming and the Java language. Two of the 17 participants happened to be female. Each person read several different Java code snippets of similar difficulty so that the researchers could average the resulting brain imaging data. To rule out brain activity that was not related to interpreting code, the researchers subtracted imaging data related to an error detection task. They found that error detection did not activate the parts of the brain that dealt with the code interpretation task. All of the test code consisted of several lines, at the end of which the program would print an output. The participants’ task was to predict the printed output after studying the code. All of the participants were capable of understanding the code within the given time frame. The Programming-Language Link So, does computer programming fall into the languages subject area?
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“It appears to make some sense, based on what we have learned from the study,” Siegmund says. But Siegmund stresses that more research would better solidify her conclusions, especially since this was an initial attempt to answer the math-or-language question. She says, “Actually, with these kinds of studies, you should always say that more studies need to be done. But what we found is that it appears to be related.” Future studies might improve on the current experiment. “We had a very artificial kind of testing because you really had just small source-code snippets with, like, 20 lines of code,” Siegmund says. Anything larger would have fallen out of the viewing area of the small mirror that was tacked onto the inside of the fMRI machine. What’s more is that the code could not be so difficult that the subject could not finish the task within the allotted time. Real-world programs usually contain numerous lines and would likely stump the external reviewer. Christian Kästner, the second author of the study, elaborates on why more work needs to be done. He says, “There is no clear evidence that learning a programming language is like learning a foreign language, but our results show that there are clearly similarities in brain activations that show that the hypothesis is plausible.” It is important to note that the participants did not actively write computer programs in the experiment. They merely read code chunks for understanding. So, it is inaccurate to definitively say that computer programming is more a language than a math. The truth is still out there.
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Neuroscience And Computer Science Collide Earlier attempts to understand programmers’ cognitive abilities used qualitative measures and mostly relied on self-reports from the programmers the experiments were done on. But Siegmund decided to use a hard-data method from neuroscience to directly measure a programmer’s understanding of the code using fMRI imaging. The colored areas were the active brain regions when the participants read and understood the code. Embracing the tool carried a learning curve. “You need a lot of experience with fMRI studies. You need to know how the machine works and what you can do with the data,” Siegmund says. A chance meeting with biologists at a conference brought in the know-how that Siegmund and her colleagues needed in order to properly plan out and interpret the data from their fMRI study. “I don’t think we would have been there if we didn’t have the new biologists on board,” Siegmund says. Blurred Lines Between Math And Language The study might give insight into how reading code could impact a student’s brain. Even so, it is difficult to know for certain if other parts of the brain were activated. Last year, neuroscientists did a study on patients whose brains were implanted with electrodes. Using this invasive method, they were able to pinpoint a region of the brain that processes numerals, called the inferior temporal gyrus. They further concluded that this region is physically near the area responsible for language processing. It is possible that the fMRI in Siegmund’s study may not have been able to detect activity in this region. Maia Szalavitz, writing for Time, wrote, “Since the inferior temporal gyrus is so close to the ear canals, functional MRI machines, which detect changes in oxygen use and blood flow by nerve cells, may not be as sensitive to the activity of neurons tucked away in that area.”
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Even more evidence confounds the distinction between language and calculation processing areas of the brain. A year 2000 study concluded that the same region that is responsible for processing semantics is also important when performing mental calculations. Incidentally, Siegmund and her colleagues found activity in this same region. No matter which way you look at it, most brain imaging studies remind readers that activated areas that show up with the chosen imaging method correspond to several different processes that are open to interpretation. Siegmund and her colleagues also concede that the way they interpreted their study’s results is open for review, writing in the paper that they might have missed important processes. But Siegmund reiterates, “The activation pattern that we found shows very clear and really distinct areas are activated that are related to our current understanding of program comprehension.” Comp-Sci Is More Than Just Code Even if Siegmund’s and Kästner’s study has showed a relationship between reading a computer program and the brain’s language centers, it does not speak to the field of computer science as a whole. Amy Hirotaka, state policy and advocacy manager at the non-profit Code.org, wrote in an email to us, “Computer science is more than just code. The fundamental concepts of computer science–like logic and problem solving–align well with mathematics and science disciplines, extending beyond simply learning a programming language.”
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Considering now that computer science could come out of a school’s foreign language department, Hirotaka sees issues with teacher quality down the line. Each department has its own ways of certifying a teacher’s credentials. It suffices to say that getting foreign language and mathematics departments to converge on one credentialing standard would create an administrative mess, even if it would give students more foreign language options. Hirotaka added, “Counting computer science as a foreign language might sound like a creative fix, but it causes major problems when it comes to teacher certification and departmental alignment.” Programmers’ Brains In The Real World School policies aside, the study could pave the way for improvements in the programming field. Kästner is quick to point out that using neuroscience can help us determine what makes a great programmer different from an average one. “We still have no clear idea how to train really good developers. For decades researchers have found that there are individual programmers who program more productively at higher quality and also do most of the communication in the project. These are often referred to as 10Xers because many studies found that they produce ten times more code, or in a tenth of the time or do ten times more communication,” Kästner says. He adds, “We know that these developers exist; we often quickly recognize them. Most of us know at least one such developer, and every tech company tries to hire them. But we have no idea how they got there or whether we could train others to excel at similar levels. Studying how program comprehension differs among novices, professionals, and 10Xers may allow us to get a better understanding of what makes a truly excellent programmer.” Siegmund imagines that the research could result in better software syntax. “Now that we actually have a better idea of what is happening inside a programmer’s brain, we found that it was related to natural language processing. Maybe programming languages should be more like natural languages,” she says.
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“The more domain-specific languages, like SQL, are more close to natural language processing. It would come closer than Java,” says Siegmund. All things considered, the researchers’ biggest takeaway from studying programmers’ brain activity is the possibility for even more discoveries in computer science and software engineering. “This opens the door for many future studies in this field. The actual activations found in this study are nice and confirm mostly what we expected, but the key result is a proof of concept of using fMRI as a tool in software engineering research,” says Kästner. If you want to get your language processing centers working away, try perusing the Java snippets from the study here.CONCORD, NH – The Attorney General’s office has called a press conference that will involve three high-profile cold cases. On Jan. 26 they will talk about the link between missing person Denise Beaudin, last seen in 1981; a 1985 cold case from Allenstown involving the discovery of four bodies not far from Bear Brook State Park – a woman and three children, from 1985; and an unsolved California murder case.
The briefing is set for Jan. 26 at 10:30 a.m. at the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles Auditorium in Concord.
CLICK FOR UPDATE: Full documents from press conference, story, photos and timeline linking Bob Evans to the Allenstown murders.
Beaudin was last seen by her family on Thanksgiving in 1981. The FBI swarmed a residence on Hayward Street last week, digging for evidence.
The Allenstown case was last in the news in November of 2015, when investigators using new forensic technology, made progress in identifying the bodies that had been separately – the woman and one of the children, in 1985, and two more children, in 2000.
Based on forensic evidence, investigators believe the woman and two of the children, who were her daughters, lived in the area where their bodies were found. but the third girl likely came from the Dakotas or Nebraska, according to testing of their hair, teeth and bones.
The bodies found in 1985 indicted they suffered blunt-force trauma as cause of death. Investigators have yet to release a cause of death for the two young girls found in 2000.
Related stories:Credit: Marvel Comics
Credit: Marvel Comics
This October, Spider-Man’s occasional enemy and current ally the Prowler gets his own ongoing series for the first time ever. Launched by writer Sean Ryan and artist Jamal Campbell, Prowler spins out of the upcoming Spider-Man event The Clone Conspiracy, with an appropriate twist coming fresh out of this week's Amazing Spider-Man #17.
Read on to find out how Ryan and Campbell plan to take Hobie Brown into the A-List, and his surprising ties to the Jackal, the new female Electro, and the larger Spider-Man mythos.
This article also gives readers the first glimpse at Jamal Campbell’s interior art for Prowler, along with his variant cover for Prowler #1.
Newsarama: Sean, you’re writing Prowler’s first-ever solo ongoing series. How do you plan to elevate him from B-lister to leading man?
Credit: Jamal Campbell (Marvel Comics)
Sean Ryan: A fantastic and terrifying question. That’s certainly the challenge of a book like this. The plan is to, rather simply, really dive into who Prowler is as a person, figure out what’s cool and interesting about him, and hopefully write him in a way that gets all of that across. I didn’t really know that much about Prowler before getting the assignment, but in the short time I’ve spent with him, I’ve really grown to like him. The trick is just going to be getting everyone else on board.
Nrama: Marvel has made it clear that Prowler plays a big part in The Clone Conspiracy, and this series spins out of that. What can you tell us about where this series finds Hobie Brown?
Credit: Jamal Campbell (Marvel Comics)
Ryan: The series actually finds him returned from the dead. In Amazing Spider-Man #17, before our series begins, Prowler gets into trouble investigating New U. But thanks to technology at New U, he’s brought back from the dead as a clone! And, while it’s still basically the same Prowler, Something is… different. Stranger still, the series opens with him working at Jackal’s New U, believing in what they are doing there.
Nrama: In the Ultimate Universe, the Prowler is Miles Morales’s uncle. Now that Miles is in the mainstream Marvel Universe, will Jeff Davis or even Miles himself play a role in Prowler?
Ryan: No plans for that at this time, no.
Nrama: Prowler hasn’t always been a hero. He works alongside Peter Parker right now, but he started out as a thief and an enemy of Spidey, and in fact the solicitation for the series has him working with the Jackal. Is he a hero or a villain? Or something in between?
Credit: Marvel Comics
Ryan: I don’t think Prowler really knows. In the first issue, he says he’s not a hero or a bad guy. One of the main thrusts, early on in the book, is Prowler trying to figure out what he is, not just in terms of “hero” and “villain,” but more in an even general sense. He’s bounced around from this to that his whole life. He started out as an inventor/window washer, and then, like you said, then thief, then friend, and then he worked for Silver Sable for awhile. More recently, he was Spider-Man’s friend again, and now he’s working for Jackal. Why is that? Why does he just bounce around? A big part of the story is going to be Prowler trying to figure out just what he is.
Nrama: Will Prowler square off with other classic Spider-Man foes, or will you be building a rogues gallery all his own?
Ryan: In the first arc, that ties into The Clone Conspiracy, yes. As readers who picked up Amazing Spider-Man #17 could probably guess, the new female Electro is going to be playing |
is not looking – or perhaps more truthfully not really expecting such depths of skulduggery – it is possible Laurent Koscielny got more in his face than a palm and four fingers. It is true also that merely to raise one’s arms in football is technically an offence.
But if it is done so deftly that none of the on-duty officials even spot it, and the victim carries on with the game rather than being carried off on a stretcher, is it really necessary to swing into action with video evidence and three-match bans? Costa would have got three matches had he punched Koscielny in the face and walked off the pitch before the ref could produce a red card. Let’s try to keep a sense of perspective here. The three match officials are out on the pitch to enforce the rules. Unless there is a serious injury, or a genuine risk of one, their decisions should stand. If Costa is to be given a three-match ban retrospectively for being a naughty boy, what sort of punishment would be deemed appropriate for the sort of tackle that may break an opponent’s leg or the elbow that leads to a fractured jaw?
Finally, the FA’s decision to rescind Gabriel Paulista’s ban and transfer the three-match suspension to Costa makes no sense. Even Arsène Wenger admitted Gabriel was guilty. That does not mean he ought to be sitting out three matches because his reaction hardly amounted to violent conduct either, he was goaded into a mistake and the FA have sensibly decided he has been punished enough already.
Yet if there is that amount of flexibility and common sense within the disciplinary procedure, why throw the book at Costa just for getting on everyone’s nerves? Neither player did anything so violent or dangerous as to warrant a three-match ban. Why not just warn Costa over his future conduct and privately tell Mike Dean and his assistants to be more vigilant next time? Some might even argue that as the real guilty party, it ought to be the officials serving a suspension. While that would usefully sharpen everyone’s eyesight for the rest of the season, it too would be an overreaction to a not particularly shocking example of gamesmanship.
Costa is good at pushing his luck on the sly, and if anyone did not realise that before Saturday’s game they certainly do now. Television and still pictures had already provided a service in bringing Costa’s crimes to light, if his manager will forgive the expression. There the matter could have been laid to rest. He got away with them on the day, he is unlikely to find officials as accommodating again. Wenger was wrong to suggest he will continue doing the same next week and the week after, because he won’t. Television has exposed his underhand methods. But violent conduct remains a trumped-up charge. Had Costa been awarded a second yellow and dismissed he would have earned a one-match ban and no one would have complained. The officials would have got it right. But now the FA’s disciplinary panel has overcompensated. Three matches is excessive, unnecessary, almost unsporting.Going into 2016, we never could’ve known exactly how much pain we were in store for. No matter where you stand politically, culturally, or musically, the year was dominated by division, conflict, and loss. As it always does, music reacted to that reality, at times offering comfort and escape, while finding an outlet for rage and frustration at others. Though no one will be asking to go through all of that again, the powerful music produced over the last 12 months worked as a powerful consolation.
(See: Top 50 Songs of 2016)
And that kind of experience will produce an incredibly personal connection to art. Because of that experience, the discussions that led to the production of this list were perhaps more impassioned than any other year, each writer giving a rousing speech for just how each album helped them through a difficult time. Though we can never quantify or rank the feelings engendered by 2016 or the albums produced in its span, lists like these will allow us all to capture the world as we so intensely felt it.
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50. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression
When you make music that sounds like you’re giving an acid bath to the tainted world around you — burning the pain in your own life while the outside world burns — it suggests a victory not over relative contentment but vile depression. On Post-Pop Depression, Iggy Pop deliberately uses the strength of his sound to summon something more than temporary wrath … for one last time. Whether announced or not, every legendary artist will have a final album. We learned that tragic lesson in real-time with David Bowie’s ★, the master’s impending death revealing itself upon repeat listens. Pop announced that finality himself upon the release of Post-Pop Depression, both in the press and in the album itself. Though still full of the characteristic Pop intensity (“When your love of life is an empty beach, don’t cry,” he muses on “Chocolate Drops”), the former Stooges frontman and Josh Homme teamed up to rage at the dying of the light, funneling the power of its members’ pedigrees and boasting a high-volume homage to Pop’s past. “To really make a real album, you really have to put everything into it,” Pop told Beats 1. He scrapes up every last bit of his power, infusing songs like the bone-dry “American Valhalla” and bruised sunset “Paraguay” with a timeless snarl. In a year when we lost so many legends, it’s good to hear “the last of the one and onlys” (as Homme put it) choosing how to go out — and going out on top at that. –Lior Phillips
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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49. Weaves – Weaves
There’s a humor at the heart of Weaves’ work that makes each song sound as if it’s smirking. But no matter how hard you search for it, that joke won’t reveal itself. On the Toronto outfit’s self-titled debut, they zip through 11 art-rock tracks, each more sporadic and jolting than the last. On “Candy” and “One More”, guitarist Morgan Waters and drummer Spencer Cole create a delightful cacophony akin to Deerhoof. They throw in slide guitar, skip downbeats, and zig zag around traditional rhythm structures, accenting the genius side of insanity, even when relatively in row on “Human”. At the front of it all is Jasmyn Burke, elongating words on “Birds & Bees” or “Coo Coo” to complement the plunging bass. The four-piece constantly sound like they’re on the verge of exploding, a dozen colors of confetti prepped to shoot from their cores in a way that even the most familiar listener won’t expect. Come the end of the record, you start to figure out what it is they, and their songs, are smiling about. It’s a shared sense of energy amid a lack of structure, a grin at the unknown, a smile before leaping off a cliff. Weaves are creating pop that distorts its own intentions — and they’re as surprised by the songs’ twists as you are. –Nina Corcoran
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Kanine
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48. White Lung – Paradise
“Punk,” as a label, can be liberating or paralyzing. As an example of the latter, White Lung frontperson Mish Barber-Way explained, “There’s this really stupid attitude that only punks have where it’s somehow uncool to become a better songwriter.” It’s that stubborn resistance to change that White Lung rail against on Paradise, pulling back some on the throttle and opening up on cuts like “Below”, “Hungry”, and “I Beg You” — power ballads that don’t require the band to sacrifice any of their scathing ferocity. But Paradise captures more than just a band expanding their sonic arsenal. Barber-Way’s vocals now soar to match her sneer, she steps outside herself to write from various perspectives, and she challenges modern conceptions of feminism, even her own. If evolving to create one of the best hard rock records of the year isn’t deemed “punk” enough, well, fuck punk. –Matt Melis
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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47. Japanese Breakfast – Psychopomp
When Michelle Zauner’s mother passed away after a brief and painful battle with cancer in 2014, the singer-songwriter found herself doing the thing she’s instinctively best at: arranging and rearranging songs, trying to make the pieces of her shattered life fit by way of music. And then, one day, she ended up with an album, which she named Psychopomp after the mythological angel who directs souls to the afterlife. The remarkable thing about Psychopomp is not its sadness or its acute sense of tragedy, but rather its defiant celebration of life as something worth holding onto, warts and all. Album standout “Everybody Wants to Love You” says it all in its title — love is fragile but plentiful, painful but omnipresent. Zauner pairs such reflections with understated melodies that may take some time to grow on you but hit you like a ton of bricks when they finally do. Life can only be lived one time through, but this is an album that bears (demands, even) repeat listening. –Collin Brennan
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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46. Martha – Blisters in the Pit of My Heart
Martha is a group of young, anarchist punks from northeast England that make music that’s as infectiously hooky as it is progressive in its politics. “I’m a person, you’re a person, nothing else is really certain,” Martha sings on “Precarious (Supermarket Song)”, and there’s really no better summation of their inclusive approach, which results in songs about social outcasts and Catholic school queers struggling with the same shit as everyone else: crushes, day jobs, anxiety. Blisters is also just a goddamn great guitar record — there’s the sloppy abandon of Superchunk, the Exploding Hearts’ razor-sharp snottiness, and please god don’t overlook the “More Than a Feeling” homage on “The Awkward Ones”. Blisters is undoubtedly all killer and no filler, but standout “Ice Cream and Sunscreen” might provide the best glimpse into the band’s promising future. A melancholy, solitary intro seems primed for melancholic reflection (“This year I’ll spend November in the house”) but soon blooms into a celebratory sing-along that can’t help but shine a light on the saddest of seasons. “When all of the band members join together and sing ‘Blisters in the pit of my heart!’” we wrote in our review, “it’s hard to tell whether to be devastated or elated.” I’m both, but the elation will win out in the end. It usually does. –Randall Colburn
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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45. Young Thug – JEFFERY
Unpredictability has always been Young Thug’s best quality, whether that meant being unable to predict whether he’d yelp out an explosive ad lib or growl out a nonsense couplet, or if it meant being unable to pin him down. The superb JEFFERY doubles down on that uncompromising complexity while also somehow revealing more of who he is in the process. In an era in which too many rappers lack a unique flow, Thug shows off nine of them on a single tape — the throat-scraped bark of “Harambe” and sing-songy glottal pops of “Kanye West” stand miles apart — and yet these tracks are all so undeniably Thug. From the photo of himself in a dress on the cover, to the tracks named after figures he’s inspired by, to the through-lines of identity and love for his partner, JEFFERY is a thrilling and surprisingly rounded exploration of the complexity of modern life, challenging binaries and expectations at every corner. –Adam Kivel
Listen: Spotify
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44. Lambchop – FLOTUS
Today’s America isn’t the same place that birthed “Americana” as a genre. If anyone knows that, feels that in their bones, it’s Kurt Wagner, the always-evolving core of alt-country mainstays Lambchop. Throughout the act’s 30 years, he has consistently poked and prodded at the definitions of American music traditions, digging at the scabs to reveal the reality behind the facade. In 2016, that meant filtering the country through a vocoder and adding electronic elements for the sublime, haunting FLOTUS. The record unfolds like a drive down the highway, though now digital billboards stud the horizon, promising commercial cures for your blues. Wagner finds beauty even in the most desolate, corrupted moments, as when picking up trash in his backyard on the glittering “Harbor Country” or in the patchworked vocal samples of “Directions to the Can”. Lambchop always reveled in twisting traditions, but FLOTUS insists that they’ve also been honoring the twists along the way. –Lior Phillips
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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43. The Hotelier – Goodness
The Hotelier’s breakthrough 2014 album, Home, Like Noplace Is There, may go down as the defining document of the emo revival. With its firecracker energy and relentless procession of anthems, the album idealized youth so fervently that it felt real and hollow all at once, as if it were madly chasing something it could never quite catch. For their third studio album, Goodness, the Massachusetts group took the inverse approach, turning their attention to the unknowns of the here-and-now and crafting a sprawling work of art that aims to capture life at its most mundane as well as its most thrilling. The result sounds like something that finally lives up to emo’s name because genuine emotion doesn’t always express itself at volumes dialed up to 11. Tracks like the gut-punching “Opening Mail for My Grandmother” take on the theme of death, and vocalist-bassist Christian Holden finds himself reflecting on what comes next with the same lyrical skill he once employed to look backwards in time. It may not be the band’s most rousing work to date, but it’s certainly their best and most engaging. –Collin Brennan
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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42. Kevin Gates – Islah
During the few years immediately preceding Islah, the ever-impassioned Baton Rouge rapper Kevin Gates was making his versatility known, filling his free mixtapes with songs that appealed to different audiences. Here, on his debut album, he proves how far he can take those same abilities. As hooky as the album is, Gates didn’t have to water down his sound to make it more accessible. Instead, songs like “2 Phones”, “Pride”, and “Time for That” are evidence that, well, he’s just a really, really good melody-writer and won’t let that talent go to waste. Elsewhere, “The Truth” — where Gates opens up about the incident in Florida last year when he kicked a female fan at a concert — is the exact antithesis of the lighter, melody-driven moments on the album. It’s an intensely honest rhyme spree that’s like one long hook itself. “These tats on my face don’t mean nothin’/ I was locked up, that don’t mean nothin’,” Gates starts on “Ain’t Too Hard”, merely one spot on the album where he refuses to be easily summed up. Really, the entire LP is a triumph of multidimensionality. –Michael Madden
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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41. Mothers – When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired
The long title of Mothers’ debut, When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired, is an appropriate fit; the album is a sprawling multi-instrumental landscape, shaped out of exhaustively experimental song structures. Each song follows its own erratic path, and even the most serene moments teeter on the edge of dissolution, about to give away to chaotic instrumental interludes. The album is therefore easy to disappear into, and lengthy, winding songs like “Nesting Behavior” and “Hold Your Own Hand” are the entryway. The submersing atmosphere is the work of the instrumentation, from the simple, frail sound of the plucked mandolin to the bigger orchestral arrangements. The release is an exploration of genre as well, pairing the deconstruction of math rock with the quiet moods of folk. The through-line of the album is Kristine Leschper’s voice, which trembles on the edge of breaking throughout. From this tension, the album draws vulnerability, and at the end of its emotional journey, it is a welcome weariness. –Mary Kate McGrath
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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40. Deftones – Gore
Deftones ascended to nü metal sainthood by preaching a religion defined almost entirely by carnal contrasts: sex and death, intimacy and violence, new romanticism and primal aggression. Sixteen years after White Pony — their Sermon on the Mount — the band renew their profane vows to flesh and fury on Gore. It’s their most immersive, elegant record to date, texturally rich and yet, as highlight “Doomed User” so turbulently demonstrates, unflinchingly surly. Gore certainly runs the hard rock gamut, swiveling from “Acid Hologram”‘s paranoid shoegaze, to “Xenon”‘s creeping sludge, to the Jerry Cantrell-featuring stunner, “Phantom Bride”. However, for all its diversity, the album’s ultimately a triumph of firm devotion — and, of course, deathly beauty. –Zoe Camp
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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39. Savages – Adore Life
The gestation for the second album by British band Savages was long and complicated, involving multiple studios and a residency in New York that forced them to reassess the writing of several songs. While that could have been the recipe for overreach or work with all the passion squeezed out of it, Adore Life feels fuller and richer than their previous LP, Silence Yourself, even though nothing has been added to their unique formula. The songs are simply more dynamic than ever before. “T.I.W.Y.G.” and “Adore” build and recede like tidal shifts, pushing vocalist Jehnny Beth and guitarist Gemma Thompson to furious new realms. On the latter, especially, Beth sounds as if she’s trying to knock down an entire building with just the power of her voice. Savages take the title of this album very much to heart, as it urges listeners to appreciate every breath and every encounter with the world, no matter how seemingly insignificant. —Robert Ham
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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38. Whitney – Light Upon the Lake
Over the course of three Smith Westerns albums, the group matured from fuzzed-out buzz band to 70’s-sheen rockers. But with the emergence of Whitney, it’s apparent that it wasn’t frontman Cullen Omori that made the Smith Westies such an intriguing project. Instead, it’s guitarist Max Kakacek and drummer Julien Ehrlich that have managed to repurpose the band’s best ideas and push things to unexpected places. Where the guitar work previously evoked Bowie and Harrison, Whitney introduces the most straightforward elements of Grateful Dead into the fold, resulting in a record, Light Upon the Lake, that pops with jukebox familiarity. Maybe it’s the guidance of fellow 70’s rock aficionado Jonathan Rado that translates the ideas of Whitney into such a fully-formed, unexpected debut, where a band from Chicago evokes the best moments of Bay Area jams and Laurel Canyon breeziness. It didn’t need Elton John’s cosign to get attention, but it wouldn’t be surprising if other classic rock dignitaries fell similarly in love. –Philip Cosores
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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37. The Range – Potential
Potential is the sound of voices united, pieced together from across the globe. That’s not cheesy rhetoric; it’s just what happened. The Range, aka producer James Hinton, crafted the album from various obscure YouTube clips. Some of people singing covers, some of people rapping — basically anything that spoke to him on some level. The result is an uplifting work that bonds together people who might never meet with airy club beats. It captures the feeling of both a late night deep dive into the untouched troves of the internet as well as the loneliness that birthed the original videos. With Hinton’s executed vision, it becomes an amazingly hopeful record. The grunting synth-bass tones and swift piano lines on “Copper Wire” flourish beneath the vocal samples, which alternate between pitched up and pitched down. For an electronic artist, the human voice is Hinton’s greatest instrument. The lush arrangements feel built around each clip, not the other way around. In a year where it’s easy to feel divided or alone, Potential is a reminder of the power of our voices pulled together with the intent of making something beautiful.
–Dusty Henry
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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36. Noname – Telefone
Noname is too modest to fling her debut mixtape into the major label arena, but her collaborators over the years, including Chance the Rapper to Saba, are more than happy to spread the word. It’s hard not to. Noname is the kind of rapper who appears as a magical figure, someone with remarkably ripe talent and polished work that seems too good to be true, too on the nose to be ignored, too well-crafted to be a debut. On Telefone, she slowly opens cupped hands to reveal soft words that she reeled out of darkness. The production cushions that, full of muted piano, finger snaps, and fluttering vocal harmonies. She talks about death and loss with the optimism of someone clinging to survival mode. She prays for friends to make it home safely in “Casket Pretty” but then swings into pure motivation on “Reality Check”. She does all of this and more, and yet there isn’t a single moment that can be pinpointed where she gets arrogant about it. Noname is the writer and illustrator of her own magic, a type of aching that clings to the sunny side of its soul. The louder her music is played, the brighter her cadence glows, giving her lyrics a type of 3D craft that makes Telefone a diary of lessons too relevant to keep to yourself. –Nina Corcoran
Listen: Spotify
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35. Into It. Over It. – Standards
For any indie kid who came of age in the mid-aughts, the slow burn of Into It. Over It.’s Standards plays like a dog whistle, calling up memories of a simpler time. The influence of Ben Gibbard and Mike Kinsella on the work of Chicago-based artist Evan Thomas Weiss has always been undeniable (Weiss was even in a band with Kinsella for a time), but he’s so much more than just a mimic; on Standards, his band’s most accessible album yet, he proves himself to once again be a thoughtful and observant narrator of his own life and the lives of those around him, trucking in similes and gentle, reflective, reverb-heavy melodies that are evocative even without the O.C.-era context. Recorded in analog at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone Studio in San Francisco, there’s a warmth and lived-in quality to this record that can feel like a kind of homecoming.
Emo is a much-maligned genre, but Weiss and company make perhaps one of the strongest cases yet for its continued legitimacy. Standards is understated, lush, and carefully plotted; there are emotions, yes, but no hysterics. “They torch their twenties like it’s kerosene,” Weiss, who turned 30 this year, sings of his hometown friends. We’re all entering a new decade together, all of us mid-aughts indie kids, and thank god we have Weiss to show us the way. –Katherine Flynn
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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34. Sioux Falls – Rot Forever
Though it’s not going to be regularly compared to Infinite Jest, there’s something to the connection between Rot Forever and the maximalist postmodern literature masterpiece. The band formerly known as Sioux Falls (the group took on the moniker Strange Ranger once they learned that the word Sioux was offensive to many Native American communities) share a dual aesthetic with the David Foster Wallace epic — their debut LP feels like they throw everything at the wall to see what sticks, but it also feels carefully and intelligently curated. Simply put, even at 72 minutes, just about everything sticks. The then-trio wear classic indie rock influences (Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Pavement) on their sleeves, but make things their own through the post-modern twist of analyzing the sleeve itself. Guitarist/vocalist Isaac Eiger sounds as if he’s shredded his journal and his vocal cords in equal measure, but knows the former well enough by heart to deliver the rough-hewn self-analysis all over again and in doing so pushes the latter despite the wear and tear. His lines at once evoke incredibly personal details and rally around universal frustration. “I miss my dog and my sister,” he howls on the excellent “If You Let It”, as if those words verified the world’s decay. It’s hard to tell if nothing is alright or if everything’s getting tough, but Strange Ranger/Sioux Falls are there with you for the ride. –Adam Kivel
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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33. Gojira – Magma
“It’s bigger than me.” With those simple words spoken in an interview with Rolling Stone, Joe Duplantier, the frontman of French metal outfit Gojira, cut to the chase of the appeal of his band’s Magma. Joe and his brother Mario act as the core of the experimental outfit, and they lost their mother while demoing tracks for their massive new LP. While they once peddled death metal, the record became something so much more interested in connection, with each other in their grooves, with the listener in more approachable hooks, with something greater than all of us in its mystic appeal. Tragedy informed the album, and yet songs like the math-y, magnetic “Low Lands” or the acoustic, golden “Liberation” have an astral, heavenly quality, the music of the spheres ringing beautifully and incredibly loud, especially as the counterpoint to the gnash and churn of more peak experimental metal. –Adam Kivel
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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32. Explosions in the Sky – The Wilderness
After slumming it in Hollywood for nearly half a decade with Peter Berg and David Gordon Green, Explosions in the Sky finally returned this year with their long-awaited followup to 2011’s Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. How they still find ways to make their brand of post-rock feel as fresh and angelic as it first did 16 years ago is one of the many alluring facets of The Wilderness. It’s another sprawling epic, yawning with fresh air and stretching impressive muscles previously unused by the Lone Star post-rockers. Digitized bleeps and bloops punctuate their amber swells (“Tangle Formations”) while Chris Hrasky’s rousing percussion (“Logic of a Dream”) turns self-respecting atheists into believers. Good thing, too, because heaven waits by the end with “Landing Cliffs”, quite possibly the group’s most tender, tranquil ballad to date — and that’s saying a lot. Producer John Congleton bottled up magic with this one, and we could use it right now. –Michael Roffman
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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31. BABYMETAL – METAL RESISTANCE
Leave it to three upbeat J-pop idols to deliver one of the most eclectic metal records of the year. When BABYMETAL burst on the scene, their singers only had a passing familiarity with metal. Critics derided them as a manufactured pop outfit, but vocalists Su-metal, Yuimetal, and Moametal paid them no heed. This blank slate continued to favor the kawaii metal band with their latest release, METAL RESISTANCE. Backed by the uber-talented Kami Band, BABYMETAL smashed genre conventions on their sophomore LP. The record traversed the chasms among subgenres, from power metal (“Road of Resistance”, assisted by Dragonforce’s guitarists) to pummeling metalcore (“KARATE”) to synth-infused nu-metal (“Awadama Fever”). The band even incorporated some oddball flourishes (vaudeville piano on “Tales of the Destinies”, a shimmering, anthemic interlude on “Meta Taro”). As the vocalists’ saccharine harmonies bolster an even more accessible sound, BABYMETAL arrived full-force on US shores to solidify their cult status. –Killian Young
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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30. Pinegrove – Cardinal
Each year, there’s that one “little rock album that could,” an unassuming guitar record that may often get drowned out by flashier fare but ultimately grows to be one of the albums we return to again and again. Pinegrove’s debut, Cardinal, holds that distinction in 2016. The record feels like one of those off-in-your-own-world walks — head down, hands buried in pockets, feet on auto-pilot — where you suddenly come to and have no idea how you got where you are. It’s a record that understands just how much time we spend wrestling in our own headspace, regretful, confused, and always searching for just the right words to explain ourselves. Musically, the songs step right into that feeling of being lost in one’s thoughts and problems, rallying around a good idea, wilting when doubt creeps in, vocals lagging behind a fickle mind that doesn’t bother to flash a turn signal. It’s self-reflection in the most uplifting way — a record that kicks the tires on the brain and heart, remaining hopeful that one day we’ll figure ourselves out. –Matt Melis
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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29. Nicolas Jaar – Sirens
Nicolas Jaar tends to keep his sound palette wide open, with little off limits, and the producer’s latest stretches this principle to his words, too. Sirens, his second solo LP and first since his hugely successful collaboration project with Dave Harrington as Darkside, alternates between Spanish and English, allusions to the unrest of present-day America and that of 1970s Chile, his parents’ home country. The comparison isn’t complicated; Sirens ends with a song called “History Lesson”, a sock-hop waltz dipped in a chemically polluted swamp, which goes: “Chapter one: we fucked up … Chapter three: We didn’t say sorry … Chapter five: we lied. Chapter six: we’re done!” Call it his darkest side yet, but Jaar would rather sound some sirens than sit still. –Steven Arroyo
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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28. Frankie Cosmos – Next Thing
If there’s one line on Frankie Cosmos’ Next Thing that might perfectly encapsulate Greta Kline’s impeccable lyricism, it’s this gem from “Outside With the Cuties”: “You are bug bites on vacation/ You find the sad in everything.” Hauntingly innocent yet universally resonant, Kline has always had a knack for pinpointing the most particular feelings and articulating them in the simplest terms. On Next Thing, that talent is as clear as ever, but this time it’s more refined, owing its more polished sound to a professional studio recording and a couple years of artistic growth. As Kline navigates her burgeoning adulthood, her soft and poetic songs flit from acoustic vocal harmonies to ‘80s-style synth breakdowns. Whether it is the insecure friction of leaving adolescence on “I’m 20” or reflecting on a broken relationship on “O Dreaded C Town”, Kline approaches raw teenage emotion with the sage wisdom of someone far beyond it: just close enough to the feeling that she can accurately express it, just far enough away to start drawing the connections. Kline has made a home in this oft-illusive time window, and on Next Thing she’s nice enough to invite us over. –Amanda Freebairn
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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27. Tegan and Sara – Love You to Death
It’s hard to tell whether Tegan and Sara leaned into the glossy pop side of their sound or if the world just caught up with the sisters’ meditative messages and the joy of their voices curling skyward. Sure, the Quins teamed up with Top 40 producer Greg Kurstin yet again for Love You to Death, but they didn’t start writing paint-by-numbers love songs. The two deliver songs that openly and honestly address the queer experience in a language that will resonate universally: “B/W/U” tackles marriage in a new era of equality with themes of commitment that ring true to any type of relationship; “Boyfriend” details a queer person dealing with a woman with a male partner, though the unrequited feelings will hit home regardless of gender.
These sounds hold together as a set because they offer different perspectives on perseverance. Webbing together ideas with life lessons and influences distilled into each moment, Tegan and Sara force you not to think about what you’ve heard in the past or what you may be hearing now. Suddenly, you understand the changes less than the music’s overarching depth and embrace. Tegan and Sara’s pop songwriting continues to refine, displaying a wisdom and maturity unlike so much of radio pop — and yet these thoughtful songs are also so naturally engaging that they latch easily into your brain and don’t let go. An exquisite, personal kinship/bond. –Lior Phillips
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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26. Jamila Woods – HEAVN
A lush mix of sonic innovations, Jamila Woods’ debut album is profoundly impressive and endlessly necessary. Heavn depicts Woods’ experiences as a young black woman, as well as the power she derives from them. The album reads like a love letter to Chicago, with collaborators like Chance the Rapper, Noname, Saba, and Kweku Collins adding their inimitable touches. But it’s Woods who consistently steals the show. Songs include mesmerizing beats, an innovative lyrical syntax, and surprises like revamped nursery rhymes and voicemail snippets sharing Woods’ personal stories. It’s standout, “Blk Girl Soldier”, is an assertive ode to societal ills and harnessing her black girl magic. It’s an album that juxtaposes a sugary surface with the punch of protest language that speaks out against widespread racism and violence. In 2016, no album that tackles these issues in a more head-on and beautiful way. –Sarah Brooks
Listen: Soundcloud
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25. Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition
Rather than lean on one big-picture theme as he did on XXX and Old, Danny Brown delivers exactly what the title of Atrocity Exhibition promises: a public display of his own eccentricity. Museum-goers are free to ogle at the playful musical allusions (“Today” pulls lyrics directly from Outkast’s “B.O.B.”), marvel at the heavy-hitting guest verses, and frantically try and unpack words that touch on everything from filthy-ass sex to the economic and criminal downturn of Detroit. But multiple listens reveal that their is somewhat of a through-line in Brown’s deliberate withholding of catharsis. Whether it’s the ’70s-horror bells of “Really Doe” or the drunken stand-up bass of opener “Downward Spiral” (there’s another ’90s musical reference for you), every track stays embedded in perpetual crescendo. There’s rarely a narratively satisfying explosion. That’s probably because Brown knows better than to believe in that sort of thing, especially when rapping about one’s own life. His personality isn’t multifaceted because he’s some kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde monster; it’s multifaceted because he’s a human being. And sometimes, humans only know how to build and build and build, praying for the best while secretly expecting the worst. –Dan Caffrey
Listen: Spotify
l
Buy: Amazon
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24. James Blake – The Colour in Anything
“I hope my life is no sign of the times,” James Blake croons over a driving 4X4 beat towards the middle of The Colour in Anything, a Hail Mary of a prayer that the trials and tribulations that inspired much of the album aren’t universal — knowing full well that they are. Using sparse electronics to plumb the messy depths of emotion, the record is rife with warm, subtle arrangements that place as much emphasis on the space between the meticulously placed notes and intermittent sub-bass throbs. The disarmingly personal effort finds the singer exposing the depths he’s willing to plumb in search of the ever-elusive mystery of love and whatever it takes to make it stay. Working with kindred spirits, including Frank Ocean and Justin Vernon, Blake finds his emotional center on “I Need a Forest Fire”, where he and Vernon argue for burning it all down and starting anew, in love as in life. –Scott T. Sterling
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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23. The Body – No One Deserves Happiness
With love inevitably comes loss, and with loss inevitably comes pain. Pop albums have been written about this kind of pain for generations, but few have tread into the deeply frightening and immensely harsh territory where Portland’s experimental duo The Body now reign. Promoted as “the grossest pop album of all time”, No One Deserves Happiness wears the title well thanks to its penchant for sludgy riffs that are often undercut with an 808 drum machine and powerful vocals that recall the most jarring moments of Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky”.
Adorned with ear-splitting harsh noise and Chip King’s shrieks, the album strips away any trace of romance or companionship from the concept of love in order to present a foundation built on vulnerability and isolation. And while the experience of listening to No One Deserves Happiness is all very bleak, you’ll still find yourself tapping your foot. –Sean Barry
Listen: Spotify
Buy: Amazon
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22. Kaytranada – 99.9%
It’s fitting that Kaytranada rose to prominence on Soundcloud — his thrilling Polaris-winning debut LP, 99.9%, mirrors the seemingly endless web of world-spanning, genre-jumping productions found on the music-hosting site. However, thanks to the superb curatorial powers of the young Haitian- |
media outlets.
"I think the most consistent thing I hear from patients is extreme thanks for having a place to be able to come and talk openly about this issue,” Garofalo said, according to CBS.
While Chicago has other youth LGBT health care resources, most of those are aimed at children older than 13. Previously, those families seeking care for their younger children had to fly out to Boston or Los Angeles. This new, one-of-a-kind clinic will fill a void in the Midwest, according to WGNTV.
"This is probably the most obvious fill in the gap role for Lurie," Garofalo is quoted as saying. "This really should be taken on by an academic institution like Lurie because we're dealing with children from early childhood through adolescence."'Blinded by a contact lens': Mother loses her sight after fungus eats away at her eyeball
Jacqui Stone, 42, had 22 operations on her eye but doctors couldn't save it
Aggressive fungal infection ate away at three layers and 70 nerves
She noticed her vision going blurry the day after wearing the disposables
She was using the second most popular brand in Britain
The teaching assistant nearly died twice and now uses a prosthetic
A mother lost her left eye after suffering a rare infection she believes was caused by her contact lens.
Jacqui Stone endured 22 operations and more than 17 weeks in hospital after wearing a disposable lens from a popular brand.
Doctors had to remove her eye because of fears the rare but aggressive fungal infection would penetrate her optic nerve and enter her brain.
Warning: Graphic images below
Infection: Jacqui Stone, 42 spent 17 weeks in hospital after wearing her contact lenses for one day
Aggressive: Surgeons feared the rare fungus would penetrate her optic nerve and enter her brain
Shocking: The maths teaching assistant bought the popular brand of lenses online in the UK
Mrs Stone, 42, said: ‘They tried everything to save my eye but the fungus had grown too strong.
‘It would have killed me. I’m terrified the fungus will come back if I get ill.’
The maths teaching assistant bought the Focus Dailies All-Day Comfort Lenses from a UK website last May to help her see the whiteboard better in the classroom. The mother of two, who has worn contact lenses ‘on and off’ for 20 years, said everything seemed normal when she put the lenses in.
She added: ‘I am one of those people who doesn’t take risks – I know I washed my hands when I put them in. It wasn’t until I got home at 5pm that I thought “these feel awful” and had to take them out.
‘I threw them away as they were disposables and didn’t think any more about it at the time. But the next day I had very blurred vision out of my left eye. At the time I thought it was painful but the pain just got worse and worse.’
Last resort: The teaching assistant had 22 operations to save her eye, but the fungus was deeply rooted
Too late: The mother wears a prosthetic left eye after surgeons were forced to remove the infected eyeball
Agony: Days after wearing the disposable lens, Mrs Stone was taken to hospital in excruciating pain
Mrs Stone, of Braintree, Essex, was taken to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, two days later when the pain became unbearable. She was given eye drops and sent home the same day but returned less than 24 hours later after again suffering excruciating pain.
She added: ‘I was screaming in pain and my teeth were chattering – it was unbearable.
‘They told me they had given me enough morphine for a broken leg but the drugs didn’t touch it.
She was referred to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London over the Jubilee weekend but her condition continued to worsen.
By June, Mrs Stone was making almost daily visits to the hospital because of the pain.
Suffering: Mrs Stone was given enough morphine for a broken leg - but the pain was still unbearable
Close to death: The fungus ate away at three layers of her eye and 70 nerves
The fungus still could be lying dormant in her body and there is a chance she could lose sight in her right eye too
On June 21 last year she was referred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, where she was diagnosed with an infection caused by the fungus Fusarium.
By then it had eaten away at three layers of her eye and at 70 nerves.
She underwent 22 procedures to save her eye, including two corneal transplants, at Addenbrooke’s – but the fungus was too deep rooted.
AGONY FROM FALSE LASHES
A woman was left in agony after suffering an allergic reaction to eyelash extensions. Jane Rolfe, 42, suffered severely blistered skin and a badly swollen face after having a reaction to the glue used to apply the eyelashes. But when Mrs Rolfe, a primary school teaching assistant, returned to the salon they were unable to remove the extensions. Instead the mother of one was forced to spend more than five hours peeling the lashes off herself. She said: ‘I have never felt pain like it. For weeks after I couldn’t open my eyes properly and my vision seemed blurred. The whole experience was harrowing.’ Although Mrs Rolfe told her beautician she had never had extensions before, she says she was not given an allergy test. She fears the incident may have triggered a lifelong intolerance to adhesives after she had another reaction to household superglue. She has filed a claim for compensation against Allianz, the insurance company for Debut beauty salon in Brentwood, Essex – but the insurer is refusing to pay out, saying the salon broke its policy terms by not doing a patch test.
The Debut salon owner was unavailable for comment.
Mrs Stone now wears a temporary prosthetic eye and will begin having one specially made next week. She is suing Alcon UK, which manufactures Focus Dailies, as well as preparing a joint case against Broomfield Hospital and Moorfields Hospital for clinical negligence.
She said: ‘What makes me angry is I now know that if I had been given the correct drops in the first couple of weeks I would still have my eye.
‘I still can’t have steroids as the fungus could be laying dormant in my body and drugs could trigger it.
‘There is also a risk of losing sight in my right eye when my left eye completely shuts down as they are connected.’
A spokesman for Alcon said: ‘Alcon is aware of a claim by a UK consumer that she experienced health-related complications from an eye infection she acquired in spring 2012 resulting in her losing one eye.
‘She is alleging that the infection was connected to her use of our contact lens.
‘Alcon was concerned to hear of this and conducted an investigation based on the evidence provided but did not find any connection between the contact lens and the consumer’s unfortunate experience.
‘Alcon is committed to promoting safe and effective contact lens wear and ensuring the safety of patients and the efficacy and integrity of all its products.’
A spokesman for Moorfields Eye Hospital said it was reviewing the care that Mrs Stone received.
They added: ‘No legal claim has yet been commenced.’
Dr Ronan Fenton, medical director at Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, said it had worked with Mrs Stone to investigate the circumstances around the loss of her eye.While the vast majority of Android games are designed with the touchscreen in mind, the reality is that there are certain times when using a traditional controller just makes more sense. This applies particularly to games that were ported from a console over to Android, as well as to emulators. It also rings true for games where using the touchscreen just isn’t possible, such as VR games where your phone is strapped to your face.
There are many different Android game controllers to choose from on the market today, with all different sizes and layouts.
For this list, I wanted to focus on the five Android game controllers we think are the very best, regardless of the price or form factor. My goal was to have a healthy mix of different sizes, shapes, and layouts. Upon digging in, however, I found that most of the “ultra portable” Bluetooth controllers just aren’t that great.
That means the vast majority of the Android game controllers here look almost identical in size and shape, with nearly all the best ones taking on an almost Xbox-esque design. However, there is one big exception to this rule. So without further ado, let’s jump right in.
Editor’s note: We will be updating this list of the best Android game controllers regularly as new devices launch.
Steel Series Stratus XL
The Stratus XL has been on the market for a few years now, but don’t let that fool you — for most users this is absolutely the controller you should buy. The Stratus XL is without a doubt the most beautiful Bluetooth gamepad available, featuring a nice black design with orange and gray accent colors. And it feels equally great in the hand, with a nice heft to it (without being too heavy) that makes me feel like it should be pretty durable.
The Stratus XL is a mix between an Xbox and a Playstation controller.
The Stratus XL looks like an Xbox controller at first glance, but with a button layout that is actually a bit more similar to a Playstation controller. That includes two joysticks that are near the bottom and lined up directly across from one another, and a d-pad to the upper left. Otherwise, you get four main action buttons (A,B, X, Y) on the face, alongside three unique buttons in the center, and at the top you’ll find two triggers and two shoulder buttons.
The SteelSeries Stratus XL is compatible with both PC and Android, and while I spent most of my time using it with Android, I can confirm it plays nicely with my PC, as I used it to run through Fallout 4 for a bit without any issues. When using with Android, it’s equally flawless and should work in every game that supports controllers — including your favorite emulators.
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I can’t speak for how long the battery lasts, but after eight to 10 hours of usage, I still haven’t come close to needing to change out the AA batteries. In other words, this shouldn’t be any worse than any other typical AA-powered controller like the Xbox 360 and Xbox One gamepad.
Unfortunately, this Android game controller is really geared more at tablet users, VR users, and those that want to also use it on the PC, due to the fact that there is no phone holder option. You can certainly get a phone case with a kickstand to pair with this, but that certainly limits its portability. That said, if you want a beautiful looking controller that feels high-quality as hell, you can’t go wrong with the SteelSeries Stratus XL.
Beboncool Bluetooth game controller
This is one of the best Android game controllers because of is its telescopic holder for your Android phone, which makes playing games a lot easier. The device sports two joysticks, a D-pad, four action buttons, start and select buttons, and shoulder triggers.
Beboncool game controller offers up to 10 hours of battery life and comes with a companion app.
It packs a 350mAh battery that promises between eight and 10 hours of use before running out of juice. When that happens, you can get the battery back to 100 percent in around three hours of charging. The device also comes with a free companion app, which shows a list of over 300 compatible games — around half of which are free.
The Beboncool controller has a simple design and comes in black with red accents. It’s not the most premium-looking product on this list, but it still gets the job done. It’s small and light enough for you to easily drop it in a bag, and will turn off automatically when not in use for five minutes. It’s also cheap — you can get it on Amazon for just $26.
8BITDO Zero Wireless Game Controller
How would you like to own a fully functional game controller for your Android phone that’s so small you can put it on your keychain? You can with the 8BITDO Zero Wireless Game Controller. This impressive device weighs just 50 grams, but includes four action buttons, a select button, a start button, a four-way D-pad, and two shoulder trigger buttons.
The battery should last for up to 18 hours on a single charge.
Since this controller has Bluetooth technology, you can use it on any gaming device with compatible hardware, such as a PC, Mac, iPhone, or iPad in addition to Android phones and tablets. It’s 73 mm wide, 35 mm tall and 13.7 mm thick, and is powered by a 180mAh rechargeable battery that is supposed to last up to 18 hours on a single charge. If your phone or tablet still has a micro USB port, you can charge the controller up with its included micro USB connection. It reportedly takes about an hour to charge.
While gamers with big hands could have some issues using the 8BITDO Zero Wireless Game Controller, everyone else should not have any problems playing Android games with controller support with this device. Its small size is easily the best thing about it, but that’s a pretty big deal. Amazon is currently selling it for around $20.
8BITDO SNES30 Wireless Bluetooth Controller Dual Classic Joystick
Here’s another product from the Japan-based 8BITDO that we think is pretty cool, especially if you are a long-time gamer, or just one who appreciates some history. The 8BITDO SNES30 Wireless Bluetooth Controller Dual Classic Joystick closely resembles the controller included with the classic Super Nintendo console.
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That means you should be able to play ports of these and many other retro games on Android with a familiar control scheme. It includes four action buttons, a select button, a start button, a four-way D-pad, and two shoulder trigger buttons, all set in the double circle design of the original Super Nintendo gamepad. It has Bluetooth support for wirelessly connecting to your Android phone or gamepad, along with support for PC, Mac, iOS and even the new Nintendo Switch console.
The controller also comes with a micro USB port for charging up its 480mAh battery. It is supposed to last up to 18 hours on a single charge. You can get this trip back in time for your Android device on Amazon for only $30.
Bounabay Android game controller
The last model on our list of the best Android game controllers comes from Bounabay and it’s a bit different. It turns your smartphone into something resembling a portable game console, adding controls to the left and right of the device.
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It’s very compact, which makes it easy to take with you on the road. Its battery comes in at 300mAh and promises to last for around 8 hours. The controller is compatible with phones measuring a maximum of 165mm from top to bottom and run Android 4.4 KitKat or higher. It won’t work with iOS devices and isn’t compatible with Fortnite, which may be a dealbreaker for some.
It has all the buttons you’d expect on a game controller including two joysticks, four action buttons, and a D-pad. It also comes with a tool for remapping buttons. The Bounabay Bluetooth game controller will set you back a little more than $40.
Those are five of the best Android game controllers on the market. Are there any others you’d recommend? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments.On Wednesday night, an Afghan-American software engineer and self-described “global geek girl” videotaped her friend Kiara Robles as a local TV reporter interviewed Robles about the raucous protests at University of California Berkeley that canceled a speech by controversial Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. Robles wore the trademark red hat of the Trump presidential campaign, only with the message, “Make BitCoin Great Again,” her straight, long blond hair sweeping out from under the cap.
Suddenly, a masked attacker in a leather jacket lunged at Robles and doused her face in stinging pepper spray. “My friend was giving an interview when some coward peppersprayed her,” Robles’s friend wrote on Twitter, posting the video. She was maced, too. (She said the attacker was a woman.)
My friend was giving an interview when some coward peppersprayed her #Berkeley pic.twitter.com/CDpEqDsw2A — janey (@janeygak) February 2, 2017
Alas, her friend’s attacker wasn’t just “some coward.” The attacker was emblematic of a new toxic movement that is acting like an insurgency in America: the new alt-left.
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For all of the important, albeit hyperbolic, conversations about “white supremacists” and the “alt-right,” we would be well served to confront the very real reality of a dangerous dynamic of liberals in an “honor brigade” who lash out aggressively at others with the false claim they are defending the “honor” of American values of tolerance, diversity and pluralism. For the self-confessed crime of my vote for Donald Trump, a liberal Georgetown University professor told me, “I’ve written you off as a human being,” and hurled insult after insult at me, including “F--k off. Go to hell,” and “Gloves off.”
For many, the protests at UC Berekely came out of the blue. The Socialist Alternative Bay Area, an organization of left-wing activists in the San Francisco Bay area, and the Berkeley Socialist Students had posted an innocuous Facebook “event,” inviting protesters to the campus Student Union to “unite against oppression” and “racists, Islamophobes and misogynists” who are “emboldened” by the “election of Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE.”
“We have to shut them down,” the invitation read, ominously.
A Facebook user then shared the details with the hashtag #ShutDownMilo.
But, underscoring how social media is used not only by terrorists but by “social justice warriors” as well, the violent protests were long ago predicted.
Shout out to the antifascists fighting the good fight at UC Berkeley. Give them a reason to never come back!#ShutDownMilo #antifa pic.twitter.com/WTDyl0LJZ0 — gυerrιlla мιndѕeт (@roflmaoism) February 1, 2017
Eric Feinberg, founder of GiPEC, a New York-based cyber intelligence company, tracked a first use of #ShutDownMilo to two months ago from the Twitter handle for a self-described “revolutionary anarchist news website,” ItsGoingDown.org, or IGD. The site says it seeks to “uplift and build capacity for a wide range of social struggles, movements, and revolutionary groups”; of course, it “accepts monetary donation via the anonymous digital currency bitcoin and … through regular Credit or Debit Card / PayPal.”
Says Feinberg: “This is the American intifada,” an Arabic word for an uprising. “Just like ISIS and Hamas have found the use of unique hashtags on social media to recruit and radicalize, unique hashtags are now being used by groups here in the U.S. that call for violence, protest, resistance and anarchy. By the use of these unique hashtags with a call to action to a specified group and location, the online mob becomes a real world-mob that can cause damage, disruption and violence, like we just witnessed in Berkeley.”
We are facing a cyber jihad, the Arabic word for “struggle,” in America, with the Internet used to mobilize mobs.
In Berkeley, protesters slammed Robles and her friends against a barricade. Unable to breathe or see from the pepper spray, rioters surrounded her, some of her friends getting stomped on. “I thought I was going to die,” Robles, who is gay, told me.
One call to action says “come out, mask up….” Another: “Smash Trump,” with a masked avenger punching Trump in the back of the head. There are yet more tip sheets for “combative resistance movements” and “black bloc tactics,” an “anarchist tradition” in which rioters appear in “black clothing and masks,” with layers of clothing to strip into to conceal identities, and “engage in some level of illegal activity.”
When I asked the group, via email, about its role in protests, it responded: “IGD is a news website, we are not organizers of, nor located in, Berkeley.”
Another “independent media center,” IndyBay, rebroadcast the IGD messages to celebrate last night’s violence.
“#Antifa came through on their promise to #ShutMiloDown at UC #Berkeley. “#miloatcal,” it wrote at 10:09 p.m.
It bragged about destruction of ATM machines, windows at an Amazon Prime store and the image of a man, facedown on the street, surrounded by a mob, with the message, “Greetings from Berkeley” and the hashtag, #keeppunchingnazis.
The school said in a statement “about 150 outside masked agitators” caused the violence that night.
Another #antifa #ShutMiloDown tweet showed knives at the necks of Trump supporters in red hats. Yet another one had a red Trump hat, burning on a stake.
When I asked IndyBay, via Facebook, who led the violence, it responded, “Milo, Steve, & Donald,” referring to Yiannopoulos, Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump.
In fact, while the Trump administration must of, course, lead from a place of compassion and moderation, intolerant tolerance-loving people are threatening the very safety of Americans, fomented by irresponsible Democratic Party leaders who refuse to accept the election results of 2016, fear-mongering “social justice warriors” who behave as if they are on the set of the “Hunger Games,” the movie about a “resistance” against a tyrannical dictator, and reckless social media outlets, media companies and alt-left “fake news” sites that amplify the “agit prop,” or agitation propaganda, of these political leaders and activists.
And who stands on the frontlines? Police officers, some of whom jumped barricades last night in UC Berkeley.
Dallas police officer Sgt. Demetrick Pennie, president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation, and a plaintiff in a lawsuit regarding cyber agitation against police said: “These radical protests are creating a dangerous precedent for homeland security in this country. Not only are they facilitating the widespread manipulation of people using radical ideologies, but they are also laying the framework for a domestic terrorist attack of immense proportions to occur. From a critical incident management standpoint, these protest are too large and unpredictable for police to control, which creates an opportunity for a domestic terrorist to intercede and carry out an attack that could potentially result in mass casualties; a terror that would shock the nation similar to 9/11.”
He added: "As we have seen over the last two years, these protests have become more violent and radical in nature, which has placed police officers lives at risk. It is now time that law enforcement be given the legal authority and resources to quell these protests before they destroy this country.”
As the young women in the pepper spray incident nursed their wounds last night, @OccupyOakland posted a message at 11:14 p.m., stating, “We won this night. We will control the streets. We will liberate the land. We will fight fascists. We will dismantle the state,” attaching a photo of protesters, carrying a banner with the battle cry, “THIS IS WAR.”
We won this night. We will control the streets. We will liberate the land. We will fight fascists. We will dismantle the state. This is war. pic.twitter.com/JnlJMUtgCj — Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) February 2, 2017
Republican leadership need to remember the lessons of “COIN,” or “countering insurgency,” from Afghanistan and Iraq: the best way to defeat an insurgency is good governance.
Appropriately, Trump responded this morning with the following tweet: "If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” And across the country, there were calls for the U.S. to designate #Antifa and a related group, #BlackBloc, as domestic terrorist organizations — a wise recommendation, by my analysis.
It’s time that the people of our country — including Democratic leadership — refuse the dangerous rhetoric of #TheResistance, advocate with civility for the policies we seek and live with a higher value in our hearts: #peace.
Asra Q. Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of “Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam” (HarperOne). She is a co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement and a former professor of journalism at Georgetown University. She can be reached at asra@asranomani.com and @asranomani.
The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.I was living in Dallas at the time. [I don't anymore.] I don't know what it was, but that place was just a giant orgy. I've never been to a hornier city, but I hadn't been laid in about a year, so I figured I would use to my advantage.
I was working retail at night to get through college. I got hit on a lot, but this day, there was a really attractive guy, so I told him to write his name on the paper with his cellphone number, so I could tell it apart from the other two I had gotten that night. He and I kept in touch for about a week. I told him up front that I didn't drink or smoke pot. ( I don't want anyone to expect anything I'm not. I drink again now. Fell off the wagon. I'm kind of an alcoholic.)
We're finally going out, about a week later, and the first thing he does when he picks me up is pull out a bag of weed and tells me to smell it. I do as he asks and assure him, "Yep. That smells like pot."
"So what do you have for us to roll this with? I know you said you don't smoke, but I didn't really believe you." I tell him again that I don't and I have nothing to roll it with. He takes me to a gas station, buys a cigarillo and borrows my hand to use my fingernails to cut it open. He lets (?) me watch him smoke and then takes me to a BAR. And holy shit. He was annoying. Eventually I drink a beer just to get him to shut up. It has the wrong effect and he just keeps saying he's happy that I'm drinking just for him.
Then he brings me to a motel, but not for what you think. He leaves me alone in his car while he gets more drugs.
As he's bringing me home he makes comments about remembering how to get there "for next time." I'm just thinking about how this motherfucker doesn't take a hint. We get to my apartment and he starts to follow me inside. Seriously? He just says "Yeah, I want to beat you at Tony Hawk's Pro Skater." I sigh and tell him I have to be up early, so he cant stay too long. An hour, at the most. He agrees.
So we're back in my apartment and I have to pee. I come out and he is pulling the naked man on me. Now, I'm aware this logic makes no sense because he is clearly a horrible person, but I figured if I had to spend the whole awful night with him I deserved something other than free food. So we start having sex.
He keeps talking and saying the most awkward things, asking me things like if the "last guy did this." I'm expecting him to talk about his grandma or dead puppies next. Instead he says "You should pee." My response is "um, I just did." That's kind of how this whole situation started, you know? Instead he says he is going to pee. "NO YOU ARE NOT" I say. Like, fuck, that was literally a new mattress.
I figure he's okay with that because he says nothing else about it, until... "Can you feel that?" and I realize he's peeing INSIDE of me. I pull out for him and tell him its been and hour and he has to leave. Bitch has the nerve to ask if he can crash at my place or at least charge his phone. Obviously, I say no.
I'm not particularly knowledgeable in the watersports category, but I figure thats not healthy and I should probably get it checked out. However, I don't have a local doctor, and I'm super busy between a "fast track" course in college and working full time. Fast forward a couple months and I feel super lethargic and all around shitty. Also keep in mind for these couple months, I ignore his texts so he proceeds to visit me at work at least once a week.
He doesn't. Go. Away. (tip for future self: Don't have one night stands with people who know where you work.)
So anyways, I finally go to doctor. Turns out I had gotten a UTI (Another thing I am unfamiliar with. Only one I've ever had. I have a high white blood cell count) Apparently, the infection had spread to my blood stream since I left it untreated. I fully intended to charge a bunch of stuff for myself on his card next time he came to the store, but I never saw him again. It's like he knew.South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare is scrambling to contain the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has killed two people. (Reuters)
South Korean health officials isolated nearly 700 people on Monday in an effort to stop the spread of the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome within its borders after 18 people became infected over the past 10 days -- a rate of transmission that appears more aggressive than in other countries.
South Korea has been on high alert since May 20 when a 68-year-old man who had been traveling in Bahrain tested positive for the virus. Since then, the virus has been detected in a number of patients and visitors to the hospital where he was treated -- triggering global concern about whether the virus had mutated or genetic or environmental factors may have been at play.
MERS, a coronavirus, is related to the one that infected thousands during the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and has no cure or vaccine.
"We must find the reason for the high rate of transmission unlike in the cases of other countries," President Park Geun-hye told a meeting on Monday, according to Reuters.
The Associated Press reported that 682 family members, medical staff and others who had had close contact with the man who tested positive for the virus had been isolated in their homes or in state-run facilities. The country is considering imposing a travel ban on those individuals as well.
Since being first reported in 2012, MERS has been mostly contained to Saudi Arabia, the United Emirates and Jordan. The World Health Organization says that 1,150 case have been reported and 427 of the patients have died. The WHO detailed the status of the two most recent cases:
The case is a 35-year-old male who developed symptoms of cough, sputum and fever on 6 May and was admitted to hospital on 13 May. The patient has been on tuberculosis medication since his son was diagnosed with the bacterial disease in April. Between 15 and 17, he shared the same ward with the first case during his hospitalization from 15 to 17 May. On 20 May, after his discharge, the patient visited two different hospitals due to fever and was put on antibiotics. As symptoms persisted despite antibiotic therapy, he was admitted to a hospital again on 27 May and confirmed positive for MERS-CoV on 29 May.
The case is a 35 year-old male whose mother shared the same ward with the first case. From 15 to 21 May, the patient visited his mother every day at the hospital. He developed symptoms and visited an emergency room on 24 May. The patient was admitted to hospital between 25 and 27 May and confirmed positive for MERS-CoV on 30 May. — WHO(Image: © Marc S Canter/Getty Images)
Izzy Stradlin reportedly turned down a five-figure fee to appear with Guns N’ Roses at last April’s reunion shows, according to band insider MSL.
Writing on the GN’R Insider website, MSL says Stradlin was offered the fee for each show he would have played with the group.
“We know Izzy was in rehearsals at one point and was negotiating to appear at a few of the April gigs,” MSL writes. “Equal pay was never discussed. A 5-figure fee per cameo is what was being negotiated. But there is a lot of room for negotiation on a 5-figure fee. 10k? 99k?
“Whatever it was, they were far apart and Izzy bailed. He doesn’t need their chump change and they don’t need to throw away a bunch of money on a guy that isn’t gonna sell many tix.”
Axl Rose said in a July interviewed that he was confused about Stradlin’s decision not to join the reunion, noting, “It’s like you could have a conversation and think it’s one way and the next day it’s another way.”
In response, Stradlin posted a September 7 tweet that read, “Bullshit. They didn’t want to split the loot equally. Simple as that. Moving right along…”
The band’s April dates included their warm-up gig at the Los Angeles Troubadour, a pair of show at the Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena, two dates at Foro Sol in Mexico City and the group’s headlining appearances at Coachella Music Festival. It’s not know which shows Stradlin might have performed at or if he would have joined the group for its 21-city reunion tour, dubbed Not in This Lifetime….According to Billboard, Guns N’ Roses grossed $116.8 million from the North American leg of that tour. The band will hit Latin America this fall, with dates lined up in 11 cities across the continent.Abstract
Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is involved in sensory nerve nociceptive signaling. Recently, it has been discovered that TRPV1 receptors also regulate basal body temperature in multiple species from mice to humans. In the present study, we investigated whether TRPV1 modulates basal sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity. C57BL6/J wild-type (WT) mice and TRPV1 knockout (KO) mice were implanted with radiotelemetry probes for measurement of core body temperature. AMG9810 (50 mg/kg) or vehicle (2% DMSO/5% Tween 80/10 ml/kg saline) was injected intraperitoneally. Adrenoceptor antagonists or vehicle (5 ml/kg saline) was injected subcutaneously. In WT mice, the TRPV1 antagonist, AMG9810, caused significant hyperthermia, associated with increased noradrenaline concentrations in brown adipose tissue. The hyperthermia was significantly attenuated by the β-adrenoceptor antagonist propranolol, the mixed α-/β-adrenoceptor antagonist labetalol, and the α 1 -adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin. TRPV1 KO mice have a normal basal body temperature, indicative of developmental compensation. d-Amphetamine (potent sympathomimetic) caused hyperthermia in WT mice, which was reduced in TRPV1 KO mice, suggesting a decreased sympathetic drive in KOs. This study provides new evidence that TRPV1 controls thermoregulation upstream of the SNS, providing a potential therapeutic target for sympathetic hyperactivity thermoregulatory disorders.—Alawi, K. M., Aubdool, A. A., Liang, L., Wilde, E., Vepa, A., Psefteli, M.-P., Brain, S. D., Keeble, J. E. The sympathetic nervous system is controlled by transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 in the regulation of body temperature.What a remarkable time for our nation when reasonable adults must wonder if the president has misplaced his tinfoil hat while tweeting, or whether he really knows what it is he is talking about.
President Donald Trump’s assertions that President Barack Obama engaged in Watergate-style spying on him — claims made without supporting evidence — are so irresponsible they would be laughable if not for the great harm such allegations do: if not to his already tenuous credibility, then to the reputation of the office.
Apparently, without discussing the matter with his staff, and angry that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from federal investigations into Russian interference, Trump decided to base his broadside on a handful of reports, including those of the BBC, a talk-radio personality and a clip-job report from Breitbart News Network — the alt-right site led previously by Trump adviser Stephen Bannon.
No mainstream news organization had or has verified these suspicions, though the BBC says it has confirmed that in October, a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act judge allowed permission to look into electronic records between a Trump server and two Russian banks.
Further, FBI director James Comey quickly asked the Justice Department to publicly reject the mercurial president’s claims. The director of national intelligence at the helm until Trump’s lackluster inauguration, James Clapper, also contradicts the assertions.
An Obama spokesman called Trump’s accusations completely false, saying, “A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Justice Department.”
Against that backdrop, Trump’s tweets seem more the stuff of blame-shifting.
But never one to concede a factual error, Trump had his White House spokesman call for a congressional investigation into whether Obama tasked his spies with monitoring Trump’s communications in Trump Tower.
Just so we’re all on the same page, if it is found to be true that President Barack Obama ordered such surveillance, we would join the outrage. U.S. presidents can not legally order the wiretapping of their citizens. Federal judges must make such orders, and only after reviewing evidence from Justice Department investigators wishing to listen in.
If a |
itions, and labor’s increased independent political action. Examples like the labor walks and labor phone banks run out of union halls including voter registration and get out the vote efforts.
It shows itself in the broad range of labor’s role in social and political struggles. Just look at labor’s leading role in electing Barack Obama and fighting for health care legislation. Class consciousness is shown in labor and workers efforts in social and political struggles that go way beyond immediate economic interests.
The fight for unity of the class is also a central element of growing class consciousness. The labor movement’s role in fighting racism in 2008 to elect Barack Obama set the stage for an even greater push for equality. Likewise labor’s unifying stance in support of immigrant workers and against immigrant bashing is a critical class unity question. Labor’s greater attention to equality for women, not only on the jobs, but also in labor’s ranks and labor’s greater attention to younger workers and LGBT workers speaks to labors growing understanding or class unity.
Further the labor movement and workers are thinking much more globally. Larger and larger sections are seeing the need for workers of the world to unite. More and more unions are reaching out to workers around the world trying to figure out a world working class response to capitalist globalization and financialization. World trade union formations are growing and moving inexorably towards united action. This is taking concrete forms in specific industries and between specific unions.
More specific to today, labor is planning, mobilizing, leading, and immersed in the critical 2010 elections. And to quote Richard Trumka, “labor is not a wing of the Democratic Party.” In the heat of labor’s 2010 election efforts it is also helping to organize the October 2 One Nation March on Washington DC for jobs, peace, education, and equality. Why? Labor and the one nation coalition see a massive march in Washington DC as critical to stopping a right-wing Republican takeover of the House and Senate. Labor is independently taking its issues into all the election campaigns it supports.
Perhaps one of the most important indicators of growing class consciousness is labor’s maturity and leadership in the complicated tactics of today’s class struggle. Look at labor’s role in the health care struggle. Labor led in rejecting all or nothing tactics. Very few in the working class were satisfied with the final health care legislation. Most of labor and most workers were deeply frustrated by the zigs and zags of that struggle and by the compromises. Large sectors of labor and the working class supported single-payer or a full-fledged national healthcare service. Still they did not let frustration get the best of them as others did. And the day after the health care bill passed, they began planning the next steps in fighting for an even better health care system.
Labor is also showing its growing class consciousness in its dealings with the Obama administration and the Democrats. None are more frustrated with the lack of stronger, public works action for jobs, failure to pass key legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act, and other efforts important to the working class. Yet labor is one of the leading sectors of the Obama coalition and shows the way to disagree, even strongly, on specific issues while continuing to build even stronger coalitions that can actually win for workers in key fights.
Lastly, class consciousness is not an arrived at state of mind. It is a collective consciousness. It is a continual process built around the key class struggles of the day. Class consciousness develops on the broadest field of battle over time. It develops in collective class struggle that increasingly reveals the true class nature of the capitalist system to the working class. And it is not spontaneous. At all levels it requires leaders and organization.
Just as the word “socialism” doesn’t scare many in labor today. So too, we are not cowed by cries of class warfare. We are the many and they are the few.There were college football thrillers in Reno, Nevada, and Fort Worth, Texas, last weekend. You were probably only watching one.
The latter captured the attention of the entire sport, as TCU knocked out Oklahoma, 37-33, to improve to 4-0 and jump into the top 10 in the national rankings. But the former was just as exciting.
In Reno, Boise State held off a late comeback attempt from Nevada to win, 51-46. It was an exciting football game, but you'd have to dig through scores to find it, far from the glow of the Horned Frogs, who were plastered on the fronts of websites all across America.
TCU is a Big 12 contender with another headliner on the way. The Horned Frogs are ranked in the top 10, while Boise State, which used to occupy the rankings, is a middling mid-major that's a few days removed from losing to Air Force.
It's a stunning change five years in the making for two programs that met on one of the biggest stages in college football in January 2010.
That game, the 2009 season's Fiesta Bowl, was dubbed as the championship of the mid-majors. It probably shouldn't have happened. The college football world wanted to see a matchup of Florida, Penn State, Georgia Tech, or Iowa against one of the little guys. But instead, we got No. 4 TCU vs. No. 6 Boise State, two programs that had proved they were majors, at least for the time being.
NFL mainstays Andy Dalton and Doug Martin recorded points. The game racked up a solid Nielsen rating of 8.2, which was on par or better than most of the other major bowl games of its era, and it was more entertaining than most of the other BCS games that season.
Boise State gained its second BCS bowl win in four seasons, and seemed to have established its staying power. But five years later, it's TCU that's living it up among the riches of power college football, while the Broncos are stuck in place.
How did we get here? It's been an eventful five years.
***
There are other substantive ties that made TCU a better fit to make it to college football's big-time than Boise State, but the Horned Frogs' run up college football's ladder might be best attributed to good timing. Whereas Boise State arguably peaked with that 14-0 season in 2009, TCU one-upped its own Fiesta Bowl run the next year, with a Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin.
Already an attractive team to major conferences due to its location, TCU was in play during the biggest conference realignment in recent history. The Horned Frogs had committed to join the Big East a month before their Rose Bowl win, and while the Big East was a step up from the Mountain West, realignment back on the Plains provided more enticing options.
With Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M and Missouri all leaving, the Big 12 needed to add two teams to continue to be a viable conference. TCU was rising again at just the right time, and unlike Boise State or Utah, it provided more than just on-field success. The Horned Frogs fit in geographically with the Big 12, allowed the league to further supplant itself in Texas, and had been conference-mates with many Big 12 teams back in the days of the old Southwest Conference.
As the pieces moved, TCU left the Big East for the Big 12 before its first move had even happened. Utah went to the Pac-12. Boise State, which had joined the Mountain West in hopes of strengthening its schedule with teams like TCU and Utah, was left with an invitation to the collapsing Big East.
Despite both teams' success in the previous years, and despite Boise State's proven ability to captivate a national audience, TCU always had a better chance of upward mobility. Some of it was luck, some of it was timing, but TCU's rise, coinciding with Boise State being left behind, showed that staying power went beyond wins and losses. This was obvious throughout conference realignment, but it's still stunning just how quickly the Horned Frogs separated themselves, while the Broncos were left behind.
- Jamie Plunkett, Frogs O' War In short, yes, I think Boise State deserved more, but I understand the hesitancy on the part of major conferences.
***
Even when TCU entered the Big 12, there were questions. Could this program sustain the momentum it had built in the Mountain West? Could it ever be as dominant in the Big 12 as it was in the Mountain West?
The transition was a bit rocky.
The Horned Frogs began the 2012 season ranked 20th in the AP Poll, and they reached as high as 15th, before falling to 7-6 and a Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl loss to Michigan State. 2013 was even worse, as injuries sent TCU to a 4-8 record with a number of close losses to top teams, but no good wins.
But while Boise State put together a two-loss 2012 season that ended in a top-15 finish in the Coaches Poll, and a still-respectable 8-5 (6-2) finish in 2013, it was clear that the tide had already permanently shifted in TCU's favor.
Since TCU's announcement of the Big 12 move in October 2011, the Horned Frogs appear to have received a recruiting boost:
Year TCU 247Sports Composite ranking 2007 58 2008 74 2009 48 2010 56 2011 30 2012 29 2013 35 2014 42 2015 40
A recruiting advantage is the most important advantage a team can have, and TCU took advantage of that in its move to the Big 12. Meanwhile, Boise State was not afforded that luxury, and has seen no significant bump since moving from the WAC to the Mountain West in 2011.
Year Boise 247Sports Composite ranking 2007 60 2008 81 2009 68 2010 110 2011 53 2012 60 2013 55 2014 68 2015 81
The recruiting advantage may be missing from Boise State, but it's setting TCU up for longterm success. That's become obvious this season, as the recruits from the solid classes of 2011, 2012, and 2013 mature. With winning will come more recruiting success, and with the Big 12 has come more stability.
-Jeremy Mauss, Mountain West Connection The Big 12 swung the pendulum to give TCU an advantage. Even if both had stayed in the Mountain West, the Horned Frogs probably would still have the edge over Boise State.
Up in Boise, the longterm is looking bleaker by the season. Star coach Chris Petersen took off for Washington. The power conferences, in which TCU is nested firmly with support, are giving themselves more advantages to separate themselves from schools like the Broncos. Just half a decade removed from coming so close to the big stage, Boise State president Bob Kustra is bitter.
Kustra has been a staunch critic of the BCS and high-resource school spending in the past. On Wednesday he accused most of the reforms of being a guise for those large schools "to outspend their Division I colleagues." He said "absurd specialization in staffing and coaching accounts" is a problem. "How embarrassing to spend all that money and then have someone with half the budget or less beat you on Saturday," Kustra wrote.
And who can blame him, having to watch TCU secure its spot among the big boys? That it happened so quickly and without much of a fight is even more astounding.
This week, TCU will play Baylor in a top-10 matchup that could decide the outcome of the Big 12. The Horned Frogs couldn't have dreamed of this stage five years ago, not even after their first BCS bowl bid. Back in Boise, the Broncos will take on Fresno State in a game inconsequential outside of the Mountain West.This week's episode of Survivor is completely devoid of #TRAILMIXSCANDALs, but it does feature lots of mud, endless bickering, yachts and sandwiches, a double-cross most foul and a challenge where you can only use your feet. Firefighter and early favorite Jeremy was eliminated in this episode, so clearly all bets are off.
QUOTABLES AND NOTABLES:
- Former Michigan State football player Jon talks about his decision to switch from Reed's alliance to Jeremy's alliance last week, saying, "If there's anything I've learned from watching past Survivors, it's trust your instincts." Seems like it's been a lot more "knee-jerk reactions" than "instincts," but I'm no expert.
- Keith is full of folksy charm, in that he looks and sounds exactly like a grizzled prospector. So when he says, "It's gettin' to crunch time now," I actually believe him, even though I'm not sure at all what he's talking about.
- Jeremy's in pretty good shape, y'all.
- Reed talks about how Jeremy and Natalie are ingratiating themselves to Jon and Jaclyn and says, "It makes me wanna hurl. It's so transparent." You're on Survivor, dude. They could call this show LACK OF SUBTLETY ISLAND.
- Reed goes through Keith's bag. You know, just for shits and gigs. He finds the instructions for the immunity idol (which I'm amazed comes with instructions, since EVERYONE ON THE SHOW KNOWS EXACTLY HOW THE GAME WORKS BUT THEY NEVER TAKE TWO SECONDS TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING TO THE VIEWERS, EVER. Reed refers to this as "a paper trail," which I guess is literal in this case. He says, "It's a big rookie mistake. Don't leave stuff in your bag that you don't want people to find." Yeah, total rookie mistake. WATCH OUT FOR THIEVES AND PICKPOCKETS, ROOKIE.
- After being eliminated, Jeremy says, "The good guy lost this time." Oh, Jeremy. There are no "good guys" on this show. Only crabby, hungry dorks and lamewads. And possibly Keith.
SURVIVOR DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE:
- CBS has absolutely no confidence in either its viewers or its social media strategy, or both. Throughout the episode, hashtags that are hyper-specific to THAT EXACT MOMENT ON THE SHOW or @JEFFPROBST or something similar will pop up from time to time in the lower-left hand corner of the screen, but never for longer than four seconds at a time, before disappearing forever. Lots of shows leave hashtags up for the duration of the show. You know, so people can create #engagement and start some #trending #topics and build up #brand #recognition, but CBS' approach appears to be "HEY TWEET ABOUT THIS NOW. FORGET THAT, NOW THIS." I have no tolerance for your mad weak social strat game, CBS.
- Last week's physical challenge reward was a pop-up taco bar. This week? Sandwiches on a yacht. Complete with dolphin-watching and champagne and strawberries. Next week is probably a spa day and a helicopter ride. The following week, everyone gets to own an Outback Steakhouse franchise location.
- This was the physical challenge.
You had to knock the other person off the beam into the mud. The two groups had wildly different methods of pumping up their teammates. Jeremy's group offered practical suggestions like, "Bend your knees. Keep your core tight." Jon's group, meanwhile, opted to go with, "COME ON, I'M SO HUNGRY. I REALLY NEED THOSE SANDWICHES." And of course, there was Jeff Probst in the middle of all of it, barking stuff like, "OH, NOW REED HAS MUD IN HIS EYE!" My suggestion: everyone shut up forever.
- Jeremy goes to Exile Island and gets the clue for the immunity idol, but he can't find it. So it appears to have been a clue to the idol Jon already found. So they don't put a new immunity idol out for every person who comes to Exile Island anymore? Why would they put another clue out for Jeremy? Seems needlessly mean.
- Probst takes unnecessary pride in announcing, "For the first time in Survivor history, an Immunity Challenge using only your feet."
...
Nobody tell Quentin Tarantino about this episode.
After Reed doesn't win the challenge, he says, "I felt like that was a custom made challenge for me." You know, because he's a dancer. You know how dancers are notoriously always untying ropes and building structures with their feet. They never knock it off, those dancers.
- I finally realized what "member of our jury" meant about 10 minutes before Tribal Council, when Josh just slid on up into the peanut gallery. Which means that, at least following the merge, eliminated contestants just get to hang out in Nicaragua and basically have a vacation while their loved one is filthy and starving on an island? That's pretty mean, but also awesome.
- Probst takes the time to stop an argument before voting and point out to Reed that when people are arguing amongst themselves and forget they hate a particular person, that's historically good for a particular person. By which he was insinuating it was good for Reed. But then he called everyone's attention to that. This guy is either the worst host or the best therapist ever. Or vice versa.Whenever someone talks about acne-scar solutions — I'm talking real acne scars, not the post-inflammatory marks left behind — the inevitable answer is almost always lasers. Well, here's something I wish I'd known before spending thousands of dollars on lasers, trying to eradicate the biggest of the acne scars that marred my face after getting hit with a pimple firestorm at age 28: No laser was going to erase those ego-deflating craters that followed a round of Accutane, no matter how much grief they caused me.In the frustrating, unfair world of acne, some people don't scar — their bodies produce enough collagen to reverse the fat loss and subsequent divots that are caused by a particularly aggressive pimple — while others are left with a cornucopia of scar variations. And — ready for this? — two of the most common acne-scar types won’t see any discernible improvement with lasers.“If you have a significant boxcar or rolling scar, you have to fill what’s missing — volume — and there is not a single laser, radio frequency, or ultrasound device that will bring that back,” says Suzan Obagi, MD, medical director of the Pittsburgh-based UPMC Cosmetic Surgery and Skin Health Center, as well as associate professor of dermatology and plastic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.In case you’re wondering what acne-scar type you have, here’s a quick primer: Boxcar scars have a well-defined border and indent that are visible in any light. Rolling scars are not as apparent in dim light, but when you are sitting in any scenario with bright overhead lights or side-lighting (i.e. lights that create defined shadows on your face), they become very apparent.I had mostly rolling scars (with a few boxcar scars) on my cheeks, forehead, left temple, and chin.After countless visits to different derms and multiple laser treatments with Fraxel, Yag, and VBeam to no avail, I was getting desperate. And a conventional non-fractionalCO2 laser, which has been shown to be one of the better options for scarring, was off-limits due to my olive skin tone — there is a significant risk of hypo- or hyperpigmentation for olive and darker complexions. Which is what led me to a far less gadgety — yet infinitely more effective — option that’s actually been around for decades: acne-scar subcision.Here’s how it works: With your face numbed by either cream or a local anesthetic, a hypodermic needle is inserted underneath the skin, below the scar tissue, and run from side to side, beneath the surface of the skin. This breaks the connective tissue holding the scar to the undamaged skin below, encouraging the skin to regenerate, and eventually promote new collagen growth, which lifts that depression in the skin causing the scar. For me, there was never a sweeter sound than the “Pop! Pop! Pop!” that accompanied the inserted needle breaking up the fibrous bands, which had been pulling down my skin and creating the scars I longed to erase.The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has risked his political neutrality by describing the Daily Mail as a "sexist, racist, bigoted, comic cartoon strip".
He also apologised for breaking the trade descriptions act by describing the Mail as a "newspaper".
His stinging remarks came at a question and answer session with the political commentator Steve Richards at Kings Place in London.
Bercow has been repeatedly criticised in the Daily Mail, notably by Quentin Letts, its parliamentary sketch writer. Letts recently described the Speaker as "preening, sycophantic, short-tempered and grotesque".
On another occasion Letts wrote: "Effortless humour is one of the things Squeaker Bercow so palpably lacks. Everything about him, even his wit, is by numbers, worn heavily, as though out of a book."
Bercow's condemnation of the Mail was promoted by his wife Sally who is active on Twitter and is a staunch supporter ofLabour.
There is a group of around 40 Conservative backbenchers and ministers that still deeply resent Bercow's election to the Speakership either because they think he is too left wing, self promoting or simply unreliable.
In his question and answer session with Richards, Bercow also discussed the sensitive issue of whether MPs were abusing their parliamentary privilege by mentioning details of super-injunctions.
Bercow said that "no super-injunction should be preventing colleagues from trying to debate issues", before noting that "it would be very sad if the sovereign nature of parliament as a whole and the House of Commons in particular was eroded by the judiciary."
Super-injunctions, he added, were "undesirable – we don't want to see their spread".But he criticised the Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming who has twice used parliament to reveal details of super-injunctions, sometimes already being discussed on Twitter.
Bercow said: "Debating principles and issues is very different from violating an order to score a point."
He defended the right of his wife to express her views on a daily basis on Twitter. "She's free to do what she wants. Sally is my wife, but not my chattel or my property. The duty of impartiality doesn't extend to her – there isn't a Mrs Speaker – and it's a spectacularly sexist idea that Sally should have to be silent."
Bercow also said he believed IPSA, the body responsible for handling MPs' expenses, was "far too complicated".
He disclosed he had written to IPSA asking it "sharply to reduce its own expenditures … particularly the large amount of money spent on communications officers to communicate with the public."
Bercow is known to be a supporter of further reforms to the Commons sitting hours, but will have to wait to see if any proposals emerge from the procedure committee or the modernisation committee.
His signal achievement since becoming speaker apart from being willing to talk in public about his role has been to increase the number of ministerial statements or urgent questions, making the executive more answerable to parliament than for many decades.Wednesday, October 11th, 2017
These two lovely ladies by the names Haley Sugg and Savannah Perea thought it would be cute to assault these boys on camera. pic.twitter.com/wfWuoXeCdh — maya (@mayamvdrid) October 5, 2017
ONTARIO, Calif. (KABC) -- Two Lakers fans said they were assaulted when they decided to kneel during the national anthem at a preseason game in Ontario.The fans, Jiahn Talebi and Mathew Brady, attended the event on Oct. 4 at the Citizens Business Bank Arena. After the national anthem, the men were verbally harassed and called vulgar names, according to their attorneys.A woman then went up to the men and threw her drink on them and called them vulgar names, the attorneys said. The woman and her friend also recorded the altercation on a cellphone and later posted it on social media. Attorneys for the two men said the women eventually deleted the videos.As the two men were exiting the arena, they were then grabbed by the neck by a man outside as security stood nearby, according to their attorneys.Despite the attack, their attorneys said, the responding police chose to "let the offender leave and threatened to arrest" both men. Witnesses also tried to come forward and give statements, according to a press release from the attorneys."The arena security and the Ontario Police Department failed to protect Talebi and Brady from these vicious attacks," the release went on to say.The men's attorneys held a press conference Tuesday in an effort to get any additional videos that may be out there and witnesses to come forward.Andy Hall could face seven years in jail over report alleging human rights and labour abuses at Thai fruit producer
British rights activist Andy Hall has been charged with criminal defamation in Thailand after he researched a report that alleged labour abuses at the Natural Fruit Company, a large Thai pineapple wholesaler that supplies the EU.
The Bangkok south criminal court decided on Monday to indict the migrants’ rights researcher in a case that has been condemned as an attempt to gag the messenger rather than deal with labour rights in the south-east Asian nation.
Andy Hall (@Atomicalandy) Bangkok South Criminal Court just ruled to indict me on #Naturalfruit computer crimes and criminal defamation charges.
Natural Fruit has filed four cases against Hall following the publication of the report he researched for the Finnish NGO Finnwatch, released in January 2013 and titled Cheap Has a High Price.
The report was based on information gathered through interviews with the workers of a Natural Fruit pineapple processing factory and exposed violence against employees, forced overtime, the use of underage labour and the confiscation of passports of Burmese migrant workers.
Natural Fruit denies all allegations.
Hall told the Guardian that while he respects the court’s decision, he is disappointed and will plead not guilty. “It’s not my report. I didn’t disseminate it,” he said on the phone from the court.
In Thailand, defamation can be a criminal offence. Hall was also indicted on Monday under the Computer Crimes Act, which bans online material considered a threat to national security. Separately, he is facing two civil defamation cases where Natural Fruit is asking for damages of 400,000,000 baht, around £7m.
“The criminal defamation and Computer Crimes Act case, to which today’s decision to indict relates to, is the most severe of all the cases filed against Andy Hall, and carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment,” Sonja Vartiala,
executive director of Finnwatch, said after the indictment.
“At this point, the prospects for Andy Hall to receive a fair trial are looking grim,” she said.
Hall, 35, is from Spalding, Lincolnshire, but has lived in Thailand for a decade and speaks the language fluently. With a PhD from Cardiff University, Hall has worked in Burma and Thailand on migration policy issues. He is also supporting the defence of two Burmese migrant workers accused of murdering two Britons on the Thai island of Koh Tao last year, saying he is working to ensure a fair trial.
On Monday, the court ordered Hall to appear on 19 October to make a plea. He will then face detention, official charging and can request bail.
“I will comply with all court orders,” Hall said. “I will plead not guilty.”ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, who has taken a knee during the national anthem in each of the Broncos' first eight games this season, stood for the anthem before Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders.
Marshall said he will stand for the remainder of the season and explained why in a statement on Instagram Sunday.
In his statement, Marshall referenced O'Shaine Evans, an Oakland man shot and killed by San Francisco Police in 2014.
Reports at the time said Evans pointed an unloaded gun at police outside AT&T Park as police were investigating break-ins to cars outside the stadium during San Francisco Giants games.
Since announcing he would take a knee during the anthem, Marshall has donated money for every tackle he makes to organizations that work with youth.
Marshall has also met with the Denver Police Department.Since 2000, more than 40 "mentally disturbed" people have been shot to death during encounters with police – and that's just in Ontario.
Millions of dollars have been spent, and vast forests have been razed to produce reports on how to stop this carnage, and the conclusions are always the same: Police have to be better trained, they have to be patient and they have to respond to sick people in crisis with compassion, not bullets.
The most recent set of recommendations in this vein come from a coroner's inquest into the death of Michael MacIsaac.
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When police responded to a 911 call about a domestic disturbance in the wee hours of Dec. 2, 2013, they found him naked, screaming and brandishing a table leg. Twelve seconds after arriving on the scene, the responding officer shot Mr. MacIsaac twice in the chest.
This kind of tragic scene has repeated itself, time and time again, over the years. Forty per cent of people shot to death are mentally ill, not criminals. A few examples that made headlines:
1997, Edmond Yu, alone on a bus, holding a small hammer;
2004, O’Brien Christopher-Reid, refused to drop the knife in his hand;
2008, Byron Debassige, holding a three-inch knife;
2009, Douglas Minty, armed with a pocket knife;
2012, Michael Eligon, carrying two pairs of scissors, still in the gown from the hospital from which he escaped;
2013, Sammy Yatim, on an empty Toronto streetcar, waving a small knife;
2015, Andrew Loku, in his apartment hallway, holding a hammer.
One cannot help but empathize with the police officers involved. After all, they were following their training to the letter.
Police are taught to respond to threatening individuals by drawing their weapons and yelling commands; they are supposed to exert authority and establish control, and end situations quickly.
That's a good approach with a bank robber or when raiding a bikers' den, but it doesn't work when someone is experiencing a psychotic break or is suicidal.
Sick, scared people need to be calmed down, not agitated.
Police need to practice de-escalation tactics – talking, waiting people out, offering help.
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"Once an officer's gun is drawn [in a confrontation with someone in crisis], it is a short step to a deadly conclusion," Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé wrote in his 2016 report A Matter of Life or Death, which stressed the importance of de-escalation.
He drew a lot of flack when he said, more bluntly, that police get plenty of training on how to use their guns, but not enough on how to use their mouths.
But he's right.
Police have an unenviable job. One of their most common and difficult tasks is dealing with people with untreated mental illness and addiction.
Toronto Police respond to almost 25,000 "person in crisis" calls annually; Vancouver Police handle 30,000. (Why so many mentally ill people are on the streets and in prison, and not in care is a topic for another day.)
Police handle the vast majority of these encounters with kindness and professionalism. But when the threat of violence arises – and let's not forget that the vast majority of people with mental illness are not violent – things too often go sideways.
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When someone brandishes a hammer, scissors or a table leg, they suddenly get treated like a violent criminal instead of a gravely ill person.
No one is suggesting that police stand there and allow themselves to be stabbed or beaten. De-escalation training teaches that not drawing a weapon in the first place can prevent the threats; offering help instead of screaming "drop the weapon," can change an interaction.
Mental-health calls are so frequent that many police forces now employ crisis intervention teams that include unarmed social workers, backed up by police who carry shields and tasers instead of guns.
The main thing they do differently is take their time. If a man stands naked in his driveway yelling for an hour before being taken to hospital, so what? Isn't that better than shooting him?
As former judge Frank Iacobucci wrote in his exhaustive 2014 report Police Encounters With People in Crisis, the "target should be zero deaths when police interact with the public."
That's a realistic goal, but won't be achieved unless police are trained differently. That's not an academic issue. It is, to borrow from the title of the Ontario Ombudsman's report, literally a matter of life and death.I drunkenly checked my mail last night and found an inebriated purchase from a month ago (leather driving gloves from China... what type of leather you can get for $2.92/pair, I'd rather not know) and a rather mysterious bag from a fulfillment center.
I opened it to find a beanie, complete with poof ball on top, for my very own Washington Capitals, a team with whom I currently hold season tickets. I was a little confused, since I didn't remember buying the hat, but... that's not always proof I didn't buy something. I searched the for a gift receipt, to see if I purchased it for someone for Christmas and left a note for my sober self, only to find that this was purchased for me by my redditgifts secret santa!
Hooray! A thoughtful gift, and one that arrived before Christmas, no less.
Unfortunately, it's not exactly cold here yet, but... that whole Global Warming thing seems like a hoax anyway. (Also, I think they're forecasting an absurd 25" of snow this year despite the rather warm December.)
Thank you, mysterious gifter, for the wonderful hat. I'll wear it to tonight's game. And Friday's. And Dec 26th's. And Dec 30th's. And... well... you get the picture.
Speaking of pictures, here's one of the hat, one of me wearing it, and a bonus picture of what I'll see while wearing it.
Also, a late addition, a cat feeder that forces the kitty to bat the food around. Super cool! My cat is confused, but he'll have to get used to it, 'cause that's his food bowl now.In 1953, the CIA orchestrated a coup d’etat against the democratically elected government of Iranian Premier Mohammad Mossadegh, installing Shah Reza Pahlavi.
It’s no secret that the CIA did it, and the US has admitted it time and again, but the State Department has announced it is once again delaying the release of its study on the coup, claiming the admission would undermine “ongoing negotiations with Iran.”
The coup was carried out primarily for the benefit of British oil interests, as Mossadegh was planning nationalization. Legally speaking, the State Department was only supposed to keep the history secret for 30 years.
It’s hard to imagine anything in the history of the coup is unknown, let alone that it could do any further harm to US-Iranian relations after decades of acrimony. Still, the lure of secrecy seems to be winning out among officials, as usual.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzUse the ‹ and › keys to advance backward and forward.
Darn, your browser seems unable to display 3D Transforms.
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of placing DOM elements on the page
Web design is the ever-evolving art
For so long, we've had limited options: floats and positioning
Here is our dear friend, the DOM element.
3D Transforms let you translate and rotate DOM Elements. There are three axes: X, Y, Z
However, there's a feature of CSS that unlocks a whole new dimension:
Combined with some settings that control perspective, 3D transforms will make your DOM Elements jump out of flatland!
These settings go on the element you want to transform:
Transforms are inherited by children. You can think of nested elements much like paper folds
You can use this inheritance to simulate more complex objects
This slinky is not a spiral, but numerous nested <div> s
A solar system only needs one element per celestial body.Oysters & Stout: February 28
We are just about ready for this Thursday! We've got an excellent line up of porters and stouts: our own, brewed on premise; guest drafts and guest bottles. To see the entire line up, go to our Facebook page. (If you haven't liked us yet, just click the button in the lower right of your screen and you'll be whisked there.)
We start at 4:00 PM when we shuck fresh oysters on the half shell right out of the brewery, while the kitchen, smokes and crisp-fries 'em in the back. Try the oysters all three ways, but be sure to at least get a couple of smoked oysters on the half shell, with garlic butter. They are sensuous!
We'll continue until we're out of oysters or until you're full. This is not a ticketed event, so it's easy to participate. Just order some oysters and your favorite stout. Then tomorrow, you can face the Ides of March. Oysters & Stout. Only at Barley's Smokehouse & Brewpub.
Cheers!A Reading, Massachusetts, police officer is at the center of an investigation after a person claimed to have taken a photo showing the officer allegedly using his cellphone while behind the wheel. (Published Thursday, May 5, 2016)
A Reading, Massachusetts, police officer is at the center of an investigation after a person claimed to have taken a photo showing the officer allegedly using his cellphone while behind the wheel.
Facebook user Gerry Sullivan claims to have taken the picture in Reading Square Tuesday while the officer was in a marked vehicle.
She claims the officer was driving at about 25 MPH.
Texting while drivign has been banned in Massachusetts since 2010.
Late Wednesday, Reading Police Chief Mark Segalla released a statement saying that an investigation was underway.
He added, "We are not looking to rush to judgment - at this early stage we do not know if |
to get high. I just smoke to get relief.
“I’ve never felt better. I feel like a human being again.”
All the staff at Weeds on Bank Street are medical users, said Simpson. They take care of each other and the customers. At one point she paused to answer a phone call from a patient who will be arriving in a wheelchair. The store hasn’t installed a ramp yet, but that’s no problem, she said brightly. “‘We’re going to bring out a big piece of plywood for you.”
Medial marijuana is legal, but selling it from stores is not. Patients with a doctor’s prescription can either grow small amounts for themselves, or purchase from a producer licensed by Health Canada, such as Tweed in Smiths Falls. It’s sent by mail.
Many people, including herself, don’t have a doctor who will prescribe marijuana, said Simpson. Others want to see, feel, smell and touch the cannabis in a store, and like chatting with staff.
Some customers come in every day or two, she said. “We want to know what’s going on in their lives. We want to know how they’re feeling.”
If a Weeds outlet is raided and employees are arrested, the company will pay for a lawyer to represent them, said Don Briere, the cannabis crusader who is president of the B.C.-based chain of 23 dispensaries.
Many of Ottawa’s dispensaries — seven of the 17 — are run by another B.C.-based outfit that operates stores called Green Tree, WeeMedical and CannaGreen.
Staff at those shops won’t speak on the record, and say they’ve been told not to identify the managers or owners. But half a dozen budtenders have chatted with the Citizen.
Several said they needed the job. “I’m a student, I have bills to pay,” said one employee recently as he served a steady stream of customers, mainly young men. It’s an easy job in a congenial atmosphere, the employe said. He laughed when asked about the possibility of a police raid. “I’ll just jump through the window!”
None of the employees feared being arrested. “At the end of the day, what could they do?” said one, who earns $12 an hour. “I just work here. I don’t own the place. Maybe (police) could hold me for 24 hours?”
Most did not realize that budtenders in Toronto had been charged. “You mean I could go to jail?” said one employee who also earns $12 an hour. Several said if they were arrested, charges would probably be dropped.
There’s no guarantee. Charges against staff at two of the 43 Toronto dispensaries raided last May have been stayed, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. Charges against staff at the remaining dispensaries are making their way through the court system.
In Ottawa, police say they are investigating the dispensaries. The Prosecution Service has indicated it is willing to prosecute “viable” cases, but dispensaries must be considered individually, not as a group, according to a briefing note from the deputy chief. Police consider whether there have been complaints from the public in deciding which dispensary investigations have priority.
jmiller@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JacquieAMillerKeeping up with the weather on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus is much easier and lots more fun now that the university’s first full service weather station has been installed on the roof of Lane Stadium.
The WeatherSTEM station uses a combination of weather instruments, agricultural probes, and other sensors to take environmental measurements every minute. It also includes two sky cameras, one facing west across campus from the top of Lane Stadium and the other facing east from the top of Burruss Hall, that provide a live glimpse of campus as well as daily time-lapse videos.
Anyone with internet access can visit the Virginia Tech WeatherSTEM station page to view real-time weather conditions including humidity, temperature, and rainfall. User can also exporting data collected by the unit. The information is also available via the WeatherSTEM mobile app and social media accounts.
The weather station was donated to Virginia Tech by WeatherSTEM, a weather data and K-12 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education program created by Florida-based software company, UCompass.
“You can at any time go online or to the WeatherSTEM mobile app and not only see what the weather conditions are, but also what the atmosphere looks like,” said WeatherSTEM creator and UCompass CEO Ed Mansouri. “That photographic data is real of a great benefit both from a practical standpoint and an emergency operations standpoint.”
Users who create a personal WeatherSTEM account are able to set-up custom weather notifications based on their interests. Alerts can be automatically pushed to cell phones, email addresses, and social media profiles, and ultimately help users become more aware of daily local conditions.
“WeatherSTEM’s custom notification feature, as well as its mobile capabilities, give every individual the ability to have quick, accurate information right at their fingertips,” said Virginia Tech's Director of Emergency Management Michael Mulhare.“That access empowers them to make informed decisions about their personal safety, especially when participating in outdoor activities or community events.”
In addition to its safety applications, WeatherSTEM also provides an online library of educational materials that use live information from the weather unit to create and deliver interactive activities and assessments geared toward K-12 students.
The university hopes to install a second unit at one of Virginia Tech’s farm facilities in the future.
To learn more:
· Visit the Virginia Tech WeatherSTEM station page online;
· Download the WeatherSTEM mobile app for iOS or Android;
· Follow the unit on its Facebook or Twitter accounts.
For additional questions about the WeatherSTEM program, or to schedule a tutorial presentation, contact the Office of Emergency Management.
Written by Victoria Hill, public relations specialist for emergency management.By Ben Norton
Alex Jones after another hit from his crack pipe
Far-right conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump supporter Alex Jones claims the massacre at a gay club in Orlando, Florida on Sunday that left 49 civilians dead was “a false flag terror attack” and a consequence of Muslim migration, even though the shooter was born in the U.S.
The right-wing pundit published a
video
to YouTube shortly after the attack in which he claims the U.S. government purposefully let the shootings in Orlando and San Bernardino happen in order to impose restrictions on free speech and take away Americans’ guns.
“Our government and the governments of Europe allowed these huge hoards of radical jihadis in, and even allowed them in without vetting them on record, landing in airports and not even checking their passports, IDs or visas,” he said.
“Our governments are bringing these people in and they’re allowing them to operate in our society, so they can attack us and then have our freedoms taken,” Jones continued.
Orlando shooter Omar Tareen was actually a U.S. citizen, however, not a refugee or migrant. He was born in New York in 1987.
The exact opposite of what Jones claims about Muslim refugees and migrants is true. Western governments have been
very antagonistic, not welcoming, to asylum-seekers
fleeing wars they have fueled in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
In Europe, governments are forcing refugees into squalid camps and subsequently deporting them to Turkey, where their lives may be endangered, in a deal that experts say is
illegal and immoral
.
Former Greek Finance Minister and left-wing leader Yanis Varoufakis has even gone so far as to call these militarized, cramped refugee camps “
concentration camps
.”
The U.S. has been particularly unwelcoming. In September, the White House pledged to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. As of May, seven months into its pledge, the Obama administration had
resettled
just 1,736. Germany, which has one-quarter of the U.S. population, took more than 1 million refugees in 2015 alone.
Moreover, when refugees are even allowed to enter the U.S., they face an
incredibly long, intensive and bureaucratic vetting process
.
The Refugees Welcome Index, a survey commissioned by Amnesty International, found that nearly two-thirds, 63 percent, of Americans
think the U.S. government should do more
to help refugees.
In the video, Alex Jones also calls Islam “a civil war religion of destabilization and slavery” and claims the “globalists” “funded the Arab Spring,” referring to the 2011 uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.
In reality, the U.S. and Western allies opposed the pro-democracy uprisings in allied countries in the region.
Related article:
InfoWars Falsely charges Syrian refugees raped Idaho girl
In Egypt, the site of the largest revolt, the Obama administration
continued backing
its allied 29-year dictator Hosni Mubarak until his last days in power. In 2013, the U.S. then
supported
the military coup (although it refused to call it a coup) that toppled Egypt’s first democratically elected government, and is now closely allied with the new Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
In Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began, the U.S.
sided with
its longtime ally, dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. International law professor Richard Falk characterized Ben Ali’s Tunisia as the
model U.S. client state
.
In Saudi Arabia, the U.S. backed the regime, which brutally
repressed protesters
. When Western allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
invaded neighboring Bahrain
to crush the pro-democracy uprising there, the U.S. again supported it.
At the same time, the U.S. backed and intervened on behalf of uprisings in countries it was not allied with, namely Syria and Libya, the latter of which it bombed in the 2011 NATO war.
Related article:
F*CK Alex Jones
/ InfoWars
Jones’ far-right website InfoWars advances a variety of extreme right-wing conspiracies. He claims the 9/11 attacks and Sandy Hook shooting were also “false flag” operations condoned by the U.S. government, and insists climate change and the United Nations are communist conspiracies to take over the world.
Jones has spoken very highly of presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has appeared on InfoWars before, dubbing him
a contemporary George Washington
.
Related article:
Jade Helm WARNING
You can watch the video below:Wolves today announced that defender Christophe Berra wants to quit Molineux and has been placed on the transfer list at his own request.
The 26-year-old centre-back has told club officials he wants a "fresh challenge" and his name has been circulated to clubs.
Berra is one of the six players into the last year of their contracts along with Ronald Zubar, Michael Kightly, Nenad Milijas, Stephen Hunt and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.
And following talks with manager Stale Solbakken and chief executive Jez Moxey, the Scotland international has decided to try to force a move away from Molineux now rather than wait until he can secure a free transfer in 10 months' time, despite tentative talks on the offer of a new deal.
It is understood Berra's agent has been looking for a club for his client for some time without any luck, and the hope is that the publicity generated by going on the transfer list could trigger interest.
Berra joined Wolves from Hearts for £2.3m in February 2009, and, given his age and experience, the club are likely to seek a similar amount for him.
He has made 111 League appearances for Wolves, 96 of which came in the Premier League, making him the second only to Matt Jarvis for most top-flight games for the club over the last three years.
Berra's wish to leave will only harden Solbakken's desire to bring in another central defender, as the Scot is one of only four centre-backs with Roger Johnson, Richard Stearman and youngster Danny Batth.
Wolves missed out on Real Sociedad's Norway international defender Vadim Demidov after he chose a better financial package at Eintracht Frankfurt.
But they retain a long-standing interest in Manchester City's Montenegro international Stefan Savic, who could be available on a season-long loan.Reviews of the new Michael Jackson album Xscape have begun emerging online today following a secret playback session hosted by BBC Radio’s DJ Trevor Nelson in the downstairs area of a posh West London hotel.
Although the album’s track list has not yet been officially announced by The Estate of Michael Jackson or Epic Records, music journalists who were privileged enough to have attended the playback session have since reviewed the set.
As I have not yet heard all of the new album’s new remixes, I will draw on the comments of the journalists who have. I will also drawn on details featured in a series of articles previously published here at damienshields.com to give a little bit of background information on some of the tracks and their origins.
Additionally, I’ll give my two cents on the choice of cover-art used to promote the album, Sony’s marketing campaign, and the reception among Jackson’s loyal fan base.
I’ll kick it off with a song-by-song review in order of appearance, as best derived from the comments given by those who heard the album at the playback session. Trying to figure out the order was no mean feat; the journalists in attendance were not informed of the song titles, and as a result some contradictory recollections have occurred regarding the recordings. I’m still not 100% confident that I’ve got the order correct, but I’ve given it a decent crack.
1. Love Never Felt So Good
“Love Never Felt So Good” originates from collaborative sessions Jackson held with legendary songwriter Paul Anka in 1980.
Touted by Mirror reporter Kevin Hughes as “an amazing disco groove” with a “soulful vocal, infectious baseline and orchestral strings,” this track would apparently not sound out of place on a Pharrell album. Lewis Corner of Digital Spy says that the track comes complete with 1980s “disco beats and crisp finger clicks,” adding that “the groove of the track is soaked in nostalgia.” The finger snaps are all present on the original demo of the track, but a 1980s disco beat is not. In fact, the demo, which will appear in the Deluxe Edition of Xscape, has only one instrument; a piano.
This remix will certainly be an interesting listen.
2. She Was Loving Me (a.k.a. Chicago)
“She Was Loving Me” is an ‘Invincible’ era track written and produced by Cory Rooney. Jackson recorded his vocals at The Hit Factory in New York in late-March of 1999.
“The second song – possibly called ‘Chicago’ and cited by Timbaland as a future single – falls into the former camp, with Jackson utilising a harder vocal delivery that’s encased in a big industrial melange of jackhammer beats,” recalls The Guardian journalist Michael Cragg. “Jackson practically gave birth to the genre ‘dirty-pop’, and track two throws back to that period when you wouldn’t see him on stage without bolshy bass and hip-pop beats, ‘She lied to you/ She lied to me,’ he proclaims in his trademark growl,” adds Lewis Corner.
This, indeed, is the track that Timbaland referred to as “Chicago” in an interview with Revolt TV last year – touting it as his pick for the album’s lead single. The title “Chicago” has caused some confusion among fans, including myself, which I address here.
Kevin Hughes reported that the: “RnB soaked ‘She Was Loving Me’ (originally considered for the 2001 Invincible album) has echoes of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel.'” Hughes is not the only journalist to cite a similarity to Jackson’s 1987 hit, with The Telegraph’s Bernadette McNulty stating that: “When one of the songs directly recalls the bassline from ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ it seems like a step too far.” Whether or not McNulty is referring to “She Was Loving Me” – or another song altogether – is not specified in her report.
“She Was Loving Me” is one of two tracks on the album that have not leaked publicly (the other title remains unknown) meaning, unlike the other six tracks on the album, fans have never heard it. I, however, was lucky enough to have listened to the track last year during preparations for an article I wrote and released for Michael’s fans on what would have been his 55th birthday (August 29, 2013). What I find interesting about the brief reviews of this track in particular, are the comparisons to “The Way You Make Me Feel”. I can tell you right now, the original version of “She Was Loving Me” sounds absolutely nothing like “The Way You Make Me Feel.” If anything, it reminded me of elements present in “Morphine,” “D.S.,” and “Another Day”. Rooney himself draws this comparison: “The song goes from him singing really low in the verses to singing really high in the choruses, so it’s two different types of vocals. It’s like Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ voice and his ‘Dirty Diana’ voice in one record.”
Jackson delivers an emotionally powerful vocal on the track, packed with pain and frustration. The verses gently tell the intimate story of Jackson’s encounter with a woman whom he believes was attracted to him, before unleashing a rage of guitar-infused fury in the choruses.
“I met her on the way to Chicago, where she was all alone, and so was I so I asker her for her name. She smiled and looked at me, I was surprised to see, that a woman like that was really into me,” sings Jackson in the first verse, before things take a turn for the worse in the second.
Click here to read my extensive article on “She Was Loving Me.”
3. Loving You
“Loving You” was originally written and recorded by Michael Jackson in the mid-80s, before the Bad album, and was mixed by Matt Forger at Jackson’s Hayvenhurst home studio.
“The third song played is another Off the Wallesque, mid-paced love song with a youthful, almost naive-sounding vocal. It feels very much like a song that didn’t make it on to an old album, and while the production is good – there’s an amazing rolling beat throughout – it still feels slight,” reported journalist Michael Cragg after attending a listening session in the UK, while Lewis Corner, also at that session, described it as a flowing ’80s-tinged serenade with orchestral bursts and choral harmonies. A critic who heard the track during the Paris listening session likened the song to “Liberian Girl” and described it as being a nostalgic track with a minimalist-type production and whirling synths. Another attendee of that same Paris listening session told me that the track was a smooth mid-tempo love song about a girl. He said it has an RnB feel, “Reminiscent of the ‘Off The Wall’ approach Jackson and producer Rodney Jerkins had developed on ‘Invincible’ for songs like ‘You Rock My World’,” adding that: ”It has a slight ‘The Jacksons’ feel; like in their ‘Triumph’ days.”
“I remember it as an RnB style, mid-tempo love song,” recalls Matt Forger, which matches perfectly with the descriptions of journalists and fans who’ve heard it (see above). “It was a good song, just not in serious consideration for the Bad album. One of many that were recorded and put away.”
Because this is the only track on the album that I have not heard, it’s naturally the one of those I’m most curious about. Click here to read more about the track.
4. A Place With No Name
“A Place With No Name” is a track written by Elliot Straite, aka Dr. Freeze. It is a lyrically re-written cover of the 1972 hit “A Horse With No Name” by the band America. Jackson recorded his vocals at Record Plant Recording Studios in September 1998.
“I challenge anyone not to experience goosebumps after hearing ‘A Place With No Name’,” reported Kevin Hughes, adding that the song deserves to played by radio stations worldwide.
One thing that can’t be denied about this track is Jackson’s vocal. “When he came into the studio to record, he stood before the microphone and set fire to the song,” recalls Dr. Freeze of the recording session. “As he left, the studio was in ashes and our jaws on the floor. It was really impressive to see.”
Click here to read my exclusive article; ‘Michael Jackson’s “A Place With No Name” – The Story Behind The Song’.
5. Do You Know Where Your Children Are (a.k.a. 12-O’Clock)
This track could be titled one of two things: a) “12 O’Clock” or b) “Do You Know Where Your Children Are”. The latter is the authentic title of the song, as cited by Jackson in a 1993 court deposition. The track was initially believed to have been recorded during the Dangerous album sessions, but was in fact recorded during the mid-80s – in the lead up to the Bad sessions.
All reports so far have cited this one at the album’s peak. “The fifth song we were played opens with computerized synths as the star’s iconic ad libs of ‘hee-hee’ and ‘aaaow’ smack you with excitement,” writes Lewis Corner, adding: “Echoed snare beats and a storming rawk guitar solo make it one of the stand-out tracks. It’s: “One of the outstanding cuts on the ‘Xscape’ album,” agrees Kevin Hughes. “An emphatic Jackson discusses family values and child abuse over a pulsating bass line and guitar riff.” Michael Cragg called the track “a proper, undeniably amazing hit” before going into a little more detail. “Opening with a delicate flurry of cascading 80s synths, it feels like the perfect embodiment of the old and the new, with some vintage “hee hee” ad-libs peppering the sophisticated mesh of electronics. It also features a typical Jackson pre-chorus section that then opens out into the album’s best chorus, before a great false stop moment heralds an even more bonkers final third, with Jackson hee-heeing and ow-ing his head off.”
While I can deal with the possibility of Epic Records opting to change the actual title of this song from “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” to “12 O’Clock” for the sake of avoiding the potential criticism and narrow-minded controversy the lengthy original may cause, there is one thing I hope they don’t mess with; the lyrics Jackson delivers vocally on the track.
First of all, before I explain what I mean, let me put this into context: To me, Michael Jackson is a real life superhero. Not only did he moonwalk, morph into black panthers, zombies, robots and cars, and fly off the edge of the stage, out over the audience using a jetpack at the end of his Dangerous World Tour concerts, but he, like all great superheroes, actually wanted to save the world and the people in it. This was just who he was. Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother, remembers Michael as a little boy seeing the starving children in Africa on television with flies around their mouths. “One day I’m gonna do something about that,” he’d tell her. And he did. He raised hundreds of millions of dollars for dozens of charities around the world. Michael Jackson truly cared for humanity. He cared for people of all cultures, races, ages and walks of life. He cared for equality and human rights. This is evidenced in his songs, such as “Heal The World,” “Earth Song,” “Man In The Mirror,” and “Why You Wanna Trip On Me.” He was so often the voice of the voiceless; take “The Lost Children” or “They Don’t Care About Us” for example.
Now, “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” discusses child abuse. In the song, Jackson sings about a girl who has run away from home, leaving behind a letter to her mother: “She wrote that she was tired of step-daddy using her. Saying that he’ll buy her things while sexually abusing her.” The song then follows the girl to Hollywood, where she winds up letting her hair down and “selling her body hard” under the guidance of a man she met at the train station. In the choruses, Jackson asks the listener: “Do do you know where your children are? Because it’s now twelve-o’clock, and they’re somewhere out on the streets. Just imagine how scared they are!” At the end of the third and final verse Jackson chillingly proceeds to put the entire debacle into perspective, revealing the girl’s doomed fate by singing that the police were: “Arresting this little girl that’s only twelve-years old!”
The reason I am concerned about the censoring of Jackson’s lyrics stems from the last posthumous album Epic Records and The Estate released – 2010’s Michael album. On that album there is a song called “Hollywood Tonight” – a similar theme to “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” – about a girl who has left home and gone to Hollywood. Jackson had been working on “Hollywood Tonight” for a decade, carefully tweaking and perfecting the music while working on the lyrics. He had laid down vocals for two verses and the choruses prior to his death, with a sketch of the bridge and partial third verse as well. One thing is clear; he had a specific vision to tell the untold, tragic story of childhood runaways. In the second verse, Jackson sings: “Westbound Greyhound to Tinsel Town just to pursue her moviestar dreams. She’s giving hot tricks to men, just to get in. She’s taught that that’s not clean, because she’s only fifteen.” However, the words: “because she’s only fifteen” were removed by producer Teddy Riley and replaced with a line from the first verse: “She’s headed for the big sign that means.” This takes the context away from the song completely. This is the moment the seriousness of the matter becomes apparent.
So, back to the positives. The journalists who heard “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” have called it the album’s highlight and a potential radio hit. I hope the song, which is one of my all-time favourite Jackson tracks, is released as a single. I also hope that the remix stays true to Jackson’s vision and message.
6. Slave To The Rhythm
“Slave To The Rhythm” was written by L.A. Reid and Babyface and recorded by Jackson during the Dangerous album sessions. The track has since appeared online in a number of forms; once in 2010 – remixed by Tricky Stewart, once in 2013 – remixed by Max Methods and featuring Justin Bieber, and now as part of the Sony Xperia Z2 / Xscape album cross-promotional commercial series – remixed by Timbaland.
“Track number six – which we identified as ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ – begins with a massive string-led swoosh of scenic proportions, before it completely drops into glitchy electronics and rattling beats. Its shuffling groove marks it as classic MJ, making it yet another highlight,” wrote Lewis Corner. Michael Cragg reported that the Timbaland remix features: “Lashings of beatboxing in the intro, loads of vocal tics throughout, big spidery bassline,” adding that, “as with some of his other songs on Xscape, barely any space for the song to breathe. Thankfully Slave to the Rhythm is strong enough to fight its way through the clutter.” Kevin Hughes labeled the track as a potential single and “floor-filler for a new generation.” All journalists were pleased to announce that Justin Bieber does not feature on this version.
To hear a 30-second sample of Timbaland’s brand new remix of “Slave To The Rhythm” and see L.A. Reid in the studio, bopping along while pimping the new Sony Xperia Z2 mobile phone, check out the below video:
Some background info on how Justin Bieber came to be on the track back in 2013: Tricky Stewart, who had previously remixed the track in 2010 to be considered for the Michael album, got Justin Bieber to record the track. Stewart was, at the time, the President of A&R at Epic Records, working under L.A. Reid (who wrote the track). He then gave Jackson’s existing vocal and Bieber’s brand new vocal to a DJ signed to his Red Zone Ent record label, Max Methods, and asked him to re-produce the track. On August 16, 2013 it leaked via SoundCloud and YouTube. Click here to read more about that fiasco.
7. Blue Gangsta
“Blue Gangsta” is another track written by Dr. Freeze. The track was recorded during the same sessions as Freeze’s other track – “A Place With No Name” – in late 1998.
Reviews of this track have been mixed. “Song number seven – which might be called ‘Blue Gangsta’ – opens with Bond Theme-styled strings and tinned beats, before hearing Michael complain: ‘Look what you’ve done to me/ I can no longer smile'” writes Lewis Corner, adding that the album’s “overarching narrative is what we’ve always loved about Jackson; the superstar who is unlucky in love, but never doubts its power.” As cited in my “Chicago” segment, Kevin Hughes reported that “Blue Gangster” (and “Chicago”) will: “Remind you of previous Jackson offerings but both tracks benefit from newly enhanced production and remind us of the fact that Michael was keen to remain relevant to the emerging hip-hop generation.” Michael Cragg was less than impressed with the song, stating that it was: “The album’s only true lowpoint,” that “feels like about three different songs fighting for attention.”
“For ‘Blue Gangsta’ I wanted to make a new ‘Smooth Criminal,'” recalls Dr. Freeze of his inspiration when writing the track. “Something more modern and rooted in the 2000s.” The track was considered for the 2010 Michael album but was ultimately not selected. Freeze stated that the version that leaked online is not the newest version he has. “I’ve updated it a bit, the song is completed, ready to go. It will be completely different from the version leaked on the net. It is perfectly calibrated to enter a nightclub. It sounds very European in style productions Kraftwerk.”
The version that will appear on Xscape will be different yet again. Freeze was not involved in the production of the new remix.
8. Xscape
“Xscape” is a track co-written by Fred Jerkins III, Rodney Jerkins, and LaShawn Daniels, produced by Rodney Jerkins, and recorded by Michael Jackson during the Invincible sessions.
“It’s the only track which has been re-worked by its original producer, and hears turn-of-the-millennium Jackson snarl over a mix of ’70s disco and ’90s R&B. Its potential for some other-worldly choreography is palpable, which provokes a sad tinge of what could’ve been,” reports Lewis Corner, while Michael Cragg states that: “The only song that sounds like a bit of a struggle vocally, with Jackson’s various vocal tics becoming a bit of a hindrance rather than something more carefree.” Kevin Hughes deduces: “As the album concludes with title track ‘Xscape’ a sonic slice of noughties electro-pop, I’m left satisfied that Michael’s legacy will endure…”
Check out a 15-second snippet of the brand new Rodney Jerkins remix of “Xscape” below:
Many of Jackson’s collaborators believed that “Xscape” was one of the strongest tracks on offer during the Invincible sessions. Few could believe that it was never released, along with another Jerkins production called “We’ve Had Enough” (which eventually came out on 2004’s The Ultimate Collection). Unfortunately, in late 2002 “Xscape” leaked on the internet. Although Jackson, at that time, still had plans to utilize the track, the leak caused the cancellation of those plans. Still, those involved have fond memories of the creative process. “God is good,” said LaShawn Daniels. “I had the opportunity to work with and befriend the greatest artist of all time MICHAEL JACKSON … on the last studio album he recorded while he was alive. I wrote the title track ‘INVINCIBLE’, which became the album title, as well as ‘You Rock My World’ which was his first single ALONG WITH 6 other songs on that album. Now years after his death I am fortunate enough to be apart of another one of his albums with an original song never heard before that I co-wrote. This song serves as the album title as well as first single; XSCAPE. Although I’m sad because he’s not here to see the world respond to this great song and body of work, I am extremely proud to be apart of his legacy and record shattering career,” continues Daniels. “I remember singing on the demo for ‘Xscape’ after writing it,” recalls Fred Jerkins III. Now, finally, “Xscape” will have it’s moment to shine – more than a decade after fans heard it for the first time – with this commanding new remix. “What a blessing to have the title track,” adds Fred.
One of the slogans being used to promote the new album is “The best you’ve never heard”. This refers, obviously, to the album including the best songs that the public has not yet heard. While many of Jackson’s most dedicated fans have heard up to six of the eight tracks on this album, they must consider that the “best you’ve never heard” slogan is not targeted at them.
The real target audience here are the millions of casual MJ fans around the world. People who like his work and will take an interest if the music sounds good. Hence L.A. Reid’s wise decision to use the BEST they’ve never heard, as opposed to the “rarest MJ’s very small, hardcore, online fan base has never heard” (which would, at this point, comprise of mostly incomplete demos and sketches due to the lack of complete, unleaked resources).
Judging by the general consensus of the journalists who attended the exclusive playback session yesterday, this decision has paid off. Many of the reviews feature overwhelming praise of the compilation.
“Xscape feels like an album created to showcase a handful of Jackson songs that on the whole deserve to be heard,” writes Michael Cragg. “You get the immediate sense that a lot of time (and money) has been spent on these songs and that care’s been taken to show the songs off in the best light possible. While some of them are very obviously album tracks at best, there are flashes of genius that haven’t been diluted or watered down. In fact, Xscape manages to bring most of them to life.”
Xscape at least sounds more like a labour of love and with only eight songs, a judiciously edited and cohesive album rather than an endless memory-stick jumble of offcuts. Former American X-Factor judge L.A. Reid has overseen the process, working his way through four decades of unused recordings that Jackson has left behind. Employing a premier league team of top name pop producers, Reid has called the reboot ‘contemporizing’ Jackson’s songs,” writes Bernadette McNulty. “But the balance often feels quite subtle and even-handed between the original song and the new styles of orchestration and production.”
“From fashionable-again orchestral disco and propulsively lithe electro to Rodney Jerkin’s trademark militarised beats, you can still hear fully-formed Jackson songs there – even more striking in an age where RnB and pop has largely become a collage of chants and breakdowns. I just haven’t hadn’t heard this many words in a pop song for ages, let alone proper verses, bridges and choruses.”
“I’m left satisfied that Michael’s legacy will endure thanks to a collection of carefully selected material, lovingly re-engineered for millions of fans and new fans alike,” concludes Kevin Hughes. “There’s a reason he was called The King of Pop after all.”
He’s certainly the King of Pop, but also the King of Hype. Sony Music plans on honoring Jackson with an all-out marketing blitz that will ensure no eardrum goes without hearing their latest Jackson offering – be it voluntarily or forcefully.
“In conjunction with the release of Xscape, Epic / Sony Music will launch an unprecedented global campaign with the One Sony sister companies, Sony Corporation, Sony Mobile Communications, and Sony Network Entertainment International drawing from all of Sony’s strengths and consumer reach,” reads the official announcement on michaeljackson.com
We’ve already seen traces of their marketing, from the Sony Xperia Z2 (look at me continually promoting it without meaning/wanting to) mobile phone which will come equipped for a FREE download of the full Xscape album, stickers and posters around major cities, and now even giant billboards (including one in Times Square, NYC – see below).
While we’re looking at the billboard, I’ll quickly make a comment on Epic’s choice of album cover-art (see top of article). I like it personally, but I can see why others don’t. Art, like music, is based on personal taste. Some will like it and some won’t. Simple. It’s impossible to please everyone and that’s just the way it is.
Is “Hot Fun” the bonus track?
OK, so let’s get to the issue of that sneaky bonus track The Estate and Epic Records seem to have sprung on fans. When viewing the Xscape Deluxe Edition on iTunes, now available for pre-order, you can see that there are 17 tracks listed. Assuming that the eight remixes detailed above are the eight tracks that make up the Standard Edition, and the Deluxe Edition will include the original, unedited Jackson recording for each of those as well. Eight plus eight equals 16 tracks. Some more simple math will reveal that if you have 17 Michael Jackson songs and you subtract 16 Michael Jackson songs, you’ll be left with one Michael Jackson song. So there is one yet-to-be-announced Michael Jackson track – or is there?
Today, Jesse Johnson, a prolific guitarist/producer, announced via Facebook that he is part of an all-star lineup of artists, producers and musicians who are set to feature on a new track with Michael Jackson.
Johnson’s announcement was somewhat cryptic. The headline reads: “Michael Jackson & D’Angelo + Mary J Blige” with a sub heading that makes you guess what many believe will be the title of the song. The clue: “H** ** *** *********e”.
The track has been produced by D’Angelo and features Michael Jackson, D’Angelo and Mary J. Blige on vocals. If THAT is not vocal heaven then I don’t know what is!
But the stars don’t stop at the vocals. D’Angelo has contributed the keys, Johnson the guitars, Questlove is on drums, Pino Palladino on bass Eric Leeds on horns. Are you still with me? Good! The track has been engineered by Russ |
contract, but this is a business and sometimes you need to make some difficult decisions. This is one of those."
After a brilliant first season in the A-League, Bosschaart tore his Achilles in the final match of the campaign, a 3-2 semi-final defeat against Wellington Phoenix in March 2012.
That saw him miss the majority of the subsequent pre-season and after just six games in the 2012-13 season, he was sent for another operation January. He departs with a tally of 33 games for Sydney.
Bosschaart made his comeback during Sydney FC's pre-season tour of Italy, returning in the Sky Blues 5-3 win over Udinese's youth side.Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Luke 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Matthew 11:4-6 4. And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:
5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
6. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me." Luke 7:22-23 22 And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.
23 And blessed is he who takes no offense at me." Matthew 19:16-26 16 And behold, one came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" 17 And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." Mark 10:17-27 17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. Luke 18:18-27 18 And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 18 He said to him, "Which?" And Jesus said, "You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness.
19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 19 You know the commandments: 'Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" 20 You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'" 20 The young man said to him, "All these I have observed; what do I still lack?"
21 Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. 20 And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth."
21 And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
22 At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. 21 And he said, "All these I have observed from my youth."
22 And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
23 But when he heard this he became sad, for he was very rich. 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!"
24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 24 Jesus looking at him said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
25 When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"
26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, "Then who can be saved?"
27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26 Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?"
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27 But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." Matthew 26:6-13 6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at table.
8 But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste?
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9 For this ointment might have been sold for a large sum, and given to the poor."
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10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.
11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
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12 In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for burial.
13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." Mark 14:3-9 3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.
4 But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment thus wasted?
5 For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor." And they reproached her.
6 But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me.
8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." Luke 4:16-21 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read;
17 and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
20 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 14:7-14 7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honor, saying to them,
8 "When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him;
9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.
11 For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid.
13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind,
14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:15-24 15 When one of those who sat at table with him heard this, he said to him, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"
16 But he said to him, "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many;
17 and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is now ready.'
18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.'
19 And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.'
20 And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'
21 So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.'
22 And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'
23 And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'" Luke 16:19-31 19 "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Laz'arus, full of sores,
21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried;
23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Laz'arus in his bosom.
24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz'arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.'
25 But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Laz'arus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'
27 And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house,
28 for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'
29 But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'
30 And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
31 He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'" Luke 19:1-10 1. He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 And there was a man named Zacchae'us; he was a chief tax collector, and rich.
3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.
5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchae'us, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today."
6 So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully.
7 And when they saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."
8 And Zacchae'us stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold."
9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."When most people think of the nervous system, they think of it as a hub of activity. Sensations trigger nerves, which activate the ones they're connected to, eventually producing a response. What's often overlooked is the fact that shutting nerves down is just as important. Entire classes of nerves exist solely to tell their neighbors to quiet down, while Parkinson's disease is caused by the failure of a circuit that ultimately helps shut down muscle activity.
Another disease that's caused by excessive nerve activity is epilepsy, where the aberrant activation of nerves causes seizures. Researchers decided to try reversing this effect by adding additional inhibitory neurons, derived from embryonic cells, to specific regions of the brains of epileptic mice. The approach worked, which means their next step will probably involve trying to do the same thing with neurons derived from stem cells.
Although epilepsy is a complicated disease in humans, it's possible to model it in mice using a drug called pilocarpine, which activates receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Used appropriately, pilocarpine is a valuable drug. But when given systemically (for example, injected into the blood stream), the drug enters the brain and causes excessive neural activity. This can result in long-term changes to the architecture of many neurons in the brain, creating a variety of symptoms that may include seizures, hyperactivity, and altered spatial memory.
To test their epilepsy treatment, the researchers injected mice with pilocarpine and monitored them around the clock for several days. Those that experienced a seizure were used for the study.
A number of inhibitory neuron types have been identified, but the authors were specifically interested in GABA-producing interneurons of the brain (GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, and an interneuron is a nerve cell that establishes connections with other nerve cells). These are generated about two weeks into a mouse's embryonic development in a specific area of the early brain. To get a source of these GABA cells before they matured, the researchers simply dissected out that part of the embryonic brain. To make sure they could find these cells in the adult animals, the mice were genetically tagged with a gene that makes a fluorescent protein.
Returning to the epileptic mice, the authors created three groups: untreated mice, mice in which the immature neurons were injected into the relevant region of the brain (the hippocampus), and mice in which the cells were injected into an irrelevant part of the brain (the amygdala).
Sixty days later, the cells that glowed green (meaning they came from the transplant) had matured and integrated into the adult brain. A number had migrated away from the site of injection before maturing so that they were more widespread in the brain rather than simply clustered at the injection site.
The procedure was largely a success. Seizures were reduced by more than 90 percent in the animals with the appropriate injections (compared to either of the control groups). Half the mice didn't experience any seizures for the week that they were monitored. In addition, the treatment blocked another of additional symptoms: the mice were less aggressive, less hyperactive, and showed better spatial memory.
But you shouldn't think of this as reversing the pilocarpine treatment. The structural changes that occur within the brain in response to the drug were still present. The creation of new inhibitory cells in the hippocampus didn't reverse all the symptoms; the mice were still prone to experience anxiety and appeared hyperactive when placed in a stressful situation. Plus, for some reason, injecting the immature neurons into the wrong location—the amygdala—successfully blocked hyperactive behavior.
Rather than reversing the impact of the drug treatment, the added inhibitory neurons blocked them from triggering epilepsy. This is potentially more valuable given that epilepsy in humans has a variety of causes.
But it's important to emphasize that this work is just a first step toward a treatment (although a valuable one). The obvious follow-up step would be to generate the immature neurons from stem cells. That would involve first forcing the cells to adopt a neural cell fate, then getting them to adopt the identity of the region that produces GABA inhibitory neurons. The procedure should then probably be tested on other models of epilepsy to make sure the effect is general. All of these validations will be essential before it makes sense to try this procedure in humans.
Nevertheless, this was an important first step—and a very nice piece of research.
Nature Neuroscience, 2013. DOI: 10.1038/nn.3392 (About DOIs).With the 23rd pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings selected wide receiver Laquon Treadwell out of the University of Mississippi. The team needed to acquire a new target for Teddy Bridgewater, and it appears they got a good one at the spot they were at.
So, what did experts around the internet think about the selection of Treadwell? Let's take a look around and find out.
Doug Farrar, SI.com - A
First of all, the talk about Treadwell's lack of speed is overblown—in Ole Miss's limited passing offense, he was often open and unseen. He's a tough, physical, consistent receiver who won't set any land speed records against deep safeties, but he has the skills to become Minnesota's top target. Yes, that's a low bar at this point, but GM Rick Spielman has to start somewhere. Add Treadwell to Stefon Diggs in the Vikings' receiver battery, and things are looking up for Teddy Bridgewater.
Pete Prisco, CBS Sports - A
This is a great pick. They have the next Dez Bryant.
Steve Palazzolo, Pro Football Focus - C+
Receivers are flying off the board as the Vikings add a physical outside presence in Treadwell. He's a solid late-round pick (+19.8 receiving grade ranked 13th in the draft class), capable of winning in the short game (slants) and adding a red-zone presence with his size. The problem with Treadwell is creating separation at the intermediate and deep level, right where offensive coordinator Norv Turner is trying to get the ball. In addition to not separating well, his pairing with QB Teddy Bridgewater is not ideal as Bridgewater is hesitant to throw into tight windows and that marriage may not play to Treadwell's skillset. Even when playing in the contested game, Treadwell is not as exceptional as scouting reports may indicate. Overall, he's a solid possession receiver, but the pairing with the Vikings and Bridgewater may not be a good one unless the offense turns to a more quick-hitting passing game that takes advantage of both Bridgewater and Treadwell's skillsets.
Walter Cherepinsky, Walter Football - B+
I'm giving all of these receiver picks a B+. Forgive me for being boring in this stretch, but they all make sense. Laquon Treadwell was seen as the No. 1 player on some boards, but the receivers were all ranked evenly heading into the 2016 NFL Draft. It was just a matter of what teams were looking for. The Texans, for example, wanted a speed guy to complement DeAndre Hopkins. The Vikings, on the other hand, wanted a possession receiver. Treadwell is definitely that, as seen by his 4.64 40 time, but he's still a very good player and well worth the 23rd pick in the draft.
Mike Tanier, Bleacher Report - B+
There are several reasons why Treadwell should be better than doubters think, but his release off the line is the key. Treadwell has one of the best releases I've seen in years. In the NFL, a lot of downfield "wins" take place in those first five yards: the cornerback gets knocked out of position or loses a step in transition, and he cannot just grab hold and ride along like college defenders do. Treadwell is also still coming back from a 2014 injury and could gain back a half-step. Treadwell won't be DeSean Jackson or Antonio Brown, but he could be Allen Robinson, ripping off 50-yard catches against defenders a step faster than him.
Steven Ruiz, USA Today - A
This pick made too much sense for the Vikings to pass up. Treadwell isn't a burner but he has the frame and ball skills to develop into a dominant receiver No. 1 receiver. That's exactly what Minnesota and Teddy Bridgewater need to push the passing game to the next level.
Chad Reuter, NFL.com - A
General manager Rick Spielman got the most physical receiver in the draft in Treadwell. There's no reason he won't be a to-go guy for Teddy Bridgewater.
Dan Kadar, SB Nation - A
Three wide receivers went before the best one in the draft mostly because Treadwell ran an unimpressive 40-yard dash time at the NFL Scouting Combine. Treadwell is a big and physical receiver who can be a top target for Teddy Bridgewater. If he can play a little faster and concentrate through the catch, he can put up big numbers in the NFL. Oh, and he'll help Adrian Peterson. Treadwell is one of the best run blocking wide outs in this year's draft.
Eric Edholm, Yahoo! Sports - A-
This makes too much sense. Teddy Bridgewater doesn't need a deep threat -- he needs a chain mover, and a physical one, such as Treadwell. This is an inspired choice that could reshape the Vikings' offense. He'll be a great No. 1 option in the red zone and is also the best blocking receiver in the draft by a mile. A great choice at this point of the draft.
For the most part, it looks like the internet really likes the Vikings' selection of Laquon Treadwell. But what do you think, folks?Ubisoft has long ignored the plight of signed integers and sign queer integers. It’s the current year, and a software developer and organization involved in the greater technology industry practicing the kind of sign-misarithmancy Ubisoft is guilty of cannot stand. No, by all that intersectionality finds holy, sign-misarithmancy like what is practiced at Ubisoft WILL not stand.
Integers in Computer Software
In mathematics, integers have an attribute called “sign.” An integer can have positive (+7) or negative (-7) sign, or an integer can be “sign queer,” like 0. If an integer is a measure of how large or small a measure or attribute is, then it is the sign that determines whether the integer acting as a measure is positive or negative.
In computer science, integers can be represented by a couple of primitive data types. The first representation is as an unsigned integer, or uint. In this representation, the integer is always positive. Another representation is as an signed integer, or int. Signed integers may be positive or negative. 0 belongs to both the unsigned integer and signed integer primitive data types, thus preserving its status as sign queer.
A software developer can use either signed or unsigned integers for the purposes of adding or subtracting values from each other. For example, subtracting an integer from another integer is the same as adding a negative integer to the original integer [A-B=A+(-B)]. Similarly, subtracting a negative integer from an integer is the same as adding a positive integer to the original integer [A-(-B)=A+B]. The trick for a software developer is to remember how they represented an integer when they defined it when they start to do arithmetic on it.
Problematic Representations of Integers
The difficulty is when a software developer tries to force an integer into a primitive data type that the integer clearly does not identify as through an act of sign-misarithmancy. Here’s an example. Certain high end items in The Division have a talent called Reckless. Reckless is supposed to increase the amount of damage a player receives as well as the amount of damage the player does.
Currently, however, the Reckless talent reduces the amount of damage the player takes. Put in math terms, Reckless is supposed to provide -10% all damage resistance, but currently gives +10% damage resistance. When all the damage resistance percentages are added together, the signedness of all damage resistance from the Reckless talent is stripped from it. The result of adding all the damage resistance number together, when combined with the damage resistance coefficient of Reckless being +10%, results in a 20% swing in damage taken by the player. Intersectional sociologists throughout computer science circles call this “positive-washing” or “absolute valuing” an integer.
Another example is a blatant case of positive washing an integer. Armor items in The Division can have a stat called Protection from Elites. It is represented as a positive integer percentage on the character screen. As you can see in the in following code excerpt that was data mined from local game files by Reddit poster AlCalzone89, the signedness of the DamageTakenFromElitesModBonus item is assumed.
AttributeDefinition DamageTakenFromElitesModFinal < uid=5D31260055E839EA000081F986B31DA5 > { myOriginalFormula "Max(0, (1 + DamageTakenFromElitesModBonus))" myBonusType Percentage }
It is the current year, do we really need to be positive-washing our integers, or forcing all our integers to be positive value? The games industry needs to grow up. According to Ubisoft, this has been fixed in a patch on April 28, but what’s problematic is the original assumption by the developers on whether DamageTakenFromElitesModBonus was signed or not.
A Blatant Act of Sign-Misarithmancy
And how is Ubisoft going to fix the problem with damage reduction associated with the Reckless talent? Is Ubisoft going to allow the damage reduction from Reckless to remain the primitive data type it is now? I think we know better. I think we all know Ubisoft is going to force the integer representing the damage reduction associated with the Reckless talent to be a primitive data type other than how it is now, so they can keep their damage mitigation calculations consistent.
It is the current year. Integers should be able to be the primitive data type they most identify with. Any player with a DPS stat that identifies as a signed integer was destined to be a healer. Any player with a sign queer DPS stat was destined to play another game. Deal with it.
Ubisoft, I beseech you, and more importantly signed and sign queer integers around the world beseech you, to not force the all damage resist integers to be a data type other than what each one identifies as. No, Ubisoft must change the way all damage resistance is calculated to preserve the data type of all the all damage resistance stats.
Let your distaste for the vastly unfair treatment of signed and sign queer integers be known by using the Twitter hashtag below.
#IntegerSignsMatter
Share Have a tip for us? Awesome! Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll take a look!Canada's top consumer watchdog says it is reviewing business practices at Canada's federally-regulated charter banks starting next month, following a CBC investigation that has uncovered reports of troubling sales practices at Canada's major financial institutions.
Lucie Tedesco, commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, said in a statement Wednesday that her office is concerned with reports that bank employees are pushing for and sometimes signing customers up for products without their expressed consent, in order to meet their own sales targets.
As such, the FCAC will be launching a review of business practices in the federally-regulated financial sector starting next month.
"The law requires that, in order to provide consumers with new or expanded products or increase their credit limits, financial institutions obtain their customers' prior consent and disclose key information about the costs and charges of the products they are purchasing," Tedesco said.
In a series of reports from the CBC's Go Public team, employees have reported that increased pressure to meet unrealistic sales targets has caused them to bend the rules. That overt and covert pressure often comes from their superiors, who have their own financial targets to meet.
Following the rules 'is non-discretionary'
"Financial institutions' compliance with these rules is non-discretionary and the message must be disseminated from the boards of directors on down to customer-facing staff," Tedesco said, adding that she has already discussed some of the issues brought up by the CBC's reporting in her regular meetings with the executives and board members of Canadian banks.
In various statements to CBC, all of Canada's big banks said they act in the best interest of their clients and that employees are expected to follow codes of conduct.
The watchdog is urging consumers "who have experienced what they believe to be misleading business practices, or who have received a financial product or service to which they did not consent," to file a formal complaint by emailing the FCAC.
"Through the industry review we are announcing today, we will examine financial institutions' business practices in relation to express consent and disclosure, including the identification of any factors that may be contributing to non-compliance," Tedesco said.
"We will investigate and enforce any incidence of non-compliance."
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is a government regulator tasked with raising consumers' awareness of their rights and responsibilities when dealing with financial firms.
They also ensures that banks and other federally regulated institutions comply with consumer protection measures already on the books. The FCAC has the power to levy fines and other penalties if financial firms under its mandate don't comply with regulations. But penalties can be as high as $500,000 per infraction.
In a statement Wednesday, the Canadian Bankers Association, which represents Canada's biggest lenders, says its members "look forward to co-operating with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) in the review announced today."
"Canadians are well-served by their banks, which is reflected in the very high level of satisfaction that bank customers have with their own bank over 90 per cent of Canadians having favourable impressions of their bank," the CBA said.Repeating what I did for the last Debian releases with the #newinwheezy and #newinjessie games it’s time for the #newinstretch game:
Debian/stretch AKA Debian 9.0 will include a bunch of packages for people interested in digital forensics. The packages maintained within the Debian Forensics team which are new in the Debian/stretch release as compared to Debian/jessie (and ignoring jessie-backports):
bruteforce-salted-openssl: try to find the passphrase for files encrypted with OpenSSL
cewl: custom word list generator
dfdatetime/python-dfdatetime: Digital Forensics date and time library
dfvfs/python-dfvfs: Digital Forensics Virtual File System
dfwinreg: Digital Forensics Windows Registry library
dislocker: read/write encrypted BitLocker volumes
forensics-all: Debian Forensics Environment – essential components (metapackage)
forensics-colorize: show differences between files using color graphics
forensics-extra: Forensics Environment – extra console components (metapackage)
hashdeep: recursively compute hashsums or piecewise hashings
hashrat: hashing tool supporting several hashes and recursivity
libesedb(-utils): Extensible Storage Engine DB access library
libevt(-utils): Windows Event Log (EVT) format access library
libevtx(-utils): Windows XML Event Log format access library
libfsntfs(-utils): NTFS access library
libfvde(-utils): FileVault Drive Encryption access library
libfwnt: Windows NT data type library
libfwsi: Windows Shell Item format access library
liblnk(-utils): Windows Shortcut File format access library
libmsiecf(-utils): Microsoft Internet Explorer Cache File access library
libolecf(-utils): OLE2 Compound File format access library
libqcow(-utils): QEMU Copy-On-Write image format access library
libregf(-utils): Windows NT Registry File (REGF) format access library
libscca(-utils): Windows Prefetch File access library
libsigscan(-utils): binary signature scanning library
libsmdev(-utils): storage media device access library
libsmraw(-utils): split RAW image format access library
libvhdi(-utils): Virtual Hard Disk image format access library
libvmdk(-utils): VMWare Virtual Disk format access library
libvshadow(-utils): Volume Shadow Snapshot format access library
libvslvm(-utils): Linux LVM volume system format access librar
plaso: super timeline all the things
pompem: Exploit and Vulnerability Finder
pytsk/python-tsk: Python Bindings for The Sleuth Kit
rekall(-core): memory analysis and incident response framework
unhide.rb: Forensic tool to find processes hidden by rootkits (was already present in wheezy but missing in jessie, available via jessie-backports though)
winregfs: Windows registry FUSE filesystem
Join the #newinstretch game and present packages and features which are new in Debian/stretch.‘At the end of the day I was digging a hole’ - how finding 81 Anglo Saxon coffins in Great Ryburgh nearly ruined builder
Gary Boyce with some of the Anglo-Saxon coffins. Picture: Ian Burt Archant 2017
It started out as a project to dig a fishing lake and ended with the earliest ever find of Anglo-Saxon Christian burials in the UK. But the story behind their discovery is as fascinating as the discovery itself. Tom Bristow reports.
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Aerial view of the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Great Ryburgh. Photo: MOLA Aerial view of the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Great Ryburgh. Photo: MOLA
Gary Boyce began digging a fishing lake on his land next to the river Wensum in Great Ryburgh at 8am on January 13, 2016.
Before midday he began finding something that archaeologists who had surveyed the site by his home had missed – one of the biggest and earliest Anglo-Saxon Christian burial grounds ever found.
Over the coming weeks, archaeologists would excavate 81 coffins dating from the 7th to 9th Century.
“It was totally mixed emotions.” Mr Boyce said. “I was in a state of shock.”
A plank lined grave with human remains at the dig site in Great Ryburgh. Photo: MOLA A plank lined grave with human remains at the dig site in Great Ryburgh. Photo: MOLA
An archaeological survey had told him there was little on the site and there was no room in his finances for weeks of delays and excavations.
But the project has been delayed by a year and he estimates it has cost him £250,000.
“I nearly lost the house,” he said. “I had to go to the bank to borrow against a find of national significance.”
But despite being of huge historical value, the coffins are worth little and these unique bits of history are now being stored in Mr Boyce’s outbuilding.
The coffins are being stored in Gary Boyce's outbuilding in Great Ryburgh, despite being hailed as a hugely significant historial find. Picture: Ian Burt The coffins are being stored in Gary Boyce's outbuilding in Great Ryburgh, despite being hailed as a hugely significant historial find. Picture: Ian Burt
The 51-year-old builder had put in a planning application for a fishing lake 14 months earlier in October 2014.
He wanted to reduce frequent floods, increase bio-diversity and provide a home for endangered crucian carp for the National Crucian Conservation Project.
Mr Boyce was asked to complete an archaeological survey before North Norfolk District Council would grant planning permission and he hired a firm called Archaeological Solutions in August 2015.
The company dug three trenches but its initial report said “finds were sparse”.
Gary Boyce at the fishing lake on his land at Great Ryburgh where the burials were found. Picture: Ian Burt Gary Boyce at the fishing lake on his land at Great Ryburgh where the burials were found. Picture: Ian Burt
An archaeologist friend of Mr Boyce’s later took a look and checked the heaps of soil dug out of the trenches with a metal detector.
He found more than 200 pieces of |
and refreshed so you don’t repel other travelers and will prevent you from catching skin rashes. A basic kit should include the following:
A travel towel and wash cloth
Soap, shampoo, conditioner
Shaving supplies
Personal and feminine products
Deodorant
For more information on how to pack a toiletry kit check out our guide here.
How to Pack Backpacking Outfits and Clothes
When it comes to packing your bag, planning for a two week trip should be your goal. Two weeks of clothes will allow you to travel for months as long as you can wash them periodically. It’s best to pack layers instead of outfits that can be dressed up or down depending on climate. When packing clothes into your bag it is best to roll them together instead of fold them. Always roll similar clothes together, for example t-shirts with other t-shirts and pants with pants. When it comes to selecting the amount of underwear to take that’s generally up to the person but 3-5 easily washable pairs is the general guideline. For more information on packing clothes check out our guide here.
Cool Backpacking Gear and Travel Accessories
Traveling can be enhanced by small little accessories that can easily fit into your pack. A 20-hour flight can be made much more enjoyable with a neck pillow, eye mask, and ear plugs, finding things in your bag at night can be made easier by having a headlamp to see, and a money belt will protect your travel documents and money. Below are some must haves (but not necessarily):
Money Belt
Headlamp
Filtered Water Bottle
Neck Pillow
International Outlet Adapters
Headphones
Travel First Aid Kit
Camera
For a list of cool accessories check our reviews here.
Travel Packing Checklist: Documents, Visas, and Vaccinations
A lot of countries have additional documents that need to be shown when entering their country. Ensure you have the below items and research every country you are going to avoid any snags.
Passport
Any Visa’s or Travel Documents
Vaccination cards
Return flight documentation
Travel Insurance
Some countries require vaccinations and some countries you should be vaccinated for. Better to be safe than sorry.
Checklist for Traveling: Electronics
In the modern age seeing travelers carrying smartphones, tablets, and laptops while backpacking is not uncommon. This is a personal choice that depends on the traveler. These extra accessories can enhance your experience but they can also cut you off from enjoying the trip fully. It is easy to find solace and safety in the warm light of a laptop, especially when you are outside of your comfort zone. They also make you a target for theft.
Backpacking List Summary: What to Bring for on a Trip
Traveling is an amazing experience that can open your mind to new cultures and new possibilities. It is best done with a backpack on your back and notebook by your side. You’ll make great new friends, experience new loves, taste new foods, and learn to appreciate cultures you never knew existed.stokiepmre89
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Member Back to Top Post by stokiepmre89 on davejohnno1 said: samba :) said: Can't stop singing Wollscheids song
As soon as the majority caught the words, it's speed increased 10 fold and it became another song blighted by inane and unnecessary clapping.
Sorry to be so miserable!
It was great when not so many knew the full tune as it was sung properly.As soon as the majority caught the words, it's speed increased 10 fold and it became another song blighted by inane and unnecessary clapping.Sorry to be so miserable!
This is quite a tragic habit that so many seem to be afflicted with. It just kills songs. We'll Be With You should have no clapping and be sung at a steady pace on a loop. What actually happens is
"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.
It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter. This is quite a tragic habit that so many seem to be afflicted with. It just kills songs. We'll Be With You should have no clapping and be sung at a steady pace on a loop. What actually happens is"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter.
davejohnno1
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Member Back to Top Post by davejohnno1 on stokiepmre89 said: davejohnno1 said:
As soon as the majority caught the words, it's speed increased 10 fold and it became another song blighted by inane and unnecessary clapping.
Sorry to be so miserable!
It was great when not so many knew the full tune as it was sung properly.As soon as the majority caught the words, it's speed increased 10 fold and it became another song blighted by inane and unnecessary clapping.Sorry to be so miserable!
This is quite a tragic habit that so many seem to be afflicted with. It just kills songs. We'll Be With You should have no clapping and be sung at a steady pace on a loop. What actually happens is
"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.
It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter. This is quite a tragic habit that so many seem to be afflicted with. It just kills songs. We'll Be With You should have no clapping and be sung at a steady pace on a loop. What actually happens is"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter.
Yep. Its a MASSIVE bug bear of mine. Yep. Its a MASSIVE bug bear of mine.
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Member Back to Top Post by tijuanabrass on davejohnno1 said: stokiepmre89 said:
"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.
It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter. This is quite a tragic habit that so many seem to be afflicted with. It just kills songs. We'll Be With You should have no clapping and be sung at a steady pace on a loop. What actually happens is"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter. Yep. Its a MASSIVE bug bear of mine.
If only we had something to help the whole crowd keep time. It would have to be loud enough for the entire stadium to hear yet have the resonance and punch to carry the beat. Nah, can't think of anything
If only we had something to help the whole crowd keep time. It would have to be loud enough for the entire stadium to hear yet have the resonance and punch to carry the beat. Nah, can't think of anything
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Member Back to Top Post by scfcwebby on stokiepmre89 said: davejohnno1 said:
As soon as the majority caught the words, it's speed increased 10 fold and it became another song blighted by inane and unnecessary clapping.
Sorry to be so miserable!
It was great when not so many knew the full tune as it was sung properly.As soon as the majority caught the words, it's speed increased 10 fold and it became another song blighted by inane and unnecessary clapping.Sorry to be so miserable!
This is quite a tragic habit that so many seem to be afflicted with. It just kills songs. We'll Be With You should have no clapping and be sung at a steady pace on a loop. What actually happens is
"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.
It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter. This is quite a tragic habit that so many seem to be afflicted with. It just kills songs. We'll Be With You should have no clapping and be sung at a steady pace on a loop. What actually happens is"We'll be with you, bewithyou, bwithu evrystepalongthwayy, wllbwyou,bewyou,byyoursdewelalwstay" as clapping gets faster and faster completely out of time to the song so the song is forced to try to get some semblance of timing with the inane clapping.It's like trying to shove a block of cheddar through a keyhole. I do suspect it's a sign of the attention span of the younger generation getting shorter and shorter.
We'll be with you NEEDS clapping in it...
CITY *clap clap clap* CITY *clap clap clap*...... But that should be the only clapping involved
Too many of our songs are ruined by clapping and singing it 5x quicker than it should be sang!
We'll be with you NEEDS clapping in it...CITY *clap clap clap* CITY *clap clap clap*...... But that should be the only clapping involvedToo many of our songs are ruined by clapping and singing it 5x quicker than it should be sang!The biggest problem in Taiwan is that the women are very closed, cold, stuck up and cliquish, as if they are almost inhuman. They are anything but open and engaging with strangers. Wherever they go, they carry that “don’t bother me look” on their face, which makes them VERY unapproachable. Yuck. It’s very sad and depressing to see that everyday. I hate it. Taiwan has got to be one of the HARDEST places to approach and engage women. Their body language is cold, stuck up and cliquish.
Alongside Japan and Korea, Taiwan girls are among the least open and engaging of females in the 200 countries of the world. Even in retail sales and customer service occupations, Taiwanese girls are cold and business-like. I don’t know how they got that way, but their cold demeanor seems very inhuman.
To give you a simple example, if I say “Excuse me miss” (in Chinese or English) to girls walking by in Taiwan (who are totally cold and closed) none of them will stop. But in most other countries, when I do that, very often the girls will stop and talk to me. That’s a very big difference that says a lot, no matter how you try to spin it.
Taiwanese girls are extremely picky, shallow, judgmental, difficult, vain, and spook easily like deer do in the wild. They are overly cautious and unnaturally shy to the extreme, and don’t like talking to strangers without an introduction through mutual friends. These extreme traits that are common in Taiwanese females make them almost inhuman and definitely unnatural. Now there is nothing wrong with being a little shy or cautious. That can be cute. But Taiwanese girls take it to the extreme and are too excessive in their closed-ness and shyness. Ironically, their own ancient Chinese wisdom says that nothing in extremes is any good, and that everything must be in moderation.
Also, Taiwanese girls have hang ups about dating. To them, dating is a stepping stone to marriage, so they won’t just go out with you for fun, at least not the good girls. You have to jump through a ton of hoops. So you can’t just simply ask them out like you can in most countries, otherwise you will be met with polite rejections and excuses. To make matters worse, the normal courting process of flirting is considered a taboo in Taiwan, seen as creepy bad behavior. So if you are a Romeo or Casanova who likes to flirt, that will be a big let down for you, because you are not allowed to use your main arsenal of seduction. Furthermore, it’s very hard to vibe with Taiwanese girls if you are not on their small minded, shallow, narrow, insular wavelength.
So it’s like everything is against you in Taiwan if you want to try to fulfill your romantic or sexual needs, which sucks and is terrible beyond words. Taiwan does have a high concentration of hot girls, but what’s the point if they are all look and no touch? That just makes it more depressing and frustrating. Personally, I find Taiwan to have the most unnatural and ego-deflating dating scene I’ve ever seen. The miserable vortex in Taiwan compounds it and makes it all worse.
Everywhere I go in Taiwan, the only people who will socialize with me are elderly Taiwanese and foreign travelers. That sucks, but that’s how Taiwan is. The only way a stranger can get some attention from Taiwanese girls is to look like an Asian pop star, or be a foreign White guy. Otherwise, you’ll have to meet women through organized activities, school, work, or through mutual friends. Taiwan is one of the few countries in the world where women are not open for casually chatting up, flirting, or “love at first sight” stares. That’s the BIGGEST DOWNSIDE of Taiwan. Other than that, Taiwan is a nice place overall, but there’s nothing unique or special about it.
I know the problem is not me though, because women in the other 200 countries of the world (except for Japan and Korea) are not like that toward me. They are far more “normal”, not like deer that spook easily as Taiwanese women do. So, if the problem were me, then all women would be antisocial and closed toward me, but they aren’t (fortunately). Thus Taiwanese women are an abnormal quirk. This majorly sucks because it means that in general, Taiwanese women are “all look but no touch”. So what’s the point of them being hot then? All that does is exemplify the irony of Murphy’s Law.
Moreover, even if you are lucky enough to get acquainted with a slippery standoff-ish modern Taiwanese girl, you will find that they usually have very difficult and complicated personalities. They are not straightforward and direct like their counterparts in mainland China. Instead, they like to play games, give mixed messages, and flake out. They are selfish and narcissistic – and rotten and spoiled to the core. In short, all they are good for is “eye candy”, nothing else. That’s sad, but that’s the truth, as politically incorrect as it may be.
Now, please don’t flame me for saying all this. I didn’t make Taiwanese girls the way they are, I’m just the only one brave enough to tell the politically incorrect truth about them. Therefore, by attacking me, you would not be doing so because I am wrong, but because I am the only one telling the truth. Thus, you would in effect be advocating the suppression of truth, and upholding the facade of political correctness. Is that what you want? Think about it.
“The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” – H. L. Mencken
“Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
See also:
The Four Biggest Problems With Taiwan
Taiwanese people are empty shells with no soul or emotions
10 Reasons Why Taiwan is not good for social life, fun, happiness or romance
The Dark Side of Taiwan
The Pros and Cons of Taiwan
Taboo Observations and Truths About Taiwan
AdvertisementsWhy Monarchy is a Good Thing July 24, 2007
Why Monarchy is Good Thing, according to my Oxford tutor Leslie Mitchell, a Royalist and Tory and a historical genius.
1) Tradition and constancy. A monarchy represents something that has been around for 1,000 years. A republic can never have that, as any head-of-state it has will be relatively new. A monarchy is also imminent, meaning it has weathered storms and endured through even the biggest crises. For example, the threat of that “little man with a strange mustache” (Hitler) is actually very small compared to the historical weight and constancy of the English monarchy.
2) The monarchy doesn’t cost very much. Her Majesty the Queen is only the 50th richest person in the United Kingdom, and costs the taxpayer only 57p a year. The Prime Minister costs the taxpayer far more. Though the royal family’s wealth originally came from the fact that they owned and taxed all the land in England, now the “civil list” is voted on in Parliament every year. This list basically agrees that the nation will support the Queen, her husband Prince Philip, and (while she was alive) the Queen Mother. Prince Charles is supported by the proceeds of agricultural rents in the duchy of Cornwall (Wales), as per his position as the Prince of Wales. And, the monarchy actually brings in money because they are such a huge tourist attraction.
3) The Queen can never be corrupted, because she is too rich to be bribed or bullied. She has around 500 million pounds of personal wealth. So while a Prime Minister or elected official can be corrupt, at least the head-of-state can’t be.
4) The monarchy is the basis of the Commonwealth. There are 83 countries currently in the British Commonwealth, and the Queen is the head of the Commonwealth. Every four years, all 83 countries send representatives to a meeting to have an intellectual exchange. The Queen, of course, is a very experienced politician, having been in power for about 60 years. It is very useful to have a forum for international discussion, and so the Commonwealth is a positive thing.
5) Monarchy is one of the only uniting factors in the United Kingdom. Few things actually unite Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, and the monarchy is one of them. Unity is a good thing.
One of the main objections to the monarchy is that it is the very pinnacle of a class system. If one is uncomfortable with the idea of a class system, especially a blatant class system with things such as titles and peerages, one is uncomfortable with the monarchy. Silly Americans, says Leslie Mitchell.
AdvertisementsYou have to hand it to the rich in dealing with the tax reforms proposed by the Liberals. They didn’t even have to put pen to paper or pick up the phone to protest the taxman messing with their ill-gotten wealth. They got the poor besotted small businessperson to fight on their behalf. In this newly fact-free world it didn’t matter that 80 per cent of conventional small businesses and farmers would be completely unaffected or that the changes impacted only those earning $150,000 or more.
The dimpled face of Conservative leader Andrew Scheer in TV ads repeating the outright falsehoods contributed to a win-win-lose-lose outcome: The rich won by not having to play the game, small biz got a tax cut they didn’t deserve, the notion of tax fairness took a hit, as did any real increase in government revenue. The loss in revenue from decreasing the small business tax to 9.5 per cent will likely cancel out any increased revenue from what remains of the tax changes.
As the dust settles, we are left to puzzle over why Morneau and Trudeau chose this particular set of tax loopholes to close when there are so many others that would have been politically popular, would have forced the wealthy to defend their indefensible privileges, and would have brought in far more revenue.
One of the most outrageous giveaways which exclusively benefits the very wealthy is stock options. We lose a billion a year to this scam, which allows corporations to pay their executives with options to buy their company’s shares at a set, low, price. This loophole — the beneficiaries pay tax on just half the gains — also leads to CEOs driving up share prices in the short term to increase the value of their options, while discounting the long-term growth of the company.
The most costly loophole enjoyed by the wealthy is the capital gains exemption. The rationale for this break is laughable as it suggests that investing in the stock market is actually investing in new productive activity. In fact, it is nothing more than a tax break for gambling, which is exactly what anyone who invests in the stock market is doing.
There are other features of the tax system that basically reward people for already being rich — the benefits of RRSPs and Tax Free Savings Accounts accrue disproportionately to the wealthiest 10 per cent. The vast majority of Canadians — for whom these programs were supposedly established — come nowhere near the maximum contribution allowed. Capping the benefits could save billions.
The Trudeau government is now coming smack up against its progressive promises and its political will to find the revenue necessary to keep them. The NDP, with its new leader Jagmeet Singh, is poised to take advantage of any show of hypocrisy by the no-longer-new prime minister. Trudeau has just two years left to prove his mettle.
Morneau’s tax changes deserve to be supported even if they were badly rolled out. But for the next round of loophole-closing the Liberals need to be prepared for the high profile and well-funded onslaught. As was shown in two previous efforts at comprehensive tax reform — the 1960s Carter Commission and the 1981 reforms by Allan McEachan — the motivation of a small powerful minority standing to lose real money is much stronger than that of the tens of thousands of regular-income earners whose financial benefit will be minimal.
But it goes beyond loopholes and special breaks. The wealthy in this country can easily afford at least two new tax brackets targeting extremely high income. The myth so firmly rooted in the public consciousness and promoted by the media — that wealthy people create economic growth — needs to be challenged. It is useful to remember that in the late ’50s and early ’60s the highest marginal tax rate was over 80 per cent, and economic growth was nearly double that experienced over the past 25 years.
If Trudeau is looking for allies in taxing wealth and high income he just got a major boost from a highly unusual source: the International Monetary Fund. In a recent report the IMF stated unequivocally, according to The Guardian newspaper: “Higher income tax rates for the rich would help reduce inequality without having an adverse impact on growth.”
The report rejected the claim that higher marginal rates would impact growth: “Empirical results do not support this argument…”
The IMF reported that, “the average top income-tax rate for the rich country members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development had fallen from 62 per cent in 1981 to 35 per cent in 2015.”
While it is understandable that the Liberal government is pre-occupied with NAFTA negotiations, it is precisely this crisis on the trade front that should remind the government that 80 per cent of our economy is domestic. That is the part of the economy that the government actually has some influence over.
Trudeau in the election campaign talked a lot about the scourge of inequality. The IMF report stated that, “between 1985 and 1995, redistribution through the tax system had offset 60 per cent of the increase in inequality caused by market forces.” Since that time, inequality in Canada has skyrocketed at the same time that the tax system failed completely to respond.
Trudeau has to realize he can’t deliver sunny days and win the next election without first weathering a political storm.
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Image: IMF/FlickrDear Dana is a bi-weekly advice column for humans who engage in romantic relationships. Please send your dilemmas, issues, conundrums, assumptions, conflicts, anxieties, worriments, obstacles, complications, predicaments, queries, questions, and any other synonyms for “problems” to deardana@rolereboot.org.
Dear Dana,
In a recent game of “I have never” with a group of friends, I discovered that my girlfriend once had a threesome with two strangers. I never like to ask about someone’s past, I don’t think it’s really relevant in a current relationship. But my girlfriend explained to me that she went out with a guy and when they went back to his place, his flatmate was there so she had sex with both men. I find this quite gross, to be honest, and I have been suppressing it for some time. The issue is that when I am drunk or when we have an argument, I keep calling her the “s” word. I hate using the word and I hate berating her, and I have never done this before. This is driving her away and I do love her dearly—is it normal for me to react in this way?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Signed,
Shamed
Dear Shamed,
Oh, dear. What’s happening here is occurring on a few levels, so I’m going to start at the top and work my way down.
I agree with you that someone’s sexual past isn’t relevant to their present relationship. It would be awkward if you worked the question “ever had a threesome?” into a second date. The sex a person has before they met you has absolutely nothing to do with you, their current partner. But in not asking about your girlfriend’s past, you assumed that you knew what her sexual past was. You assumed it was tame, vanilla and, possibly, similar to your own sexual past. When you discovered that your girlfriend had a threesome with two strangers you also found that she is more sexually adventurous than both your assumptions of her and, possibly, yourself.
That was level 1. Ready for level 2? Cause here it comes—you gotta keep the word “slut” out of your mouth. When it comes to your girlfriend, you gotta keep any word that isn’t her given name out of your mouth. I’ll allow a “honey” or a “baby” if that’s you guys’ thing, but names that are meant to belittle and dehumanize and shame are not to be used. I don’t care how angry or how drunk you get—you know what you’re saying. Kindergarten rules still apply in relationships: no name calling. And if you happen to be so drunk that you’ve blacked out and you don’t know what you’re saying then 1) stop drinking so you can 2) stop calling the woman you love horrific names.
That was level 2. Ready for level 3? You need to look at yourself and your feelings about female sexuality, take those feelings, put them in a bag, tie that bag up, throw that bag in the goddamn garbage, and start fresh.
Thought experiment: You’re at a bar, you’ve broken up with your girlfriend, and an attractive young lady comes over and starts talking to you. She’s tall and has green eyes. She touches you on the arm, you like her, she likes you, the evening goes on, and she invites you back to her place. You are very excited to go have sex with this sexy stranger. You get to her place and hang out with her and make out a bit on her couch and she has her hand down your pants when her roommate comes home, but instead of stopping she keeps going, touching you, and her roommate takes off her coat and doesn’t leave the room, she stands there and watches and smiles, and you realize you have the opportunity to have sex with these two hot girls tonight. Do you do it? Or do you run out of the apartment screaming because taking advantage of this opportunity to have sex with two consenting adults is “gross”?
My guess is this scenario is in no way gross to you, which means that your problem isn’t with threesomes. Your problem is with your vagina having touched way too many penises. I said your vagina there not to imply that you have a vagina, but rather to imply that you somehow believe that you own your girlfriend’s vagina and, therefore, can be ashamed because her vagina has not acted the way proper young lady vaginas should: only have sex when you’re in love, say please and thank you, lie and say you don’t care if you come or not because it was “still fun.”
Straight male sexuality can be super fraught with ideas of possession and purity and Madonnas and whores and even though vaginas are the reason that every human you have ever laid eyes on exists, straight men can treat vaginas as though they are delicate and easily corrupted. Like Kleenex. Like a vagina is Kleenex and sperm is snot and once a bit of sperm gets on a vagina that’s it, game over, throw that vag out and head off in search of a new, clean one. Except you don’t want to throw out this vagina because it’s surrounded by this woman you love, but now you know her vagina is dirty and how do you forgive her for that? For having dirtied your favorite vagina?
Your girlfriend is not a slut. No one is a slut. Sluts aren’t real. Sluts are a construction invented to make women feel bad for daring to fuck the way men do—which is exactly however they like. The term “slut” assumes that a woman belongs to any man they sleep with—that vaginas are erasers that take on some of every penis we interact with and somehow, in the process, become dirtier. Used. Not as good as a clean, untouched vagina. Less worthy of respect, admiration, and love. Are penises used when they interact with vaginas? Based on sheer volume, way more lady juice gets on a penis than sperm gets in a vagina. But no, penises aren’t considered to be less worthy if they’ve seen lots of vagina. Because penises are supposed to seek out vaginas and vaginas are supposed to stay locked up in a tower waiting for true love. Isn’t that how it works?
Right now you’re telling yourself the story that if only your girlfriend wasn’t such a fucking slut you’d be happy. If you want to keep your girlfriend, you have to change this story. I’m not saying it’s wrong that you have a problem with your girlfriend’s sexual history. Your feelings are your truth and your feelings themselves aren’t bad—it’s what you’re doing with them that’s causing everything to go wrong. You’re trying to suppress your feelings but, as you already know, suppressing feelings doesn’t work. Suppressed feelings get out, but the act of suppressing them means they come out sideways, twisted and mean and unhelpful.
I think it’s fine to have a reaction to the news that your girlfriend is more sexually adventurous than you previously thought. It’s fine to feel odd about that—like you don’t really know her, like maybe she’ll want more from the sex life the two of you have, that maybe she’ll want to have sex with other men during the course of your relationship, that maybe you two aren’t sexually compatible if she does want those things and you don’t.
But you solve this problem by talking to her, finding out what she does want, having an honest conversation about you and her and sex. You don’t solve it by pretending to not be mad until beer number three strips away enough of your inhibitions that you start yelling at her that she’s a worthless slut. She’s not a slut, and you’re being terrible to her because you can’t handle your shit. This entire thing is your shit, not her shit—your shit. It’s about your assumptions and your unexamined beliefs and your fears. So handle your shit. No more name calling, no more assuming that women who have lots of sex are dirty and worthless, and no more pretending your feelings aren’t hurt.
Your girlfriend isn’t a slut. Your feelings are hurt. Talk to her about your feelings, not her sexual past, but your feelings and you’ll find a way through them.
Dana Norris once went on 71 internet dates, many of which you may read about here. She is the founder of Story Club and editor-in-chief of Story Club Magazine. She has been featured in McSweeney’s, Role Reboot, The Rumpus, and Tampa Review and she teaches at StoryStudio Chicago. You may find her on Twitter at @dananorris.
Other Links:WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers began work on Monday on their version of an authorization of the use of military force in Syria, worrying that President Barack Obama’s draft could open the door to possible use of ground troops or eventual attacks on other countries.
The White House is prepared to rework language to address concerns from lawmakers, an administration official said on Monday. The official said the administration was open to changes “within the parameters that (the) president has previously explained.”
Obama’s first proposal, released on Saturday by the White House, authorizes the president to use the armed forces “as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in connection with the use of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the conflict in Syria.”
It also explicitly allows military action to deter or prevent the transfer of those weapons into or out of Syria.
The Obama administration has accused the Syrian government of killing more than 1,400 people, many of them children, in a sarin gas attack near Damascus on August 21. Syria has blamed the attack on rebel forces.
Although the authorization’s focus is on the use of chemical weapons against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents in the country’s 2-1/2-year-old civil war, it did not set a time limit on any military action or confine it to Syria or spell out other limits clearly enough for many U.S. lawmakers.
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, were conferring on Monday on the text of the Senate’s version of a revised authorization, a Senate aide said.
The committee could begin debate on a Senate version of the bill on Wednesday afternoon, with an eye toward bringing it to the full Senate for debate next week.
The House of Representatives and the Senate return from a summer break on September 9. Both chambers would have to approve the authorization, and it was unclear whether the Obama administration has the votes.
Obama has said he does not require congressional authorization for a strike on Syria.
The authorization of the use of military force against al Qaeda signed into law in September 2001 by Republican President George W. Bush has been used to justify a dozen years of U.S. counterterrorism efforts by both Bush and Obama, from the war in Afghanistan to warrantless wiretapping and drone strikes - with little congressional oversight.
“The resolution that they are presenting right now is so open-ended, I think even people who are sympathetic to the administration might have trouble supporting it,” said Representative James McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
“The broad authority the president asked for creates lots of concern with me and others,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri told reporters after a three-hour classified briefing for lawmakers on Sunday.
“And I think that that’s to be narrowed in the next week,” he said.
OUTSIDE SYRIA?
Some legal analysts said Obama’s authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, request as written could open the door to military action not just against Syria, but against other countries if they were deemed to be connected to the use of chemical weapons within Syria.
"The proposed AUMF focuses on Syrian WMD, but is otherwise very broad," Harvard University law professor Jack Goldsmith, a top Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration, wrote in an online commentary in a widely read legal blog called Lawfare. (www.lawfareblog.com/)
Despite the White House’s repeated assurances that U.S. action in Syria would not involve “boots on the ground,” many lawmakers want any authorization to specify that no U.S. forces would be sent into Syria.
Most said that, if there were any military action at all, it must be restricted to missile strikes into Syrian territory or aid to rebels fighting to oust Assad.
Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen |
appealed to the Government to undertake legislative amendments to grant Iraqi courts jurisdiction over international crimes and to become party to the Rome Statute.
ENDS
The full report is available at:
http://uniraq.org/images/humanrights/UNAMI-OHCHR_%20POC%20Report_FINAL_01%20May-31%20October%202015_FINAL_11Jan2016.pdf
For more information, please contact:
In Geneva: Rupert Colville (+41-22-917-9767 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) or Ravina Shamdasani (+41-22-917-9769 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) or Cécile Pouilly-(+41-22-917-9310 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
In Baghdad:, Samir Ghattas (+964-790-193-1281 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)
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Children who regularly use antibiotics gain weight faster than those who have never taken the drugs, according to new research that suggests childhood antibiotics may have a lasting effect on body weight well into adulthood.
The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, examined the electronic medical records of 163,820 children ages 3 to 18, counting antibiotic prescriptions, body weight and height. The records, which covered pediatric exams from 2001 through 2012, showed that one in five — over 30,000 children — had been prescribed antibiotics seven or more times. By the time those children reached age 15, they weighed, on average, about 3 pounds more than children who had received no antibiotics.
While earlier studies have suggested a link between antibiotics and childhood weight gain, they typically have relied on a mother’s memories of her child’s antibiotic use. The new research is significant because it’s based on documented use of antibiotics in a child’s medical record.
“Not only did antibiotics contribute to weight gain at all ages, but the contribution of antibiotics to weight gain gets stronger as you get older,” said Dr. Brian S. Schwartz, the first author and a professor in the department of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Scientists have known for years that antibiotic use promotes weight gain in livestock, which is why large food producers include low doses of antibiotics in the diets of their animals.
While researchers don’t know exactly why frequent use of antibiotics is associated with weight gain in children, it may be that the drugs wipe out the healthy bacteria in a child’s body. These may lead to permanent changes in the microbiome — the many and varied organisms that live in our gut. Shifts in the microbiome may change how food is broken down in our bodies, how food is absorbed and how many calories are released from foods.
In July, a study of nearly 10,000 Danish schoolchildren found that a mother’s use of antibiotics during pregnancy was associated with a higher risk that her child would become overweight or obese.
The latest study linking frequent antibiotic use and weight gain doesn’t mean that parents should never give a child these medications. Some bacterial illnesses can be life-threatening without antibiotic treatment. However, researchers have documented that parents often want — and pressure pediatricians to give them — antibiotic prescriptions for ear infections and viruses that can’t be helped by the drugs.
For years the main concern about the overprescribing of antibiotics has been the fear that the drugs would eventually lose their effectiveness as bacteria develop drug resistance. The new research opens the door to a potential new strategy for curbing antibiotic use, warning parents that overuse has an immediate detrimental effect on a child’s health and puts them at risk for becoming fat.
“We’ve got to totally dissuade parents from advocating for antibiotics,’’ said Dr. Schwartz. “As parents we want to feel like we’re doing something active for our kids, but I think we’re doing our kids damage. If your doctor says you don’t need them, don’t take them. ”
Related:IN a desperate bid to survive, a boy in rural Jamaica has turned to working in ganja fields, reaping the illegal weed in order to buy his meals.
But while his actions would be considered illegal and he could have been arrested and later imprisoned if the police had caught him, the lad said that he had no choice.
"My mother don't treat me good, Miss," he told the Jamaica Observer in an interview days ago.
"She do me whole heap of things, Miss, like she don't give me any food for two days straight. I have to be going to ganja bush to pick weed and then she cuss mi 'cause she don't want me to go there. But I have to go ganja bush, Miss. Because anytime she cook she only give it to the other two children them and don't look pon me, Miss."
A relative of the child confirmed that he has in fact been left to fend for himself.
"His parents do not care," the relative stated. "He has no birth certificate, no vaccination paper, no baptismal paper, has to fend for himself, and is dirty all the time. This child has to fend for himself to eat, wash his own clothes and walk on the road daily."
It is a situation that has affected the boy psychologically.
"I feel bad because I was the only one in the field and everybody else a pure big man," he stated.
He said that when he goes to pick the crop he would be given $500 per day which he would use to purchase his meals. However, he said that the crop is seasonal and so the work is not consistent. Therefore, after buying himself something to eat he would put aside some to take him into the next day.
"When I get money -- like how mi have a little phone now -- I would buy phone card and buy food and have money for the next day," he said.
What made him feel even worse, he said, is having the men in the field often belittling him.
"Because is me alone as little boy and is pure big man, they always cuss mi 'bout mi fi go a school. That did make mi feel a way, Miss, but mi never used to answer because mi never have nothing to say," the child said.
But despite feeling cheated by his mother, the child said that he still intends to grow up, get a respectable job and work to help support her.
"I would do it, Miss," he said. "But all wah day she a cuss mi, and she say she should a do what my auntie say she did fi do -- kill mi when mi still deh in a belly. I did feel bad when she say that, Miss."
The child's mother, who refused to be interviewed, and who declared that she had no interest in having her 'business go public', finally admitted to loving her son when the Sunday Observer asked her if she did.
"Of course mi love mi son," was all she said.
Others in the community admitted to having knowledge of the child's survival skills and have even discouraged his actions by helping to provide for him and showing him the dangers of his 'job'.
"I always see him around, but I never know that was what he did," one community member told the Sunday Observer. "He told us that sometimes he didn't get anything to eat. So I told my daughter that even if I am not home she should cook and leave for him so whenever he comes he would get it."
It was after seeing him appearing at her house late at nights that she decided to question him about his whereabouts and he confessed to her that he was coming from the ganja field.
"I told him not to go to those places. I said you don't see that I don't send my children to those places?" she said. "So I try to assist him as much as I can."
But the child said he does not feel at home in his mother's house, especially since he eats breakfast, dinner, and washes his clothes at another home in the community. The only times he goes home is to sleep.
"All the other day, the lady [where he eats] daughter say that mi come een like her little brother and mi feel good 'bout that," the child added with a smile.UPDATED Friday (4/15/16) with additional comments from American University of Beirut's president:
Steven Salaita, the professor who lost out on a tenured position at the University of Illinois because of his controversial tweets, is the subject of another job dispute, this one at the American University of Beirut.
Students at the university — where Salaita was appointed to a one-year faculty post in American studies last summer — say the school's president abruptly called off a search for a new director of the Center for American Studies and Research after Salaita was unanimously recommended for the position.
An online petition created this week by a group called Students for Salaita said the search was canceled on March 30, with Khuri citing "procedural irregularities" within the search committee. The petition demands that the committee's recommendation be respected.
The petition said students and other Salaita allies are "deeply concerned Professor Salaita is once again being wrongfully targeted for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinian self-determination."
President: 'Wholly untrue'
But in an email message to the campus, President Fadlo Khuri called the reports "wholly untrue" and "a malicious distortion of the facts involved in this case."
He said he made the decision after university leaders received several complaints from faculty members alleging conflicts of interest and misconduct in the search process.
Further consultations revealed "significant procedural violations" and administrators decided to stop the search and re-advertise the position next year, he said in the email, which was sent to The News-Gazette and other media.
Khuri said he and the school’s interim provost also met with Salaita “to explain the flaws in the search process and advised him to reapply for a permanent position.” They also proposed extending his current position for another year, the email said.
Khuri said the violations included the presence of visiting faculty with selection and voting rights on the search committee, and the potential confict of having the current director, visiting Professor Lisa Hajjar, chairing a committee to find her own successor.
Khuri said he met with Hajjar later in March "to indicate the serious nature of the allegations and
she acknowledged understanding of the fatal flaws in the process."
Hajjar told Inside Higher Education that the panel learned that the president had canceled the search the day after the recommendation to hire Salaita was discussed by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee. She said she'd been working to get the decision reversed when the petition was posted.
In a follow-up email to The News-Gazette, Hajjar said she had not been informed, "beyond generalities, what specific irregularities the president claims prompted him to cancel the search. I have been working with AUB faculty to understand whether or not the way the search was conducted violated rules. Thus far, no one else seems to have found any irregularities, although the investigation is ongoing." She declined further comment.
800 signatures of support
As of Thursday evening, the petition had gathered more than 800 signatures, the group said in an email to The News-Gazette.
It said the cancellation of the search "illustrates the powerful presence of external pressures in the university, which come at the cost of academic freedom."
"With the absence of an investigation, and given Professor Salaita's recent termination from a tenure-track position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for his pro-Palestinian political views, we fear that AUB is reproducing the trend of persecuting scholars who condemn the injustices committed in Palestine," the petition said.
But Khuri said the university "strongly supports the principles of academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the fair, transparent selection of academic positions based on merit alone and free of any hidden political agenda."
Salaita was initially hired by the UI's American Indian Studies Department in October 2013, and was to start teaching the following August. But after his angry tweets about Israel in the summer of 2014, administrators revoked the offer and trustees eventually voted against his appointment.
Salaita sued to get his job back. The UI agreed to an $875,000 settlement last fall, with Salaita promising not to seek employment at the university.Demonstrations continued today in at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, against Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal –Â which in addition to requiring greater contributions from public employees to their benefits packages, would also strip public employees of most collective bargaining rights. And today, pro-Walker protesters turned out, as well — but were seriously outnumbered by the continued throngs of pro-union demonstrators.
The pro-Walker Tea Party rally featured something of all-star cast: Andrew Breitbart, Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher, Herman Cain and more. However, every estimate in the media has shown that the pro-Walker demonstration was outnumbered several times over by the pro-union demonstrators.
Reuters reports: “Both sides drew thousands to the state capital Madison on Saturday — unofficial estimates put the total near 40,000 — but opponents appeared to have several times as many as those backed by Tea Party groups, the first appearance by members of the conservative, limited-government movement this week.”
Separately, WisPolitics reports that the state Department of Administration has estimated 55,000 demonstrators –Â 50,000 outside the Capitol, and 5,000 inside. They also add: “This is the first day there has been a significant number of people demonstrating in favor of Gov. Scott Walker’s bill. The number of bill supporters, however, was dwarfed by the massive throng of bill opponents.”
And amazingly, there have been no arrests or incidents reported. So as a former Madison resident, I must say: Wisconsin is a place where even the angry mobs are polite and friendly.Wisconsin is currently in a political crisis, with the minority state Senate Democrats having left the state in order to block the three-fifths quorum necessary to pass the budget. In addition, many schools have closed across the state, due to teachers calling in sick in large numbers.
Under Walker’s plan, as TPM has reported, most state workers would no longer be able to negotiate for better pensions or health benefits or anything other than higher salaries, which couldn’t rise at a quicker pace than the Consumer Price Index. Walker and state Republican leaders have said the plan to limit the collective bargaining rights of state employees is necessary to deal with the state’s budget shortfall.
The budget proposal includes other provisions to strip the public employee unions of power, as well — notably getting rid of the state’s process of automatically garnishing employees’ wages to collect union dues. According to the Associated Press: “The proposal would effectively remove unions’ right to negotiate in any meaningful way. Local law enforcement and fire employees, as well as state troopers and inspectors would be exempt.”
As the Wisconsin State Journal reports, the union leaders are saying they are willing to negotiate with Walker on the financial concession regarding workers’ contributions to their benefits packages — but they want the collective bargaining and other anti-union provisions taken out. “We want to say loud and clear — it is not about those concessions,” said Mary Bell, head of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, in a conference call with reporters. “For my members, it’s about retaining a voice in their professions.”
But as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports, Walker’s office is insisting that he will not compromise on the budget’s provisions against union powers. And in a statement from his spokesman Cullen Werwie, those same provisions are pitched as a favor to the public employees themselves:
“Gov. Walker has repeatedly said that we won’t negotiate the budget and we can’t balance the budget on a hope and a prayer,” Werwie said in the statement. “That remains true. State and local government need the flexibility to manage this and future budget crises. In addition, as government workers pay a modest amount toward their pension and healthcare premium, about half the national average, it is fair to give them the choice of additional savings on their union dues.”
Special thanks to Phil Ejercito for Dane101.com for photo.Secret Service agent under fire after posting she wouldn't take bullet for Trump
CLOSE The agent, Kerry O’Grady, leads the Secret Service’s Denver district, which oversees coordination with Washington-based advance teams for all presidential candidate and presidential trips to the area. USA TODAY NETWORK
The Secret Service is "taking appropriate action" after a special agent wrote a Facebook post suggesting she wouldn't take a bullet for Donald Trump if he were president.
A Secret Service spokesperson confirmed that the agency was aware of Facebook posts made by special agent Kerry O'Grady, but wouldn't elaborate on them further because it is a personnel matter.
The posts were reportedly written in October but came under the spotlight after a Washington Examiner article on Tuesday. Screenshots of them have since circulated social media, as critics call for her to be fired.
According to CNN, her post read: "As a public servant for nearly 23 years, I struggle not to violate the Hatch Act. So I keep quiet and skirt the median. To do otherwise can be a criminal offense for those in my position. Despite the fact that I am expected to take a bullet for both sides. But this world has changed and I have changed. And I would take jail time over a bullet or an endorsement for what I believe to be disaster to this country and the strong and amazing women and minorities who reside here. Hatch Act be damned. I am with Her."
The Hatch Act, passed in 1939, bars certain federal employees from engaging in political activity to promote fairness and nonpartisanship within the workplace. The Secret Service is among the agencies affected by the Hatch Act.
O'Grady told the Examiner in an interview that she took down the posts after two or three days and that she wouldn't shirk her duties to protect the president, despite her support of Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
"It was an internal struggle for me but as soon as I put it up, I thought it was not the sentiment that I needed to share because I care very deeply about the mission," she said.
Twitter took notice, calling for O'Grady's firing.
Secret Service Agent Kerry O'Grady: "I wouldn’t take a bullet for Trump". RT if you also think she must be fired by the end of day! pic.twitter.com/Maw3l8nc2V — Tennessee GOP (@TEN_GOP) January 24, 2017
🔥YOU'RE FIRED!
Senior Secret Service agent Kerry O'Grady suggests she wouldn't take 'a bullet' for Trump#MAGA
🔥https://t.co/Jaju0PjLA2pic.twitter.com/p4oV5zyNX5 — CC (@ChristiChat) January 24, 2017
Kerry O'Grady the agent in charge of the secret service in #Denver says #Trump is a disaster for the country. Kerry leave this country!! — Charlie C (@Maxzen2004) January 25, 2017
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2kqFK9tTodd S. Purdum is senior writer at Politico and contributing editor for Vanity Fair, as well as author of An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
On Jan. 1, 1943, Robert Gene Baker arrived in Washington at the height of World War II to become a Senate page. Two decades later, this son of a mailman from Pickens, S.C., had become the reigning Washington wheeler-dealer and fixer of his day as secretary to the Senate’s Democratic majority. In the era of President John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier, Baker was indispensable on Capitol Hill: The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Exactly 50 years ago this fall, in the face of a widening official investigation into his private business dealings and vivid social life—an inquiry that threatened to engulf the Kennedy White House in a sex scandal and destroy Baker’s political patron, Vice President Lyndon Johnson—Baker drank four martinis at lunch and impulsively resigned his post. He had been as close as a son to Johnson, privy to the vice president’s deepest secrets. On Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, the tragedy of Kennedy’s assassination short-circuited the Baker investigation, and spared Johnson career-ending ignominy.
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Still, prosecutors eventually caught up with Baker, if not his patron, and he ended up serving 18 months in prison on federal tax evasion charges. In 1978, he co-wrote Wheeling and Dealing, a rollicking memoir with Larry L. King, best known as the author of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
But Baker in recent years quietly recorded an even more unvarnished account of his anything-goes-era in Washington, which Politico Magazine now publishes for the first time. His recollections—of an age when senators drank all day, indulged in sexual dalliances with secretaries and constituents, accepted thousands of dollars in bribes and still managed to pass the most important legislation of the 20th century—were collected by Donald Ritchie of the Senate Historical Office in interviews with Baker in 2009 and 2010. The resulting 230-page manuscript was so ribald and riveting, so salacious and sensational, that the Historical Office refrained from its usual practice of posting such interviews online.
Today, Baker is alive and well and living in Florida, managing the successful real estate investments that he somehow retained through his darkest days. Earlier this month, he turned 85. In the reminiscences that follow, he offers indelible proof that the good old days were not always good: One senator died with $2 million in unexplained cash; another took a $200,000 payment to switch his vote; some showed up for work drunk. But he also explains the ways in which the old days might well have offered a better model than the present for how to do business on Capitol Hill: his was really a time when senators knew and respected each other, and bipartisan cooperation was the norm. It’s a close question whether the sanctioned immorality of 50 years ago was worse for the legislative process than the codified corruption of today. Readers, be the judge. But harken, meantime, to the words of perhaps the last living man who saw it all.
What follows, in quotes, are Baker’s recollections; the author’s notes are in italics.
***
Bobby Baker (left) in the early 1960s. | AP Photo
“My first impression was when I saw all of the soldiers with their bayonets guarding the Capitol. It scared [the] hell out of me because I had never been 50 miles beyond Pickens when I came to Washington on a bus…I tell you, for a hillbilly from South Carolina, I could not believe the grandeur of the Capitol and Washington…
Baker on the patron who had brought him to Washington, Sen. Burnett Maybank (D-S.C.).
“He was very, very kind. …He had one weakness. He had to have about a half a tumbler of bourbon when he woke up in the morning. He died, I think, when he was about 51…” 1
1. Burnett Maybank (1899-1954) was a descendant of five governors of South Carolina, and eventually held that post himself after beginning his career as an alderman and later mayor of Charleston. He served as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and shortly before his death was named by Fortune magazine as one of the “20 most influential Americans.”
and Sen. Clyde Hoey (D-N.C.)…
“Senator Hoey used to wear a swallowtail coat. The secretaries used to call me in the cloakroom because back then we always got paid in cash, twice a month. They’d say, ‘Is that old son of a bitch out there by the water fountain?’ Because what he would do, when a pretty girl would come by, he’d call her over and then he would try to play with her breasts.” 2
2. Clyde Hoey (1877-1954) bought a weekly newspaper at age 16 and was elected to the North Carolina state legislature at age 20. He was elected to the Senate in 1944, and in 1950 he opposed statehood for Hawaii on the grounds that it was inconceivable to allow a territory with only a small percentage of white people to enter the union.
Baker on meeting Lyndon Johnson, who would become his mentor—though the relationship began a bit the other way around, as Johnson sought advice from the 20-year-old after his election to the Senate in 1948.
“I was a skinny little boy, I weighed about 120 pounds. He weighed about 280. So when [Johnson’s aide] John Connally took me in to introduce me to Senator-elect Johnson, Johnson jumped up and he said, ‘Mr. Baker, they tell me you’re the smartest son of a bitch over there.’ I said, ‘Well, whoever told you that lied.’ I said, ‘I know all of the staff on our side. I know who the drunks are. And I know whose word is good.’ He said, ‘You’re the man I want to know.’ So we became great friends…”
By the time of Johnson’s arrival, Baker had already become the Democrats’ “chief telephone page,” responsible for tracking action on the Senate floor and being able to tell inquiring Senate aides whether their bosses were needed for a vote. He came to know all the Senate’s byways and personalities, including the secretary to the Democratic majority, Felton “Skeeter” Johnston, a laconic Mississippian. Like other pages, who boarded full-time on Capitol Hill, Baker would attend school each morning before the Senate day began.
“Skeeter had an alcohol problem, but back then the Senate didn’t go in session until 12 o’clock, so I’d get out of class [in the page school] around 12, be back to the Senate around 12:20. After then, I was basically in charge of what was happening, because he loved being in the Secretary of the Senate’s office, which was a fabulous bar for Democratic senators.” 3
By the time John F. Kennedy was killed, Bobby Baker's association with Lyndon Johnson was beginning to threaten the careers of both politicians. | AP Photo
3. Felton Johnston (1909-1973) later became the secretary of the Senate, charged with running the chamber’s administrative and procedural functions. In the days when the Senate had 96 members (before the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union), Sen. John Stennis of Mississippi once declared, “Majorities may come and majorities may go, but Skeeter’s always the 97 th Senator on the floor on our side.”
In 1953, when Johnson became the Senate’s Democratic floor leader, he promoted Baker to the post of secretary to the majority. The two collaborated so intimately that Baker became known as “Little Lyndon” and operated as Johnson’s eyes and ears. After Johnson’s 1955 heart attack — which involved prolonged absences for recuperation — Baker’s counsel became all the more important. As the years went by, he became the Senate’s leading expert at counting votes. He explained the importance of getting to know members in relaxed, after-hours settings.
“They let their hair down when they’ve had a few drinks, tell you their likes and dislikes, and you file it away. You find out who likes to take trips around the world, and then you try to repay those who voted against their conscience to help you. Senator Johnson was very adept at taking care of senators and their wishes, and the bills that they wanted…”
We had these sofas and chairs, and there’s the mirror where … Kennedy said, ‘God, why did you make me so beautiful?’”
Friendships — and employment relationships — stretched across the partisan divide, as Baker recalled of his first acquaintance with Richard Nixon. In 1949, Baker had married Dorothy Comstock, a secretary to Senator Scott Lucas (D-Ill.), but she left that job for a better-paying one with Nixon after his election to the Senate in 1950.
“I knew him when he was first elected to the Senate. He had a lovely wife and two pretty daughters. My wife went on his payroll, because he had a surplus of cash from his California campaign. The Senate Sergeant at Arms kept a list of people who knew the Hill, and he recommended my wife to Senator Nixon’s secretary, Rose Wood[s]. She worked there until I was in law school and needed more money, and Senator [Pat] McCarran’s [D-Nev.] administrative assistant, Eva Adams, gave my wife a fat raise, and she resigned from Senator Nixon’s staff.
4. After Democrats successfully weakened the Civil Rights Act of 1957 by inserting a provision granting defendants in federal civil rights cases the right to a jury trial—universally seen as a betrayal by pro-civil rights groups because all-white Southern juries would be unlikely to convict white defendants in civil rights cases—Nixon declared, “This is one of the saddest days in the history of the Senate. It was a vote against the right to vote.”
“Especially at the beginning of the Eisenhower administration, I would see Mr. [Roy] Wilkins and all of the lobbyists for the NAACP in and out of Vice President Nixon’s little old office right off the Senate floor. He was really courting them. And they were ready to make a deal, because he was much, much more liberal on the Negro question than the Democrats were. For the life of me, I do not understand how he wound up with so much hate, dislike—he didn’t like Jews, he didn’t like anybody…” 4
5. Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896-1969) kept a fully stocked bar in the back of his office, in a private room known as the “Twilight Lodge,” with a clock on the wall whose every hour was numbered five, so it was always after five and thus a suitable time for a drink.
Baker recalled the power of lobbyists to influence issues, recounting an exchange with the long-serving Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.)…
“One time Senator Dirksen called me down to his office. … He had… the right-wing bomb-throwers [assembled there]. Senator Dirksen started off by saying, ‘Mr. Baker, you are the best vote-counter in the history of the Senate. Will you tell my colleagues how many votes you have on this issue?’ I said, ‘Mr. Leader, I have 40 votes on my side and 12 votes on your side.’ They said, ‘Goddamn you! How can you have 12 votes on our side?’ I said, ‘Well, my lobbyist friend from the Railway Union, Cy Anderson, showed me his sheet. He secured vote pledges from the following…’ I’d go down the list. They said, ‘Those bastards!’ They were really upset. Dirksen said, ‘Take another drink. Let’s go get a unanimous consent agreement and have a long weekend.’ That’s the way he worked. … Dirksen became a wonderful friend. I mean, had it not been for Senator Dirksen, the [1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965] Voting Rights Act would never have passed…. So I’ll tell you, I have great admiration for him…. He never saw a $100 bill he didn’t like.” 5
She said, ‘Lyndon, I need some advice.’ She said, ‘Styles has got $2 million in cash here and I don’t know how to handle it.’”
Asked how he went about counting heads, Baker offered the following explanation….
“Well, basically I knew a senator’s position or leanings, whether a senator was a conservative or a liberal. Basically, they don’t deviate from that. If you have 30 liberals and 20 conservatives, you have it. One of the few times I did not know how the vote was going to turn out was when President Kennedy was seeking Medicare. I did not learn until later why Senator Jennings Randolph [D-W.Va.] voted against it. Senator [Robert] Kerr, [a Democrat from Oklahoma, and a wealthy oil magnate] had made a deal with the doctors in Oklahoma to kill Medicare. He was just adamant in his opposition to Medicare. Now, Senator Jennings Randolph was a wonderful senator. … Ninety-nine times out of 100, I knew how he was going to vote. … But he would never tell me how he was going to vote on President Kennedy’s Medicare bill. … But Senator Kerr gave him $200,000 for that vote. It shows you that money can talk.” 6
6. Jennings Randolph (1902-1998) had been one of the original sponsors of Kennedy’s Medicare bill but switched his vote at the last minute when the measure was on the Senate floor in July 1962, prompting audible gasps in the chamber. At the time, Randolph explained that he had done so because he opposed the bill’s having been attached as a rider to a pending welfare reform measure—a parliamentary device intended to bypass the Constitution’s provision that revenue bills must originate in the House. Randolph said he feared the inclusion of Medicare in the welfare measure would imperil that bill’s chances in the House and deprive his state of badly needed benefits.
Baker explained the method used by Walter Reuther, the longtime head of the United Autoworkers Union, to get cash to senators at a time when unions were barred from making political contributions.
“He had to be very careful with cash money that came to his union in the United States. But he had no such rule in Canada. So as a consequence, Walter Reuther, probably because of his cash contributions, had a minimum of 20 senators that would vote any way he wanted. … He bought more United States Senate seats than anybody in my life. I’m telling you, it was unreal for Senator Ted Moss [D-Utah] or Gale McGee [D- Wyo.], coming from basically Republican territory, to get elected. Because Walter Reuther gave money. But boy, when I needed to get them to help on a vote, if Walter Reuther called them, I could never change them.” 7
7. Walter Reuther (1907-1970) was a tireless crusader on behalf of organized labor and civil rights. The son of a socialist brewery worker who had emigrated from Germany to West Virginia, he joined the Ford Motor Company in 1927 as a tool and die maker, and by 10 years later had become the major labor leader in Detroit.
Baker believed cash for votes was not limited to the Senate, recounting how Rein Vander Zee, an aide to Hubert Humphrey, had described Humphrey’s famous loss to JFK in the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary in 1960.
“Vander Zee, until his dying day, said that Humphrey would have defeated Kennedy … had it not been for that massive cash old man Joe [Kennedy] bought the election with. Ryan, being an ex-FBI man, had every sheriff in each of those counties committed to voting for Humphrey. And, boy, when Election Day came, it was total news to him. They changed on Thursday before the Tuesday. Vander Zee said, ‘They wouldn’t even return my call.’’’ 8
8. Kennedy’s biographer Robert Dallek has written that “in West Virginia politics, money was king,” noting that Humphrey’s entire campaign budget in the state was $25,000, while Kennedy spent $34,000 on television advertising alone. Dallek quotes Kennedy campaign aide Kenneth O’Donnell as saying that payments to local political bosses did not bother “the earthy and realistic people of West Virginia, who were accustomed to seeing the local candidate for sheriff carrying a little black bag that contained something other than a few bottles of Bourbon whiskey.”
…and he described the challenge of getting Robert F. Kennedy confirmed as attorney general in his brother’s administration…
“The President had said, ‘Lyndon, I need your help,’ because Senator [Richard] Russell [D-Ga.] and the Republicans were solid against Bobby being attorney general. He had really no legal experience. Johnson said [to me], ‘If the president is defeated by my supporters, it’s a terrible, terrible, can’t do situation for me.’ He said. ‘See what you can do with our mutual friend Senator Russell, because if you get enough bourbon in him, he gets more reasonable.’ So I took him out to the secretary of the Senate’s office and I said, ‘Your best friend loves you and he called me and he needs your help and will you please let me have a voice vote?’ And he said, most reluctantly, ‘You can have a voice vote.’ And Senator Dirksen, being a decent man, let it go through that way. But had it had a roll-call vote, Bobby Kennedy would have never been attorney general. He would have been lucky to get 40 votes. That’s how the Senate that I knew thought of him.” 9
9. At the time of his nomination as attorney general, Robert Kennedy had never so much as practiced law—a reality that his brother took note of at the 1961 Gridiron Dinner when he said that he had given R.F.K. the job so he might “get a little experience first.” When R.F.K. bristled, his brother advised him that it was good to make fun of oneself. “You weren’t making fun of yourself,” the attorney general retorted. “You were making fun of me!”
Russell was the most revered—and feared — senator of his day. But his staunch segregationist views and implacable opposition to civil rights legislation made him anathema to the national Democratic Party…
“Being from Georgia and being much more conservative than the Democratic Party, there was no chance that he would take any position. Had he conceded that the South lost the Civil War, and after the Brown v. Board of Education had he stated that our customs in the South are totally different, but if you’ll go with me, we’ll start in kindergarten and we’ll integrate, he would have been president. He actually could have been president and he wanted to be president. But civil rights killed him, and that’s all he knew |
2.40 (as of 04:50 EST - Details)
There are even cases of former libertarians who have held high government positions and sacrificed all their values in order to hold their jobs. They claim that they haven’t abandoned libertarianism but rather seek to apply it in the “real world.” But the real world of government is the opposite of libertarianism. It is stealing, lying, killing, butchering, badgering, looting, coercing, and sucking the life out of society itself. That is the essence of modern statecraft.
You either have to come to terms with that or leave. If you stay, you become part of the very problem that you fought to oppose. We saw this not only during the egregious Bush administration but also in the 1980s with Reagan. Many people become educated with sound political values and find themselves attracted to Washington politics. They quickly feel embarrassed about their naïveté and seek to fix themselves up, adopting the approved cynicism that eats away at their soul. They become changed over time, morphing into the very opposite of what they started out, and of what they started out believing.
There are names I could mention here in our time, former libertarians now holding high political appointments in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy. They know who they are. They can pretend superiority that they are “getting their hands dirty” while the rest of us are merely typing away at our keyboards. But in fact, they have become responsible for great evil, the leading one of which is to contribute to the great lie that government is doing good for us.
This, sadly, is the future of Sarah Palin, who may have been doing some good in Alaska. It is even more of a tragedy when people leave the private sector where they are serving the public in productive ways, only to become part of the machinery of stealing, lying, and killing.
There is something about Sarah I really like, especially that she seems to have had some sympathy for an Alaskan secession movement, which, contrary to media hysteria, is a perfectly reasonable and liberal position to take. But you can be sure that if she plans to be a successful vice president under a McCain administration, all of this will be swept under the carpet and her primary accomplishment in life will have been to dupe many people into supporting an administration that promises to be the worst thing that has happened to this country since Bush was sworn in.
Lew Rockwell Archives
The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.Aziz Ansari and Noël Wells in Master of None. Photo courtesy Netflix
Master of None begins with sex gone awry. Dev Shah (Aziz Ansari), a working actor, is humping and pumping over a woman named Rachel (Noël Wells), whom he has just met, when the condom breaks. For a moment, it seems we are in the familiar territory of the auteurist cringe comedy—think of Louie or Girls—in which an idiosyncratic personality encounters demanding, adult situations and awkwardness ensues. But Master of None’s first seconds are a kind of fake-out. The 10-episode series, co-created by Ansari and Alan Yang and arriving on Netflix this Friday, is not a cringe comedy but a comedy of manners, fascinated by anthropology and etiquette, by how we behave and how we should behave.
How should you text? How should you treat your parents? How should you react to racism? How should you react to sexism? How should you pick lunch? How should you pick a partner? How should you pick a life? These are just some of the questions Master of None considers, after the inciting “how should you proceed after the condom breaks?” question. To answer that one, Dev does a bit of Googling. He and Rachel Uber to a pharmacy. Once there, Dev “treats” Rachel to the Plan B pill and two bottles of Martinelli’s apple juice. Phones, pharmaceuticals, excellent juice, two near-strangers doing the best they can in an intimate situation: It’s not quite a prescription from Miss Manners, but Ansari makes for a better, more curious guide to the loopholes of the modern world anyhow.
Ansari is best known for playing douchebags: the hyperactive, dirty-talking brah Randy—or rather Raaaaaaaandy—and Parks and Recreation’s Tom “treat yo’ self” Haverford. But Master of None is not about douchebaggery but decency: Dev’s always reaching for it. His search is the stuff of a comedy that also doubles, triples, quadruples, and so on as a romantic comedy, naturalistic indie, sci-fi satire, paean to urban foodie culture, guide to texting best practices, commentary on race and gender, dramatization of the immigrant experience, exploration of the first-generation experience, and investigation of the living-and-loving-in-Brooklyn-and-Brooklyn-adjacent-boroughs experience.
Master of None is a Netflix show, but unlike other offerings from the streaming service, it does not fetishize continuity. There’s no “scenes from the previous episode” montage because, yes, you are probably binge-watching (I don’t know how you could resist) but also because none is required. Each episode revolves around a theme, often encapsulated by its name—“Plan B,” “Parents,” “Indians on TV”—that appears on screen like a movie title. Some characters recur from episode to episode, like Rachel, Dev’s parents (played by Ansari’s own parents, Shoukath and Fatima Ansari), and his crew of friends, which includes overgrown white weirdo Arnold (Eric Wareheim), who never met a bounce house he couldn’t dominate, black lesbian Denise (Lena Waithe), chill dispenser of sage advice, and Brian (Kelvin Yu), the son of Taiwanese immigrants who is also always on the hunt for the best lunch spot. But episodes are largely self-contained, playing like minimovies or live-action essays on the ethics of the subject at hand, which includes everything from adultery to assisted living facilities.
Ansari has a great eye for the ways that technology has destabilized manners. “We can be shitty to people, it’s one of the great things about being alive now!” Dev chortles when, having been treated inconsiderately over text, he pays that inconsideration forward. When he orders an Uber for Rachel, he lets her know that the UberX is closer to them than the Uber Black, lest she think he’s being cheap. A married woman (played by Claire Danes), inputs her number into Dev’s phone, so he can call when he changes his mind about adultery. Trying to decide where to have lunch, Dev falls into a black hole of Yelp reviews, “best of” lists, and Eater recommendations that ultimately keep him from having lunch. When the best of everything seems so easily available, whether its tacos or women, it’s hard to settle for very good.
Master of None knows that technology is just another venue for people to exhibit the same old bad behavior. In the second episode, “Parents,” Dev can’t be bothered to help his father organize his iPhone notifications. This rudeness kicks off a montage about his father’s journey to America. The message is clear: Dev’s father did so much for Dev to have a good life, and now Dev won’t even fix his phone. In the fourth episode, “Indians on TV,” Ansari explores the sorry history of Indians in Hollywood. Dev and a friend name Ravi (Ravi Patel) both audition for a sitcom about three regular guys. Dev is inadvertently forwarded an email chain that says he and Dev both nailed the audition but that there “can’t be two,” followed by an executive making a racist crack about how one will have to “curry favor.” The email has just made pre-existing racism transparent.
Ansari has a lot to say about racism in Hollywood. One of the only throughlines of the season is a movie Dev has been cast in, which he and everyone else refers to as the “black virus movie,” a disaster film about a contagion starring mostly people of color. “Indians on TV” begins with Dev refusing to do the “voice” in an audition for a Law and Order–type show and not even being considered for the job. The racist email leads to an inspired rant questioning why there can’t be “two,” in an episode that, by featuring more than two Indians—Dev, Ravi, and Ravi’s workout-obsessed cousin—is implicit proof that Dev is right.
But Master of None doesn’t just want to indict racism—though it wants to do that too—it wants to complicate it. The show observes an odd or offensive custom and then plays with it, as though mores are Jenga towers, tottering among us, and Master of None wants to see how many blocks it can pull out before the whole convention falls down. After Dev gets the email, he has to sort through his options: Leak it, accept an apology from the sheepish executive who wines and dines him at a Knicks game, or try to get Friends money (it’s a network sitcom) while putting a nonstereotypical Indian on television. Network TV, which ultimately offers Dev a gig playing the Balki role in a Perfect Strangers reboot, accent and all, is never exonerated, but Dev’s reaction to it, his disgust and his potential complicity, makes “Indians on TV” so much thornier, funnier, more personal and painful than it would be if it were only an entirely warranted broadside against Hollywood’s whiteness.
Synopsized, it can sound like the conclusions of some of the episodes are pat: Treat your parents with respect. Sexism is real. But Ansari is so devoted to thinking these ideas through that they never feel quite predictable. In “Indians on TV,” Busta Rhymes counsels Dev to take the money. In “Ladies and Gentleman,” about sexism, Dev and Denise get a subway masturbator arrested. They’re proud to have dealt with such a creep, but even the creep gets a moment of sympathy: What would they do, the masturbator asks, if what they were into was something they shouldn’t do in public? (“Ladies and Gentleman” is a good episode, but Master of None’s female-ally bona fides are best captured by the fact that Eat, Pray, Love and The Bell Jar ultimately prove to be Dev’s emotional lodestars.)
Master of None’s devotion to thinking things through is responsible for the weakest aspect of the show: the way Dev and his friends talk to each other, which is frontloaded in the early episodes. The dialogue is thoughtful and funny, but it has a stagey quality, at odds with the show’s general naturalism. (The episodes were directed by James Ponsoldt and Lynn Shelton, who are both experts at indie realism.) Because of the show’s fixation on getting to the bottom of social weirdnesses, conversations double as investigations. Exchanges are peppered with “good point,” as though people in conversation were really trying to hear each other out. There’s so much on the show’s mind, it has a hard time shooting the shit.
There is no such verisimilitude problem between Dev and Rachel, whose banter flies fast, furious, full of silly voices and never seems anything less than squee-ably real. Rom-coms have been enjoying a moment on television. Catastrophe, You’re the Worst, and The Mindy Project have proved that long-term relationships can be funny, sexy, enduring, and volatile all once. Master of None joins their ranks: the sweetest, realest, and most poignant of the bunch.
Master of None’s self-contained episodic structure is a perfect delivery system for supersized rom-com beats. It gives us “Nashville,” an entire episode about the couple’s first real date. It gives us “Mornings,” an episode-long version of the falling-in-love montage. Wells and Ansari have wonderful chemistry and cute nicknames for each other’s body parts. They fight about keeping the apartment clean and about sex and about the future. After patching up one argument, Dev calls it a draw, but Rachel knows the truth and runs down the street, chortling to anyone who can hear, “I had a fight with my boyfriend, and I just won that fight!”
Their dialogue has shades of Nora Ephron: It’s in the ease with which they speak to each other that we know they’re a matched pair. And it also has shades of Woody Allen, in Annie Hall mode: There’s a sweetness and a fleetingness to their rapport, a sense of nostalgia for their love, even as it’s happening. One night Dev regales Rachel with a fairy-tale version of their history. When she asks if the characters will live happily ever after, he replies, “I don’t know about forever, but they’re pretty happy right now.” Watching them, you will be too.Courtesy Taylor Bennett
Three months ago, Gov. Nathan Deal appointed state Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Brookhaven, to become a DeKalb County judge. Amid a string of unlikely events, which included the death of state Rep. Harry Geisinger, R-Roswell, and the abrupt resignation of state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, the fight to become Brookhaven’s next legislator turned into more than just a local race. It’s now one that could end the GOP supermajority that has rendered Democratic votes futile.
On August 11, Brookhaven voters will decide in a special election runoff who will replace Jacobs. Three attorneys—Democrat Taylor Bennett, Republican Catherine Bernard, and Libertarian Loren Collins—and former Brookhaven Mayor J. Max Davis entered the race. In a Republican-leaning district, Bennett emerged as the top vote getter in the special election. But since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, Bennett and Davis moved on to the heated runoff.
Bennett, who played quarterback at Georgia Tech and professionally in Europe, works as a lawyer representing employees in discrimination lawsuits. He decided to run for Jacobs’ seat after watching the Brookhaven representative vote against his party members to table the “religious freedom” bill, a measure that could allow business owners to deny service to LGBT people, during a House judiciary committee last March. Bennett, whose mother is openly gay, wanted to run to ensure further attempts to pass a “religious freedom” bill would be defeated. State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, has already stated that he will bring back his legislation for the third consecutive year in 2016.
“Equal rights is a humanity issue, not a partisan issue,” Bennett says. “When I saw it was still a hotbed issue, it’s my belief that Jacobs’ replacement would support it, that the bill could go to the House floor for a vote, and we could be sitting in a different situation for the LGBT community.”
If elected, Bennett also wants to look at potentially ending some corporate tax credits to free up cash for schools. He also says lawmakers should be supportive of MARTA’s $8 billion transit expansion plan that’s expected to be a major issue discussed during the 2016 legislative session.
“We need to kick those [MARTA plans] into overdrive,” Bennett says. “This is not about just spending money, it’s an investment of capital, and people need to be invested in this individually. It’ll affect metro Atlanta and the state. We’re the gateway to everywhere in the Southeast.”
Davis—who declined an interview to discuss his candidacy, after spending several minutes on the phone inquiring about the article’s intent—has run a campaign that calls for tax cuts and greater investment in the region’s roads and transit. He’s also billed himself as a proponent of reform to both the state’s ethics laws and DeKalb County’s dysfunctional government.
Despite Bennett’s surprising finish as the top vote-getter (who received some help of Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson Jr., his former college roommate), Republican voters previously split between Bernard and Davis are expected to consolidate around the former Brookhaven mayor. That could spell problems for Bennett in a district that has had Republican representation since 2007. He is also now facing an ethics complaint for failing to file his personal financial disclosure before a deadline—something Bennett says he immediately resolved once he became aware of the missed deadline.
But there’s an opening for Bennett amid a sexual harassment accusation against Davis over allegedly spraying a women’s buttocks with an aerosol can filled with air freshener. The former mayor has denied wrongdoing, though others have cried foul over a coverup of the incident. Bennett, who coincidentally represents workers involved in sexual harassment cases, declined to comment on the Davis allegation but used it to call for stronger ethics laws.
“I don’t know the details,” Bennett says. “Regardless of what happened, openness and transparency is required. When a coverup happens, that’s why we should have laws in place to prevent things from happening.”
Should Bennett beat Davis, Georgia House Republicans would lose their effective supermajority (state Rep. Rusty Kidd, I-Milledgeville, tends to vote with the GOP). Why’s that important? Charles Bullock, political science professor at the University of Georgia, says Democratic lawmakers would be able to block GOP-backed constitutional amendments that now sail past them untouched. If that happens, he says, House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, would need to unify her entire caucus to make the 60-representative block work to her party’s advantage.
“What we’ve seen is that Abrams is pretty savvy in playing her hand for all it’s worth,” Bullock says. “It might allow her to talk to GOP leadership to get something in return.”
House Republicans would still have the upper hand on many votes during the 2016 legislative session. Yet Taylor’s victory would represent an important victory not just in Brookhaven, but across the entire state.The military intervention in Yemen by a US-backed coalition of Arab states will undoubtedly inflame the conflict both in Yemen, and throughout the region. It is likely to be a protracted war involving many actors, each of which is interested in furthering its own political and geopolitical agenda.
However, it is the international reaction to this new regional war which is of particular interest; specifically, the way in which the United States has reacted to this undeniable aggression by its Gulf allies. While Washington has gone to great lengths to paint Russia’s reunification with Crimea and its limited support for the anti-Kiev rebels of eastern Ukraine as “aggression,” it has allowed that same loaded term to be completely left out of the narrative about the new war in Yemen.
So it seems that, according to Washington, aggression is not defined by any objective indicators: use of military hardware, initiation of hostilities, etc. Rather, the United States defines aggression by the relationship of a given conflict to its own strategic interests. In Crimea and Ukraine, Russia is the aggressor because, in defending its own interests and those of Russian people, it has acted against the perceived geopolitical interests of the US. While in Yemen, the initiation by Saudi Arabia and other US-backed countries of an unprovoked war with the expressed goal of regime change, this is not aggression as it furthers Washington’s interests.
Language Versus Reality
On March 25, 2015 a coalition of Arab states initiated an aerial bombardment (as of writing there has yet to be a ground invasion, though it is expected) of Yemen for the purposes of dislodging the Houthi rebel government which had weeks before toppled the US and Saudi-backed puppet government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The war initiated by Saudi Arabia, along with its fellow Gulf monarchies and Egypt, was motivated purely by Saudi Arabia’s, and by extension the United States’, perceived interests.
Within hours of the commencement of the bombardment, reports from Yemen indicated that dozens, if not scores, of Yemenis had been killed in the airstrikes. Despite the immediate loss of life, to say nothing of the destruction of infrastructure, buildings, homes, and communities, the United States praised the operation as necessary for regional security. Indeed it has been confirmed that, while not providing direct military support in the form of troops or air support, the United States has been intimately involved in the operation.
Speaking directly on behalf of the White House and the Obama administration, the National Security Council spokesperson announced:
Saudi Arabia, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, and others will undertake military action to defend Saudi Arabia’s border and to protect Yemen’s legitimate government…In support of GCC actions…President Obama has authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to GCC-led military operations. While U.S. forces are not taking direct military action in Yemen in support of this effort, we are establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate U.S. military and intelligence support…the violent takeover of Yemen by an armed faction is unacceptable and that a legitimate political transition…can be accomplished only through political negotiations and a consensus agreement among all of the parties.
So, in Washington’s own words, the aggressive military intervention into Yemen is both legitimate and supported by the US. Moreover, the US has openly acknowledged their direct participation in the campaign in the form of intelligence and logistical support. Exactly what is entailed in “intelligence” and “logistical support” is certainly open to interpretation. Undoubtedly, the US has its covert forces involved in the operation, likely on the ground in Yemen, to say nothing of its vast presence throughout the region.
In fact, it is universally recognized that the CIA has been intimately involved in Yemen for at least the last several years, with CIA Director Brennan having been integral in fostering the relationship. As the NY Times reported in 2012, the Obama administration’s approach in Yemen was “to employ small numbers of Special Operations troops, Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary teams and drones.” It should be further remembered that Hadi himself was handpicked by Washington in the wake of the fall of former President Saleh’s government, and that Hadi, described by the US as the “legitimate” president ran unopposed in a farcically described “democratic transition” sponsored by the US.
Taken in total then, it is objectively true that the United States has been involved militarily in Yemen since at least 2012, propping up their man in Sanaa in order to bolster their geopolitical and strategic position in the region, naturally under the aegis of “fighting terrorism.” So it stands to reason that the White House would refer to the Saudi aggression as legitimate, and praise it as such. It is equally true that the so called “legitimacy” of the military operation, and the Hadi government itself, is dependent on US interests, nothing less.
Now compare the language employed by the US vis-à-vis this war against Yemen, with the talking points endlessly repeated by all US officials, and nearly all media pundits, regarding Russia’s actions in Crimea and Ukraine. Everyone from Republican warmongers like John McCain, to State Department spokesperson (and unwitting comedic icon) Jen Psaki, have all described Moscow’s moves as “Russian aggression.” Indeed, it seems that phrase alone has become something of a mantra in Washington, and on the airwaves of its servile and compliant corporate media, framing the narrative as “clear and unmistakable aggression against Ukraine’s territorial integrity” and other such vacuous phrases.
But consider for a moment the objective facts. Russia’s direct military interests in Crimea, not to mention the safety and freedom of Russian-speakers, was under direct threat after the US-sponsored coup in Kiev toppled the corrupt, but democratically elected, government in February 2014. In response, Russia launched a limited military operation to secure Crimea and its interests. This is critical because this operation was carried out with no bloodshed, no airstrikes, and not a single shot fired. While this aspect may be forgotten amid the din of belligerent shouts and incredulousness from Washington, it must not be forgotten by keen political observers. In point of fact, Russia’s “aggression” in Crimea was entirely peaceful, and as is self-evident, entirely defensive.
On the other hand, the “legitimate” actions of the US, Saudi Arabia and its allies do not constitute aggression. Well, it is clear that the dozens (by now likely far more) of families who have lost fathers and sons, wives and daughters in the airstrikes would certainly call it aggression.
It should also be noted that, unlike in Crimea where the people were given the opportunity to decide their own fate democratically, the people of Yemen are being given no such opportunity. There has been a domestic insurgency for years in the wake of the civil wars and reunification of North and South Yemen, and whatever stability might have been provided by the new Houthi-led dispensation has now fallen by the wayside. Moreover, the notion that Yemen was a functioning country under Hadi would be like saying that France was a functioning country under the Vichy regime. The overthrow of Hadi opened the possibility for a truly independent nation to emerge. This Saudi Arabia and its allies simply could not abide, as it would set a dangerous precedent for its own domestic opposition which, quite correctly, sees the House of Saud as little more than a proxy of the US and Israel.
Consider also the rhetoric of “aggression” regarding Russia’s very limited support for the anti-Kiev rebels of Donetsk and Lugansk. Listening to western media, one would think that Russian military had invaded en masse in those regions and was fighting a war against Kiev’s military. The reality is that, despite dozens of accusations and hundreds of news stories, there is still no evidence of any direct Russian military presence in eastern Ukraine. It is true that there are Russian volunteers and some Russian hardware, but these are hardly evidence of any invasion, let alone even military support of the scale that the US has just authorized sending to Kiev. Even a Russophobic perspective would have to admit, however reluctantly, that Russia’s presence in eastern Ukraine is minimal and indirect.
Now compare that to the outright bombardment using massive military capabilities being carried out by the Saudis and their allies in Yemen. In a matter of hours, this US-backed alliance has employed more military hardware, and wreaked more devastation, than Russia has in more than 12 months. The question of scale is critical. Russia quite correctly perceives a threat to its own borders and interests from the US-sponsored Kiev regime, and it has acted with a great degree of restraint. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, which also perceives a Houthi-controlled Yemen as a threat to its borders and interests, has unleashed a massive military campaign to destroy the movement and effect its own regime change to reinstall Hadi.
It could not be clearer the level of hypocrisy from the US, its allies, and the compliant media. Russia is an “aggressor” while Saudi Arabia is a “defender.” Iran is sponsoring regime change in Yemen, while the US merely supported “democratic forces” in Ukraine. Assad must go, but Hadi must stay. Not to belabor the point, as it is obvious on its face, but legitimacy and illegitimacy is conferred by the US based on its interests, not international law or objective facts.
That this is well known in the non-Western world is undeniably true. However here in the US, and in the West more broadly, the narrative is shaped by those in power who seek to further their own agendas. They choose the words, and they dictate what is and is not acceptable. They are the Ministry of Truth, and the thought-criminals who question their narratives are dangerous subversives and propagandists. In truth however, those who question those narratives are the ones who have consistently been on the right side of history, from Vietnam to Iraq to Libya, Syria, and Yemen. And I, for one, am proud to count myself among them.
Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City, he is the founder of StopImperialism.org and OP-ed columnist for RT, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.UPDATE: Officials said on Monday afternoon that schools in Nashua will reopen on Tuesday, but with a heavy police presence, the Boston Herald reports.
Parents in New Hampshire’s second-largest school district received a disturbing message on Sunday night: classes would be canceled Monday after officials received a threat against the student body over the weekend.
“We felt that given the specificity of the threat and the fact it was referencing our two high schools, which represent a third of our district, we would close all of our schools to be on the conservative side for safety today,” Superintendent Mark Conrad told The Post Monday morning.
The threat, sent to an administrator over the weekend, was “very specific,” citing the day, location and manner in which an attack would be carried out, Conrad said. He would not describe the nature of the threat, but said local law enforcement is working with the FBI to assess its credibility. The district receives threats from time to time, usually from within the 11,500-pupil student body, but few are as specific as the one received this weekend.
“It’s been eight or nine years since we’ve received a specific threat to a school, so this is not something that we see very often,” Conrad said.
While the threat only referred to the two high schools, officials decided to close all 17 in the district since parents of students in those other schools would worry about the safety of their children and likely keep them home anyway.
Nashua’s decision comes less than a week after officials in Los Angeles, home to the nation’s second-largest school district, canceled school there after receiving an emailed threat. Schools in New York City, the nation’s largest school district, remained open despite receiving the same threat.
[Facing the same threat, schools in Los Angeles, New York take different tacks]
Officials in New York were critical of Los Angeles over its decision. Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said he chose to keep schools open because he did not want to “aid and abet” those seeking to create panic. New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who was formerly chief of police in Los Angeles, said L.A.’s decision was “a significant overreaction.”
Attacks like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School—not to mention San Bernardino and the like—have school officials throughout the country concerned about the safety of their students.
In Nashua, the district recently spent more than $2 million to overhaul its security systems, a process that began before the Sandy Hook shooting, in which 27 victims were killed, most of them elementary school children.
[In heartbreaking video, Sandy Hook teachers recall 2012 massacre: ‘I’ll never be the same’]
The overhaul included locking down all main entrances so visitors have to be buzzed in, installing security cameras around schools, adding door alarms and adding “Columbine locks” throughout the district, which allow teachers to lock classrooms from the inside.
“We’ve worked very hard to improve that safety and security,” Conrad said.
Nashua schools are expected to open again on Tuesday as scheduled, unless new information or a new threat surfaces, he said. Parents and staff will receive another phone call tonight either way.
Related stories:
‘This is a different age’: Why schools are taking terror threats more seriously
Should Los Angeles have closed schools when faced with a threat?
School threats prompt proposals for tougher penaltiesFrozen tundra may be more sensitive to rising temperatures than previously thought, releasing methane and worsening global warming
By Alex Kirby
Permafrost, the layer of permanently frozen ground that lies just beneath the Earth’s surface in the polar regions, has been found to be more sensitive to the effects of global warming than climatology had recognised.
In a study published in Nature Climate Change journal, scientists say they expect the warming to thaw about 20% more permafrost than previously thought, potentially releasing significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The study, conducted by climate change experts from the universities of Leeds and Exeter and the Met Office, all in the UK, and the universities of Stockholm and Oslo, suggests that nearly four million square kilometres of frozen soil – an area larger than India – could be lost for every additional degree of global warming the planet experiences.
Permafrost is frozen soil that has been at a temperature of below 0C for at least two years, trapping large amounts of carbon that is stored in organic matter held in the soil.
When permafrost thaws, the organic matter starts to decompose, releasing greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, and raising global temperatures.
The study says it is estimated that there is more carbon contained in the permafrost than is currently in the atmosphere.
Thawing permafrost has potentially damaging consequences not just for greenhouse gas emissions, but also for the stability of buildings and infrastructure in high-latitude cities.
Roughly 35 million people live in the permafrost zone, with three cities and many smaller communities built on continuous permafrost.
The study says a widespread thaw could cause the ground to become unstable, putting roads and buildings at risk of collapse.
Recent studies have shown that the Arctic is warming around twice as fast as the rest of the world, with permafrost already starting to thaw across large areas.
The researchers suggest that the huge permafrost losses could be averted if ambitious global climate targets are met.
Lead author Sarah Chadburn, associate research fellow at the University of Exeter, says: “Achieving the ambitious Paris Agreement climate targets could limit permafrost loss. For the first time, we have calculated how much could be saved.”
The researchers used a novel combination of global climate models and observed data to estimate the global loss of permafrost under climate change.
They looked at the way that permafrost changes across the landscape, and how this is related to the air temperature, and then considered possible future increases in air temperature before converting these to a permafrost distribution map, using their observation-based relationship.
This allowed them to calculate the amount of permafrost that would be lost under proposed climate stabilisation targets.
Co-author Peter Cox, professor of climate system dynamics at the University of Exeter, says: “We found that the current pattern of permafrost reveals the sensitivity of permafrost to global warming.”
According to the study, permafrost appears to be more susceptible to global warming than previously thought, as stabilising the climate at 2C above pre-industrial levels would lead to the thawing of more than 40% of today’s permafrost areas.
The 2C target was set at the 2015 UN climate conference, which concluded the Paris Agreement, although participants agreed to aim for more stringent reductions to 1.5C.
Dr Chadburn says: “A lower stabilisation target of 1.5C would save approximately two million square kilometres of permafrost.”
Another of the co-authors, Dr Eleanor Burke, permafrost research scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre, says: “The advantage of our approach is that permafrost loss can be estimated for any policy-relevant global warming scenario.
“The ability to more accurately assess permafrost loss can hopefully feed into a greater understanding of the impact of global warming and potentially inform global warming policy.”
The authors’ report of the greater vulnerability of the permafrost to warmth will now be tested by other groups of researchers, who will seek to replicate it.
Whether the achievement of the Paris targets on emissions cuts is likely to be possible still remains doubtful in the view of some leading climate scientists.
This article was produced by Climate News NetworkThe hostess shows me to my table at Eat, a new breakfast-and-lunch spot on an unlovely corner of downtown Las Vegas. Customers huddle inside the door, along a low wall crafted from wooden pallets that once held the restaurant’s kitchen equipment. With lime green banquettes and clean midcentury lines, it’s the kind of place where I half-expect to see the Rat Pack drop by for black coffee and some verbal towel-snapping.
Chef Natalie Young walks through the dining room, greeting old friends and fielding congratulations on her new opening, before stopping by my table to make sure I’m enjoying my breakfast burrito of cage-free eggs, bacon, and pico de gallo. We get to chatting and she sits down to tell me her story. About how after a dozen years of working Vegas’ high-volume casino kitchens, she was burned out, done, bags packed, and ready to move back to New Mexico. Then someone introduced her to Tony Hsieh.
The Zappos CEO—and early investor in the company before Amazon gobbled it up for $1.2 billion—was starting an ambitious new project: revitalizing a threadbare downtown and using $350 million of his own money to do it. Hsieh’s Downtown Project has seeded investments in real estate, education, and small business: retail shops, bars, restaurants.
“First question Tony asks me is, ‘What size restaurant do you envision?’ ” says Young, laughing now at the absurdity of it all. She was a talented cook but had no real experience running a restaurant. So she took accounting classes and got help finding a suitable space and outfitting the restaurant. When she opened her doors last September, folks poured in. “It’s unbelievable,” she says to me, beaming. “I’m sitting in my own restaurant.”
Can you build a new downtown around a breakfast burrito? Las Vegas is betting that you can.
That the opening of a single breakfast joint warrants any attention at all speaks volumes about where Vegas has been and where it seeks to go. Few American cities have been hit as hard by the real estate collapse as Las Vegas has over the last half-decade. Hotels have shuttered, major construction projects have been halted, and foreclosure rates remain among the highest in the country. And nowhere have the shock waves been felt as deeply as downtown. A snarky headline in a Canadian newspaper captured the gloom of recent times: “Downtown Vegas is great for $2 Coronas and persistent feelings of sadness.”
“Businesses catered to the lowest common denominator,” says Michael Cornthwaite, who in 2010 opened the Beat Coffeehouse in the corner of a 1950s-era JC Penney’s department store that now houses a used-record shop and dozens of artist studios and retail nooks—a hangout for 20- and 30-somethings punching keys on their laptops. “It was about selling cigarettes and phone cards and booze by the single. It was about the cheapest junk food you could possibly buy.”
Even during Vegas’ boom years, downtown struggled to gain notice in the shadow of the billion-watt-glare of the Strip. The last big push was in 1995, with the Fremont Street Experience, four city blocks draped in a barrel-shaped canopy embedded with a light show, a cross between a pedestrian mall and a hallucinatory trip. It worked, luring visitors north from the Strip. But for the most part, downtown has always been a terrier chasing after a semi.
The current revival is vastly different. The emphasis isn’t on competing with the Strip for the fickle attention of tourists chasing shiny bits of foil, but to create a world-class downtown to lure businesses and residents who want to put down roots and stay awhile. The Strip isn’t viewed as the competition these days; Portland and Austin are.
I spent a few days wandering downtown recently and was struck by the sight of a more durable city springing up from the dusty lots. Last March, the $465 million Smith Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors, an anchor |
front paws to the spot where she last saw her babies.
The local RSPCA picked up the mom immediately and reunited her with her kittens. Now named Princess, the cat is sadly paralyzed for life. Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue’s owner Dee Walton is going to take care of her for good, as the poor cat has very special needs. She can’t even urinate or defecate on her own. The man responsible for this tragedy was arrested and there are plans to get Princess her own wheelchair. For now, the poor cat can take comfort in nursing her loved babies. “Princess is a fighter, she teaches me everyday not to give up,” Walton told the Dodo. “I believe those kittens gave her the will to live.”
More info: Facebook (h/t: thedodo)
A woman said she was feeding a stray cat with kittens in her yard, but her neighbor had killed the mother cat
“I was informed that the [neighbor] had [the mom] by the tail and threw her up against a trailer”
However, the next day the most unbelievable thing happened. The cat dragged herself to the spot where she left her babies
Her babies, however, were already moved by an animal rescue group
The rescue picked up the cat immediately and reunited her with her kittens
“Princess is a fighter, she teaches me everyday not to give up,” said the rescue’s owner Dee Walton
“I believe those kittens gave her the will to live”Major League Soccer site scores
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Written by Lidia Dinkova on February 19, 2015
A push to build a Major League Soccer stadium beside the Marlins baseball stadium has sailed past county officials, but a plan to create a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) encompassing the stadiums wasn’t well-received.
The county’s Economic Prosperity Committee voted last week for the county to negotiate for an MLS stadium to rise next to Marlins Park in Little Havana. That’s headed for a commission vote.
David Beckham, British former soccer star, owns rights to an MLS franchise in South Florida.
It’s “another invitation and another good message sent to Mr. Beckham that Miami-Dade County is ready for soccer, and we welcome his money and his investment,” said Commissioner Rebeca Sosa.
The deferred CRA item called for a study of whether the agency could fund land acquisition for a dual-purpose stadium for both MLS and University of Miami football, as well as fund extension of Metromover to the sports complex.
CRAs use tax-increment financing (TIF), pumping future property tax yields into their area.
Committee members questioned whether CRA funds could be used for transit, and some said the CRA might be a form of government subsidy for the stadium.
“Even though we wouldn’t be using county money directly, in essence by deferring tax revenues through the TIF that would be created, the county would still be subsidizing Major League Soccer through the formation of the CRA,” said Daniella Levine Cava, who sits on the committee.
Bruno Barreiro, who brought forward both items, said that’s not the case and that the CRA would be a financing mechanism to extend Metromover westward.
Commissioner Barreiro added that he’ll work on the legislation and look into a special assessment district to finance the transit expansion.We are in our new spot (suite 128) and we are gearing up for some fun this weekend. NCAA football on the big screen. Check out our newest beers on tap! We are in our new spot (suite 128) and we are gearing up for some fun this weekend. NCAA football on the big screen. Check out our newest beers on tap! On Tap Goose Island Madame Rose Madame Rose is a crimson colored Belgian style brown ale fermented with wild yeast and aged on cherries in wine barrels. Layers of malty complexity, sour cherry, spice and wood notes make Madame Rose an ideal beer to suggest to Bordeaux enthusiasts and beer drinkers fond of Belgian Kriek and Flanders Brown Ales.
Southern Tier
Cold Pressed Coffee Pumking
Southern Tier Cold Press Coffee Pumking is created in a few steps. First, the brewery mashed in the grains at a higher temperature in order to leave a little residual sweetness to pair better with the coffee flavor. Once fermentation was completed the beer was cold crashed to 32 degrees, and 150 pounds of cold pressed coffee from local roaster Stedman's was added. Incidentally, the brewery pressed the coffee themselves. In the end, the coffee adds nutty and cocoa flavors to Pumking's strong pumpkin and pie crust flavors. Due to the infusion, this beer does have traces of caffeine.
Green Bench
Sunshine City IPA In celebration of our beautifully sunny city, this IPA was designed to be a bright as the warmest summer day. Packed with hop flavor and aroma, we double dry hop this beer with equal parts of Mosaic, Citra and Azacca, for an intensely tropical profile reminiscent of tangerine, nectar, papaya, peach, kiwi, and pineapple. In Bottles
Wicked Weed
Omnipresence rench oak foeder-aged sour ale fermented with one pound per gallon of Cabernet grapes Monday Night
Dad Bod
Dad Bod isn't just a beer, it's a state of mind. Dad Bod means working out just enough not to have to buy new pants, and spending the rest of the time working on your drinking muscles. Our dark saison has a mind nose with hints of espresso and citrus. A peppery flavor gives this down-to-earth beer the edge needed to attract a mate and nothing more.
News/News/News!
NCAA FOOTBALL SCHOOLHOUSE SCHEDULE
Since we have a big screen now come on out and have a flight or two and watch the game.
3:30pm Texas A&M at Alabama 7:00pm Arkansas at Auburn
New on TAPESC Gaming have announced that they have secured the services of the team known as Dobry Gaming
ESC had been left without a CS:GO division following the disbandment of their Danish squad, led by Sune "crZy" Hansen, as the players decided to go their separate ways.
Little more than two weeks have passed since then, but the Germany-based organisation has already found the successor to the Danes, and for that they decided to return to a market they know to a great extent.
szpero & co join ESC Gaming
After supporting the Polish team with Filip "Neo" Kubski & company for over two years, ESC have decided to sign Dobry Gaming, who recently made headlines when they won Poznan Computer Sport Games 2014.
"After many long conversations with many organizations, we decided to choose the best for us," said team manager Lukas "PRAWUs" Ganczewski. "Despite several changes we made some time ago, our team has never been in better shape, I hope that we will be able to proudly represent such a great organization like ESC. Our goals are to take at least second place in the EPS Poland in Krakow and to keep a good position in the league SLTV StarSeries and qualify for the ESL One."
ESC Gaming's new team currently sit second in the EPS League, on a 4-1 record, while they will play their first match in StarSeries X later today, against LDLC.com.
The team's lineup stands as follows:Two groups will file petitions for ballot measures Wednesday that would legalize marijuana for recreational adult use in Massachusetts, likely setting the stage for a fierce battle at the November 2016 ballot box.
But there’s another slow-burning conflict.
The groups’ efforts represent two fundamentally different philosophies on legalization. One would create a new regulation, taxation, and bureaucratic regimen for marijuana with similarities to the way alcohol is overseen in Massachusetts. The other is more focused on individual liberty, avoiding heavy regulation or any special taxes on the substance.
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At the core of the divide are questions about personal freedom, the right role of government, and to what degree marijuana commerce should be overseen by the state. But there’s also another issue at play: What would a majority of Massachusetts voters support next fall?
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Voters in four states — Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska — and the District of Columbia have already legalized marijuana for recreational use.
And robust majorities of Massachusetts voters have already approved two measures easing marijuana laws in recent years. In 2008 voters okayed a ballot question that made possession of small amounts of marijuana punishable by just a civil fine. In 2012, voters approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes. How legalization is framed in 2016 will probably affect the outcome of the expected vote.
The ballot question committees are poised to submit their petitions — signed by 10 voters and shared early with the Globe — to Attorney General Maura Healey.
Should the proposals pass constitutional muster with her, the groups can begin the arduous process of gathering the tens of thousands of additional voter signatures needed to put an item on the ballot.
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At this preliminary stage, it’s not clear if two marijuana legalization questions might make the ballot, though that is technically possible.
The proposal from the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Massachusetts would create a new “Cannabis Control Commission” with members appointed by the state treasurer to oversee a system that includes marijuana stores and other facilities.
The measure would impose a 3.75 percent excise tax on retail marijuana sales, in addition to the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax — and it would also allow cities and towns to levy an additional 2 percent tax that they could keep. Among other aspects of the proposed law: It would allow adults to grow up to six marijuana plants in their home, would give a leg up to medical marijuana dispensaries that want to become retail stores, and set a January 2018 timeframe for when retail sales could commence.
The Campaign is backed by a well-funded national group, the Marijuana Policy Project. That’s the same organization that spent big on the successful 2012 campaign for legalization in Colorado. Several local activists, including a top official at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, are involved with the Campaign’s Massachusetts push.
Meanwhile, Bay State Repeal, who a spokesman says is backed solely by local activists, is poised to submit three versions of a legalization measure to the attorney general. The sales tax would apply to marijuana sales, but none of the versions would add additional taxes.
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The Bay State Repeal versions have less regulation than their rival group’s proposed law. They don’t limit the number of marijuana plants an individual can grow for their own use, and they create several additional legal protections for users of the drug.
Steve Epstein, spokesman for Bay State Repeal, said the group would begin collecting signatures backing the version it determines to be the strongest.
The group’s most libertarian version would essentially legalize the cultivation, purchase, possession, and consumption of marijuana for people 21 and over without creating any special regulatory scheme to oversee the newly legal substance or commerce in it. It would create some new sections of the law to penalize people for selling or giving the drug to people under 21. The other versions include what Epstein characterized as a “light” regulatory structure.
“We think a free market is the better course,” said Epstein, a lawyer from Georgetown.
He said what he found most “intolerable” about the proposal from Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Massachusetts is “the tax, the limit on how many plants you can have, and the creation of a brand new bureaucracy” in the state.
Epstein predicted that the proposed marijuana tax — which could ultimately total 12 percent with the state sales tax — would be a boon for the those selling marijuana outside legal channels.
“That’s a pretty good margin for the black market, better than most grocers are making on carrots,” he said.
And he argued that the difference between his group’s measures and the Campaign’s proposal is “between individual liberty and safeguarding the profiteers.”
Whitney A. Taylor, a signatory of the Campaign’s petition, director of public advocacy at the ACLU of Massachusetts, and the manager of the winning 2008 state ballot effort to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, said that’s bunk.
She said that the more regulation-heavy proposal would not infringe on anyone’s civil liberties, but rather thoughtfully move an important public policy goal forward while protecting public safety.
“The reality is marijuana is not a completely innocuous substance. It’s not air,” she said.
As for worries about the black market, she said the proposed marijuana tax was not too much and “you have to remember there is a black market in everything — tobacco, shoes, jeans! The fact is, there will always be people who are willing to break the law to make a little more money.”
Jim Borghesani, communications director for the Campaign, declined to comment on the rival proposals but said, “We put together a proposal that we think has the best chance of being passed by Massachusetts voters and is the best solution to the failure of prohibition.”
Regardless of specifics, several prominent Massachusetts politicians — from Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, to Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, a Democrat — have lined up against legalization.
So however the battle over how marijuana ought to be legalized plays out, there’s likely to be a larger one on whether it’s a good idea for Massachusetts.
Joshua Miller can be reached at joshua.miller@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jm_bosDIsney-Pixar recently released the first trailer for Cars 3 but it hasn’t gone down well with parents who are calling it “unsuitable for children”.
There’s no doubt that the trailer is dark for a family film. In the clip, Owen Wilson’s character hurls through the air after a horrific crash and it’s got parents concerned, as they’ve taken to twitter to express their discontent:
Don't watch the Cars teaser with your kids unless you want to have the death conversation you avoid by by saying Spot went to a farm. #Cars3 — Jaysen Baxter (@rozeltov) November 21, 2016
After this, can't wait to show my kids the #ToyStory4 trailer where Negan takes a bat to Buzz & Woody's heads https://t.co/s9H4KRA8qE #Cars3 — Zaki Hasan (@zakiscorner) November 21, 2016
the cars 3 teaser is literally lightning mcqueen getting in an accident what the fuck lmao they're jus torturing kids at this point — BRANDON WARDELL (@BRANDONWARDELL) November 21, 2016
Just saw the Cars 3 trailer and not sure whether it's suitable for children… — •••Tofu?nmi••• (@Toffiee07) November 21, 2016
Just watched the teaser trailer for Cars 3. Yikes! Dark. Sort of scared to show to the kids. Where's the silly Mater comic relief? $DIS — Paul R. La Monica (@LaMonicaBuzz) November 21, 2016
Why does the CARS 3 teaser look like a horror film — Still Edgar Wright’s 2nd Biggest Fan (@CASHEWJUlCE) November 21, 2016
So.
The Cars 3 teaser. Um.
That's gonna scar some children. — No, It's Not a Cookie! (@Conmanginger) November 21, 2016
Do you think the trailer is too dark for kids? Cars 3 whizzes into theaters on June 16, 2017 and you can see the controversial teaser below:Start this blog by watching Lorenzo Cain’s great catch from Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.
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Nerd or not, MLB’s Statcast system is pretty interesting. Maybe you’re not that interested in Yordano Ventura’s “spin rate,” but watching Cain’s route to the ball and the speed he reaches to get there should yank your chain. After all, most of us wouldn’t be able to make that catch, unless we could drive a Bugatti while playing centrefield.
Last week in San Jose, NHL teams were invited to a presentation of similar technology designed for sports like hockey. MLB and NBA tracking is done by cameras, and there are questions about accuracy when it comes to competition with heavier contact.
Enter an infra-red chip system.
An Australian-based company called Catapult is considered the industry leader in this field, fittingly starting much of its research in Australian Rules Football. But its influence in North America is growing.
One of the first teams to take the plunge was Florida State’s football program, after two of its assistant coaches saw the devices being used in Aussie Rules. The Seminoles won the NCAA championship last season, with head coach Jimbo Fisher telling ESPN that the devices “virtually eliminated soft-tissue injuries.”
(According to the ESPN report, Seminoles players hilariously referred to the chest straps as “bros.” The chips can also be sewn into jerseys.)
This is the second benefit of the system. Not only are we talking about measuring how quickly a player can do something on the ice, but also knowing when players are not at peak performance, or if changing practice routines can improve their bodily output. Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly is a fan, as are the Toronto Raptors (Catapult’s online client list is here).
There are two hockey teams named. The Sabres were doing it a few years ago under GM Darcy Regier; he let us film a little bit of it one day at a morning skate. Philadelphia used it in practices last season.
However, teams are not allowed to wear them during games. The NHL’s goal is to change that.
There seems to be a lot of optimism this can be done, but there are hurdles to leap. For example, when the ref cam arrived this season, one of the concerns from the officials was that it would be used not just for entertainment, but to grade their work. The NHLPA, which must approve this technology, has similar questions.
The biggest? Medical information.
Who owns it? What can be done with it? For example, if you’re making a decision on a lucrative free-agent contract, could the chip tell you if, say, a player’s hip is not “firing” as well as it did when he was younger? Or, if a player is more susceptible to groin/abdominal injuries as he ages?
The possibilities are enormous. The Department of Player Safety could benefit, for example, by knowing if a skater truly tried to slow down before delivering a dangerous or borderline hit. Maybe we’re eventually talking about a chip inside the puck to determine goal or no goal, as soccer now does.
From what I understand, there’s a deal to be made here, with limitations on the use of medical info. A few of the people who saw the technology raved about it. Hopefully, we’ll soon get to share in that revelry.
30 THOUGHTS
1. Also at the San Jose meetings, the NHL, NHLPA and teams looked at virtual reality technology from OTOY, a California-based company. Basically, OTOY tries to create 3D graphics and pictures in real time. The league may test this at the outdoor games, with the idea of providing a 360-degree HD view from the bench or the penalty box. Remember when ColecoVision was cool?
2. Had a funny conversation with a GM last weekend. Heard he was looking for a defenceman. He responded with, “Everyone is looking for a defenceman.” Montreal is checking to see what’s out there. The decimated Rangers are bringing in Tomas Kaberle, with no contract offer. Philadelphia’s search, before signing Carlo Colaiacovo, was exhaustive. “Name someone,” one agent said. “They considered him.” The same GM quoted above talked to a team with eight, one-way contracts on its blueline, only to be told none were available. “They wanted to keep all of them,” he said.
3. Heading into Wednesday’s game against Buffalo, it would not have been a surprise if Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin was thinking about moving one of his 14 forwards so Michael Bournival or Jiri Sekac could play more. Bournival was injured on a hard (but clean) Cody McCormick check, while Sekac might be right back in Michel Therrien’s doghouse after a third-period penalty. Can’t imagine the Canadiens want Sekac, in particular, sitting.
4. Therrien had an interesting quote after the listless 2-1 shootout win, telling reporters, “There’s not much I didn’t like about our team tonight…I thought we played a solid game.” That’s a light touch for the Canadiens coach; he undoubtedly realized he needed to take the foot off the gas following back-to-back ugly losses against Calgary and Chicago. You wonder if both the coach and the players are adjusting to the loss of Gerard Gallant on the bench. Gallant was an important conduit between Therrien and the dressing room. Therrien, who wields a hammer, needs that buffer.
5. My first real “beat” in the business was the inaugural Toronto Raptors (1995-96). Their head coach, Brendan Malone, waited almost 30 years for his NBA chance. It became very clear, very quickly that he wanted to win more than the team did. It led to an ugly public battle with GM Isiah Thomas, as the organization shut down Rookie of the Year Damon Stoudamire because it was worried Malone was overusing the player. They fired him after the season. Watching Ted Nolan publicly criticize his Sabres twice now reminds me of that situation. He’s competitive. He knows this could be his last chance. The team is comfortable with one more ugly year. Nolan isn’t. It’s not going to be easy.
6. The Rangers are one of several clubs waiting to see what the Hurricanes decide with Andrej Sekera. There’s no guarantee that comes quickly, especially now that Carolina is healthier and stabilized. Depending on what happens with Slava Voynov, opponents think Los Angeles could be interested, too. Also heard some talk about Zbynek Michalek, a different player than Sekera, but a right-hand shot. Coyotes GM Don Maloney wouldn’t bite on an inquiry about it.
7. Whenever Keith Yandle’s name surfaces in rumours, I go back to an old Maloney line about him: “If we trade him, you will (hear the deal) and understand why.” The only difference now is his contract, which only has one more year. Does that change the dynamic? The Coyotes know so much of their offence comes in transition from he and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. If they do it, can they replace what he brings now, or is that step one of a long-term build?
8. It sounds like there’s a lot of, “We better make sure we’re ready in case Team X decides to move someone we like.” Here’s another example: There is zero evidence Winnipeg is interested in anything involving either Dustin Byfuglien or Andrew Ladd, but opponents are watching (Like Yandle, both are free after next season). The Jets know Ladd’s trade list (15 clubs), but have to ask for five acceptable teams from Byfuglien should they ever decide to move him. Winnipeg just won three big games and you know they’re going for it. As long as they’re in the race, there’s no reason to expect change.
9. The Jets’ 1-0 win Sunday in Chicago was some of their best defensive play since they moved back to Canada, and not just because of the shutout. Shots in the third were 13-9 Blackhawks, but aside from a flurry in the first minute, the Jets did a fantastic job protecting that lead in a tough place to win. They consistently beat Chicago to rebounds, getting the puck out of the zone and into areas where they could change without getting into trouble. None of the shots came from Duncan Keith or Jonathan Toews. Patrick Kane had one; Marian Hossa none in the last 19 minutes. The Jets haven’t always paid attention to detail, but sure did that night.
10. Apparently, Ryan Whitney told teams he wanted to play a few KHL contests to get the blood flowing before considering a North American offer. He’s got three points in three games. The only problem with Whitney now is he has to clear waivers in the NHL. With all the lusting after defencemen, that may not be easy.
11. There were rumours last week that Dallas, with Anders Lindback struggling, might look at signing Martin Brodeur. GM Jim Nill denied that.
12. As the injuries mounted last week, Calgary called up Sven Baertschi from Adirondack. His numbers were ugly in the AHL, just three points (no goals) in 10 games. Even worse, a few teams that saw him were exceedingly unimpressed, with one suggesting he wouldn’t want Baertschi near his other prospects. The Flames defended the forward against accusations that his attitude was bad. “Was he unhappy to be there? Yes, initially he was, but we could understand that,” said GM Brad Treliving. “To say he was causing problems, that’s not fair.” Treliving added that there is room in Calgary for Baertschi’s skill-set. He is exempt from waivers for another year or so. That’s probably the real deadline for him in southern Alberta.
13. One exec whose team played the Hurricanes already this season said no player needed something good to happen more than second-year forward Elias Lindholm. The 19-year-old had an assist in the opener, then went pointless in seven. “He was trying, but nothing good was happening,” the exec said. “You could see how it effected him.” Lindholm had five points in Carolina’s three wins, breaking the schneid just as his team did.
14. Can’t help but wonder if there is a Kovalchuk-like solution to Carolina’s detente with Alexander Semin. No way this can last 317 more games, can it?
15. So, Radim Vrbata, what did you like best: the goggles, the bucket, or the skis?
“The skis,” he said. Why? “Because we won,” he laughed. Since the ski race was worth the most points of the three team-building tests, Vrbata’s group didn’t have to do extra skating following the next practice.
16. Vrbata said the Sedins really didn’t have many special instructions about fitting in with them. After a couple of exhibition games, the linemates made sure that whoever was in the middle on a rush made sure to drive the net. Other than that? “We decided we have to shoot more,” Vrbata said. Even Henrik? Vrbata paused, and you could hear the smile forming on his face over the phone. “When they said we have to shoot more, they were really saying I have to shoot more.”
17. Marc-Andre Fleury’s new contract includes a no-move clause to protect against waivers. He can be dealt, but is allowed to provide a 12-team no-trade list. A lot of bandwidth is already destroyed arguing this one, but it is clear the Penguins do believe their desire to hold the puck more will make Fleury a better goalie.
18. As Derek Stepan returns, the Rangers are excited about getting Martin St. Louis back to his regular routine. He took 92 face-offs in the first 10 games; only Derick Brassard and Dominic Moore had more. St. Louis had one goal and five assists. After last Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Winnipeg, New York eased his load. He took just two draws against the Blues and none versus Detroit, totalling three goals and one assist. As a centre, “he is always late on the rush, because we need him down low in the defensive zone,” associate coach Scott Arniel said. “Now he is free to lead the rush.”
19. Another centre experiment on hold for now — Montreal’s Alex Galchenyuk. Word is they feel he’s not as instinctive in the middle, and don’t want him overthinking.
20. The last time Boston extended Claude Julien, it was July 2012. Look at the coaching contracts signed since then: Lindy Ruff, John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault (among others) broke the $2 million mark and Joel Quenneville is believed to reach $3 million in his new deal. Boston looked at the landscape and made the easy decision to put Julien in that class.
21. A lot of interesting reaction to Kris Versteeg’s goal in Chicago’s 5-4 win over Ottawa last week. Players on both teams were astonished when Erik Karlsson chased down Kris Versteeg on the breakaway. “We couldn’t believe he caught him,” Clarke Macarthur said. “He had this little smile on his face like he knew he was going to do it.” “I was like, ‘Holy Crap,’” Versteeg said. “How did he get here?”
22. After initially losing the puck, Versteeg got it back. He scored, making Karlsson look foolish on a fake. “Obviously, he thought I was going to shoot it,” the Chicago forward said. PJ Stock did a great segment last weekend, illustrating both the good and bad of Karlsson’s game. Stock showed how Karlsson gets into trouble in his own zone, because he “always looks for an offensive play out of a defensive situation.” One example was Karlsson taking himself out of position by protecting against a pass he thought he could intercept — a pass that never came. This is the next evolution for him.
23. MacArthur gave good insight into playing in front of Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner. The two goalies have slightly different requests of the defenders in front of them. Anderson wants shot blockers to go low, and leave the high heat for him. Lehner simply wants you to get out of his way so he can handle the shot. “And he does it in a booming Swedish voice,” MacArthur said.
24. Versteeg, by the way, remains interested in buying the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. The news is all bad for the community-owned club, which has lost almost $2 million and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2009-10. At the team’s annual meeting in September, a motion was put forward to sell the team to private ownership, with a vote coming next fall. Born in the city, Versteeg played three seasons of junior hockey there.
25. Seventeen years ago, WHL Portland head coach Brent Peterson said he didn’t know what to expect when first-round NHL draft pick Marian Hossa showed up from Ottawa to join the Winterhawks. The team had two Slovak players, Hossa and Andrej Podkonicky, so it hired a Slovak coach, Julius Supler, to help — although there was an English-only rule around the team. “The first practice, you knew how good he was,” Peterson said last week, as Hossa hit the 1,000-point mark.
26. What stood out for Peterson was how much abuse Hossa took without complaint. Portland won the Memorial Cup that season without a true enforcer, as no one had more than 200 penalty minutes. “He was the target for every other team,” the coach said. “He just played through it.” Things haven’t changed. A Hall of Famer in my book, for sure.
27. One scout had a good line about Hossa and the Blackhawks: “They love being on the ice with him. They know he’ll backcheck hard and cover up their mistakes.”
28. Despite 152 games the last two seasons, including two late-spring finishes, Patrick Kane was back on the ice in June. Can’t find another player who was skating again so quickly.
29. There were some teams who did not like seeing the four officials get together to overturn a tripping penalty to Jarret Stoll last week in Pittsburgh (Brandon Sutter fell on his own before a collision with Stoll). “A slippery slope,” one GM said, although one referee responded, “There’s nothing in the rule book that says we can’t do it.” My sense is the league is willing to allow it, since it’s already an option on disputed goals. Why not? Don’t see a problem, especially if it leads to more correct calls.
30. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I track a certain post-season stat: teams more than four points out of the playoffs on Nov. 1 face a serious fight to get in. Since 2003-04, only five clubs out of 40 that far behind on that date made it. The challenge this season goes to Edmonton (five points back), Arizona and Buffalo (seven back), and Carolina (10). Winnipeg was five from the wild card, but just three in arrears of Minnesota for third in the Central. Therefore, upon further review, the Jets don’t count. The good news for this year’s qualifiers is that two teams did it last year, Dallas and Philadelphia.Business Insider's Andy Kiersz looked at which college majors are disproportionately popular in every state. Most of them make intuitive sense. An unusually high proportion of film majors live in California, petroleum engineers live in Texas and Louisiana, and hospitality majors are more likely to live in Nevada:
A few other interesting trends: Georgia might have a relatively high proportion of early childhood education majors because it also has universal pre-kindergarten. New Mexico, home of Los Alamos National Laboratory, has a high proportion of engineers. Florida, home of bizarre crimes, has an unusually high proportion of criminology majors.
Of course, if this map showed the most popular majors, rather than the most distinctive, there would be business majors everywhere. (Here's why viral maps use the techniques they do.) Business Insider made that map too:
Vermont and Maine: last bastions of the English major.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misidentified Wyoming as Colorado.An investigation into missing copper and aluminum stocks in the eastern Chinese port of Qingdao has earned the nickname the “Qingdao Whale,” because banks including Citigroup, Standard Bank and HSBC could be exposed, as well as over a dozen Chinese banks, and estimates of the loans at risk now top $2 billion.
But that whale might turn out to be a minnow, judging by the latest missing metals related report.
China’s National Audit Office reported today it has discovered 94.4 billion yuan ($15.2 billion) in fraudulent loans backed by gold stocks that don’t exist. Unnamed banks were using “fictional” cross-border currency-swap loans backed by gold to take advantage of interest-rate differences inside and outside China, the report says. The report marks the “first official confirmation of what many people have suspected for a long time—that gold is widely used in Chinese commodity financing deals,” Liu Xu, an analyst at Capital Futures in Beijing, told Bloomberg.
Lending against and reporting of gold trade is more regulated than many other commodities, and the banks involved are probably Chinese, given the audit agency’s remit. The investigation into Qingdao’s copper stocks has already sent jitters through the copper market, so the latest disclosure could prompt a sell-off by gold traders over the short term.
The report is also certain to spook both Chinese and foreign banks that are already jumpy about lending against commodities in China. Because China’s commodity lending market is so opaque, the long-term spillover effects could be severe.
A drastic and sudden squeeze of available credit to Chinese companies, which are estimated to have taken out as much as $160 billion in commodity-backed loans in recent years (about a third of their short-term foreign exchange borrowing) could send already struggling businesses in China to the wall. A “sudden stop” in foreign liquidity to China’s companies could even cause more serious problems for China’s economy, and the value of the yuan, as Quartz has recently reported.
So far, things aren’t that bad. And many unanswered questions remain about what seems to be a growing investigation into commodity-backed lending in China overall, including basics like “How much money has been lent against commodity stocks in China?” and “Is there actually a growing investigation into commodity lending in China?” But one thing is almost certain—China’s missing metals problem will get bigger before it ends.I just saw a remarkable new documentary directed by Shlomi Eldar, the Gaza reporter for Israel’s Channel 10 news. Titled “Precious Life,” the film tracks the story of Mohammed Abu Mustafa, a 4-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from a rare immune deficiency. Moved by the baby’s plight, Eldar helps the infant and mother go from Gaza to Israel’s Tel Hashomer hospital for lifesaving bone-marrow treatment. The operation costs $55,000. Eldar puts out an appeal on Israel TV and within hours an Israeli Jew whose own son was killed during military service donates all the money.
The documentary takes a dramatic turn, though, when the infant’s Palestinian mother, Raida, who is being disparaged by fellow Gazans for having her son treated in Israel, blurts out that she hopes he’ll grow up to be a suicide bomber to help recover Jerusalem. Raida tells Eldar: “From the smallest infant, even smaller than Mohammed, to the oldest person, we will all sacrifice ourselves for the sake of Jerusalem. We feel we have the right to it. You’re free to be angry, so be angry.”
Eldar is devastated by her declaration and stops making the film. But this is no Israeli propaganda movie. The drama of the Palestinian boy’s rescue at an Israeli hospital is juxtaposed against Israeli retaliations for shelling from Gaza, which kill whole Palestinian families. Dr. Raz Somech, the specialist who treats Mohammed as if he were his own child, is summoned for reserve duty in Gaza in the middle of the film. The race by Israelis and Palestinians to save one life is embedded in the larger routine of the two communities grinding each other up.
“It’s clear to me that the war in Gaza was justified — no country can allow itself to be fired at with Qassam rockets — but I did not see many people pained by the loss of life on the Palestinian side,” Eldar told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “Because we were so angry at Hamas, all the Israeli public wanted was to [expletive] Gaza.... It wasn’t until after the incident of Dr. Abu al-Aish — the Gaza physician I spoke with on live TV immediately after a shell struck his house and caused the death of his daughters and he was shouting with grief and fear — that I discovered the [Israeli] silent majority that has compassion for people, including Palestinians. I found that many Israeli viewers shared my feelings.” So Eldar finished the documentary about how Mohammed’s life was saved in Israel.
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His raw film reflects the Middle East I know — one full of amazing compassion, even among enemies, and breathtaking cruelty, even among neighbors.
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I write about this now because there is something foul in the air. It is a trend, both deliberate |
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West Nile virus and the new chikungunya virus are two mosquito-borne illnesses in the United States that are here to stay, Conlon said. "But they are entirely preventable," he added.
The mosquitoes that carry chikungunya, for instance, breed around homes because they can't fly more than about 300 feet. So to stop this type of pest in your home, remove anything — no matter how small — that can hold standing water. "This is a matter of life and death in some instances," Conlon said.I have enjoyed wine for over a decade now and everything surrounding the wine culture. I find it fascinating, as well as enjoyable! The thought of discovering a new wine, a new aroma, a distinct hue makes it an adventure. Let’s sip some vino!
One of the main reasons for the existence of this blog is to discover wines that are vegan friendly. By vegan, I refer to the abstinence of using animal or animal-derived products. Interestingly, not all wines are vegan! Hold on, wines are made from fermented grapes or other fruits, so they are vegan, right? Yes and no! While wine is made from fermented grapes or other fruits, some wines are not vegan because of the clarification and stabilization process, specifically the fining agents used in the process. Wines are typical subjected to both the use of fining agents and filtering processes. Most filtering processes utilize equipment to remove unwanted deposits in the wine. Fining wines is not a necessity, but it may improve the appearance of wine.
The fining process may include the following animal-derived agents: casein, blood/bone marrow, chitin (crustaceans), fish oil, egg whites, gelatin or isinglass & others… Ok, these fining agents are definitely not vegan!
If you love wine and you are vegan as I am, don’t put your head down yet! Based on extensive research, a lot of winemakers have started using natural processes to clarify and stabilize their wines. This means using fining agents and processes not requiring animal-derived ingredients.
Some of the vegan friendly fining agents include using kaolin clay, plant casein, silica gel, bentonite clay, carbon, limestone and other vegetable agents. Also, some winemakers prefer not to filter their wine with fining agents, but rather use natural methods, which by default make them vegan-friendly. Relief vegans, there is hope!
Join me in my adventure as I discover vegan friendly wines, as wine should be enjoyed by all!
Sip some more vino!!!Potsdam
Die Brandenburger AfD hat gute Aussichten, bei der Bundestagswahl im Land Brandenburg mehr Stimmen zu holen als die SPD. Das ist das Ergebnis einer repräsentativen Meinungsumfrage des Forsa-Instituts im Auftrag der Märkischen Allgemeinen Zeitung ( MAZ). Demnach würde sich jeder fünfte Wähler in Brandenburg (20 Prozent) bei der Bundestagswahl derzeit für die AfD entscheiden, die SPD bekäme 19 Prozent.
Klarer Spitzenreiter im Rennen um die Wählergunst wäre derzeit die CDU mit 30 Prozent der Stimmen, die Linke käme 16 Prozent. Die Grünen kämen auf 6 Prozent, die FDP auf 5 und die sonstigen Parteien auf 4 Prozent der Stimmen. Die Bundestagswahl findet voraussichtlich am 24. September 2017 statt. Das hat das Bundeskabinett am Mittwoch beschlossen.
Anderes Ergebnis in Brandenburg
Ganz anders sieht die politische Stimmung in Bezug auf die Landespolitik aus. Würde der Landtag in Brandenburg derzeit neu gewählt, könnte die SPD mit 30 Prozent der Stimmen rechnen und damit ihr Umfrage-Ergebnis von September 2016 halten. Sie läge auch nur knapp zwei Prozent hinter ihrem Landtagswahlergebnis von 2014.
Die CDU würde um vier Prozent zulegen und bei 21 Prozent landen. Knapp hinter den erstarkten Christdemokraten folgt die AfD, die leicht an Zustimmung einbüßt und mit 18 Prozent wieder hinter die CDU zurückfällt.
Sorgen muss sich Regierungschef Dietmar Woidke ( SPD) um den Koalitionspartner machen. Die Linke büßt der Umfrage zufolge zwei Prozentpunkte ein und liegt aktuell noch bei 15 Prozent. Eine eigene Mehrheit im Potsdamer Landtag hätte Rot-Rot folglich nicht mehr.
Die Koalitionäre scharen laut Forsa-Umfrage 45 Prozent der Märker hinter sich, während die Opposition aus CDU, AfD und Grünen auf 46 Prozent kommt – die FDP würde nach aktuellem Stand den Einzug ins Parlament knapp verpassen.
» Mehr dazu am Mittwoch, 19. Januar 2017, in der Märkischen Allgemeinen Zeitung und auf www.MAZ-online.de.
Hintergrund zur Umfrage Im Rahmen der Untersuchung wurden durch das Institut Forsa 1003 nach einem systematischen Zufallsverfahren ausgewählte wahlberechtigte Bürgerinnen und Bürger des Landes Brandenburg befragt. Die Erhebung erfolgte vom 9. Bis 13. Januar 2017. Frage Bundestagswahl: Welche Partei würden Sie wählen, wenn am Sonntag Bundestagswahl wär? Frage Landtagswahl: Welche Partei würden Sie wählen, wenn am Sonntag Landtagswahl wäre?
Von MAZABUJA (Reuters) - A suspected car bomb exploded on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Thursday, killing at least 15 people a week before the city was to host a conference of leaders and business executives focussed on Africa’s growth prospects, witnesses said.
People who were injured during an explosion are seen on stretchers at Asokoro General Hospital in Abuja May 1, 2014. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
The explosion hit the suburb of Nyanya, close to the site of a morning rush hour bomb attack at a bus station last month that killed at least 75 people. The April 14 attack was claimed by the radical Islamist movement Boko Haram which is waging an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.
Flames lit up the area around the blast, which was strewn with drying blood and contorted bodies, and sirens wailed.
“There was a loud blast then a ball of fire,” witness Lateef Adebayo told Reuters by telephone from Nyanya. “There were many dead bodies and ambulances were rushing there.”
Kayode Adeyemi said he counted at least 15 bodies at the scene of the blast, which shook the ground next to him.
“It exploded just as commuters were waiting to board buses,” he said. “I was about 100 metres away.”
National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Manzo Ezekiel said at least 9 dead and 11 critically wounded were taken to hospital. Other wounded victims were being treated at the site.
A Reuters photographer in a nearby hospital saw 11 charred bodies that medical staff said had been brought there from the place of the blast. Another witness to Thursday’s blast, Joe Udofia, said there was a “deafening explosion, then the area near Nyanya bridge was on fire. There were many people in the vicinity.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Boko Haram, which is seeking to carve out an Islamist enclave in Africa’s No. 1 oil producer, had threatened further attacks after the April 14 bombing.
The latest attack is an embarrassment for Jonathan’s government, which had announced a massive security operation to protect the World Economic Forum on Africa scheduled for May 7-9 in Abuja. The forum, a regional replica of the Davos, Switzerland event, brings together international leaders, policy makers, entrepreneurs and philanthropists.
Nigeria’s government had announced that 6,000 soldiers and police would be deployed to protect next week’s summit which is due to be attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, African leaders and a host of other international personalities.
The government and the military have been under intense pressure to step up security in the country following the April 14 attack and the mass abduction by suspected Boko Haram militants the same day of more than 200 teenage schoolgirls from a northeastern school. Some of the girls escaped but most are still missing.
This abduction has shocked Nigeria, triggering protests in Abuja and exposing the security forces’ inability to contain a ruthless anti-government insurgency whose targets also include Christian churches and civilians of all races and creeds.
The West African oil producer, which recently replaced South Africa as the continent’s biggest economy through a rebasing of its GDP, faces an election 10 months away which many fear will exacerbate existing political, ethnic and religious tensions.NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – With hours to go before Rutgers University’s beloved grease trucks are due to be kicked out of their current location, campus administrators and the food truck owners have reached a deal “in principle” to relocate the vendors to various locations around New Brunswick, school officials said today.
The five iconic food trucks parked in Lot 8 on College Avenue will begin moving out Thursday to make way for construction of an $84 million student apartment complex. Tomorrow morning,the trucks can begin serving their “fat” sandwiches in their new locations, provided they have finalized their paperwork with the university, said Antonio Calcado, Rutgers’ vice president of university facilities and capital planning.
“There are certain requirements they need to give us — for instance, an insurance certificate,” Calcado said. “We have an agreement in principle with all of them … We’re working through those issues.”
Calcado said he expected to meet with several owners late Thursday to complete the relocation deals. Several still had to produce their food vendor licenses and other paperwork.
“Anything holding them up is their doing,” Calcado said.
George Gussis, a New Brunswick attorney representing the truck owners, did not return calls for comment.
Rutgers officials have been negotiating with the truck owners for several weeks to relocate the trucks, which have been in Lot 8 near the corner of College Avenue and Hamilton Street for nearly two decades. Rutgers offered the trucks a place in the lot in the 1990s after city officials objected to the lines, garbage and noise the vendors were generating parked on city streets near campus.
Find the entire article by Kelly Heyboer at The Star-Ledger <here>Developer: Software bakery Download: Android (Free | Paid) Genre: Casual Kart Racing Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
DriveDroid supports bootable ISO and IMG files stored on your device, and is able to emulate USB and CD rom drives, depending on the kind of bootable image you want to run. With USB-drive emulation, users can boot IMG files and most Linux distributions. With CD-rom emulation, it is possible to boot all ISO files.Since this whole thing is one giant hack, not unlike MultiROM and other fantastic apps the Android dev community has came up with, DriveDroid is geared towards power users on the go, who might be in need of a convenient way to run various operating systems on their computers. Although the app's interface is pretty simple compared to the power it has on disposal, there are many caveats with various custom roms and kernels, in addition to requiring a rooted device. It's best to visit the XDA Thread to get started on the right way. However, DriveDroid is well documented, and there are enough tutorials online to get you started.DriveDroid can be had from the Google Play store, in free and paid versions. The paid version has no ads, supports OS image resizing, and can have download repositories for OS images added to it.Mitch Hurtwitz has revealed that he wants to have the Arrested Development movie in cinemas by the end of this year.
Hurwitz, who created the short-lived sitcom, told Digital Spy that he is currently working on a script with Jim Valley that will resurrect the Bluth family for the big screen.
"We've started that process and it is our sincere hope to shoot it this year and get it out this year," Hurwitz said. "That's what we're hoping, but a lot of things have to fall into place for that to happen."
Asked about the storyline for the Arrested movie, Hurwitz added: "I want to keep whatever it is we end up with as a surprise, which kind of betrays the fact that we might not have the whole thing worked out!
"But I don't like to toy with the affections of our fans. They've been so supportive and we're so grateful, so I kind of hate to answer the question until I can say, 'Yep, we've shot it, it opens next week'. Otherwise it feels like we're toying with people and we do not mean to do that. It has just taken a while to get it going."
Ron Howard previously told DS that he may reprise his role as Arrested Development's announcer and appear in-person in the movie spinoff.
Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, David Cross and Michael Cera were among the cast for the sitcom, which ran for three seasons on Fox between 2003 and 2006.
Arrested Development will air on the UK's FX channel beginning February 8 at 9pm.
> Click here to read our interview with Mitch Hurwitz & Will ArnettSummary
Key points
Ethnic inequalities in labour market participation have persisted over time; between 2001 and 2011, there remained considerable differences between ethnic groups in employee, self- employed, and unemployment rates.
In terms of unemployment, the overwhelming picture is one of continuing ethnic minority disadvantage compared with the White British majority group.
There is considerable variability in unemployment rates between places for each ethnic group, as well as between ethnic groups.
For those in employment, at the national level ethnic minority groups are most unevenly spread across occupation types.
Analysis of Local Enterprise Partnerships highlight that occupational segregation is often higher for men than women.
In all locations, mid-skilled occupations are commonly under-represented among ethnic minority groups.
BACKGROUND
Persistent ethnic inequalities in the labour market play a major part in the high poverty rates among some ethnic minority groups. The differing experiences between ethnic groups in labour market participation and experiences when in work lead to questions about equality of opportunity.
There is now a substantial evidence base which points not only to the existence, but the persistence over time, of ethnic inequalities in employment. Labour market inequalities between ethnic and gender groups, as well as between geographical areas, is a policy issue for government. However, inequalities in labour market participation have persisted for minority groups, and there are barriers to progression up the career ladder for some people in ethnic minority groups who are in work. In addition to ethnic inequalities in entry into the labour market, inequalities in the labour market can arise for those in work, including in occupation types (e.g. skills levels), contract types and stability, wage differentials, hours worked and levels of self- and part-time employment. It is well-recognised that place may affect an individual’s life chances, although there remain significant gaps in what we know about how much the place where someone lives impacts upon their likelihood of experiencing poverty, and the extent to which there are ethnic differences in these experiences.
Ethnic inequalities in labour market experiences
This report has suggested a mixed picture for ethnic minority groups. Change in employment patterns over time could be described as a story of success for the Indian ethnic group, and to some degree the Chinese group. However, the overwhelming message is one of continuing ethnic minority disadvantage compared with the White British majority group. In terms of unemployment, there is a clear ethnic minority penalty in the labour market, which is persistent over time. In 2011, unemployment rates were particularly high for men and women in the ethnic group White Gypsy/Irish Traveller, men in the Other Black and Mixed White-Caribbean groups, and Bangladeshi, Arab and Pakistani women.
This study found that employed people in some ethnic minority groups are over-represented (‘segregated’) into certain occupation types. Where these are low-skilled, this could represent discrimination from other forms of employment or stereotyping into particular jobs. Overrepresentation in professional forms of employment might be interpreted as a story of success in the labour market, or concentration into managerial roles which are self-employed, in the face of exclusion from other opportunities for employment. The distributions of ethnic minority groups in occupational types are clearly unequal compared with the relatively ‘even’ distribution of the White British group, with significant differences between and within ethnic minority groups.
The role of geography
Geographical variation in the labour market experiences of ethnic groups was explored for districts in England and Wales (comprising local authorities, counties and unitary authorities), and Local Enterprise Partnerships in England.
Unemployment rates are hugely variable across local authorities in England and Wales, with some places offering more positive experiences for ethnic minority groups than others. While there is some commonality between groups (particularly at the regional level), the local geography of ethnic unemployment is distinct; there is no clear consistency in which places do better or worse in employment between ethnic groups.
Some local authorities are performing less well than others, in terms of unemployment. For example, Birmingham features among the top five local authorities for unemployment for several ethnic groups (e.g. Indian, Pakistani, Chinese and African). Concentrated pockets of unemployment are particularly notable for the African group in London and parts of the North of England, and in the North West for the Pakistani group. For the African group in particular, there are large percentages in unemployment in most major urban areas, including in London and the North West. The Caribbean group has notably higher unemployment in parts of London and Birmingham and the North East. London, Birmingham and parts of Northern England have particularly high rates of unemployment for the Bangladeshi ethnic group. This raises key questions about what needs to be done to tackle unemployment in these places.
At the national level, the highest levels of occupational segregation are found among the African, White Gypsy/Irish Traveller, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups. The lowest levels are found among the Other Black, Caribbean and Other ethnic groups. In-line with the national-level results, evidence from the analysis of Local Enterprise Partnerships highlights that, for all ethnic minority groups, there are more places with high occupational segregation for men than women, with the exception of the White Irish, Gypsy/Irish Traveller, Other White and Chinese groups.
One of the most distinctive patterns of occupational segregation is an over-representation within high-skilled occupations and an under-representation within low-skilled occupations (e.g. Indian, Pakistani, African, Other Black). This over-representation within high-skilled occupations may not necessarily reflect ‘career success’, but could reflect the existence of obstacles in the labour market such as discrimination which forces some groups to enter specific occupations as self-employed workers, rather than as employees. The results also suggest that the areas with the largest concentrations from each ethnic minority group tend to experience lower levels of occupational segregation of that ethnic group than the areas where own-ethnic group concentration is low, at the LEP level. Moreover, in all areas, intermediate or ‘mid’-skilled occupations are systematically underrepresented among all the selected ethnic minority groups.
Conclusions and policy messages
This research has demonstrated how the ‘ethnic penalty’ in the labour market has persisted over time, with evidence of inequalities between ethnic groups in labour market participation, and in the types of jobs employed people take up. Yet while a fairly negative story of ethnic inequalities in the labour market has been reported here, it is worth noting that the story is more positive for some ethnic minority groups. Both the positive and undesirable labour market experiences of ethnic groups are not even across locations, and the role of locales in shaping employment outcomes needs to be recognised.
Key recommendations arising from this research:
More interventionist policies are needed to ensure that labour market discrimination is eradicated.
Creating employment targets for those ethnic minority groups which systematically appear most disadvantaged (e.g. Pakistani, White Gypsy/Irish Traveller) should be a policy priority.
There is a localised geography of labour market disadvantage which suggests the need for a targeted approach to policy-making at the national level, as well as to include area-based policies to tackle labour market inequalities locally.
Labour market inequalities in employment are experienced by ethnic minority groups in areas where they live in well-established communities, but also in areas where they are few; local authorities need to be aware of the challenges facing both.
LEPs need to monitor ethnic inequalities in the labour market. The Local Growth White Paper set out guidance on what policy areas LEPs may choose to engage with while creating economic growth.
A gender-neutral approach should be an integral part of any strategy to reduce ethnic inequalities, and should incorporate views in the public and private sector that better reflect different cultural preferences, traditions and ‘norms’.
Although the promotion of self-employment can be seen as positive, it is important to consider whether or not self-employment is truly connected to an entrepreneurial dynamic, rather than the result of limited opportunities in employment.
Outreach support for employability and job access should be a priority targeted specifically at inactive, unemployed or under-employed adults and young people from ethnic minority groups.
The public sector should be at the forefront of recruiting people from ethnic minority groups, particularly those who face systematic disadvantage in the labour market. At the same time businesses need to be given support to create more diverse workforces.
About the project
The research was based on a study of ethnic group differences in labour market participation and occupational types, using data from the 2001 and 2011 Censuses of England and Wales. This project explored how employment patterns vary by ethnic group, whether inequalities have reduced over time, and whether geographical disparities in employment can be identified in England and Wales.I’m a rye girl from way back. When I was growing up in Michigan I ate either rye or challah; these breads were the toast I had in the morning and the bread my mother used for our lunchbox sandwiches.
My mother wasn’t a bread baker, but was able to find challah and rye at our local grocery store, loaves brought in from a bakery called “Rosen’s” out of Chicago or Detroit.
The rye was rather white and mild in flavor, with caraway seeds and a chewy crust. It wasn’t bad bread, but it wasn’t anything spectacular either. Yet this was the bread of my childhood, so it still holds a place in my heart.
Later, my view of rye bread, and bread in general, exploded (in a good way) when I became a bread baker at Zingerman’s Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There I learned to bake rye and challah that far surpassed the bread of my youth. Zingerman’s is known for its bread all over the Midwest and beyond, thanks to their commitment to traditional baking methods (as well as their mail-order business).
Above is a photo of me baking a load of rye bread at Zingerman’s. Rye baking at the Bakehouse was a bit of a marathon sport. The baker, with one or two “loaders,” needed to load two giant deck ovens with a total of 21 doors (each “door” holding about 25 loaves). Once that was done the baker set out on his/her own, racing back and forth between the two ovens to be sure that all 525 or so loaves of Jewish rye, caraway rye, pumpernickel, and onion rye were rotated and baked to perfection.
Baking all that rye at Zingerman’s, and then later helping teach rye bread classes, made me realize that Jewish rye has attained an almost mythic position in the baking world and American culture; it’s bread that conjures up both Eastern European traditions and New World hopes and dreams. Everyone seems to be looking for the perfect Jewish rye, but what that means differs from one person to the next, depending on their own history and bread memories.
One of Zingerman’s founders, Ari Weinzweig, writes in Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating about his own search for real Jewish Rye, and what defines it.
Weinzweig points out that American rye has significantly changed from the peasant rye breads our ancestors ate in Eastern Europe. Peasant bread was generally made with whole-grain rye, which was cheap and readily available. It was only as immigrants prospered in America that our rye bread became more and more refined, eventually including only a small percentage of white rye flour. The heavy use of caraway seeds is also an Americanization of rye bread.
For Weinzweig and Zingerman’s Bakehouse (who learned their methods from upstate New York baker Michael London), the components of a good Jewish rye are these:
• A tasty rye sour
• At least 20% medium rye
• Time, not excessive yeast
• Baked on a stone with steam
• No milk, oil, or sugar
• Rye flavor: As Wienzweig says, “Rye has a deep flavor, a flavor of the earth, a flavor full of character that gradually fills your whole month. Good rye has guts.”
These are also the major components of Jewish rye outlined by George Greenstein in his Secrets of a Jewish Baker, although he uses a three-stage rye sour and favors a combination of white rye and first clear flour. Both Zingerman’s and Greenstein also include a small dose of ground caraway seeds and an old bread soaker in their recipes.
An old bread soaker (Zingerman’s calls it “Old” and Greenstein calls it “Altus”) is a traditional European baking practice that involves using up old bread by soaking it, mashing it up, and adding it to the new bread mix. This is not only frugal, but adds a depth of flavor to your rye bread. In Germany this method is still widely used.
My understanding of rye bread further exploded (also in a good way) when I took an advanced bread baking class from Jeffrey Hamelman at King Arthur Flour. It was in this class that I developed the rye sourdough starter that I use today.
Hamelman is a great proponent of rye bread and his book, Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes offers a wealth of knowledge on the subject, and also a wide array of rye bread recipes, from the simplest deli rye to a dense and delicious 100% rye vollkornbrot.
With these three sources of inspiration (Zingerman’s, Greenstein, and Hamelman) spread out before me, I began my own search for the perfect Jewish rye. I wanted something that reminded me of the rye toast I had as a child, but with more of the tang and rich rye flavor that characterize traditional Eastern European rye breads.
Though some bakers scoff at the “over use” of caraway seeds in American rye bread, when I asked my family about their thoughts on Jewish rye, both my cousin and sister said, “Don’t forget the caraway!”
I tested so many Jewish rye recipes that my mind (and taste buds) began to boggle at the choices. I tried adding a cornstarch solution to the crust (Greenstein), and minced onions and ground caraway to the rye sour (also Greenstein). I tried various combinations and percentages of white rye, medium rye, pumpernickel flour, clear flour, bread flour, and all-purpose flour, as well as different concentrations and hydrations of the rye sour.
One weekend at work I brought in five different versions of Jewish rye and coaxed my coworkers to “bite and write” – a common request in the employee kitchen at King Arthur.
Yes, we King Arthur Flour employees have to endure taste-testing all kinds of delicious recipes and mixes-in-the-making. I know, poor us – although my insistence on bringing in loaf after loaf of Jewish rye for my coworkers to sample did border on abuse by the end of it.
As in all things baking, perfection is a worthy but elusive goal. One loaf looked beautiful, but was a little too dry. The next loaf had great flavor and rise, but the surface tore during baking. Another loaf rose nicely without tearing, then flattened out too much in the oven.
The whole tearing-during-baking drove me crazy for awhile, even though the tears I was seeing were pretty minor and didn’t affect the integrity of the loaf. I tried changing various factors (fermentation time, kneading time, maturity of sour, quantity and duration of steam) and it was only during my very last week of baking that I was able to pin down the problem.
Again, as in all things baking, a number of factors usually contribute to any one problem. But I think the major issue had to do with the hydration of the dough. I kept my final recipe on the stiff side so the dough would be easier to work with and wouldn’t flatten out during baking. But the drawback of a stiff dough is that it isn’t quite as able to expand in the oven (especially rye dough). I did add a bit more water to the recipe, and also adjusted my steaming method, and this seemed to improve the situation enormously.
The moral of the story is that we’re making bread, not works of art. It’s a lesson every perfectionist baker (and aren’t we all perfectionists?) must grapple with at some point. If our loaves of bread are delicious and fulfill their intended role, isn’t that what matters most?
I don’t think it’s wrong to strive for the perfect loaf. This is actually one of the things I love most about baking; everyday there’s the opportunity to do things a little bit better. But it’s equally important to take joy in our less-than-perfect attempts and to feel good about what our efforts are truly for – providing nourishment.
My final recipe resembles most closely Jeffrey Hamelman’s “40% Caraway Rye,” from Bread, although I added a touch of ground caraway and some old bread soaker, as a nod to Zingerman’s and Greenstein. I also reduced the pumpernickel content to 36%.
It’s stronger in rye flavor than your typical Jewish rye because of the pumpernickel flour, and also has quite a hardy tang. I love it for these reasons and I hope you will, too. No, it’s not your typical mild-mannered Jewish rye, but a loaf that carries with it a bit more of the depth and tradition of European rye breads. And this Jewish rye can stand up to the thickest, juiciest deli sandwich you can assemble.
So, let’s get started! Today will be our prep day; we’ll prepare an overnight rye sour (“sour”), an old bread soaker (“old”), and ground caraway seeds. Tomorrow we’ll mix and bake our Jewish Rye Bread.
To make our overnight rye sour we need a very small amount of fed sourdough starter.
Jeffrey Hamelman argues in Bread that sourdough rye breads benefit from a dedicated rye starter, and this recipe allows you to develop one for future loaves; but it isn’t a necessary component if you only make rye bread occasionally.
The amount of sourdough starter you add to create the rye sour is very small, so you’ll want to be sure it’s very healthy and active. Especially if your starter has been refrigerated for a week, several feedings at room temperature prior to adding it to the rye sour will help give your bread the best flavor and rise.
Mix your rye sour 13 to 16 hours before you plan to mix and bake your bread. Mix together:
1 rounded tablespoon (1/2 ounce, 14g) fed (“ripe”) sourdough starter
2 1/4 cups (8 3/8 ounces, 237g) organic pumpernickel flour
7/8 cup (7ounces, 198g) room temperature water (70°F)
Note that the water temperature for this overnight sour is 70°F, as is the desired rising temperature. Water temperature and room temperature both play a key role in the proper fermentation of your rye sour, so it’s beneficial to try to replicate these conditions as closely as you can.
This rye sour is very thick, and a bit arduous to stir by hand. This is normal, allowing for a long, slow fermentation. You can also mix the sour in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on the lowest speed, stirring just until all the flour is thoroughly moistened.
If you’re measuring your flour by volume, be sure to follow this method, or you’ll find yourself trying to bring together an impossibly dry mixture. For those of you new to our recipes, this is how we recommend measuring flour by volume in all our recipes.
Place the rye sour in a nonreactive container with room to grow (it won’t quite double, but needs some room for expansion). Smooth it out and sprinkle a small amount of pumpernickel flour on top, to cover the sour.
Why the sprinkling of pumpernickel? This is a traditional practice with rye starters, meant to protect the starter and also to make it easier to tell when the starter is fully ripened.
At full maturity the sour will dome on top and show islands of rye flour surrounded by small cracks and crevices. It looks a little volcanic in nature. There’ll be small bubbles visible from the side of the container and the sour will have risen up, although not quite doubled in size. This will take about 13 to 16 hours at 70°F.
Our next step is making the old bread soaker. Although you can use any old bread for this soaker, rye bread is preferable. And once you’ve made a loaf of Jewish rye, it’s easy to save a slice or two in the freezer for the old portion of your next rye bread.
When I worked at Zingerman’s we baked so much rye bread that a portion of our bake had to be dedicated to making old bread soaker for future mixes. Slicing buckets and buckets of rye bread was a frequent prep duty.
Making “old” is easy. Simply cube up 1 large slice of rye bread (1 heaping cup, 2 5/8 ounces, 74g). Avoid using the ends of the loaf, as that’s a bit too much crust. Soak the bread in 1/3 cup (2 5/8 ounces, 74g) cool water. Store in the refrigerator overnight.
Next day squeeze out any excess water from the cubes and mash the old bread by hand, or using a mixer with paddle attachment set on the lowest speed.
When finished, the old should look like very thick cooked oatmeal. Don’t worry about bits of crust as long as they’re broken down.
You’ll only need 1/3 cup (3 ounces, 85g) old for this recipe, so you’ll likely have a little extra that can either be discarded or refrigerated for up to a week. When I was testing all those loaves of Jewish rye I’d make a large batch of old to get me through a week of baking.
Be sure that the old you add to the recipe is room temperature, rather than straight out of the refrigerator. Your old can also be frozen if you make a really big batch.
The final ingredient to prepare for tomorrow’s mix is ground caraway seeds. Although an optional ingredient, it adds a lovely note of caraway. Those who don’t enjoy seeds in their bread can add more ground caraway and leave out the seeds completely, though don’t go crazy; a little caraway goes a long way and you don’t want to overpower the rye flavor. One to two teaspoons of ground caraway should be plenty, if you plan to omit the seeds.
I grind my caraway seeds in an old coffee grinder that’s become a dedicated spice grinder. Just buzz the seeds until they’re a powdery consistency. Be careful if you use your regular coffee grinder, as you may have caraway-flavored coffee for awhile!
You can grind a batch of caraway seeds and store them in your freezer in an airtight container, since you’ll only need a small amount for this recipe.
Well, we’ve gotten a lot done today! Stay tuned tomorrow as we learn a little more about the unique characteristics of rye flour, then mix and bake our Jewish Rye Bread!
Here’s a shot of the delicious Jewish rye we’ll be baking tomorrow. It makes amazing toast! For the recipe and complete preparation techniques, see How to Make Jewish Rye Bread, Part 2.
Please read, bake, and review our Jewish Rye Bread recipe; and our Rye Sourdough Starter recipe.
Print just the bread recipe; or the starter recipe.
And share your own Jewish rye memories and tips below.While collecting data Edward Snowden was able to evade all safeguards at the NSA, leaving the agency puzzled at how he did it, according to new report. Officials worry that the ease with which he covered his tracks means another breach could happen.
Information logs exist to tell the government who tried to view or copy classified information without the proper clearance, but Snowden appears to have bypassed or deleted them, while working as a system administrator with contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii. The revelations come from government officials speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, as they were prevented from publicly disclosing new information about the Snowden case.
This is a worrying development for the Obama administration, which has been at pains to prove to the American public that the NSA’s computer system cannot be taken advantage of so easily. Therefore, if Snowden could single-handedly circumvent its cyber defenses, the question stands as to who else can gain instant access to the vast stream of data the clandestine organization intercepts every day.
NSA Director Keith Alexander could not tell the press in July what exactly Snowden might have had access to, downloaded or taken with him, citing an ongoing investigation. This was nearly two months after the leaks took place.
When Snowden had the job of system administrator, he possessed enough security privileges to access |
route, at least for one Tuesday, ABC aired Celebrity Family Feud (1.3 adults) and Dancing With the Stars (1.2 adults).Stretch goal #1: Bring our Kickstarter to $45,000 and Dr. Jean-François Gariépy will Dance for Science after a 4-hour course with Boris Penton, one of the leading Dubstep dancers in the US.
The stretch goal will allow us to buy a professional camera, buy a livecast software that will allow us to switch between guests like you would see in a professional TV show, and hire an intern to manage the technical aspects of the show.
OUR MISSION
NEURO.tv is a talk show featuring leading scientists and philosophers sharing their ideas and discoveries with the general public. We believe that the fascinating discussions and debates about the brain and the mind, those that scientists and philosophers engage in, should be available online, free to download for everyone. NEURO.tv is a registered non-profit organization dedicated to public education. It is presided by Dr. Jean-François Gariépy, researcher at Duke University. This Kickstarter will be funding the NEURO.tv Season 1 project (see one of our pilot episodes).
"NEURO.tv is a heroic effort to communicate complex science to non-scientists in a way that is accurate as well as interesting and understandable." - May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, Professors and Directors, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for the Biology of Memory, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
"One of the reasons I'm excited about NEURO.tv is the same reason that I was excited about doing my own podcast. You miss out on a lot of the interesting conversations that happen. [...] It might be interesting for people to just hear what it's like when two people talk about these issues." - David A. Pizarro, Associate Professor, Cornell University.
"Best of luck with this worthwhile project." - Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor, Harvard University.
WHAT WE DO
"It's amazing that you can capitalize on existing technology to bring people together to create a new forum for talking about and learning about the brain." - Michael L. Platt, Professor and Director, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
We film online discussions between leading scientists - the first series of its kind to be both casual and academic, yet public and accessible. These discussions are accompanied by post-production graphics, with the goal of creating a highly appealing and accessible talk show about the brain and mind. Each episode of these discussions is available free on the Internet and published on a monthly basis. All episodes are hosted by a team of qualified scientists.
"The result is something that is, really, a new synthesis." - Nicholas C. Spitzer, Distinguished Professor, University of California, San Diego.
"I think that this is a fantastic idea at just the right time." - Matthew Rushworth, Research Fellow, University of Oxford.
(Left) Sebastian Seung, Professor of Computational Neuroscience, MIT; (Right) Claire O'Connell, MITx Fellow & Education Director of EyeWire.
WHERE IS MY MONEY GOING?If the Black Death ever resurfaces, one hopes it won’t happen in Frankfurt. Or Atlanta. Not because those cities are the best in the world — Toronto is, right? — but because they are the most connected cities on the planet. Michael Markieta has produced a series of stunning maps that show every flight path in the entire world. Frankfurt Airport travelers can choose from 250 unique destinations, while Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport comes in second, at 219 destinations.
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Toronto Pearson International Airport ranks 17th in the world, with 156 destinations. “If something like SARS broke out in Atlanta, it would be devastating,” Markieta said. And diseases do travel, piggybacking inside people as they travel around the globe. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, for example, came to Toronto via jet from people infected in south China.
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It would be better if the Black Death broke out in Sibu, Malaysia, whose airport has only six. Markieta says more than 2,000 airports have only one destination. The 23-year-old recently graduated from Ryerson University’s geographic analysis program, which is where he first had the mapping idea. He’s consulting with Arup on the project, which he hopes can benefit researchers analyzing the spread of communicable diseases. “The maps really speak to globalization,” Markieta said. “Political boundaries are just arbitrary. This shows how everyone in the world is connected in one way, shape or form.” Markieta began working on the project about a year ago in his spare time. He learned about openflights.org, an open-source project that collects data from private agencies, consultants and the general public on flight routes.
So he compiled departure and arrival information, or “origin-destination pairs” to use the language, and mapped it out using Geographic Information System. He used the shortest distance between airports, which is “fairly representative of flight paths that don’t deviate much from the shortest route.”
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Then he exported the map data to a graphics program, using colour coding: light blue for short routes, to a darker shade of blue for longer trips. The brighter the route, the more common the flight path. The end result looks like a Rorschach test for the digital age. When told by the Star the maps were beautiful, the straight-shooting Markieta responded, “Uh-huh.” By continent, the most connected cities are Atlanta, Sao Paolo, Beijing, Sydney, Cairo and Frankfurt. Markieta will be taking his skills back to Ryerson in the fall, where he’ll begin working on his master’s degree in the spatial analysis program. And he’ll probably make some more sweet maps.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A New Zealand airline has ditched a scene from a safety video after complaints that it was anti-gay.
Air New Zealand’s humorous inflight safety video features a flight full of rugby fans and some members of the All-Blacks national team.
In the deleted scene, All Black centre Richard Kahui poses for a photo with a female flight attendant but politely declines to give gay staff member Will Coxhead a kiss on the cheek.
However, Air New Zealand said the lighthearted video had to be changed after complaints.
“The move comes after complaints from members of the gay and lesbian community in the past week,” the airline said.
The company said it had been told by a university professor, who it did not name, that the video could lead to suicides in the gay community.
Earlier this week, Air New Zealand manager David Morgan told the New Zealand Herald that the video had been shown to some gay people, who approved it.
Mr Coxhead, the Air New Zealand flight attendant who turned actor for the scene, said he was “gutted” by the response of “some people in the gay community”.
“I’m proud to be gay, proud to be an Air New Zealander and extremely proud of my role in the safety video … It was a bit of fun and was only meant as such,” he said.
“Obviously there are some people in the gay community that can be a little precious and need to lighten up.”Beer prices have gone up and will continue to increase, despite changes to the province's liquor distribution system, says the NDP.
"Here we are after two years of good news announcements, the bad news has come home and beer prices are going up," said B.C. NDP leader John Horgan.
According to the NDP, 90 per cent of beers at government liquor stores have increased in price since the province updated its wholesale distribution system on April 1.
While most beers have only increased by one and five per cent, some have increased by 10 per cent or more.
The only beers to moderately decrease in price, says the NDP, are mostly from outside B.C.
Lower price promises 'a hoax,' says NDP
Horgan says the Liberal government's promises of lower prices because of the new system have been "a hoax."
"It's a tax grab, plain and simple, and it's going to be on the backs of consumers," said Horgan.
David Eby, the NDP critic for liquor policy, said beer prices will only continue to increase.
He says government retail stores will have to increase prices to cover their overhead costs — prompting private liquor stores to take advantage.
"The effect in the private stores wil be that they will increase prices as well," said Eby.
Ari Dressler, the president for the beer advocacy group CAMRA BC, says craft beer producers are concerned that consumers will shift away from micro brews and buy cheaper, out-of-province beers instead.
"It's really a detriment for beer drinkers, aficionados, but also the larger vibrant beer community that we've seen grow here in B.C.," said Dressler.
Micro brews not suffering, says ministry
In a written statement, the B.C. Ministry of Justice said price changes are not unusual at the government liquor stores.
"Like any retailer, BC Liquor Stores review prices on an ongoing basis to ensure products are priced according to market demand, profitability, changes in supplier prices, etc.
"In any given month, some prices go up and some go down," said the ministry's statement.
The statement also said promotional activities like displays and in-store signage have helped B.C. craft beer sales.
"In the past two months alone, craft beer sales have grown by approximately 40 per cent in BC Liquor Stores," it said.Russian Orthodox believers washed away their sins by taking a plunge into icy waters on the feast of the Epiphany, which fell on Monday according to the Orthodox calendar. The traditional triple dip commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan. Here are several Reuters photographs and a Reuters video of Russians braving the winter cold to perform the ritual.
Here’s the video:
Russian Orthodox pilgrims also took the Epiphany dip at the River Jordan, where the temperatures were much warmer. Our Jerusalem bureau chief Alastair Macdonald accompanied a group to the area said to be where Jesus was baptised. Pilgrims from the Jordanian side were allowed to wade into the river, but Israeli police made sure the faithful on their side had to content themselves with dips in basins marked “Jordan Water: Not Drinking.”
Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorldDemocratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) and six ranking members on Tuesday urged the administration to brief Congress on Russian interference in the U.S. election.
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“We are gravely concerned that Russia may have succeeded in weakening Americans' trust in our electoral institutions through their cyber activity,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to President Obama.
Specifically, they requested a classified briefing providing details regarding “Russian entities' hacking of American political organizations; hacking and strategic release of emails from campaign officials; the WikiLeaks disclosures; fake news stories produced and distributed with the intent to mislead American voters; and any other Russian or Russian-related interference or involvement in our recent election.”
The request comes as Senate Democrats are also keeping up their pressure on the Obama administration to make more information public about alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
"We believe there is additional information concerning the Russian Government and the U.S. election that should be declassified and released to the public," a group of Intelligence Committee Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) wrote in a brief letter to President Obama on Wednesday. "We are conveying specifics through classified channels."
In October, the intelligence community publicly blamed Russia for the hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other political organizations this year, calling the thefts an intentional effort to interfere with the U.S. election process.
Officials stopped short of blaming Russian hackers for the probing of state election systems. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, though, has since said Russian scanning of state election infrastructure was "curtailed" after that statement.
Democrats have characterized the release of the DNC emails as an attempt to bolster Donald Trump's bid for the White House and have pointed to the president-elect's warm remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite Trump's election, Democrats are not easing their pressure.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) has also urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold a hearing probing the implications of Russian interference in the election.
"These Russian actions are unprecedented in our post-Cold War relationship and have rightfully drawn bipartisan condemnation and prompted bipartisan calls for Congressional hearings," she wrote.
Shaheen added that a hearing could be paired with a closed-door briefing for lawmakers as they weigh a response to "these unacceptable violations of our democracy."
Trump has fiercely disputed claims that the Russian government was helping his campaign and has declined to blame Russia for the attacks.
Signees of Monday’s letter included House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers (Mich.), Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Eliot Engel (N.Y.), Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie G. Thompson (Miss.), Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (Md.), Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith David (Adam) Adam SmithOvernight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending | Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim | Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration White House to propose using budget maneuver to prevent defense spending cuts Overnight Defense: Trump to leave 200 troops in Syria | Trump, Kim plan one-on-one meeting | Pentagon asks DHS to justify moving funds for border wall MORE (Wash.) and Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff Adam Bennett SchiffTech takes heat as anti-vaxers go viral Demands grow for a public Mueller report Bharara: It would seem 'odd and unusual' if Mueller report isn't made public MORE (Calif.).It was a normal day in Twilight's house. She was deep in her studies, currently reading about marine biology. She called out for a new quill; hers had broken. One was dropped in front of her. Twilight distractedly chimed "Thanks, #1 assistant!"
Spike overheard this from the kitchen. His entire world began to crash down. Was Twilight lying to him the entire time, even after the first incident with Owlowiscious? Was it all a ruse, was he kept around solely to make fun of behind his back?
He'd lived his entire life as Twilight's #1 assistant and couldn't bear the thought that it was a lie, that he was replaced and unwanted. He climbed up to the top shelf and dragged out a bottle of apple wine Applejack had given to Twilight.
Later that evening, Twilight finished her studies. She found Spike in the main room of the library on a couch, seemingly asleep. She smelled a strong scent of what she recognized as fermented fruit; her studies had told her this is what alcohol was made of, and she quickly made the connection.
"Spike, are you drunk?"
There was no response.
Spike is dead.A video was recently released with Ronda Rousey's mom going off on her daughter's coach, Edmund Tarverdyan. Dr. Ann Maria De Mars called the GFC head a 'terrible coach' and a 'bad person', and apparently there was much more on the rant.
Shortly after the first video, LatiNation released an extended clip from the same interview which had more insults directed at the Tarverdyan. The video has since been marked as 'private', but you can see the quotes from the outtake below.
"I will tell you this. Every time I go in his gym, he used to say, 'How are you?' And I'd say, 'How the f*ck do you think I am? I'm in your f*cking gym and I f*cking hate you!'" she exclaimed. "So now he doesn't ask me how I am anymore."
"Yes, (we're talking about her current coach). I hate him. I would run him over with my car if there wasn't a law against it."
Responding to the interviewer she said, "Yes, you can say his name! Who the f*ck is he?! He's not like the f*cking nameless one from Harry Potter! I hate that guy! He's like the most worthless human being God ever put on this earth."
On the first clip, Rousey's mother pointed out how Tarverdyan didn't want to train Ronda for months, despite already being an Olympic medalist when she first came to the gym. This is a fact confirmed by Edmund himself, but if there were more reasons for the apparent anger, it wasn't detailed on the two very short snippets from her interview.(Maddie Meyer / The Washington Post)
The Mariners announced Monday afternoon that they have hired Trent Jewett to be new Manager Lloyd McClendon’s bench coach in Seattle. The Nationals had granted Seattle permission over the weekend to interview Jewett, who had also interviewed for Washington’s managerial vacancy last month but lost out to Matt Williams.
McClendon, who was named Seattle’s manager last week, was the Pittsburgh Pirates’ manager from 2001 to 2005, and Jewett was the third base coach from midway through the 2000 season through the end of the 2002 season. After Williams was hired in Washington, Jewett was expected to return as third base coach. But as soon as McClendon was hired, the Mariners, who lost 91 games in 2013, quickly targeted Jewett.
“The biggest and most obvious reason to me is because I have a relationship with Lloyd McClendon,” said Jewett in a phone interview on Monday afternoon, after returning to his home in Dallas following the interview and accepting the position. “I think he’s going to be the right fit in Seattle. He was persuasive. And our relationship will be further enhanced. I look forward to to all the challenges.”
Jewett, 49, was a well-respected coach in the Nationals clubhouse. He had been in the organization since 2009 after a career spent with the Pirates as a minor league catcher, minor league manager and big league coach. Before he was hired by the Nationals, Baseball America named Jewett one of the most promising big league managing prospects in the minors.
Jewett managed Class A Potomac in 2009 before the Nationals bumped him to Class AAA Syracuse in 2010. He joined the Nationals’ coaching staff in 2011 as an extra coach, primarily working with infielders. He was the first base coach in 2012 and shifted to third last season. Players liked working with Jewett, who has a stern disposition but an easygoing manner.
“This was a difficult decision,” Jewett said. “It’s tough because the Nationals are a great organization. I love the people within. I have a lot of admiration and respect for Mike Rizzo and the people that surround him and the players. … I was looking forward to the 2014 season with the Nationals. The rest of it transpired quickly. I’m a Seattle Mariner now.”
This will be Jewett’s first experience as a major league bench coach. He didn’t see it necessarily as a stepping stone to being a major league manager, which some in baseball circles believe he is headed towards in the future. “It is a new challenge,” he said. Jewett said he has had only limited conversations with Williams, but thinks highly of him and the Nationals’ managerial choice.
“I know Mike did a lot of homework and I respect the decision-making and the process, which I and others went through,” Jewett said. “I’m sure it’ll be a tremendous fit. They hired the guy they think is best suited for the situation. Matt obviously had a tremendous playing career and the times we played them I thought he was a tremendous third base coach. I bet the transition will be smooth and clean.”
The Nationals will now have a coaching vacancy to fill. At the General Managers Meetings in Orlando, Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo wasn’t prepared to name a replacement yet. It does not appear, however, that it will be Tony Beasley, the Class AAA Syracuse Manager and former big league third base coach.Streaming, eSports, and spectators have rapidly propelled the MOBA genre to the center stage, and today’s Dota 2 update kicks things up a notch with team pennants for fans and viewers to root on their favorite teams and players during The International and other events. Cook up some wings, grab a few brews, and prep the TV – It’s pro eSports season!
Team pennants are available for purchase at the 99 cent price point and equip to a player’s “fan” slot. These pennants appear to track game views, similar to how a strange item tracks kills. So, you’re waving your fan flag and wearing their colors, what next? Turns out spectators sporting their team’s pennant during matches where the corresponding team makes plays can be rewarded with special tournament loot drops! The conditions for triggering the drops range from first blood, victory, multi-kills, hero denies, and “big plays” centered around the Aegis of the Immortal. These pennants add a new level of interaction and excitement for say, a rabid Na’Vi fan cheering for a first blood from Dendi.
As one would expect, changing pennants mid-viewing is not allowed. This will prevent someone swapping flags out before a game victory in order to try and snag some tournament drops.
Currently a pennant is available for each team participating in the International for a total of 16 available pennants. Valve recently added a free Dota 2 spectator client to Steam offerings, ensuring that matches from The International will be viewable to all.
For more, read:
Valve May Try to Make Jerks Pay More in DOTA 2
DOTA 2 Beta - Review
Valve's Dota 2 Latest Major PC Game To Go Free-To-PlayWarning: MAJOR Undertale spoilers!! If you have yet to achieve the True Pacifist Ending, please do not read (although tbh you’ve probably been completely spoiled by being on this website alone, but yeah just in case).
So during the fight with Asriel’s last form, the fan-proclaimed “God of Hyperdeath,” you/Frisk gain the ability to SAVE the Lost Souls of your friends. Toriel, Asgore, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys can all be reached through the power of your DETERMINATION.
However…
After you SAVE them all, Frisk then realizes there’s “someone else.” There’s one last person, one last SOUL lost in the darkness, but resonating just loud enough to be heard.
The player’s first assumption is of course that it’s Asriel, which is not a very far-fetched idea since obviously he must be reached out to as well.
But…
You don’t call his name; you call their name.
You’re trying to SAVE Chara.
Chara, the “demon that comes when people call its name,” is calling for your help. To be SAVED. And when you do, you trigger these memories: Chara’s memories.
Then, and only then, can you save Asriel. It is only by SAVING Chara can you then SAVE the final, remaining SOUL.
By SAVING the Lost Souls, the player/Frisk seems to restore them to their normal state and thus their bodies. Perhaps by SAVING Chara, you then lay them to rest? Or maybe…
Maybe they help out? Maybe, as a sign that you the player through Frisk has shown them that not all human beings are evil, Chara has a full change of heart, and thus it is through a combination of their DETERMINATION and Frisk’s that resists Asriel’s final attack in order to SAVE their best friend…?
But of course, that part is just speculation. The only real fact here is that you truly can reach out to the broken, lingering SOUL that is the first human, Chara. And the even more amazing thing is, you succeed.PHILADELPHIA -- Eagles All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters left Thursday's practice with an injury during the first team-period of the session.
Peters dropped to the ground and was slow to get up before walking to the sideline to receive attention from the training staff prior to departing indoors on one of the first snaps of an 11-on-11 drill practicing run plays.
According to multiple reports, Peters suffered a quad strain and is expected to miss some time.
Matt Tobin replaced Peters at left tackle following the injury and Lane Johnson remained at right tackle, perhaps an early indication that the injury is not believed to be severe enough to facilitate Johnson moving to left tackle in Peters' absence, which would likely be the plan should the veteran go down with an injury during the regular season.
Meanwhile, the Eagles defense took a hit when Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins grabbed his leg after covering Jordan Matthews during an early-session drill and ultimately returning indoors with the training staff as well.
In addition to Peters' injury, the Eagles were once again without running backs Ryan Mathews and Wendell Smallwood along with wide receiver Marcus Johnson and right guard Brandon Brooks.
Who's turning heads?
Wednesday was the first time since Andy Reid's final training camp in 2012 that the Eagles returned to live hitting in full pads during practice.
"It's tackle football," head coach Doug Pederson said Wednesday, when asked to explain why he believes in tackling during camp. "It's a physical game. It's that competition. It's knowing that we're going to put the pads on and go to the ground today. This is the first time outside of cutting our own players, being able to tackle and drive through guys, I think it's so important to be able to do that, to be in the right place and position defensively. It just makes it different. The tempo of that practice intensifies during those live periods."
Matt Lombardo may be reached at MDLombardo@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardo975. Find NJ.com Eagles on Facebook.The Cleveland Cavaliers have "huge interest" in bringing in free agent David West, according to the IndyStar's Candace Buckner.
Cleveland is way over the cap, but the 34-year-old West has expressed a strong desire to play for a contender and he may be willing to sacrifice money and take the mini mid-level exception, which would pay West $10.3 million over the next three seasons. Barring an unlikely sign-and-trade, the only other way the Cavaliers could sign West is at the minimum.
Even if West is willing to make that sacrifice, Cleveland is very crowded through the front court. LeBron James, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson all play best at the power forward, although James can play smaller and Thompson shared time at center with Timofey Mozgov throughout the postseason. While James and Thompson are still unsigned, both are expected to return to the Cavaliers.
If the Cavaliers have interest, it's likely they imagine West as a suitable fit for their rotation. Unless Thompson isn't returning to Cleveland, though, it's hard to see exactly how.People who live along the Waverley Road in Dartmouth have taken community safety into their own hands and painted their own crosswalk where a previous crosswalk had been, evidently without using a ruler.
Tony Mancini lives on the corner of Applewood Lane and Waverley Road and said the lines aren't quite straight.
"If you look at the crosswalks, they're not the straightest, which indicates some of the neighbours have decided on their own to put them back," he said.
In September three crosswalks across the busy Waverley Road were eliminated after traffic officials reassessed them, even though they had been there for up to 20 years and one was near a pick-up and drop off spot for school buses.
Local homeowners called the city but couldn't convince anyone to reinstate the crossings, so recently some of them lost their patience.
Mancini said though the crosswalk may not be official-looking, it's still doing the job.
"When they removed the crosswalks, cars weren't stopping and now that the crosswalks are back — even though they are not of the official nature — cars are noticing and they're stopping and allowing our youth to cross the road," he said.
Homeowners aren't the only ones who disagree with the traffic officials, at least two Dartmouth councillors say crosswalks people have used for years should not be taken away.
The crosswalk in question is one of nine removed throughout the Halifax Regional Municipality this year:Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America deputy director Jennifer Hoppe says news that Forest Hills Elementary School teaches a gun safety course to kindergarteners—then repeats it to those same students again when they are in third grade—is “atrocious” and a “disingenious” way for adults to dodge the responsibility they face for owning guns.
Forest Hills Elementary is located in Sidman, Pennsylvania, and each October they teach an optional course titled, “Gun Shop” to kindergarteners and third graders.
Yahoo News reports that the course is taught by fourth grade teacher Daniel Krestar, who uses NRA Eddie Eagle videos to help show kids what to do if they find a gun. Eddie Eagle is a cartoon character created by the NRA to teach children to, “stop, don’t touch, run away, and tell a grown-up,” if they come across a gun. Krestar couples the Eddie Eagle videos with other videos about “crime awareness” and talks to children about resolving anger in ways that do not involve a weapon—whether that weapon is a gun or a knife or a blunt object.
Krestar stresses that “[the] course isn’t pro-gun or anti-gun.” Rather, it’s one that teaches “kids how to be safe around guns” in Cambria County, where “more than 80 percent of homeowners” own guns.
Moms Demand Action’s Jennifer Hoppe recoiled at the news that Forest Hills was teaching children about gun safety. She said, “It’s atrocious to put the onus of gun safety onto children — this is an adult problem. Every gun that’s gotten into the hands of a child has first been under the control of an adult. A program that tries to dodge that is disingenuous.”
In a further effort to make her point, Hoppe added, “Accidental gun deaths among children are not ‘accidental,’” suggesting that the focus should be on how they are “preventable” if adults store guns properly.
Ironically, it was just months ago that Huffington Post went comparably apoplectic after gun control proponent Mark Kelly praised the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program for its effectiveness with children. On April 14, Kelly tweeted: “I don’t agree w/ the NRA on some big issues, but they deserve a lot of credit for teaching kids about gun safety [via] Eddie Eagle.”
HuffPo responsed to Kelly thus:
Mark, you may believe that the Eddie Eagle program is a serious and successful effort to spread the word about gun safety, but it’s actually the NRA’s poster child for making everyone believe that the organization represents a positive force in the debate about guns. In fact, we wouldn’t need a gun debate if the NRA hadn’t decided back in the 1980s to abandon a hundred-year tradition of representing hunters and sport shooters, embarking instead on a continuous campaign to become America’s leading civil rights organization by protecting us from gun-grabbing liberals, big-city mayors and anyone else with an interest in having a rational discussion about guns.
Notice—HuffPo takes Kelly to task for admitting there are great results coming out of the gun safety courses for kids, then blames the NRA for the absence of “a rational discussion about guns.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.Professional networking is hard. Really hard.
You carry business cards, send out LinkedIn invites, and go to boring networking events where you shake hands and immediately forget the people you meet.
The entire process is awkward and feels like it gets you nowhere.
But if you follow a few simple steps, you can use your networking skills to get new clients, business deals, potential partnerships, referrals, job opportunities, and a whole lot more. You can become a networking master.
And with this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to do that.
How to fix the #1 networking problem
The problem is that most people focus on collecting business cards and LinkedIn connections. They forget the real goal: building actual, profitable relationships.
Networking isn’t about figuring out who can get you a job. It’s not about glad-handing strangers until one of them buys your product or service. And it’s not about maximizing the benefits for yourself.
It’s about connecting with people.
Relationships have benefits for both parties. Networking isn’t about getting. It’s about giving. If things go well, and you establish a long-term relationship, then you might get something in return.
Always be thinking about what you can give. Not what you can get.
Focusing on yourself is the #1 problem with networking. And with a giving mentality, you can fix it.
Once you’ve done that, move onto the next steps:
1. Ensure success with preparation
Networking events are great. But if you’re going to network like a boss you’ve got to approach every single interaction as a networking opportunity.
You don’t have to wear a suit and tie everywhere you go. But you should at least invest some time and effort.
Here’s how to make sure you’re ready to network at a moment’s notice:
Have an awesome elevator pitch. Check out the three parts of an insanely effective elevator pitch. Then use a tool like Buzzuka (pictured below) to craft yours using proven psychological principles.
Practice your pitch. Give your pitch to your friends and colleagues to get comfortable with it. If you sound like a robot, try again.
. Give your pitch to your friends and colleagues to get comfortable with it. If you sound like a robot, try again. Carry (nice) business cards. Hire a designer and have your cards printed by Vistaprint or MOO. It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard: people do judge books by their covers. So you want something classy and sharp.
. Hire a designer and have your cards printed by Vistaprint or MOO. It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard: people judge books by their covers. So you want something classy and sharp. Do your research. Presidents and other important people send advance teams ahead of them before going anywhere. Why? To be prepared. If you’re going somewhere you’re likely to run into a potential connection, brush up on your notes, anticipate questions, and make sure you can pronounce everyone’s name correctly.
Also, be a decent human being.
I’m serious.
Treat every single person you encounter as a potential client. Be polite, courteous, and professional. Hold the door for people. Offer to carry their groceries. Just be nice.
We live in an age focused on work. And that means everyone’s first question after meeting you is, “What do you do?”
Here’s how it works:
You: “Oh, let me hold the door for you.”
Them: “Wow. Thank you so much.”
[Exchange of pleasantries]
Them: “So what do you do?”
You: “I’m in digital marketing.”
Them: “No way—I’m actually looking for a new agency!”
[Much rejoicing]
2. Expand your circles with networking groups
Not every networking event is a roaring success. But not all networking groups are a waste of time. So check out the groups that are available in your area. Here are a few ideas:
Your local Chamber of Commerce
Business Network International groups
Professional and trade organizations
Alumni associations
If you’re not sure which groups are right for you, Danny Rubin has a helpful post on how to find a networking group that’s worth your time.
The same rule also applies to online networking. Join LinkedIn groups and introduce yourself in relevant forums. There are even Facebook groups for local businesses, industries, and interests that may be worth checking out.
More on that in a moment.
3. Build a reputation by publishing and speaking
This one’s not going to go over well with the introvert crowd, but damn it, it’s important!
Publishing your work and landing speaking engagements doesn’t just boost your credibility. It’s also an awesome way to connect with potential clients, employers, hires, and other people you can help out.
Before submitting that manuscript to Random House, though, remember that publishing your work doesn’t necessarily mean signing with an agent and pursuing a multi-million dollar advance.
Most of us aren’t going on a book tour anytime soon. So publish wherever and whenever you can—provided the publication or website is legit and the audience is relevant to your business.
Take a deep breath and put yourself out there:
Publish a blog post (if you don’t already have your own blog, go do that)
(if you don’t already have your own blog, go do that) Contribute a guest post to another blog
guest post to another blog Submit guest columns to newspapers, magazines, and trade journals
to newspapers, magazines, and trade journals Offer to speak to business groups and conferences
to business groups and conferences Host a workshop in the community
And remember: talk with people, not at them
Publishing and speaking should be more about listening than anything else. If you’re going to leverage your expertise for networking, the goal is to generate buzz, establish authority, and above all, start a conversation.
That means replying to comments on your blog posts, inviting readers to contact you directly, and hanging out with the audience following your speaking engagements. Remember to bring your fancy business cards.
And if you need tips on how to start and continue useful conversations, check out David Masters’ great tutorial on the topic.
4. Stand out by offering something valuable
Networking would be a lot more fun if you got paid to do it, right?
In a way, you are:
You should think of networking as an investment. There’s no guaranteed ROI, but you can increase your odds of landing a new client or job if you offer something valuable upfront.
Here’s the deal.
People don’t want a pen or a keychain.
They want you to prove two things:
You actually give a shit about their business
AND
You know your stuff
Whether you’re face-to-face at a networking event or connecting with someone online, share your knowledge. No hourly fee, no expectations. Take the time to actually listen and share your expertise.
Note: This is about differentiating yourself and building goodwill. It is not the time for the hard sell.
5. Widen your reach with social media
Contrary to what you may believe, social media actually can be used professionally. You can (and should) use social media to build relationships with important prospects, potential clients, employers, work associates, and more.
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Quora are a goldmine of professional networking opportunities. Others, like LinkedIn, were built specifically for this purpose.
(Check out this boatload of best practices for networking on LinkedIn.)
Make more professional connections on these social networks
LinkedIn. The gold standard in online business networking. Connect with potential employers, clients, technical co-founders, thought leaders, and work associates. Build authority in your industry by sharing business insights and blog posts. Use recommendations and |
again.
Another potential candidate on the Dems’ side? Ted Kennedy Jr., the late senator’s son. His adviser told POLITICO this morning if Kerry’s seat opens up, Kennedy would give “very serious consideration” to running.
Kerry spokesman Alec Gerlach declined to comment on Affleck’s political rumors. But Gerlach confirmed that Affleck would meet with Kerry and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Kerry is chairman.
“I’m at home,” Affleck, a Cambridge native, quipped with a smile to a handful of photographers flashing cameras in his face as he took his seat inside the Rayburn House Office Building.
Affleck’s most recent film, “Argo,” about a CIA plot to rescue Americans trapped in Tehran in 1979, had him making the political rounds this fall, including appearances on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he said he wasn’t looking to politicize the film.
During his testimony, he joked about his political ideology after a reference was made to the conservative Heritage Foundation.
“The Heritage Foundation never offered me membership,” he joked. “I guess it’s fitting that I’m on the far left of the panel.”
Affleck testified that he will make his 10th visit to Congo within the next year. He said helping Congo does not necessarily mean increased aid, but he called on the government to bring global leaders together to address the conflict in Eastern Congo during his testimony Wednesday before members of Congress.
Affleck — who founded the Eastern Congo Initiative in 2010 — told members about the estimated 5 million deaths Congo has seen in the past 14 years and terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda that have sought to use the region as a safe haven.
“From the outset, let me say that I am not here to ask for precious American tax dollars. I am here today to respectfully request you use the most important power you have, your collective voice as representatives of the United States of America,” Affleck testified.
He urged President Barack Obama to bring world leaders together to address instability in the region.
“Resolving the cycle of violence does not necessarily require a significant new financial investment by the United States or U.S. boots on the ground. It does, however, require American political leadership — moral leadership even — to bring the parties together to address the larger sources of instability in the region,” Affleck said.
He continued: “I may be naive, but I believe that our actions in foreign policy represent our values as a country — they represent who we are as a people. Soon I will be making my 10th trip to Congo, and I know that if your constituents were to go to Congo and see what is happening there, they would insist we do something about it.”Mid-September was a heady time for Carly Fiorina: she did pretty great in the second GOP debate, and subsequently saw a huge surge in the polls. That’s all gone now, probably because she lied and lied and lied some more about Planned Parenthood, and everybody noticed.
Fiorina handily won the second debate, according to most polls, and ended up surging from around three percent in early September to 15 after the debate was over.
But then everyone got caught up on her weird Planned Parenthood fantasy, in which she insisted a Center for Medical Progress video shows “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’”
Even more concerning was the way she wouldn’t admit that she’d been caught in a misstatement. Instead, her PAC released its own would-be Planned Parenthood video. Then she went on Meet the Press and continued to insist she wasn’t wrong. Then, an anti-abortion group called the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform released what it said was the full footage of the CMP video. It still didn’t show what Fiorina described, but it certainly did raise excellent questions about how that footage was obtained and whether the woman depicted in it, who is most likely having a miscarriage, gave her consent for it to be released.
As Mediaite notes, Fiorina’s lead has all but evaporated. She’s at six percent right now, according to a CBS poll, sitting in slumped over crinkled business-suited misery next to Jeb Bush.
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Anyway, no one tell Carly Fiorina, whose campaign is still sending out fundraising emails insisting she’s winning. This one came in less than an hour ago.
Contact the author at anna.merlan@jezebel.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: 67B5 5767 9D6F 652E 8EFD 76F5 3CF0 DAF2 79E5 1FB6
AdvertisementThree Americans who worked in a Christian hospital located in Kabul were killed Thursday after an Afghan security official opened fire.
Several were also wounded in the attack, The Washington Post reported. It occurred in mid-morning, as doctors and nurses started to arrive for work.
Cure International Hospital is part of an international grouping of medical facilities that are operated by a charity that’s headquartered in Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul put out this statement: “With great sadness, we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack on CURE Hospital. No other information will be released at this time.”
A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior said the shooter was an Afghan police officer, The Post reported. He tried to commit suicide after the attack, but police quickly stepped in and arrested him.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Kotaku East East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
Last year, there were unconfirmed reports that Square Enix's Tokyo headquarters was a dark place to work. This latest report doesn't sound nearly as bad as those. Doesn't sound like rainbows and sunshine, either.
NicoNico News points to comments made on Japanese employment site Career Connection. The site aims to help jobseekers find out more about companies, such as salary or working conditions, and these comments were apparently made by Square Enix employees.
"For each project, each position is then turned into a clique, and without a big time creator's recommendation, it's impossible to get ahead," wrote one employee in his late 30s. "One's practical worth isn't really looked at, but rather, personal friendship is how merit is assessed."
"You're given so much work, and the atmosphere is that if you cannot keep up, they'll axe you," wrote a 24 year-old employee. "There's a tendency to ask workers to do more physical labor than mental labor."
Granted, these are a couple comments on a job seeker site, so keep that in mind. Maybe these folks are disgruntled. Maybe the work atmosphere at Square Enix's Tokyo headquarters is fantastic. Maybe.
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Career Connection does quote someone connected with Square Enix as saying, "There's dissatisfaction with the salaries and the auditing system. Motivation is low because the ways to move ahead in the company are not clear. Because producers are unable to clearly express their visions for games, the titles must be reworked over and over. That's related to games missing their release dates."
"One's practical worth isn't really looked at, but rather, personal friendship is how merit is assessed."
Square Enix has been having a rough time of late—for a variety of reasons. And, these alleged worker gripes come as Square Co.'s former boss recently called the Square Enix merger a "complete failure" with "no vision".
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If these latest complaints are true, Square Enix is not alone, among large, traditional Japanese companies for having rotten work conditions. That doesn't mean this is right. It means it should change.
スクエニ 13年第2四半期は赤字転落 「頭よりも体で稼ぐ会社」と社員 [Career Connection via NicoNico News]
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.Chris Fox, CP24.com
An immigration lawyer is facing charges after he allegedly sexually assaulted a client on three separate occasions.
According to police, a 35-year-old woman retained the services of the suspect between December 2013 and March 2014.
During that time, police say the woman visited the suspect’s office in the Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue on several occasions.
On three of those occasions, police allege the suspect sexually assaulted the woman.
Richard Odeleye, 60, of Toronto, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with three counts of sexual assault.
Police say there may be other victims who have yet to come forward.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at (416) 808-3200 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (416) 222-TIPS (8477).
Remember for instant breaking news follow @cp24 on Twitter.Six planets and the waning crescent moon arrayed in the dawn sky on Saturday April 30, as seen from Los Angeles, California.
If you get up any morning for the next few weeks, you’ll be treated to the sight of all the planets except Saturn arrayed along the ecliptic, the path of the sun through the sky.
For the last two months, almost all the planets have been hiding behind the sun, but this week they all emerge and are arrayed in a grand line above the rising sun. Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are visible, and you can add Uranus and Neptune to your count if you have binoculars or a small telescope.
This sky map of the six planets shows how they should appear at dawn to observers with clear weather and an unobstructed view.
Astrologers have always been fascinated by planetary alignments, and the doomsayers of 2012 have been prophesying a mystical alignment on Dec. 21, 2012.
The modern tools of astronomers, such as planetarium software, show otherwise: absolutely no alignment at any time in 2012. But they also reveal a beautiful alignment visible during the month of May this year. [Planet Skywatching Guide for 2011]
Six planets at one time
While astrologers view planetary alignments as foretellers of disasters, modern amateur astronomers look forward to them as nothing more than grand photo ops.
If you go out any morning for the next four days, you’ll be treated to a view of the crescent moon and all but one of the naked eye planets.
Because the moon moves rapidly from one morning to the next, it will only be part of the lineup for the next four mornings, but the four naked-eye planets will be there for the next few weeks.
Venus is, as always, the brightest and most visible of the planets, and it can be your guide to spotting the others. About half way between Venus and the rising sun is Jupiter, the second brightest planet.
Mars will be a tiny speck just above Jupiter, and Mercury another tiny speck about half way between Jupiter and Venus. Uranus is slightly more than one binocular field above and to the right of Venus, and Neptune is much farther to the right, about 40 degrees away in Aquarius. The Moon will be just above Venus on Saturday morning, and just above Jupiter and Mars on Sunday morning.
How to photograph the planets
Capturing a photograph of this gathering of the planets couldn’t be easier.
Just about any camera will do, though a camera with a telephoto lens setting will be better. Let the camera’s exposure meter be your guide, though a slight underexposure will help bring out the colors of the dawn sky. [Astrophotography Telescopes for Beginners]
Try to place the silhouette of some foreground object to lend depth to the scene. The best pictures will be on the next few mornings, while the crescent moon is part of the grouping.
This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu.The Detroit Red Wings have taken care of their (third) biggest off-season priority, as Todd Bertuzzi has agreed to a two-year extension.
"It’s just a really good fit for me," the forward said. "My kids were so pumped when they found out we’re going back for two more years — now my son gets to stay in his hockey program, and they get to go back to the same schools."
The biggest issue for Bertuzzi was money and consistency. He wanted a two-year deal after jumping around the league the past few seasons, but also didn’t want to take much less than what he made last season in Detroit. It appears he got both.
"Playing with guys like Pavel Datsyuk and (Henrik Zetterberg) was great, but so was just being able to fit into the system," Bertuzzi said. "It’s just a great group of guys to be around."
Bertuzzi scored 18 goals and 44 points last season, playing all 82 regular season games and all 12 playoff games. The deal is for a little more money than I anticipated, but it really does show that the Wings badly wanted him back. There weren’t many better options on the free agent market for the price they got Bertuzzi.
Detroit will now have $54 million committed to 18 players for next season, about $4-5 under the expected cap.LEFT - An image of Earth orbit and the region of space within 2,000 km of the Earth's surface to show the most concentrated area for orbital debris. RIGHT- This image is generated from a distant oblique vantage point to provide a good view of the the larger population of objects over the northern hemisphere is due mostly to Russian objects in high-inclination, high-eccentricity orbits. (NASA Orbital Debris Program Office/Johnson Space Center)
Space debris has passed the “tipping point,” according to a report released Thursday by the National Research Council, which called on NASA to find ways to better monitor and clean up the orbiting junk threatening active satellites and manned spacecraft.
“We’re going to have a lot more [debris] collisions, and at an increasingly frequent rate,” said Don Kessler, a former NASA scientist who chaired the committee that prepared the report. The orbiting objects include ejected rockets and broken satellites.
Kessler first predicted in 1978 that the number and size of objects in Earth’s orbit would become so large that they would continually collide with one another and create even more debris — a chain reaction known as a “collision cascade.”
Recent data underscore the growing problem. Two collisions since January 2007 helped at least double the number of trackable debris fragments that are in Earth’s orbit, according to the NRC report.
U.S. Strategic Command, a military unit able to track man-made objects 10 centimeters and larger, says there are more than 22,000 such pieces in orbit. NASA estimates there could be hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of smaller, non-trackable pieces of debris also in space.
Active satellites are at risk of damage and “as the amount of debris increases, there will be increases in the cost of operating” satellites, said Brian Weeden, a technical adviser with the Secure World Foundation, which focuses on space sustainability.
Manned spacecraft are also in danger. The international space station had a close call in late June, when an unidentified object came within 1,100 feet but caused no damage; astronauts were preemptively evacuated to emergency spacecraft.
NASA’s chief of safety and mission assurance, Bryan O’Connor, asked the National Research Council in 2010 to independently examine the agency’s work on debris. While the report does not offer many specifics for strategy, it emphasizes the need for NASA to devise a plan that centralizes staff members and better utilizes the agency’s limited resources.
“We thank the National Research Council for their thorough review in this report,” NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey said. “We will study their findings and recommendations carefully and use them to advise our future actions in this important area of work.”
The agency has several programs related to debris with only one staff member each, according to the NRC report, making those programs vulnerable to staff changes and budget cuts. Kessler said NASA will have to make trade-offs and reallocate funding to improve debris management.
The NRC also recommends engaging the State Department for work on the international front. Less than one-third of space debris can be attributed to the United States, and it will be important to have Russia, China and other players in space pursue cleanup, Weeden said.
The report provides no timeline for NASA to implement changes in its debris programs, but given the tipping point we have passed, Kessler said, “The earlier we [deal with the problem], the cheaper it’s going to be in the long run.”
Weeden said space debris won’t be a major concern in the next couple of years, but it will be within 10 or 20 years — and that’s a relatively short lead time given the scope of the issue, he said.
“You can’t fix the problem quickly,” Weeden said. “We’ve had 50-plus years of activity in space bring us to this point, so the answers are not going to be easy.”Note Since Python 3.3 there’s functools.singledispatch() function which does the similar work in the standard library. We recommend you to use it instead of this. See also PEP 443.
It provides a simple and dirty way to define generic methods to existing types. You can make overloaded methods using this.
Compatibility TypeQuery does not depend on any non-standard libraries. It works on these environments: Python 2.5–2.7, 3.2–3.5
CPython, Stackless, PyPy, Jython
Install Install using pip : $ pip install TypeQuery
Example: JSON encoder from typequery import GenericMethod from sys import version_info from re import sub from numbers import Real from collections import Mapping, Iterable if version_info.major > 2: basestring = string = str else: string = unicode json = GenericMethod('json') @json.of(type(None)) def json(value): return 'null' @json.of(bool) def json(value): return 'true' if value else 'false' @json.of(Real) def json(value): return str(value) @json.of(string) def json(value): def escape(match): s = match.group(0) if s in ('\\', '"', '\b', '\f', '
', '\r', '\t'): return '\\' + s n = ord(s) if n < 0x10000: return r'\u%04x' % n n -= 0x10000 s1 = 0xd800 | ((n >> 10) & 0x3ff) s2 = 0xdc00 | (n & 0x3ff) return r'\u%04x\u%04x' % (s1, s2) return '"%s"' % sub(r'([\\"]|[^\ -~])', escape, value) @json.of(Iterable) def json(value): return '[%s]' % ', '.join(json(element) for element in value) @json.of(Mapping) def json(value): return '{%s}' % ', '.join('%s: %s' % (json(string(key)), json(value)) for key, value in value.items()) And defined json function works like: >>> json(123) '123' >>> json(True) 'true' >>> json({'apple': 3, 'banana': 5, 'carrot': 1}) '{"apple": 3, "banana": 5, "carrot": 1}' As the above shows, you can define type-aware instance methods to existing types even including ABCs like collections.Iterable.
Author and license Written by Hong Minhee. Distributed under MIT license. You can find the source code from the Bitbucket repository: $ hg clone https://bitbucket.org/dahlia/typequeryA cyberespionage campaign believed to be based in Russia has been targeting government leaders and institutions for nearly five years, according to researchers with iSight Partners who have examined code used in the attacks.
The campaign, dubbed "Sandworm" is believed to have been running since 2009, and used a wide-reaching zero-day exploit uncovered by the researchers that affects nearly every version of the Windows operating system released since Windows Vista.
Although iSight only has a small view of the number of victims targeted in the campaign, the victims include among others, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Ukrainian and European Union governments, energy and telecommunications firms, defense companies, as well as at least one academic in the US who was singled out for his focus on Ukrainian issues. The attackers also targeted attendees of this year's GlobSec conference, a high-level national security gathering that attracts foreign ministers and other top leaders from Europe and elsewhere each year.
It appears Sandworm is focused on nabbing documents and emails containing intelligence and diplomatic information about Ukraine, Russia and other topics of importance in the region. But it also attempts to steal SSL keys and code-signing certificates, which iSight says the attackers probably use to further their campaign and breach other systems.
The researchers dubbed the operation "Sandworm" because the attackers make multiple references to the science fiction series Dune in their code. Sandworms, in the Frank Herbert books, are desert creatures on the planet Arrakis who are worshipped as god-like entities.
iSight is not the first to spot the attackers in the wild. Other security firms, including F-Secure in Finland, have uncovered victims over the years. But iSight was able to tie various attacks together to expose commonalities in the five-year campaign. It was encoded references to Dune—which appear in URLs for the attackers' command-and-control servers—that helped tie some of the attacks together. The URLs include base64 strings that when decoded translate to "arrakis02," "houseatreides94," and "epsiloneridani0," among others.
"Some of the references were very obscure so whoever was writing the malware was a big Dune geek," says John Hultquist, senior manager for iSight's Cyber Espionage Threat Intelligence team.
The zero-day vulnerability used in some of the attacks was spotted in early September. The attackers use it to infect victims with malicious attachments, primarily PowerPoint files. iSight Partners has been working with Microsoft to fix the problem, a patch for which is being released today along with a report from the security firm about its findings.
The zero-day affects the way Windows handles PowerPoint files and allows the attackers to execute remote code on targeted systems. When a victim clicks on a malicious PowerPoint file, the exploit in the file installs a malicious executable that opens a backdoor onto the system.
"They've had a high degree of success in terms of infiltration based on the use of the zero day," says Hultquist.
Some Sandworm attacks also use five older vulnerabilities that have already been patched. The exploits are used to install various versions of BlackEnergy, a malicious tool used by cybercriminals. The tool gained notoriety in 2008 when botnets infected with the malware were used to launch denial-of-service attacks against systems in Georgia during a standoff between that country and Russia.
Researchers at iSight say the use of conventional criminal malware has helped the attackers blend in with other operations and remain under the radar, since any victims who uncovered infections probably believed their computers had been infected for a botnet to be used by spammers.
The first variant of BlackEnergy was created by a Russian national named Oleksiuk Dmytro, with limited functionality as a DDoS tool. A subsequent variant included modules for stealing banking credentials, though Dmytro has always denied involvement in developing later versions of the tool. The Sandworm team appears to be using the malware to collect intelligence. The researchers say their use of BlackEnergy indicates a link between the attackers and the criminal underground, although their campaign is more sophisticated.
The researchers have found samples of the malware that are built to communicate through the internal proxy servers on a victim's network. Many companies install proxies between internal systems and the Internet to protect those internal systems and enforce internet usage policies. Outgoing communication gets routed through the servers, which use private internal IP addresses that are not advertised to the outside world. The researchers found proxy addresses belonging to victim networks coded into the malware to allow them to exfiltrate stolen data to their command-and-control servers. The attackers had obviously done reconnaissance and knew the layout of the internal network to know how to get the stolen data out.
"Some people might think they're run-of-the-mill criminals," says Hultquist. "But they're not going after credentials. They want knowledge that only a few people can use. That's security-related information and diplomatic information and intelligence on NATO and Ukraine and Poland."
Two details of Sandworm lead the iSight Partners to conclude it's originating from Russia, possibly as a state-sponsored operation. First, files used for the command-and-control servers are written in Russian; and second, the victims targeted and the type of information used to lure them into clicking on malicious attachments focus on topics that would be of interest to Russia's adversaries. One attachment purports to be a list of pro-Russia "terrorists" that the victim is invited to view.
Other victims have been targeted with emails purporting to provide information about military and intelligence operations directed against Russia. In 2013, NATO was targeted with a phishing document focused on European diplomacy, and a Polish energy firm was targeted with an attachment purporting to be about shale gas. Earlier this year, high-level government officials attending the GlobSec conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, were targeted with a malicious email purporting to come from conference organizers. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko, former heavyweight boxing champion and a candidate for the post of mayor of Kiev, were scheduled to attend the conference but cancelled at the last minute.Nov 25, 2012; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Oakland Raiders head coach Dennis Allen talks to free safety Matt Giordano (27) and defensive end Andre Carter (97) during the first half against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals defeated the Raiders 34-10. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-US PRESSWIRE
It’s been a very rough season for the Oakland Raiders. They currently stand at 3-8 and are on a four game losing streak.
Fans were ready to embrace a “new era” with a new owner, general manager, and head coach. But it’s been anything but that.
The Raiders are playing embarassing football and although you don’t want to point the finger at anyone, you kind of have to at this point.
But who do you blame for the Raiders’ struggles? The coaching staff? The offensive line? Carson Palmer? The defense? Well, let’s take a look at each of the four victims:
The Coaching Staff:
It’s Dennis Allen’s first year as the Raiders’ head coach, and it is not going well for him. But would you put all of the blame on him? Well certainly not all of the blame, but he should be talked about in this discussion.
Allen brings a much more defensive strategy to the table than most of the Raiders’ old coaches. He was the defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos just a season ago, and that Broncos defense was something to be afraid of. Why can’t he bring that to the Raiders?
Well for one, the talent just isn’t there. He isn’t dealing with Brian Dawkins, Von Miller, or Champ Bailey anymore. He’s dealing with guys like Ron Bartell, Rolando McClain, and Matt Giordano. But beyond that, the Raiders just seem to have no synergy on defense. They rarely can stop their opponent on a big drive or big down, and it just gets frustrating.
Also, the offense looks much more dry this year. Allen and his staff don’t really resort to the deep pass anymore, a play that was so effective last year, especially with Oakland’s speedy receivers. The Raiders are too conservative now and need to spark up their offense.
The Offensive Line:
The Raiders’ offensive line has got to be one of the worst in the NFL. They have given up 24 sacks and 57 hits on their veteran quarterback Carson Palmer this year. Those numbers will make any fan cringe.
Palmer is often pressured or hurried during plays, and with his limited healthy receivers, he doesn’t really have a go-to guy. Thus, Palmer usually has to take the sack or throw the ball away. Or even worse, he fumbles the ball or throws a dumb interception.
In terms of protecting the run, they have not been as bad as protecting the pass. McFadden and Goodson were both doing above average until their injuries, but their bad games weren’t really linked to the offensive line.
I think the offensive line should definitely be blamed but not nearly as much as some of these other victims.
Carson Palmer:
To be honest, I really don’t think that much of the blame should be put on Palmer. He hasn’t had Jacoby Ford all season, and Denarius Moore and Darrius Heyward-Bey have been battling with injuries throughout the year. How can you expect a quarterback to run an offense when he’s out on the field with third-string receivers who aren’t used to in-game situations?
Sure, he does make mistakes a lot. He throws costly interceptions and isn’t as mobile as everyone wants, on top of forcing passes into tight coverage. But when your defense is letting in all these points per game, and your top receivers are injured, who else has to make the big play?
I think that is what gets Palmer into trouble. He so often tries to make the big play when it isn’t really needed and the Raiders end up paying the price. I believe that if Darren McFadden was healthy and running like he was last year, then a lot of weight would be lifted off of Palmer’s shoulders and he would be able to calmly run his offense the way he wants.
Defense:
Out of these four victims, I have to say that the biggest problem for the Oakland Raiders this season is… (drum roll please) the defense!
They are awful. Embarassing. Injured. And it becomes more clearer as the season rolls forward.
I will say that obviously it was a big blow to lose their top two cornerbacks, Shawntae Spencer and Ron Bartell, to injury really early in the season. They both missed significant time, and Spencer hasn’t even returned yet.
Richard Seymour has missed games because of a hamstring injury, yeah yeah. But when it comes down to it, the Raiders’ defense is not getting anything done. They are allowing 379 yards of offense every game, which is ranked 25th in the league. Also, the 32.4 points that they allow per game is the most in the NFL.
If those stats don’t say it all for you, please, just watch a game. I know it’ll be hard, but only then will you truly understand how bad they are playing. Whenever it’s a big third down or a key drive they need to stop, it just doesn’t seem like they have a plan. Matt Giordano has been struggling all season long, and so has linebacker Rolando McClain. And ever since Michael Huff had to move from safety to corner, their defense just hasn’t been the same. Sure, he has done a great job with the conversion, but they need him at safety, his true position.
Offense wins games, and defense wins championships, but the way the Raiders’ defense is playing, it seems like they are very far away from a Superbowl win.
Who is MOSTLY to Blame for the Raiders' Struggles? Carson Palmer
Coaching Staff
Offensive Line
Defense View ResultsAntimicrobial agents that are applied to the surface of non-living objects to destroy microorganisms
This article is about antimicrobial agents. For the Macintosh anti-virus software, see Disinfectant (software)
Disinfection of a floor using disinfectant liquid applied using a mop
Levels of resistance of microbes to disinfectants.
Disinfectants are antimicrobial agents that are applied to the surface of non-living objects to destroy microorganisms that are living on the objects.[1] Disinfection does not necessarily kill all microorganisms, especially resistant bacterial spores; it is less effective than sterilization, which is an extreme physical and/or chemical process that kills all types of life.[1] Disinfectants are different from other antimicrobial agents such as antibiotics, which destroy microorganisms within the body, and antiseptics, which destroy microorganisms on living tissue. Disinfectants are also different from biocides — the latter are intended to destroy all forms of life, not just microorganisms. Disinfectants work by destroying the cell wall of microbes or interfering with their metabolism.
Sanitizers are substances that simultaneously clean and disinfect.[2] Disinfectants are frequently used in hospitals, dental surgeries, kitchens, and bathrooms to kill infectious organisms.
Bacterial endospores are most resistant to disinfectants, but some viruses and bacteria also possess some tolerance.
Disinfectants are used to rapidly kill bacteria. They kill off the bacteria by causing the proteins to become damaged and outer layers of the bacteria cell to rupture. The DNA material subsequently leaks out.
In wastewater treatment, a disinfection step with chlorine, ultra-violet (UV) radiation or ozonation can be included as tertiary treatment to remove pathogens from wastewater, for example if it is to be reused to irrigate golf courses. An alternative term used in the sanitation sector for disinfection of waste streams, sewage sludge or fecal sludge is sanitisation or sanitization.
Properties [ edit ]
A perfect disinfectant would also offer complete and full microbiological sterilisation, without harming humans and useful form of life, be inexpensive, and noncorrosive. However, most disinfectants are also, by nature, potentially harmful (even toxic) to humans or animals. Most modern household disinfectants contain Bitrex, an exceptionally bitter substance added to discourage ingestion, as a safety measure. Those that are used indoors should never be mixed with other cleaning products as chemical reactions can occur.[3] The choice of disinfectant to be used depends on the particular situation. Some disinfectants have a wide spectrum (kill many different types of microorganisms), while others kill a smaller range of disease-causing organisms but are preferred for other properties (they may be non-corrosive, non-toxic, or inexpensive).[4]
There are arguments for creating or maintaining conditions that are not conducive to bacterial survival and multiplication, rather than attempting to kill them with chemicals. Bacteria can increase in number very quickly, which enables them to evolve rapidly. Should some bacteria survive a chemical attack, they give rise to new generations composed completely of bacteria that have resistance to the particular chemical used. Under a sustained chemical attack, the surviving bacteria in successive generations are increasingly resistant to the chemical used, and ultimately the chemical is rendered ineffective. For this reason, some question the wisdom of impregnating cloths, cutting boards and worktops in the home with bactericidal chemicals.[citation needed]
Types [ edit ]
Air disinfectants [ edit ]
Air disinfectants are typically chemical substances capable of disinfecting microorganisms suspended in the air. Disinfectants are generally assumed to be limited to use on surfaces, but that is not the case. In 1928, a study found that airborne microorganisms could be killed using mists of dilute bleach.[5] An air disinfectant must be dispersed either as an aerosol or vapour at a sufficient concentration in the air to cause the number of viable infectious microorganisms to be significantly reduced.
In the 1940s and early 1950s, further studies showed inactivation of diverse bacteria, influenza virus, and Penicillium chrysogenum (previously P. notatum) mold fungus using various glycols, principally propylene glycol and triethylene glycol.[6] In principle, these chemical substances are ideal air disinfectants because they have both high lethality to microorganisms and low mammalian toxicity.[7][8]
Although glycols are effective air disinfectants in controlled laboratory environments, it is more difficult to use them effectively in real-world environments because the disinfection of air is sensitive to continuous action. Continuous action in real-world environments with outside air exchanges at door, HVAC, and window interfaces, and in the presence of materials that adsorb and remove glycols from the air, poses engineering challenges that are not critical for surface disinfection. The engineering challenge associated with creating a sufficient concentration of the glycol vapours in the air have not to date been sufficiently addressed.[9][10]
Alcohols [ edit ]
Alcohol and alcohol plus Quaternary ammonium cation based compounds comprise a class of proven surface sanitizers and disinfectants approved by the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control for use as a hospital grade disinfectant.[11] Alcohols are most effective when combined with distilled water to facilitate diffusion through the cell membrane; 100% alcohol typically denatures only external membrane proteins.[12] A mixture of 70% ethanol or isopropanol diluted in water is effective against a wide spectrum of bacteria, though higher concentrations are often needed to disinfect wet surfaces.[13] Additionally, high-concentration mixtures (such as 80% ethanol + 5% isopropanol) are required to effectively inactivate lipid-enveloped viruses (such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C).[12][13][14][14][15]
The efficacy of alcohol is enhanced when in solution with the wetting agent dodecanoic acid (coconut soap). The synergistic effect of 29.4% ethanol with dodecanoic acid is effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Further testing is being performed against Clostridium difficile (C.Diff) spores with higher concentrations of ethanol and dodecanoic acid, which proved effective with a contact time of ten minutes.[16]
Aldehydes [ edit ]
Aldehydes, such as formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, have a wide microbiocidal activity and are sporicidal and fungicidal. They are partly inactivated by organic matter and have slight residual activity.
Some bacteria have developed resistance to glutaraldehyde, and it has been found that glutaraldehyde can cause asthma and other health hazards, hence ortho-phthalaldehyde is replacing glutaraldehyde.[citation needed]
Oxidizing agents [ edit ]
Oxidizing agents act by oxidizing the cell membrane of microorganisms, which results in a loss of structure and leads to cell lysis and death. A large number of disinfectants operate in this way. Chlorine and oxygen are strong oxidizers, so their compounds figure heavily here.
Electrolyzed water or "Anolyte" is an oxidizing, acidic hypochlorite solution made by electrolysis of sodium chloride into sodium hypochlorite and hypochlorous acid. Anolyte has an oxidation-reduction potential of + |
Pentagon.Bengaluru: Two small mutual fund investors at Flipkart have marked down the company’s valuation, joining other investors who believe that India’s largest e-commerce firm is overvalued.
Valic Co 1 marked down Flipkart’s value by 29.4% as of February, compared with August 2015, according to a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Valic valued Flipkart’s Series D stock at $98 a share in February, down from $139 a share in August.
Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II marked down Flipkart’s value by as much as 39.6% as of February, compared with last August, according to a filing with the SEC. Fidelity valued Flipkart’s Series D stock at $82 a share in February, down from $135.8 a share in August.
The Economic Times reported about the markdowns earlier on Wednesday.
To be sure, Fidelity and Valic hold very small amounts of Flipkart stock. Their holdings together are worth less than $6 million. That’s a minuscule fraction of Flipkart’s overall value. The company last raised $700 million from investors in July last year at a valuation $15 billion.
But taken along with other markdowns by Morgan Stanley and T Rowe Price, both of which together own hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Flipkart stock, it confirms the view that Flipkart’s own investors believe the company is overvalued by a significant amount.
In late February, Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Trust, another mutual fund investor in Flipkart, slashed the value of its holdings by as much as 27%. Then, last month, T Rowe Price disclosed in a filing that it cut the value of its stake in Flipkart by 15%.
Mint reported on 14 April that Flipkart has held funding talks with more than 15 investors over the past six months, all of whom have refused to invest in the company at its preferred valuation of $15 billion. Mint also reported then that Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd), which is India’s second-most valuable Internet company, has also held talks with several new investors who have declined to put up money at Snapdeal’s asking price of $6.5 billion.
After pumping in more than $9 billion into Indian start-ups since the beginning of 2014, investors started pulling back late last year because of a mix of global macroeconomic factors such as a growth slowdown in China, as well as growing concerns over unproven business models.
Flipkart and Snapdeal are also at risk of being overtaken by the Indian unit of Amazon Inc., the world’s largest online retailer. Amazon India has quickly expanded its business since launching in June 2013 and analysts and investors have said that the company may become India’s largest e-commerce firm unless Flipkart and Snapdeal dramatically improve their technology, service levels and get access to more funds.Australia’s foreign minister concluded on Monday what Canberra’s envoy to Jerusalem called a “very successful” three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Hebrew news site nrg reported.
On Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop held meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Bishop invited Netanyahu to become the first Israeli prime minister ever to visit Australia.
“The Australian public would warmly embrace you,” Bishop told Netanyahu. The prime minister accepted Bishop’s invitation, according to a statement released by his office.
Nrg reported that Netanyahu reiterated to Bishop his view that closer ties between Israel and Arab countries in the region would bolster the chance of achieving peace with the Palestinians. He also showed her a video highlighting Palestinian incitement against Israel.
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During their meeting, Bishop reportedly expressed to Netanyahu her opposition to unilateral diplomatic initiatives related to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. She also was reported to have said that the issue of settlements should be left for final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
In the past, as reported by The Algemeiner, Bishop questioned the idea that Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank violate international law.
“I would like to see which international law has declared them illegal,” she was quoted as saying during a January 2014 visit to Israel.
Another matter Bishop discussed with Netanyahu on Sunday was the importance her government places on marking the 100th anniversary of the October 1917 liberation of Beersheba from the Ottoman Turks by Australian troops during World War I. Top Australian officials — including, potentially, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull — are expected to come to Israel for a commemorative event marking the centenary of the famous Australian cavalry charge across the Negev Desert into Beersheba, in what proved to be a key turning point in the British Empire’s military campaign against the Ottomans in the Middle East.
Netanyahu thanked Bishop for her country’s support of Israel. “Your friendship is terrific…and we appreciate our friends,” he told her.
On Monday, Bishop stopped in Ramallah for a meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Later, she held meetings in Israel with opposition leader Isaac Herzog, Zionist Union MK and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid.
Australian Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma told nrg on Monday that Bishop was “received warmly” in Israel and that the visit “met expectations.” He said her trip was a manifestation of the “excellent ties” that exist between Australia and Israel.
In a statement released ahead of her visit, Bishop said, “Australia and Israel enjoy a deep friendship, underpinned by historical and community ties. Australia’s Jewish community makes a significant contribution to our nation.”
As was reported in The Algemeiner, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) announced last month that it was ceasing all funding of programs by the Christian charity World Vision in the Palestinian territories, after the head of its Gaza branch was caught diverting an estimated $7.2 million a year to Hamas.
DFAT, which has given World Vision a total of 5 million Australian dollars ($3.8 million) over the past three years, called the revelation “deeply troubling,” and said it is ”urgently seeking more information” from the charity and the Israeli authorities.Germany's current account surplus will smash all records this year, risking a serious political showdown with Brussels and the ultimate sanction of EU fines.
A joint report by the leading German institutes, or "Wise Men", said the country's external surplus would keep rising to a modern-era high of 7.9pc of GDP this year, far above the 6pc limit set by Brussels under the new Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure.
The Commission warned Germany late last year that it faced possible sanctions if failed to do its "homework", either by boosting consumption at home or by weaning its economy off excess reliance on foreign markets. The threat caused consternation in Germany's press and a vitriolic exchange with Brussels.
The rest of the eurozone can order Germany to present an "action plan" to bring down its surplus. If Germany is relegated to the "corrective" phase of the mechanism, and if it then fails to deliver on demands, the EU Council of Ministers can then demand that Germany pay a deposit of up to 0.1pc of GDP. This money is seized if Berlin still fails to remedy the imbalance.
"We are looking under the bonnet at the German economy and monitoring this closely. If there is systematic abuse, and they don't respond, sanctions are available," said an EU official. The fines are imposed by a "reverse qualified majority vote", making it hard to block.
Such a procedure would amount to a court of judgment on Germany by EU peers, with explosive political consequences. The German public already think they are the cash cow for the EU, convinced they are bearing the cost for bailing out southern Europe and holding the euro together. Berlin says Germany's export success helps all Europe and should be prized, not denigrated.
Germany first agreed to the new procedure thinking it would be used to punish deficit countries living beyond their means, or to prevent credit booms, deemed to have been the causes of the EMU crisis. German officials seem taken aback that Brussels would also look at the other side of the North-South trade gap.
The US Treasury is also stepping up pressure. It singled out Germany as a greater sinner than China in its latest report on trade and currency manipulation, criticising the country for failing to do more to lift the eurozone out of a protracted slump. Washington said Germany was creating a “deflationary bias” for the world economy, taking more than its fair share of scarce global demand.
Germany's trade with US - the light blue line is exports, the black line is imports
Last year Germany exported twice as much to the US as it imported, a gap that has widened sharply over the past four years and is causing trade frictions. The implicit US criticism is that Germany has locked in a structural advantage through EMU, which prevents Germany's currency rising as the D-Mark used to do. This creates a permanently under-valued exchange rate. It not only hurts Club Med but it also has secondary effects on non-EU countries.
The causes of the German surplus are complex but a key reason is Berlin's quest for a budget surplus, to be 0.1pc of GDP this year and 0.5pc next year. This curbs growth of demand. Brussels said the German government is "over-achieving", and needs to do more to boost infrastructure spending. Gross fixed capital investment fell 0.7pc last year, after dropping 2.1pc in 2012.
Germany fiscal squeeze is driven by fears of an ageing crisis. While understandable, it means that EMU crisis states have to cut even deeper to claw back competitiveness within monetary union. There are other causes of the chronic surplus. Consumers pay above market electricity, subsidising cheap power for the export industry.
The problem may slowly correct itself. The Wise Men expect German growth to pick up from 0.4pc last year to 1.9pc this year and 2pc in 2015. A new minimum wage of €8.50 next year will boost the incomes of the poorest, who spend a high share. Investment will at last rebound, jumping 4.8pc this year as industry meets pent-up demand for new equipment.
The risk is an ugly clash in the meantime between Germany and the EMU deficit bloc, poisoning the political atmosphere. "The worst nightmare of the German people is that they should find themselves under the government of Club Med debtors," said Handelsblatt editor Klaus Engelen.Business Insider tweeted a photo of the most popular fast food chains by state. Texans were not fooled when they tried to say In-N-Out is more popular than Whataburger.
Image source: Twitter
See who would win in a throwdown between Whataburger and In-N-Out. less Business Insider tweeted a photo of the most popular fast food chains by state. Texans were not fooled when they tried to say In-N-Out is more popular than Whataburger.
Image source: Twitter
See who would win... more Photo: Business Insider Via Twitter Photo: Business Insider Via Twitter Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close News outlet thinks In-N-Out is more popular than Whataburger in Texas 1 / 15 Back to Gallery
A news outlet is trying to push the idea that In-N-Out is more popular than Whataburger in Texas and Texans aren't buying it.
The absurd declaration comes from Business Insider, which ranked the California burger chain as the number one fast food chain in the Lone Star State. Business Insider deleted the tweet but that didn't stop Texans from sounding off on Twitter, decrying the outlets' rankings.
GOOD TASTE: Houston baby smashes Whataburger instead of cake in first birthday photo shoot
These are the most popular fast food chains in every state — and America has a clear winner https://t.co/zR1HYN5dvo pic.twitter.com/u5OG9nZQOs — Business Insider (@businessinsider) October 19, 2017
Business Insider said it used data provided by Foursquare to determine the most popular food chains per location in every state.
"For the study, we looked at which chains received the most visits on average in every state based on the total number of visits to each chain divided by the number of locations in that state," Business Insider wrote.
TEXAS BURGERS: Here's what Texas looked like in 1950 when Whataburger started
Commenters were quick to point out that Foursquare isn't as popular as it once was and probably doesn't have the most accurate data to support Business Insider's rankings.
In-N-Out lists 35 restaurants in Texas, with most of them in Dallas, Forth Worth, Austin and San Antonio. Whataburger has nearly 200 locations in the Houston area alone, according to its website.
The rankings are even more confusing, considering Thrillist wrote in 2014 that more people checked into Whataburger instead of In-N-Out on Foursquare. Unless Foursquare members drastically started checking in to In-N-Out more over the past three years, we're not entirely sold on Business Insider's new rankings.
See how Whataburger stacks up to In-N-Out in the gallery above.The mayoral elections in Minneapolis and St. Paul could not have been any more different. One was loud and unscripted, the other peaceful and predictable. Both spoke to the character of the two cities and what they mean for their futures. Minneapolis’ election was a generation changer preparing the city for the future, while in St. Paul it was an endorsement of the status quo holding the city in the past. But in both cases, ranked-choice voting (RCV) successfully did its job.
David Schultz
Critics were wrong when it came to RCV. With RCV and 35 mayoral candidates in Minneapolis, skeptics contended that voters would not be smart enough or would be overwhelmed in their ability to process the information needed to make intelligent choices. There were worries of spoiled ballots, disenfranchisement of the poor and people of color, or widespread dissatisfaction with RCV. That did not happen. Why?
Minneapolis learned from experience. Four years ago, when Minneapolis first used RCV, I was asked by the City Elections Department to evaluate implementation of the new voting method. My report’s biggest concern was evidence of some voter confusion, but the recommendation was better voter education. The city responded with a great voter-education program; this election significantly reduced voter error and spoiled ballots. Moreover, in St. Paul, part of why the election ran without a hitch is that they, too, learned from the 2009 Minneapolis experiences. For critics of government who say it cannot learn, Minneapolis and St. Paul did, and the results paid off.
Top 6 received nearly 90% of vote
Voters in Minneapolis learned how to adjust to 35 candidates on the ballot. The top six candidates received nearly 90 percent of the total votes cast. Voters demonstrated a capacity to gather information and select candidates whom they preferred and were deemed viable. Moreover, worries that voters would select only vanity candidates and not vote for someone who was one of the finalists also were unnecessary; such voting seemed largely negligible.
In short, the theoretical and hypothetical worries that the election system would break down did not occur. As a bonus, the Minneapolis experience confirmed a trend from around the country – RCV discourages attacks on opponents, more civil campaigns, and the potential for more cooperation during and perhaps after elections.
Beyond vindicating RCV, the elections in the two cities spoke hugely of their futures and characters.
Minneapolis’s election was about a generational change. It was the older DFL being replaced by a new generation of Democrats. The old labor-led, white establishment DFL lined up behind Mark Andrew, while the new demographics of a racially and politically changing city boosted Hodges.
A generational shift in Minneapolis, not in St. Paul
Andrew was like Frank Skeffington – Edwin O’Connor’s fictional old-line Democrat mayor in “The Last Hurrah” who loses a re-election bid because he does not realize times have changed and he has not. Andrew is a solid and noble DFLer, but he is old school at a time when Minneapolis is changing. With Hodges as mayor and seven new council members, Minneapolis is set for the shift to the future with a new agenda for a new constituency. If Barack Obama in 2008 represented the transition from baby boomer to Gen X and Millennial politics at the national level, this is what happened on Tuesday in Minneapolis.
Not so in St Paul. Chris Coleman is perhaps the last mayor of the old St. Paul DFL. He is part of the old Irish Catholic DFL constituency that his father represented. He represents the past of an insular DFL Party that still controls the city with many council members still playing old-school politics. It is the coalition of traditional labor unions and party insiders. It is the politics of downtown ballpark stadiums and public subsidies for economic development projects. Coleman does not really have an agenda for the future. He is like Robert Redford’s character in “The Candidate” – elected but asking the question, “What do we do now?” Coleman is the mayor of baby boomers seeking to hang on one more time.
In some ways, the people of both cities got what they wanted, or at least elected mayors suited to their personalities. Minneapolis is the hip, cool, and forward city looking to the future. St. Paul is more stodgy, less prone to change, and more stuck in tradition than its sister across the Mississippi. The mayoral elections represent a tale of two cities and a contrast in the way they handled changing generational politics.
David Schultz is a professor of political science at Hamline University and the 2013 Leslie A. Whittington national award winner for excellence in public-affairs teaching.
WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?
If you’re interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, email Susan Albright atsalbright@minnpost.com.)Brian Kelly held his weekly press conference to preview the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and this week's opponent, the Georgia Bulldogs.
Obviously Kelly paid the proper respects to Georgia, and spotlighted running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel as elite backs. He also called linebacker Roquan Smith an elite player. He acknowledged the injury to Jacob Eason, but he thought Jake Fromm will do a nice job back there.
As far as the Irish were concerned, Kelly talked about the defense's need to tackle better this week, and talked about Te'Von Coney. Coney played a lot of downs on Saturday, and is the 1st man in for BUCK Greer Martini and MIKE Nyles Morgan. Coney has seemed to turn a corner mentally, and Brian Kelly thinks that's why he is playing at a higher level.
Look, everybody has to make choices about, you know, where they want to be. All of our players knew that they were going to be rewarded for their traits, not their talent. And he made a choice that no matter how good he looked and how many abs he had and how big his biceps were, he wasn't going to play unless he had the traits. And so he made that choice, and that's why he's going to see success this year.
Brian Kelly also talked about:
Brian VanGorder
Jay Hayes
Cornerbacks Nick Watkins and Julian Love
And more
You can watch the entire press conference below.A stampede at an Ivory Coast football stadium has left 22 people dead and more than 130 injured.
But the team - including Premier League stars such as Dider Drogba and Kolo Toure - still played the scheduled World Cup qualifier against Malawi after the deadly crush.
More sport news Michael Skibbe scandal Ex-Germany coach in sex photo blackmail Ex-Germany coach Michael Skibbe was a victim of a blackmail scandal when a policewoman threatened to sell sex photos of him and his ex-girlfriend.
Israeli basketball team Turkish crowd storm court in anger at Gaza An Israeli basketball team fled to their dressing room during a game after a Turkish crowd tried to storm the court in anger at the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Deadly disasters Earthquake hits Italy L'Aquila homes collapse leaves at least 179 dead At least 179 people are dead as homes collapsed when a massive earthquake hit the historic city of L'Aquila in Italy, with 10,000 houses reportedly damaged.
The tragedy horror at the Houphouet-Boigny stadium in Abidjan comes just days before the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster which killed 96 people.
A crowd of 50,000 people had come to the game - more than had been expected - to see the likes of Drogba, his Chelsea teammate Salomon Kalou and Toure's fellow Arsenal player Emmanuel Eboue, with tickets being sold at reduced prices.
Although the stadium had been recently renovated, the ministry of sport and the Ivorian Football Federation confirmed that a wall collapsed causing those already in the stadium to panic.
According to the AP, Interior Minister Desire Tagro told state television: "Lots of fans showed up. They started pushing to get in because the match was about to start and each and every one of them wanted to get in."
Officials have since blamed the tragedy on ticketless fans trying to get in, according to the BBC.
The incident took place before the match, but the game was allowed to proceed with the Ivory Coast claiming a 5-0 win.
And it was just the latest in a string of deadly disasters in African football, and sends out a worrying message ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Past incidents include:
• Just weeks ago, on February 10, four people died from dehydration in Kumasi, Ghana during a game at the Baba Yara stadium.
• In September 2008, 13 died and 54 were injured during a stampede in Butembo, D.R. Congo after accusations that the losing side’s keeper had put a hex on the game.
• Nine people died in a World Cup qualifier between Liberia and Gambia in June 2008. Fans were either crushed against the fences or were trampled to death.
• In May 2001, the worst ever disaster to hit African football took place when 130 were killed during a game in Accra, Ghana after police fired tear gas into the stands.
More sport news
Former Germany coach Michael Skibbe was the victim of a blackmail attempt involving intimate photos.
An Israeli basketball team had to flee a court in fear after the Turkish crowd became hostile over the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
More news
At least 27 people are dead after an earthquake struke L'Aquila in Italy, with many homes collapsing."Synchronicity" isn't just a rather good-looking word, it's also one of the better words I could think of to describe how Pete Carroll and John Schneider turned this duckboat into the speedboat from Thunder in Paradise, starring actor Hulk Hogan. Pete and John never attack a problem with only one solution in mind, and they never seem to make a move that doesn't already have the next three moves laid out ahead of it.
But most importantly, the synchronicity of "out with the old (bad) and in with the new (good)" was in full swing in 2010, as Pete and John were tasked with taking over possibly the worst team in the NFL and still managed to find an answer for almost every hole that was created when they had to get rid of past mistakes.
And as most of you remember, 2009 was a pretty rough season. It was so rough, that the Mariners were actually the gold standard for sports franchise in Seattle.
Oh how times have changed:
Mariners good, Seahawks bad, Seahawks good, Mariners mariners. Synchronicity.
When the Seahawks needed to add a veteran receiver to try and compete for a roster spot, they didn't just sign one Williams', they signed two.
When that Williams showed in the preseason that he could actually play, they didn't hesitate to cut the team's leading receiver from 2009.
When they traded for a former first round bust at defensive end, they traded away a former first round bust at defensive end two days later.
When they were able to trade for a former first round pick at running back that ran out of opportunities with his old team, they released the leading rusher from 2009.
And when that running back they acquired had the biggest run in playoff history the following January, it was exactly one year to the day after the franchise had fired one of the men that was responsible for letting things get as bad as they did.
Now that's definitely what I call....
Fun!
Here is a look back at the first calendar year under Pete Carroll and John Schneider, with all of the memorable transactions they made, how many of those players ended up being a part of the 2014 Super Bowl champions, and a link to the Field Gulls article that was posted on that day (when I was able to find it.)
As you know, Pete and John don't rest much.
January 8, 2010 - Jim Mora fired
True enough, Mora did do something right. Right?
As Head Coach, Mora brought in some interesting coaching talent in guys like Dan Quinn and Gus Bradley. Do we credit Mora for seeing some bright young minds or do we debit him for bringing in coordinators running a zone defensive scheme that was ill-suited for his on-field talent?
Pete's first brilliant move was the changes he didn't make. Bradley was retained as defensive coordinator, Quinn as assistant head coach, and then Jeremy Bates was hired as offensive coordinator. Though Bates didn't work out, the team didn't let it mellow for long. When the front office has to make a decision, they make it.
I think it's fair to say that Bradley had a successful first season with Jacksonville, considering how little he had to work with. And Quinn is everyone's favorite to either succeed Carroll or be the next coach from Seattle to get a promotion elsewhere.
(Just a note. Ruston Weber was the acting GM after Tim Ruskell was fired and he made one notable move: Signing a punter to a six-year deal.
And we loooove him for it!)
January 11, 2010 - Pete Carroll HIRED!
From John Morgan's post "Pete Carroll Bores Me":
Seattle would not win a Super Bowl if it hired Bill Cowher. It wouldn't draft a great quarterback if it hired Mike Shanahan. It didn't reach the NFC Championship under Mora. It won't become a dynasty because of Pete Carroll.
To be fair, Morgan simply had no idea what to make of Carroll. He hadn't coached in the NFL for a decade and his success at USC really didn't give us any hint as to whether or not he could win at the pro level.
January 19, 2010 - John Schneider HIRED!
In retrospect, was Schneider really as much of a "whipping boy" as we thought when he was hired? After it was announced that Carroll wouldn't get to have GM duties in addition to being a coach, many figured that whoever was GM, he'd still have to get the okay from Carroll on all moves.
Whether Carroll is nominally Seattle's general manager or not, it is once again clear that he is the man in charge. Hiring Schneider merely clarifies that. It's better to have a general manager than to burden a head coach with two jobs, but Schneider is not and likely will never be a big shot executive like Smith, Ruskell or Bill Polian. He's a team player, for good or ill, and his value within the organization is helping Carroll find the best talent and make the best decisions possible. So, give him good counsel, Mr. Schneider. The future of the Seattle Seahawks depends on it. Kind of.
And nobody would dispute that Schneider and Carroll have formed a total partnership in building this robust, sexy team.
March 3, 2010 - Seneca Wallace traded to Cleveland Browns for conditional 2011 sixth or seventh round pick
The Seahawks ended up receiving a seventh round pick, and they used it as part of a seven-pick trade with the Detroit Lions. Seattle moved down from the second round to the third and selected John Moffitt, moved up from the fifth to the fourth and selected Kris Durham, moved up a few spots in the seventh and took Pep Levingston, and also added a fifth round pick.
They used that on Richard Sherman.
(Of course you could argue that they actually "added" the fourth round pick and "moved up" in the fifth, but that's far less fun than what I just said.)
March 15, 2010 - Darryl Tapp signed to one-year RFA contract
March 16, 2010 - Darryl Tapp traded to Philadelphia Eagles for Chris Clemons, 2010 fourth round
You could certainly argue that given Clemons track record, it certainly seemed like an odd move.
If Curry replaced Darryl Tapp, it wouldn't matter, but if Tapp was replaced by Clemons, we would have a problem. Clemons-Cole-Mebane-Jackson is perhaps the worst starting defensive line in the NFL. Substituting Tapp for Clemons does not make it good, but it does replace a situational pass rusher with a legitimate defensive end. Tapp can hold the edge. Tapp can close the hole. Tapp was a defensive end, complete, tested, not a journeyman situational pass rusher with three career starts. Plainly put, if a team starts a 240 pound right defensive end, its opponent will run at him and will not stop until it fails. That is why it doesn't happen. That is why, in part, Clemons has only started three games in his six-year NFL career.
Jackson would never play for Carroll. Red Bryant actually became a 320-pound defensive end, and it worked out okay. Tapp had seven sacks for the Seahawks in 2007, and he has seven sacks in the four years since being traded.
I'm not sure where to place this, but John Morgan wrote something really good about "the road back" in 2010.
March 17, 2010 - Seahawks trade 40th and 89th overall picks to San Diego Chargers for Charlie Whitehurst, 60th overall pick. Sign Whitehurst to two-year, $10M deal.
The post to announce the Whitehurst trade has 666 comments.
Your move, God.
April 1, 2010 - Rob Sims signed to one-year RFA contract
April 5, 2010 - Sims and 217th overall pick traded to Detroit Lions for Robert Henderson and 133rd overall pick
It's amazing to see how people valued fifth round draft picks before we found out how good this front office was with fifth round draft picks. Imagine trading (note: I'm trying to think of a player currently on the roster to trade, and I'm having a devil of a time doing so. Can't say I'd want to deal many of 'em) ummm.... JR Sweezy, for a fifth round draft pick.
Now imagine that the fifth round draft pick is white.
In retrospect, Seattle traded Sims and a low pick for some guy named Henderson and a pick that turned out to be Kam fucking Chancellor. The Seahawks traded a guard for arguably the MVP of the playoffs. We couldn't have known that at the time, obviously, and we didn't have the same opinion about picks after the first round as we do now, but holy crap.
The team hasn't just changed immensely over the last four years, but our views on football and football operations have changed as least as much. That's crazy.
April 15, 2010 - Mike Williams signed to one-year contract
April 16, 2010 - Reggie Williams signed to one-year contract
I thought it was important to note that Seattle signed both Williamses within a day of each other in 2010, and we couldn't have possibly known which, if either, would stick.
It's funny to think about how much these two guys mirrored each other in their careers. People debated who the best young receiver in the Pac-10 was: Reggie or Mike? Reggie was the ninth pick in 2004, Mike was the 10th pick in 2005. They both signed with the Seahawks in 2010, and they both signed with the Toronto Argonauts in 2013.
And you're probably thinking to yourself, "But Mike had a better career."
Actually, Reggie had 796 more career yards than Mike, had more seasons where he was useful, and had 13 more touchdowns. As much as we remember BMW, he didn't even have 1,000 yards in his entire Seattle career.
Our expectations for receivers are super low.
April 22, 2010 - First round of the 2010 NFL draft
-- Drafted Russell Okung (6th)
-- Drafted Earl Thomas (14th)
Huh, Earl Thomas is one player I did not scout extensively. Everyone wants to be happy on draft day, so listen to whatever Mike Mayock says. He loves Thomas.
Imagine a scenario in which Mora isn't just bad, but he's the worst. In that case, the Seahawks are sitting at first overall, not the St. Louis Rams. That year, the Rams did what a lot of teams probably would have done, and they took quarterback Sam Bradford. If Seattle was sitting there with a new coach, new GM, and an old Matt Hasselbeck at quarterback, what would they have done?
Where would they be now?
The 2010 draft turned out to be a loaded one, but Bradford is the only player in the top seven to have not made a Pro Bowl. (He was the Offensive Rookie of the Year, however.) Ndamukong Suh, Trent Williams, Eric Berry, Gerald McCoy, Okung, Joe Haden.
Would you rather have Bradford, or any of those players?
The book on Bradford is far from closed, but what would Seattle have done to protect him when they couldn't protect Hasselbeck, hence the selection of Okung? Hence hence hence, why Bradford's career has been disappointing since his rookie season.
The Seahawks took a tackle first, passing on Haden, C.J. Spiller, Tyson Alualu, Rolando McClain, and others. They had other plans for certain positions, and as has been their motto from the beginning: Don't force it. They've never taken a QB just because it seemed like they had to. They weren't going to take Spiller (as many had suspected they would) just because they needed talented playmakers on offense. Okung "fell" to the sixth pick and made it very easy. Had the Kansas City Chiefs taken Okung instead of Berry, who knows what the future would have held.
If the Hawks had taken Berry, then they wouldn't have taken Thomas at 14. Instead, they may have looked at Bryan Bulaga, Jason Pierre-Paul, Derrick Morgan, Demaryius Thomas, or... Tim Tebow? (No.)
April 23, 2010 - Second round of the NFL draft
-- Drafted Golden Tate (60th)
Morgan was a fan of Tate as the "new possession receiver" and apparently Doug Farrar used to comment here?
Hey Doug, whattya think we are now? Losers?!
April 24, 2010 -- Day three of the NFL draft
-- Drafted Walter Thurmond (111th)
-- Drafted E.J. Wilson (127th)
-- Drafted Kam Chancellor (133rd)
-- Drafted Anthony McCoy (185th)
-- Drafted Dexter Davis (236th)
-- Drafted Jameson Konz (245th)
April 24, 2010 -- Draft trades
-- Traded 104th pick, 176th pick to Tennessee Titans for LenDale White, Kevin Vickerson, 111th pick, 185th pick
-- Traded 139th pick to New York Jets for Leon Washington, 236th pick
In order to acquire Washington, all Seattle had to do was move down about 100 picks. The Seahawks essentially made the playoffs because of Washington in 2010, and he scored three touchdowns on kickoff returns that year. In fairness, you should also ask yourself if Seattle passed on anyone great by moving down 100 picks, but actually only one player from the fifth round that year has turned into a star:
Kam fucking Chancellor.
Just like with the Williamses though, you have to remember that the Seahawks didn't take one shot at something. They doubled down. White was not a return man in any universe, but as far as backup running backs go, some might have though that White was a far better choice than Washington, who was coming off of a compound fracture in his leg.
Washington played three seasons for Seattle, White didn't even make it to June.
April 29, 2010 - Walter Jones retires
We still have a long ways to go before Russell Wilson, Thomas, Richard Sherman, or anyone else takes the throne from Jones as the Greatest Seahawk of All Time.
April 30, 2010 - Lawyer Milloy re-signs for one year
He was somehow old enough to have played for Carroll the last time he was an NFL head coach, in New England. Though his great years were long gone, Milloy was still one of the best players on the team in 2010.
The team still sucked in 2010.
May 18, 2010 - JP Losman signed to one-year contract
Not everything that Pete and John does is magic. A lot of the moves actually don't work out at all. That's why they make so many moves. The 2010 Hawks needed a quarterback but they didn't feel any in the draft were worth a pick. They thought Charlie Whitehurst had more potential than most of them. They got rid of Seneca Wallace because they knew that wasn't ever going to work. But they also waived Mike Teel and signed Losman.
Losman wasn't good and he's never been good, but if you look closer you'll see he compares quite favorably to Tarvaris Jackson: 6'2 ~ 6'3, 220 lbs, 40-yard dash ~4.70.
They were looking for something like that, they gave Losman a shot with no risk, it didn't work out, they lost nothing.
July 29, 2010 - Chester Pitts signed to one-year contract
It can't all be interesting.
I've passed over a lot of waivings, signings, UDFAs (there weren't any interesting ones for Seattle in 2010), and smaller moves that didn't have much of an effect on the Seahawks. Pitts barely did. He started five games at guard in 2010 and never played again.
July 31, 2010 - Clint Gresham claimed off waivers from Saints
You can't really expect there to be a post on this |
1955), both at Columbia University. He was also a student at Cambridge University in Britain.[1]
Quiz show celebrity [ edit ]
Twenty-One, with host Van Doren in the isolation booth on the quiz show, with host Jack Barry (1957) Vivienne Nearing, Jack Barry and Van Doren on Twenty-One (March 11, 1957)
On November 28, 1956, Van Doren made his first appearance on the NBC quiz show Twenty-One.[2] Twenty-One was not Van Doren's first interest. He was long believed to have approached producers Dan Enright and Albert Freedman, originally, to appear on Tic-Tac-Dough, another game they produced. Van Doren eventually revealed—five decades after his Twenty-One championship and fame, in a surprise article for The New Yorker—that he did not even own a television set, but had met Freedman through a mutual friend, with Freedman initiating the idea of Van Doren going on television by way of asking what he thought of Tic-Tac-Dough.[3]
Enright and Freedman were impressed by Van Doren's polite style and telegenic appearance, thinking the youthful Columbia teacher would be the man to defeat their incumbent Twenty-One champion, Herb Stempel, and boost the show's slowing ratings as Stempel's reign continued.[citation needed]
In January 1957, Van Doren entered a winning streak that ultimately earned him $129,000 (the equivalent of $1,150,759 today) and made him famous, including an appearance on the cover of Time on February 11, 1957. His Twenty-One run ended on March 11, when he lost to Vivienne Nearing, a lawyer whose husband Van Doren had previously beaten. After his defeat he was offered a three-year contract with NBC.[citation needed]
Numerous writings since have suggested Van Doren was offered a job as a special "cultural correspondent" for The Today Show almost at once—but Van Doren subsequently reminded people that his first job was as a newswriter, short-lived, before he began doing small pieces for Today host Dave Garroway's weekend cultural program, Wide Wide World—pieces that led quickly to Garroway's inviting Van Doren to join Today. Van Doren also made guest appearances on other NBC programs, even serving as Today's substitute host when Garroway took a brief vacation.[citation needed]
Scandal [ edit ]
When allegations of cheating were first raised by Stempel and others, Van Doren denied any wrongdoing, saying, "It's silly and distressing to think that people don't have more faith in quiz shows." As the investigation by the district attorney's office and eventually US Congress progressed, Charles Van Doren, now host on The Today Show, was under pressure from NBC to testify but went into hiding in order to avoid the committee's subpoena. It was another former Twenty-One contestant, the artist James Snodgrass, who would finally provide indisputable corroborating proof that the show had been rigged. Snodgrass had documented every answer he was coached on in a series of registered letters he mailed to himself prior to the show's being taped.[citation needed]
One month after the hearings began, Van Doren emerged from hiding and confessed before the committee that he had been complicit in the fraud.[4] On November 2, 1959, he admitted to the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight, a United States Congress subcommittee, chaired by Arkansas Democrat Oren Harris, that he had been given questions and answers in advance of the show.
I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception. The fact that I, too, was very much deceived cannot keep me from being the principal victim of that deception, because I was its principal symbol. There may be a kind of justice in that. I don’t know. I do know, and I can say it proudly to this committee, that since Friday, October 16, when I finally came to a full understanding of what I had done and of what I must do, I have taken a number of steps toward trying to make up for it. I have a long way to go. I have deceived my friends, and I had millions of them. Whatever their feeling for me now, my affection for them is stronger today than ever before. I am making this statement because of them. I hope my being here will serve them well and lastingly. I asked (co-producer Albert Freedman) to let me go on (Twenty-One) honestly, without receiving help. He said that was impossible. He told me that I would not have a chance to defeat Stempel because he was too knowledgeable. He also told me that the show was merely entertainment and that giving help to quiz contests was a common practice and merely a part of show business. This of course was not true, but perhaps I wanted to believe him. He also stressed the fact that by appearing on a nationally televised program I would be doing a great service to the intellectual life, to teachers and to education in general, by increasing public respect for the work of the mind through my performances. In fact, I think I have done a disservice to all of them. I deeply regret this, since I believe nothing is of more vital importance to our civilization than education.[5]
Authorities differ regarding the audience's reaction to Van Doren's statement. David Halberstam writes in his book The Fifties:
Aware of Van Doren's great popularity, the committee members handled him gently and repeatedly praised him for his candor. Only Congressman Steve Derounian announced that he saw no particular point in praising someone of Van Doren's exceptional talents and intelligence for simply telling the truth. With that, the room suddenly exploded with applause, and [Congressional investigator] Richard N. Goodwin knew at that moment ordinary people would not so easily forgive Van Doren.[6]
By contrast, William Manchester, in his narrative history The Glory and the Dream, recounts a diametrically opposite response:
The crowd at the hearing had been with Van Doren, applauding him and his admirers on the subcommittee and greeting Congressman Derounian's comment with stony silence.[7]
An Associated Press story dated November 2, 1959, seems to verify Halberstam's version of events:
While there was a burst of applause when Mr. Harris dismissed Mr. Van Doren with a "God bless you", there was applause, too, when Rep. Steven B. Derounian, Republican, New York, declined to go along with compliments that other committee members showered on the witness for telling the truth. "I don't think an adult of your intelligence ought to be commended for telling the truth," Mr. Derounian declared in severe tones. Mr. Van Doren winced, flushed, and ducked his head.[8][9]
Later career [ edit ]
Van Doren was dropped by NBC and resigned from his post as an English instructor at Columbia University.[10][11] He became an editor at Praeger Books and a pseudonymous (at first) writer, before becoming an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica and the author of several books, of which his 1991 popular-market A History of Knowledge may be his best known. He also co-authored a well-received revision of How to Read a Book with its original author, philosopher Mortimer J. Adler,[12] and co-edited with him a 1,771-page anthology titled Great Treasury of Western Thought (1977). He had already worked with Adler on an 18-volume collection of documents covering American history, entitled The Annals of America (1968), which was accompanied by a two-volume, 1,300-page "topical index" organized around 25 themes and entitled Great Issues in American Life: A Conspectus.[13]
In his 2008 article in The New Yorker, Van Doren revealed that he had actually been contemplating the Britannica job even at the height of his celebrity. His father had suggested the possibility to him during a long walk around the farmlands they both loved. The elder Van Doren mentioned to his son that Mortimer J. Adler, the philosopher and a member of Britannica's board of editors, had spoken of making Van Doren Britannica's editor-in-chief. Van Doren eventually accepted the job, he would write, by way of intercession from a former college roommate. Van Doren retired from Britannica in 1982.[3]
Van Doren also revealed he had been offered an opportunity to do a PBS series on the history of philosophy but that its tentative producer, Julian Krainin, might actually have had in mind Van Doren's explicit cooperation on a planned PBS program recalling the quiz show scandals. When that did not occur (though the program thanked Van Doren explicitly, among other credits), Van Doren wrote, Krainin later sought his cooperation and consultation when Robert Redford was beginning to make Quiz Show—even conveying that Van Doren would be paid in six figures for it. After wrestling with the idea—and, he wrote, noting his wife's objections—Van Doren rejected it. Van Doren finally broke his silence on the quiz show scandal in 2008, writing an article for The New Yorker.[3]
Until recently Van Doren had refused interviews or public comment on the subject of the quiz show scandals. In a 1985 interview on The Today Show—his only appearance on the program since his dismissal in 1959, promoting his book The Joy of Reading—he answered a general question on how the scandal changed his life.[14] He has revisited Columbia University only twice in the 40 years that followed his resignation: in 1984 when his son John graduated; and in 1999 at a reunion of Columbia's Class of 1959.[15]
During the latter appearance, Van Doren made one allusion to the quiz scandal without mentioning it by name:
Some of you read with me 40 years ago a portion of Aristotle's Ethics, a selection of passages that describe his idea of happiness. You may not remember too well. I remember better, because, despite the abrupt caesura in my academic career that occurred in 1959, I have gone on teaching the humanities almost continually to students of all kinds and ages. In case you don't remember, then, I remind you that according to Aristotle happiness is not a feeling or sensation but instead is the quality of a whole life. The emphasis is on "whole," a life from beginning to end. Especially the end. The last part, the part you're now approaching, was for Aristotle the most important for happiness. It makes sense, doesn't it?
In 2005, Van Doren joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut, Torrington;[16] the campus was closed in 2016. He lives with his wife, Gerry, in a "small, old house" (his words) on the land his parents bought in Cornwall, Connecticut, in the 1920s.[17][18]
Cultural references [ edit ]
"The Quiz Show Scandal" [ edit ]
"The Quiz Show Scandal" is a documentary that first aired on PBS January 6, 1992, as an episode of the fourth season of The American Experience. Produced by Julian Krainin and Michael R. Lawrence, the one-hour program explored the corruption of the 1950s quiz show scandals, particularly that involving Van Doren and Twenty-One. Van Doren spoke with the producers but eventually declined to participate in the program. "The Quiz Show Scandal" was one of the most popular episodes of the series.[19][20]
Quiz Show [ edit ]
The story of the quiz show scandal and Van Doren's role in it is depicted in the film Quiz Show (1994), produced and directed by Robert Redford, in which Van Doren is portrayed by Ralph Fiennes. The film made $24 million by April 1995, and was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Adapted Screenplay.[21]
The film earned several critiques questioning its use of dramatic license, its accuracy, and the motivation behind its making. The critics have included Joseph Stone, the New York prosecutor who began the investigations; and Jeffrey Hart, a Dartmouth College scholar, senior editor of National Review, and a longtime friend of Van Doren, who saw the film as falsely implying tension between Van Doren and his accomplished father.[citation needed]
Published works [ edit ]
Van Doren at home (1957)
Books [ edit ]
Articles [ edit ]
The July 28, 2008, issue of The New Yorker included a personal reminiscence titled "All the Answers", written by Van Doren, in which he recounted in detail the scandals and their aftermath.[3] Other than very occasional and often very abbreviated references to it, Van Doren had never before spoken publicly about the scandal, his role, and its effects on his life.
He referred to the film Quiz Show, saying he was bothered most by the closing credits' reference that he never taught again: "I didn't stop teaching, though it was a long time before I taught again in a college." But he also said he enjoyed John Turturro's portrayal of his Twenty-One rival, Herb Stempel.
The article also contradicted many impressions of Van Doren that the film had created: the film portrayed him as a bachelor when he was actually engaged; it suggested he had a fascination with the burgeoning, popular television quiz shows when in fact he did not even own a television set; that the only reason he became even mildly acquainted with Twenty-One was because co-producer Al Freedman shared a mutual acquaintance with one of Van Doren's friends; and that he had been offered his job with Today promptly after losing to Vivien Nearing when, in fact, NBC was not sure at first what to do with him, until he did work for Dave Garroway's Sunday afternoon cultural show, Wide Wide World, which then led to the invitation to join Today.
Van Doren also addressed and denied the film's insinuations that he had been friends with Congressional investigator Richard Goodwin while Van Doren was Twenty-One's reigning champion (and during and after the start of Herb Stempel's efforts to expose the show's being rigged). According to Van Doren, the two men had not met until August 1959, when the subcommittee Goodwin served as counsel had begun investigating the quiz shows and Van Doren was already established on The Today Show.
The producers of Quiz Show sought his assistance as a consultant, but Van Doren declined.
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]David McKean was U.S. State Department director of policy planning from 2013-2016. He is currently a senior fellow at the U.S. German Marshall Fund.
Imagine holding the job of representing the most important country on the planet, facing an exploding array of crises around the world, and focusing not on diplomacy but on fiddling around with your org chart and mundane tasks like fixing the email system.
Yet that’s what Rex Tillerson has done in his bizarre and disappointing 10 months as America’s secretary of state—a position held by such giants as Dean Acheson, Henry Kissinger and James Baker. Unlike his predecessors, who generally left the day-to-day management of the State Department to others, Tillerson has reportedly immersed himself in a mysterious, corporate-inflected overhaul of Foggy Bottom’s bureaucracy.
Story Continued Below
The staff of the State Department has not taken kindly to Tillerson’s ministrations: Experienced and talented diplomats are fleeing; top posts have inexplicably gone unfilled; and those left behind are demoralized and adrift. Applications for the foreign service are down by half. As the head of the Foreign Service Association, an alumni group, recently pointed out, the number of career ministers—the diplomatic equivalent of three-star generals—is down from 33 to 19, while minister counselors—equal to two stars—has fallen from 431 to 369.
Like any bureaucracy, the State Department tends to resist change; past secretaries have made attempts at reform with mixed success. But what’s happening to the department under Tillerson looks to many not like reform but sheer incompetence, if not deliberate sabotage. And what’s especially strange about his focus on management issues is that, for a former CEO of one of the world’s largest corporations—ExxonMobil—he doesn’t seem very good at it.
Consider, for example, a recently leaked document out of the secretary’s office that suggests he is relying on the 25-person Policy Planning office as the principal vehicle for day-to-day decision-making. As the previous director of that office, under former Secretary of State John Kerry, I was especially keen to understand how Tillerson is using my old shop.
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The document, which was first reported by POLITICO, is a flow chart that attempts to streamline the making of foreign policy. It references no other office in the Department of State as playing a role besides Policy Planning, which appears to be the primary originator, implementer and monitor of policy.
It’s not clear whether this is because the secretary thinks he is facilitating central planning, or because there isn’t anyone else left with the requisite experience in the department to advise him—he hasn’t filled scores of critical positions, and yet he is slashing the department’s staff by 8 percent, or roughly 2,000 people. There is nothing wrong with trimming bureaucracy, but using a Texas chainsaw instead of a scalpel, Tillerson is severing from the department its most valuable expertise and experience.
Every secretary has a different model for decision-making. And Tillerson is certainly entitled to his own system; he seems to want fewer stops in the chain of command, perhaps to restrict the flow of information to a trusted close circle of advisers. This may streamline the decision-making process, but it won’t necessarily produce a better outcome.
To understand why, it’s worth taking a look back. Created during the Cold War era, the Office of Policy Planning was intended to help keep the big picture in view. Acheson, the undersecretary of state at the time, described its mission as to look “far enough ahead to see the emerging form of things to come and outline what should be done to meet or anticipate them.”
Acheson, of course, lived in the middle of last century, well before the communications revolution. The “form of things” seems to emerge more quickly these days, so it isn’t surprising that in recent years Policy Planning has dialed up—and down—its operational role depending on the issue. It is something of a balancing act: To be relevant, Policy Planning can’t remove itself from current crises. Yet it also needs to step back from the immediate, so that it can recommend actions to meet future challenges and take advantage of future opportunities.
When I was director of the Office of Policy Planning, sometimes “long-term” planning was reduced to weeks, such as during the 2015 Nigerian presidential election, when we recommended that the secretary visit Lagos to highlight the critical importance of free and fair elections. At the same time, we were constantly adjusting our long-term strategies—for instance, managing the rise of China by working together on issues such as climate and development while confronting Beijing on cyber espionage and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
No matter the timeline for the policies we developed, we always worked with the various bureaus inside the department and with our embassies abroad. We knew that the assistant secretaries, our ambassadors and the career officials of the foreign service had valuable experience and therefore an important perspective. And we knew that for any strategy to be successfully implemented, we needed buy-in from those officers in the field.
Oddly, the power grab on behalf of Policy Planning does not appear in the “Redesign” plan submitted by the outside consultants Tillerson hired to advise him on reorganization. In their PowerPoint presentation, the consultants highlighted such obvious truisms as “People support what they help create” and “Build everything from the framework of supporting the mission.”
In creating the Office of Policy Planning, Acheson wanted the staff to “do something else” beyond strategic planning: He wanted the office “to constantly reappraise what was being done.” The most important undertaking for Policy Planning today should be to reappraise the secretary’s evisceration of the foreign service and advise him to change course as quickly as possible.
Sidelining experts has led to some embarrassing mistakes. Tillerson began his tenure as secretary by initially announcing his decision to skip the NATO summit in April. He ultimately reconsidered, but it was an inauspicious beginning. And since then he has sent the message to Latin America that it is not a priority, when he couldn’t find time to attend the OAS General Assembly in June or the Lima meeting in July. He invited the chair of the African Union to Washington and then backed out of the meeting, infuriating African diplomats. On his first trip to Beijing, he repeatedly adopted the diplomatic language of the Chinese to describe the relationship, leaving our allies in the region scratching their heads. And finally, he has downgraded human rights as a cornerstone of American diplomacy.
Tillerson needs to stop playing management consultant and be the secretary of state. He needs to devote the necessary resources to diplomacy and development. He needs to lay out his vision of international relations and articulate actual policies to meet the many challenges the United States faces around the world, including the development of a diplomatic strategy in Afghanistan, the implementation of a global sanctions policy against North Korea, and a plan to reinvigorate the trans-Atlantic alliance. To do all of this, he needs the long-term vision of Policy Planning, but he also needs to listen to our diplomats and empower the foreign service officers who put their lives on the line every day for America.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct that Lagos is not the capital of Nigeria.Egypt are the most successful side in the competition's history with seven titles
Egypt knocked out Morocco to reach the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals as substitute Mahmoud Abdel-Moneim prodded home a dramatic 87th-minute winner.
Mohammed Salah had twice been denied by Munir Mohamedi, but prior to the goal Morocco missed a host of good chances.
Aziz Bouhaddouz failed to connect with a cross from two yards out, before seeing a header deflected just wide.
And Morocco defender Romain Saiss and midfielder Mbark Boussoufa were both denied by the crossbar.
Egypt go on to play Burkina Faso, who beat Tunisia 2-0 in their quarter-final on Saturday.
In Sunday's other quarter-final, Ghana beat DR Congo 2-1 to set up a meeting with Cameroon, who knocked out Senegal.
Egypt - the most successful side in Africa Cup of Nations history with seven titles - are yet to concede a goal in Gabon on their return to the competition after a seven-year absence.
But Morocco boss Herve Renard's bid to become the first manager to win three Africa Cup of Nations title with three different countries is now over.
The Frenchman led Zambia to unlikely triumph in 2012, and won the 2015 title with Ivory Coast.
On a pitch that has been criticised for its poor quality, his side created the greater number of clear opportunities to score but were wasteful in front of goal and were made to pay as extra-time loomed.
From an Egypt corner that Morocco failed to clear, the ball dropped kindly to 22-year-old forward Abdel-Moneim, also known as Kahraba, who stabbed home the winner on the spin.
Africa Cup of Nations last four
Burkina Faso v Egypt (Wednesday, 20:00 GMT)
Cameroon v Ghana (Thursday 20:00 GMT)As the NBA season draws near, Grantland’s NBA staff will be asking and attempting to answer a series of 20 pressing questions facing players, teams, and coaches going into the 2014-15 campaign.
“I told him, with every team there is a guy they want to kind of place the blame on, and it will be Dion on our team.” —LeBron James
To make a career in the NBA, confidence is essential. Humility is a fine and noble trait for you and me, but humility is relative. The first step toward making the league is believing you can make the league. Tim Duncan is held as the platonic ideal of the humble superstar, but we’re judging him on a scale whose active polestars are guys like Kobe Bryant and LeBron. I’m willing to bet that what we perceive as Duncan being humble is really just Duncan not talking all that much about his bone-deep belief that he can kick anyone-who-has-ever-lived’s ass on a basketball court when he has to. Tim Duncan is one of the greatest players to ever put on a pair of sneakers. There’s no way he doesn’t know he is. He just didn’t nickname himself “King.”
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For those players who are lower on the NBA food chain — the journeymen, the specialists, the rookies and young guys — some amount of humility, which we broadly refer to as “knowing your role,” is useful within the team dynamic. It keeps teammates from going at each other’s necks. But those players still have to have the confidence that they belong on the floor.
It would’ve done the Big Three Heat little good for Mario Chalmers to look around at his glittering constellation of teammates and go, “What am I doing here?” even if we were all asking the same question of him while watching Chalmers dissolve under the bright lights last spring.
So, confidence is essential, yadda yadda, but it also must be commensurate with a player’s realistic abilities and constrained within the context of his team.
This brings me to Dion Waiters, who is quickly setting himself up as the unintentional Mario Chalmers of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Dion Waiters, a talented offensive player whose not-really-that-behind-the-scenes feud with two-time All-Star Kyrie Irving played a large part in the Cavs’ disappointing 2013-14 season, is extremely confident. More to the point, he is quite happy to tell people how confident he is.
He has made it abundantly clear, for instance, that he would like to start. He has let it be known, quietly backing a bus over Matthew Dellavedova, that he can play point guard. You know, in case the Cavs need him to play point guard. No word yet on if he can jump center, but camp has only just started. This week, after Bradley Beal proclaimed himself and John Wall to be the best backcourt in the NBA, Waiters responded with,“That’s nonsense,” which Wall in turn swatted away.
The “You gotta be a starter first” line in particular seems aimed with the accuracy of a sniper shooting downrange in low wind. One imagines Dion opening his mouth, his vocal cords cranking into action to emit the first syllable of a response that is cruelly clipped off somewhere south of the tongue as the bullet strikes home.
Waiters then responded by tweeting “Men lie buckets DNT” along with a YouTube video of his offensive highlights from a February 7 win over the Wizards. Dion had 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting, many off long, contested 2s. Off the bench. Dion, it seems, is not content to merely feud with his own teammates.
Full disclosure: I like Dion Waiters’s game, his moxie, and the cut of his jib. I fully appreciate the role his 100 percent emoji confidence plays in relation to his career trajectory. I also have a thing for dudes with somewhat irrational swag and kind of enjoy it when players feud with each other. There’s a “Are you not entertained?” aspect to my appreciation of Dion that may not fully jibe with what’s best for his career and the Cavs. Clearly, he’s the most talented shooting guard on the team. If talent were the only reason to start a player, he would start.
Except that he didn’t manage to smoothly coexist in that taxonomic unit known as a “backcourt” with Kyrie Irving — a two-time All-Star, and also a max contract player, and the owner of a freshly minted FIBA World Cup gold medal. Waiters and Irving both want the ball in their hands, and both are more effective — better shooting percentages, dishing more assists — when the other guy sits. About the best Waiters-Irving news from last season was when it became clear that Waiters didn’t punch Irving in the eye. With four of five Cavs starters essentially locked in for next season, Dion’s best role is probably — judging from his past chemistry with Irving and the fact that there will be even less ball to go around now — to come off the bench and drop bombs on unsuspecting second units.
All of which makes it hilarious for Dion to insist that he and the guy to whom he didn’t give a shiner are, together, the best backcourt in the league. Confidence is essential, but, to paraphrase Morpheus, Dion’s weakness is not his technique.
LeBron’s advice in the above quote should have Dion thinking about pumping the brakes on his outside voice just a bit. Post-“Decision” LeBron knows something about being a punching bag. He was one himself. And he’s seen, up close, what happens when guys with Mario Chalmers–level abilities get Big Three–level egos. LeBron worked constantly at keeping Mario in his own lane, and it seems like he’s trying to do the same thing with Dion. At some point, when even your teammates think you need to focus on doing your talking on the court, maybe you should think about doing that. Otherwise, you’re just giving out a résumé without any references.The conservative radio personality, Chris Plante (WMAL, Washington, DC) opines that the most insidious power of the media is their power to ignore. While it is certainly true that the chief editor of a major newspaper or the producer of a network newscast has the ability to spike or kill a story, which is essentially their way of “ignoring” the news if you will, what is more subtle, deceitful—and dare I suggest corrupt—is their penchant to frame a story to fit a specific narrative. They no longer report the news, but they do shape a message.
Anyone in the intelligence community and DOD holding a top secret clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI)—a type of classified information concerning or derived from sensitive intelligence sources, methods, or analytical processes—knows that not only is Hillary Clinton (and her minions) lying but that the media—unable to completely ignore the multifaceted issue—has shifted to shaping the narrative. The KGB disinformation service couldn’t have done a better job.
To transfer any classified information onto an unclassified system, you have to work at it. To transfer classified information from a secure classified system and move it to an unclassified system is not only difficult, it is illegal. Those within the intelligence community know this action, in all of its forms, is called espionage. The essence of espionage is the unauthorized movement of classified documents out of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, a SCIF, and into the hands of “any person not entitled to receive it.” The men and women with TS/SCI who toil in the IC and DOD, working with the nation’s most trusted secrets, know that if they were to secure a private email server and move any shred, chad, or hint of classified information onto that server, the FBI would be on them like stink on a dead fish with a one-way ticket to a federal brig. And they would be charged with espionage.
Seventy years ago, a long-term Democrat, the former government lawyer and senior State Department official, Alger Hiss, removed classified information from the U.S. State Department. Classified documents that moved in and out of the Secretary’s office, stopped at his desk where he typed copies on his office typewriter. He slipped the copies into a briefcase and provided them to his Soviet agent who photographed and microfilmed them. When the FBI finally retrieved the spools of microfilm, the Hiss Papers printed out to a stack 4 ½ feet tall. The FBI case against Alger Hiss was a clear-cut case of espionage, however, the Justice Department only authorized a lesser charge—perjury—due to the statute of limitations.
The espionage case against Alger Hiss and the case against Hillary Clinton are eerily similar. Both were long-term Democrats, former lawyers, and senior State Department officials that removed classified information “from its proper place of custody…or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed.” It is an undeniable fact that both systematically transferred thousands of pieces of classified information out of the State Department’s offices at Foggy Bottom.
Additionally, there is the issue of 33,000 missing emails. Maybe Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame could help us out here and release those documents. It may be noteworthy that if Mrs. Clinton’s missing emails were ever recovered and printed out, that stack of papers would reach over 10 ½ feet tall.[*] Alger Hiss was a lightweight compared to Hillary Clinton, as his production for the Soviet Union’s KGB was still considered impressive for him to receive several awards in absentia. The former Secretary of State, “gave her State Department emails containing Top Secret and other classified information to her lawyer.” I’m fairly certain, David Kendall was not a fully cleared individual and transferring classified material to someone not authorized to receive them is an act of espionage.
Congressman Trey Gowdy introduced Americans to the legal issue known as “spoliation of evidence.” When some item of relevant evidence—whether documents, physical objects or data—relevant to an ongoing legal matter—is destroyed, discarded or modified in some way, the U.S. legal system allows investigators to presume that the missing evidence was unfavorable to that party and furthermore allows them to draw conclusions accordingly. The classic junior high school excuse, “the dog ate my homework,” or “they were emails dealing with Chelsea’s wedding or yoga” isn’t valid under the law when the disappearance and their handling is suspicious.
Even Inspector Clouseau would find the admission of 33,000 emails, scrubbed or “wiped clean” from a private server, to be highly suspicious. The intentional destruction or negligent loss of evidence suggests that Hillary Clinton believed that her emails were harmful to her, and that consciousness of guilt led her to destroy, hide or lose them. The media will never acknowledge Secretary Clinton’s intentional destruction her emails—classic spoliation of evidence—even if they were beat over the head with it.
A recent survey found that not a single member of the White House correspondent pool was a Republican. Journalists and those correspondents take their orders from senior editors and producers. When it’s 44-to-zero Republicans, the numbers are on their side and so is their ability to control and dictate the White House message and Democrat party narrative. Today, no news or story from the mainstream media can ever be trusted or considered, in the immortal words of Sergeant Joe Friday, “Just the truth, ma’am.”
Dr. Paul Kengor’s exposé on Frank Marshal Davis, The Communist, demonstrated that the one-time editor traveled to the Soviet Union and learned the fine art of propaganda and disinformation from instructors from the KGB. Sixty years later, it appears America’s journalism schools now teach the same propaganda coursework and disinformation strategies as Cold War Moscow. The old Soviet press gave their all for the Motherland and warped the news as required to ensure it fit Stalin’s and the Communist Party’s message. Isn’t that what is going on with today’s media? A better question may be, “Who isn’t a socialist or a closet communist in today’s Democrat-centric media,” carrying the water for the White House, running a Soviet-style disinformation campaign and obscuring the facts in the case of Hillary Clinton?
The President recently endorsed the Democrat nominee for President. The media obfuscated the fact that the FBI received what was tantamount to “marching orders” from the chief law enforcement officer. If the FBI Director insists and submit charges; treason, espionage or something lesser, the Justice Department will ignore the evidence and will never approve an indictment of Mrs. Clinton. And the media will have done its job of ignoring the facts and maintaining the Clinton campaign’s narrative that this was nothing but Republican witch hunting.
Mark Hewitt is the author of the espionage thrillers Special Access and Shoot Down.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch: First-time investor Jamie Szymkiowiak says he is "pretty delighted"
Royal Mail shares rose 38% to 455p in their first day of conditional dealings on the London Stock Exchange.
The hugely oversubscribed sale was priced at 330p a share, valuing the 500-year-old firm at £3.3bn. At one point, the price hit 459.75p.
Private investors received 227 shares each. In all, more than 225 million shares were traded on Friday.
Business Secretary Vince Cable told Channel Four News he could have charged a higher price for Royal Mail shares.
Asked if he could have raised the sale price when he saw the level of demand for shares, Mr Cable said: "I could have done and I could have joined the speculators and spivs.
"I'm not interested in doing that," he said.
The shares are listed officially next Tuesday, but City institutions began conditional dealings on Friday.
Some 10 million shares were traded in the first 30 seconds when the market opened. Stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown reported that its website was having "intermittent problems" due to the "unprecedented interest" in Royal Mail.
Tom McPhail, the firm's head of pensions research, said it was "extremely sorry for the delays", but was making "significant progress in clearing the backlog" and hoped to have all systems running normally again soon.
"We have experienced demand this morning which has gone off the scale," he said.
"We now have six times the normal number of staff working on our dealing lines. We know we are not the only broker affected by such problems this morning."
Something does seem to have gone a bit cock-eyed with the sale
The price rise is likely to fuel debate over whether the sale of Royal Mail has been undervalued. Mr Cable has insisted that the taxpayer has not been short-changed by the privatisation.
But the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, Billy Hayes, described the sell-off as "a tragedy" and predicted that it would make "not one scintilla of difference" to employees' intention to vote for strike action next Wednesday.
Mr Hayes told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This is a sham, really. The company has been undervalued.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Billy Hayes, Communication Workers Union: "They nationalised the debt and they privatised the profit"
"It's basically David Cameron rewarding his mates in the City. Vince Cable, one of the cleverest men in British politics, has made one of the stupidest decisions he is ever likely to make as a politician."
'Froth and speculation'
Mr Cable told the Today programme that the bulk of the shares had gone to " |
his violent repression. The solution for Zimbabwe is simple: a free and fair election.
Photo
The international community has no choice but to delegitimize Mr. Mugabe’s regime. For a start, the “results” of Friday’s election should not be recognized. In effect, the world should no longer acknowledge Mr. Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s president. And should the opposition set up a government in exile, the West should move to deal with that government instead, based on the results of the March election, in which Mr. Tsvangirai drew more votes than Mr. Mugabe.
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Personalmangel in der Justiz : DAV kritisiert Länder für Einsparungen 23.06.2017 © pogonici - stock.adobe.com
Wie viel Prozent vom Landeshaushalt gehen in den Erhalt und Ausbau der Justiz? Nicht viel, wie eine Studie des DAV nun zeigt. Der Anwaltverein kritisiert die Länder für ihr jahrelanges Spardiktat.
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Die Länder investieren laut einer aktuellen Studie des Deutschen Anwaltvereins (DAV) nur zwischen 1,4 und 4,7 Prozent ihres Haushalts in die Justiz. Die Zahlen setzen sich dabei allein aus den Sach- und Personalkosten für Richter und Staatsanwälte zusammen. Nicht mit eingerechnet wurden die Kosten für Strafvollzug und andere Zuständigkeiten, wie Kultur, Verbraucherschutz o. Ä.
Spitzenreiter des Rankings sind NRW und Brandenburg mit einem Anteil von jeweils 4,7 Prozent. Bayern liegt im Ländervergleich mit 2,5 Prozent seines Gesamthaushalts auf dem drittletzten Platz vor Schleswig-Holstein (2,3 Prozent) und Bremen (1,4 Prozent). Kein Bundesland kommt auf fünf Prozent oder mehr.
"Die vorgelegten Zahlen belegen, welch geringer Wert der Justiz in den Landeshaushalten zukommt. Immer wieder müssen Justizverwaltungen um jede einzelne Richterstelle mit den Finanzverwaltungen ringen. Unsere Gesellschaft ist aber auf eine gut ausgestattete Justiz angewiesen", so DAV-Präsident Ulrich Schellenberg. Es komme jetzt darauf an, dass die Landesjustizminister stärker als bislang deutlich machen, dass die Justiz sowohl in sachlicher als auch in personeller Hinsicht gestärkt werden müsse. "Auch wenn in den letzten Monaten in einzelnen Bundesländern verstärkt Richterstellen besetzt wurden, so ist doch offensichtlich, dass das jahrelange Spardiktat deutliche Spuren hinterlassen hat."
Mit seiner Kritik steht Schellenberg nicht alleine da: Bundesjustizminister Heiko Maas machte die Länder jüngst für den mangelhaften Personalausbau in der Justiz verantwortlich. Auch Sven Rebehn, Bundesgeschäftsführer des Deutschen Richterbundes (DRB), forderte, den politischen Druck auf die Länder zu erhöhen.
Das bayerische Justizministerium wies die Vorwürfe bereits zurück. "Die Berechnungen des Deutschen Anwaltvereins sind - jedenfalls was Bayern anbelangt - nicht nachvollziehbar", sagte ein Ministeriumssprecher. Es sei nicht verständlich, warum Mitarbeiter des Justizvollzugs ausgeklammert würden, obwohl sie einen wesentlichen Bestandteil der Justiz ausmachten.
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mit Materialien der dpaPayton Mitchell
Staff Writer
Sixteen hundred hours, or nine and a half weeks, or three and a half months: this is how long it took the Robotics Unit at ISU to perform the 3-D printing of a full-scale model of a Sasquatch, more popularly known as Bigfoot.
Idaho State has been conducting research for the past two decades on the discovery of the legendary creature. Jeffrey Meldrum of the ISU Anthropology Department is conducting the research, and focuses on finding relict hominids and the evolution of bipedalism.
A relict hominoid is an ancient form of ape, and bipedalism means walking upright, which he based on a discovery made in Washington.
“In 1996, I found fresh footprints in Walla Walla, Washington with about 45 tracks,” Meldrum said. “20 years later, I have over 250 footprint casts in my lab.”
These tracks measured out at 14.5 to 15 inches in length. Since then, Meldrum has dedicated himself to debunking the legend and proving the Sasquatch does in fact exist.
Bigfoot has become a media sensation, especially after controversial video footage was released on television in 1967. Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin caught the footage on Oct. 20, 1967, while horseback riding in Bluff Creek, California. They happened to witness what appeared to be a Sasquatch, and the film became an immediate target of analysis. The video has since been called both truthful and a hoax.
While many scientists and anthropologists claim that the creature was indeed a Sasquatch, others have claimed that it is merely a man in an ape costume.
When asked what he thought a Sasquatch was, Meldrum said, “One important thing to stress is that it’s not just one individual creature, because then you would have a monster if it was a single, lone being. I don’t think it is a hybrid cross between this and that.”
The first ancestor of Bigfoot is supposedly a Gigantopithecus, a giant ape that existed in eastern Asia and went extinct two to three hundred thousand years ago. The only remains were discovered in caves across China and Vietnam after being dragged there by porcupines for calcium sustenance. Meldrum’s second hypothesis on Bigfoot’s ancestry is that it is a descendant of an Australopithecus, another extinct species of ape.
However, the creature’s cranial proportions were different from an ape’s and it walked upright. Another philosophy is that a different, unknown species of ape developed upright walking movement and grew larger throughout the years.
Additionally, the infamous idea of a Bigfoot relative is that of the Neanderthal, or cave dweller. Neanderthals are measured to be roughly about 5 feet 4 inches tall, but their brain capacities were larger than modern humans.
“All we’re doing is creating a hypothetical facsimile of what it might look like to convey a notion of the dimensions,” Meldrum said. “First and foremost, it turns out there were other things that we can start to work with on that scale. Instead of starting from scratch we took an existing hominid skeleton, the most complete being a Neanderthal.”
The printing started after Dr. Meldrum agreed to make an appearance on the History Channel, talking about Bigfoot. While studying the Patterson-Gimlin film, researchers took the remains they were permitted to use by the archaeological corporation, Bone Clones, which collects natural history artifacts, and proportioned them to the exact specifications a Sasquatch ought to be.
“They gave us permission to do a 3-D scan on a Neanderthal skeleton they found,” Meldrum said. “We compared that to the Patterson-Gimlin film. We had to widen the shoulders and increase the thickness in the torso. The hips are as wide as the shoulders; the body was built like a tank.”
The model skeleton used in the research was that of a Paranthropus boisei, another type of primate. According to several witnesses of possible Sasquatch sightings, the creature has no neck; this is why researchers analyzed these specific remains.
As it turns out, a Paranthropus boisei has a large jawline and chin, and therefore, covers the neck.
However, before there was printing, there was scanning. The Idaho Virtualization Lab (IVL) located in the Idaho Museum of Natural History completed the scans.
“Their staff, with these expert technicians, is able to use some state-of-the-art equipment to create 3-D models and create a digital model that allows all sorts of manipulation and space to do all sorts of analysis,” Meldrum said. “You can show the animation, the variation, the position of the reflection, extension, or split and the traceability of the foot rather than the imprint of the static prosthetic leg or fake foot.”
The IVL scanned the footprint casts, which revealed the proportions of the body to the feet. It became conclusive that the size of Bigfoot is about eight and a half feet tall.
Much research has gone into the discovery of Bigfoot, and with Meldrum’s research and that of the Anthropology Department at Idaho State University, perhaps one day a further discovery will lead to more information about the creature that has baffled society for decades.The Bears started fast for the first time in weeks, jumping out to a 14-3 lead in the first quarter. However, the excitement was short lived as the Lions got things going in the second quarter. Calvin Johnson helped torch the Bears defense with 11 catches for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns, both coming in the second quarter. Let’s take a look at the film to analyze both of Calvin Johnson’s touchdown catches.
Calvin Johnson 25 yard TD catch
Game situation: 3rd down and 6 at the Bears 25 yard line (2nd Quarter 13:01 left)
Personnel: 11 (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs)
Defense: Cover 3 Blitz
Offensive scheme: Verticals
In a 2×2 formation and Stafford in the shotgun, the Lions attack the Bears defense vertically down the field. To the weak side, C. Fuller runs a deep Comeback while Johnson runs up the Seam. The Bears show two high safeties before the snap, but sink into a Cover 3 shell at the snap. The route combination by the Lions receivers put K. Fuller and Vereen in a bind. K. Fuller has to split the two vertical routes so he can react to a throw to either receiver.
Vereen being the deep middle defender has to read Stafford’s eyes so he can help against the Seam routes from the slot receivers. Stafford stares down Johnson the whole play, but Vereen is still late to react.
Vereen does not react until the ball is thrown and then does not show any closing speed to disrupt the pass. K. Fuller is also late to help because he shades too far outside and cannot close the gap in time.
Stafford also throws the ball with great velocity to fit it in between the two defenders. Johnson high-points the ball for the touchdown. But watch Vereen as he is so late on the throw that he does not even deliver a blow to Johnson on the play.Afroasiatic (Afro-Asiatic), also known as Afrasian and in older sources as Hamito-Semitic (Chamito-Semitic)[3] or Semito-Hamitic,[4] is a large language family of about 300 languages.[5] It includes languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and parts of the Sahel.
Afroasiatic languages have over 495 million native speakers, the fourth largest number of any language family (after Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan and Niger–Congo).[6] The phylum has six branches: Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic and Semitic.
By far the most widely spoken Afroasiatic language or dialect continuum is Arabic. A de facto group of distinct language varieties within the Semitic branch, the languages that evolved from Proto-Arabic have around 313 million native speakers, concentrated primarily in West Asia and North Africa.[7]
Other widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include:
In addition to languages spoken today, Afroasiatic includes several important ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, which forms a distinct branch of the family, and Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew and Old Aramaic, all of which are from the Semitic branch.
The original homeland of the Afroasiatic family, and when the parent language (i.e. Proto-Afroasiatic) was spoken, are yet to be agreed upon by historical linguists. Proposed locations include North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Eastern Sahara and the Levant (see below).
Etymology [ edit ]
During the early 1800s, linguists grouped the Berber, Cushitic and Egyptian languages within a "Hamitic" phylum, in acknowledgement of these languages' genetic relation with each other and with those in the Semitic phylum.[not in citation given][19] The terms "Hamitic" and "Semitic" were etymologically derived from the Book of Genesis, which describes various Biblical tribes descended from Ham and Shem, two sons of Noah.[20] By the 1860s, the main constituent elements within the broader Afroasiatic family had been worked out.[19]
Friedrich Müller introduced the name "Hamito-Semitic" for the entire family in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft (1876).[21] Maurice Delafosse (1914) later coined the term "Afroasiatic" (often now spelled "Afro-Asiatic"). However, it did not come into general use until Joseph Greenberg (1950) formally proposed its adoption. In doing so, Greenberg sought to emphasize the fact that Afroasiatic spanned the continents of both Africa and Asia.[21]
Individual scholars have also called the family "Erythraean" (Tucker 1966) and "Lisramic" (Hodge 1972). In lieu of "Hamito-Semitic", the Russian linguist Igor Diakonoff later suggested the term "Afrasian", meaning "half African, half Asiatic", in reference to the geographic distribution of the family's constituent languages.[22]
The term "Hamito-Semitic" remains in use in the academic traditions of some European countries.
Distribution and branches [ edit ]
Interrelations between branches of Afroasiatic (Lipiński 2001)
Some linguists' proposals for grouping within Afroasiatic
Scholars generally treat the Afroasiatic language family as including the following branches:
Although there is general agreement on these six families, linguists who study Afroasiatic raise some points of disagreement, in particular:
The Omotic language branch is the most controversial member of Afroasiatic, because the grammatical formatives to which most linguists have given the greatest weight in classifying languages in the family "are either absent or distinctly wobbly" (Hayward 1995). Greenberg (1963) and others considered it a subgroup of Cushitic, whereas others have raised doubts about it being part of Afroasiatic at all (e.g. Theil 2006). [1]
The Afroasiatic identity of Ongota is also broadly questioned, as is its position within Afroasiatic among those who accept it, due to the "mixed" appearance of the language and a paucity of research and data. Harold Fleming (2006) proposes that Ongota constitutes a separate branch of Afroasiatic. [23] Bonny Sands (2009) finds the proposal by Savà and Tosco (2003) the most convincing: namely that Ongota is an East Cushitic language with a Nilo-Saharan substratum. In other words, it would appear that the Ongota people once spoke a Nilo-Saharan language but then shifted to speaking a Cushitic language but retained some characteristics of their earlier Nilo-Saharan language. [1]
Bonny Sands (2009) finds the proposal by Savà and Tosco (2003) the most convincing: namely that Ongota is an East Cushitic language with a Nilo-Saharan substratum. In other words, it would appear that the Ongota people once spoke a Nilo-Saharan language but then shifted to speaking a Cushitic language but retained some characteristics of their earlier Nilo-Saharan language. Beja, sometimes listed as a separate branch of Afroasiatic, is more often included in the Cushitic branch, which has a high degree of internal diversity.
Whether the various branches of Cushitic actually form a language family is sometimes questioned, but not their inclusion in Afroasiatic itself.
There is no consensus on the interrelationships of the five non-Omotic branches of Afroasiatic (see § Subgrouping below). This situation is not unusual, even among long-established language families: scholars also frequently disagree on the internal classification of the Indo-European languages, for instance.
Meroitic has been proposed (Bruce Trigger, 1964,[24] 1977[25]) as an unclassified Afroasiatic language, because it shares the phonotactics characteristic of the family, but there is not enough evidence to secure a classification (Fritz Hintze, 1974,[26] 1979[27]).
Classification history [ edit ]
In the 9th century, the Hebrew grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh of Tiaret in Algeria was the first to link two branches of Afroasiatic together; he perceived a relationship between Berber and Semitic. He knew of Semitic through his study of Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.[21]
In the course of the 19th century, Europeans also began suggesting such relationships. In 1844, Theodor Benfey suggested a language family consisting of Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic (calling the latter "Ethiopic").[citation needed] In the same year, T.N. Newman suggested a relationship between Semitic and Hausa, but this would long remain a topic of dispute and uncertainty.[citation needed]
Friedrich Müller named the traditional Hamito-Semitic family in 1876 in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft ("Outline of Linguistics"), and defined it as consisting of a Semitic group plus a "Hamitic" group containing Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic; he excluded the Chadic group.[citation needed] It was the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius (1810–1884) who restricted Hamitic to the non-Semitic languages in Africa, which are characterized by a grammatical gender system. This "Hamitic language group" was proposed to unite various, mainly North-African, languages, including the Ancient Egyptian language, the Berber languages, the Cushitic languages, the Beja language, and the Chadic languages. Unlike Müller, Lepsius considered that Hausa and Nama were part of the Hamitic group. These classifications relied in part on non-linguistic anthropological and racial arguments. Both authors used the skin-color, mode of subsistence, and other characteristics of native speakers as part of their arguments that particular languages should be grouped together.[28]
Distribution of the Afroasiatic/Hamito-Semitic languages in Africa
In 1912, Carl Meinhof published Die Sprachen der Hamiten ("The Languages of the Hamites"), in which he expanded Lepsius's model, adding the Fula, Maasai, Bari, Nandi, Sandawe and Hadza languages to the Hamitic group. Meinhof's model was widely supported into the 1940s.[28] Meinhof's system of classification of the Hamitic languages was based on a belief that "speakers of Hamitic became largely coterminous with cattle herding peoples with essentially Caucasian origins, intrinsically different from and superior to the 'Negroes of Africa'."[29] However, in the case of the so-called Nilo-Hamitic languages (a concept he introduced), it was based on the typological feature of gender and a "fallacious theory of language mixture." Meinhof did this although earlier work by scholars such as Lepsius and Johnston had substantiated that the languages which he would later dub "Nilo-Hamitic" were in fact Nilotic languages, with numerous similarities in vocabulary to other Nilotic languages.[30]
Leo Reinisch (1909) had already proposed linking Cushitic and Chadic, while urging their more distant affinity with Egyptian and Semitic. However, his suggestion found little acceptance. Marcel Cohen (1924) rejected the idea of a distinct "Hamitic" subgroup, and included Hausa (a Chadic language) in his comparative Hamito-Semitic vocabulary. Finally, Joseph Greenberg's 1950 work led to the widespread rejection of "Hamitic" as a language category by linguists. Greenberg refuted Meinhof's linguistic theories, and rejected the use of racial and social evidence. In dismissing the notion of a separate "Nilo-Hamitic" language category in particular, Greenberg was "returning to a view widely held a half century earlier." He consequently rejoined Meinhof's so-called Nilo-Hamitic languages with their appropriate Nilotic siblings.[19] He also added (and sub-classified) the Chadic languages, and proposed the new name Afroasiatic for the family. Almost all scholars have accepted this classification as the new and continued consensus.
Greenberg's model was fully developed in his book The Languages of Africa (1963), in which he reassigned most of Meinhof's additions to Hamitic to other language families, notably Nilo-Saharan. Following Isaac Schapera and rejecting Meinhof, he classified the Khoekhoe language as a member of the Khoisan languages, a grouping that has since proven inaccurate and excessively motivated on the presence of click sounds[31]. To Khoisan he also added the Tanzanian Hadza and Sandawe, though this view has been discredited as linguists working on these languages consider them to be linguistic isolates.[32][33] Despite this, Greenberg's classification remains a starting point for modern work of many languages spoken in Africa, and the Hamitic category (and its extension to Nilo-Hamitic) has no part in this.[33]
Since the three traditional branches of the Hamitic languages (Berber, Cushitic and Egyptian) have not been shown to form an exclusive (monophyletic) phylogenetic unit of their own, separate from other Afroasiatic languages, linguists no longer use the term in this sense. Each of these branches is instead now regarded as an independent subgroup of the larger Afroasiatic family.[34]
In 1969, Harold Fleming proposed that what had previously been known as Western Cushitic is an independent branch of Afroasiatic, suggesting for it the new name Omotic. This proposal and name have met with widespread acceptance.
Several scholars, including Harold Fleming and Robert Hetzron, have since questioned the traditional inclusion of Beja in Cushitic.
Glottolog does not accept that the inclusion or even unity of Omotic has been established, nor that of Ongota or the unclassified Kujarge. It therefore splits off the following groups as small families: South Omotic, Mao, Dizoid, Gonga–Gimojan (North Omotic apart from the preceding), Ongota, Kujarge.
Subgrouping [ edit ]
Proposed Afroasiatic sub-divisions Greenberg (1963) Newman (1980) Fleming (post-1981) Ehret (1995) Semitic
Egyptian
Berber
Cushitic Northern Cushitic
(equals Beja) Central Cushitic Eastern Cushitic Western Cushitic
(equals Omotic) Southern Cushitic
Chadic Berber–Chadic
Egypto-Semitic
Cushitic (excludes Omotic) Omotic
Erythraean Cushitic Ongota Non-Ethiopian Chadic Berber Egyptian Semitic Beja
Omotic North Omotic South Omotic
Erythrean Cushitic Beja Agaw East–South Cushitic Eastern Cushitic Southern Cushitic North Erythrean Chadic Boreafrasian Egyptian Berber Semitic
Orel & Stobova (1995) Diakonoff (1996) Bender (1997) Militarev (2000) Berber–Semitic
Chadic–Egyptian
Omotic
Beja
Agaw
Sidamic
East Lowlands
Rift East–West Afrasian Berber Cushitic Semitic
North–South Afrasian Chadic Egyptian
(excludes Omotic) Omotic
Chadic
Macro-Cushitic Berber Cushitic Semitic
North Afrasian African North Afrasian Chado-Berber Egyptian Semitic
South Afrasian Omotic Cushitic
Little agreement exists on the subgrouping of the five or six branches of Afroasiatic: Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, and Omotic. However, Christopher Ehret (1979), Harold Fleming (1981), and Joseph Greenberg (1981) all agree that the Omotic branch split from the rest first.
Otherwise:
Paul Newman (1980) groups Berber with Chadic and Egyptian with Semitic, while questioning the inclusion of Omotic in Afroasiatic. Rolf Theil (2006) concurs with the exclusion of Omotic, but does not otherwise address the structure of the family. [35]
Harold Fleming (1981) divides non-Omotic Afroasiatic, or "Erythraean", into three groups, Cushitic, Semitic, and Chadic-Berber-Egyptian. He later added Semitic and Beja to Chadic-Berber-Egyptian and tentatively proposed Ongota as a new third branch of Erythraean. He thus divided Afroasiatic into two major branches, Omotic and Erythraean, with Erythraean consisting of three sub-branches, Cushitic, Chadic-Berber-Egyptian-Semitic-Beja, and Ongota.
Like Harold Fleming, Christopher Ehret (1995: 490) divides Afroasiatic into two branches, Omotic and Erythrean. He divides Omotic into two branches, North Omotic and South Omotic. He divides Erythrean into Cushitic, comprising Beja, Agaw, and East-South Cushitic, and North Erythrean, comprising Chadic and "Boreafrasian." According to his classification, Boreafrasian consists of Egyptian, Berber, and Semitic.
Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova (1995) group Berber with Semitic and Chadic with Egyptian. They split up Cushitic into five or more independent branches of Afroasiatic, viewing Cushitic as a Sprachbund rather than a language family.
Igor M. Diakonoff (1996) subdivides Afroasiatic in two, grouping Berber, Cushitic, and Semitic together as East-West Afrasian (ESA), and Chadic with Egyptian as North-South Afrasian (NSA). He excludes Omotic from Afroasiatic.
Lionel Bender (1997) groups Berber, Cushitic, and Semitic together as "Macro-Cushitic". He regards Chadic and Omotic as the branches of Afroasiatic most remote from the others.
Alexander Militarev (2000), on the basis of lexicostatistics, groups Berber with Chadic and both more distantly with Semitic, as against Cushitic and Omotic. He places Ongota in South Omotic.
Position among the world's languages [ edit ]
Afroasiatic is one of the four major language families spoken in Africa identified by Joseph Greenberg in his book The Languages of Africa (1963). It is one of the few whose speech area is transcontinental, with languages from Afroasiatic's Semitic branch also spoken in the Middle East and Europe.
There are no generally accepted relations between Afroasiatic and any other language family. However, several proposals grouping Afroasiatic with one or more other language families have been made. The best-known of these are the following:
The earliest written evidence of an Afroasiatic language is an Ancient Egyptian inscription dated to c. 3400 BC (5,400 years ago).[36] Symbols on Gerzean (Naqada II) pottery resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs date back to c. 4000 BC, suggesting an earlier possible dating. This gives us a minimum date for the age of Afroasiatic. However, Ancient Egyptian is highly divergent from Proto-Afroasiatic (Trombetti 1905: 1–2), and considerable time must have elapsed in between them. Estimates of the date at which the Proto-Afroasiatic language was spoken vary widely. They fall within a range between approximately 7,500 BC (9,500 years ago), and approximately 16,000 BC (18,000 years ago). According to Igor M. Diakonoff (1988: 33n), Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken c. 10,000 BC. Christopher Ehret (2002: 35–36) asserts that Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken c. 11,000 BC at the latest, and possibly as early as c. 16,000 BC. These dates are older than those associated with other proto-languages.
Afroasiatic Urheimat [ edit ]
Map showing one of the proposed Afroasiatic Urheimat (Eastern Sahara theory.)
The term Afroasiatic Urheimat (Urheimat meaning "original homeland" in German) refers to the hypothetical place where Proto-Afroasiatic language speakers lived in a single linguistic community, or complex of communities, before this original language dispersed geographically and divided into distinct languages. Afroasiatic languages are today primarily spoken in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. Their distribution seems to have been influenced by the Sahara pump operating over the last 10,000 years.
There is no agreement when or where the original homeland of this language family existed. The main theories of Urheimat are the Levant,[37][38] the Eastern Sahara,[39][40][41][42][43] North Africa and the Horn of Africa.
H. Ekkehard Wolff proposes that Proto-Afroasiatic arose in the Fertile Crescent between 15,000 and 9,000 years BC during the Neolithic revolution, then migrated to Africa around 8,000 BC to develop into the Egyptian, Chadic, Omotic, Cushitic and Berber branches.[44]
Similarities in grammar and syntax [ edit ]
Verbal paradigms in several Afroasiatic languages: ↓ Number Language → Arabic Coptic Kabyle Somali Beja Hausa Verb → katab mou afeg naw Meaning → write die fly come fail drink singular 1 ʼaktubu timou ttafgeɣ imaadaa anáw ina shan 2f taktubīna temou tettafgeḍ timaadaa tináwi kina shan 2m taktubu kmou tináwa kana shan 3f smou tettafeg tináw tana shan 3m yaktubu fmou yettafeg yimaadaa ináw yana shan dual 2 taktubāni 3f 3m yaktubāni plural 1 naktubu tənmou nettafeg nimaadnaa nínaw muna shan 2m taktubūna tetənmou tettafgem timaadaan tínawna kuna shan 2f taktubna tettafgemt 3m yaktubūna semou ttafgen yimaadaan ínawna suna shan 3f yaktubna ttafgent
Widespread (though not universal) features of the Afroasiatic languages include:
A set of emphatic consonants, variously realized as glottalized, pharyngealized, or implosive.
VSO typology with SVO tendencies.
A two-gender system in the singular, with the feminine marked by the sound /t/.
All Afroasiatic subfamilies show evidence of a causative affix s.
. Semitic, Berber, Cushitic (including Beja), and Chadic support possessive suffixes.
Nisba derivation in -j (earlier Egyptian) or -ī (Semitic) [45]
(earlier Egyptian) or (Semitic) Morphology in which words inflect by changes within the root (vowel changes or gemination) as well as with prefixes and suffixes.
One of the most remarkable shared features among the Afroasiatic languages is the prefixing verb conjugation (see the table at the start of this section), with a distinctive pattern of prefixes beginning with /ʔ t n y/, and in particular a pattern whereby third-singular masculine /y-/ is opposed to third-singular feminine and second-singular /t-/.
According to Ehret (1996), tonal languages appear in the Omotic and Chadic branches of Afroasiatic, as well as in certain Cushitic languages. The Semitic, Berber and Egyptian branches generally do not use tones phonemically.
Shared vocabulary [ edit ]
The following are some examples of Afroasiatic cognates, including ten pronouns, three nouns, and three verbs.
Source: Christopher Ehret, Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
Note: Ehret does not make use of Berber in his etymologies, stating (1995: 12): "the kind of extensive reconstruction of proto-Berber lexicon that might help in sorting through alternative possible etymologies is not yet available." The Berber cognates here are taken from previous version of table in this article and need to be completed and referenced.
Abbreviations: NOm = 'North Omotic', SOm = 'South Omotic'. MSA = 'Modern South Arabian', PSC = 'Proto-Southern Cushitic', PSom-II = 'Proto-Somali, stage 2'. masc. ='masculine', fem. = 'feminine', sing. ='singular', pl. = 'plural'. 1s. = 'first person singular', 2s. ='second person singular'.
Proto-Afroasiatic Omotic Cushitic Chadic Egyptian Semitic Berber *Ɂân- / *Ɂîn- or *ân- / *în- ‘I’ (independent pronoun) *in- ‘I’ (Maji (NOm)) *Ɂâni ‘I’ *nV ‘I’ ink, *ʲānak 'I' *Ɂn ‘I’ nek / nec ‘I, me’ *i or *yi ‘me, my’ (bound) i ‘I, me, my’ (Ari (SOm)) *i or *yi ‘my’ *i ‘me, my’ (bound) -i, *-aʲ (1s. suffix) *-i ‘me, my’ inu / nnu / iw ‘my’ *Ɂǎnn- / *Ɂǐnn- or *ǎnn- / *ǐnn- ‘we’ *nona / *nuna / *nina (NOm) *Ɂǎnn- / *Ɂǐnn- ‘we’ — inn, *ʲānan ‘we’ *Ɂnn ‘we’ nekni / necnin / neccin ‘we’ *Ɂânt- / *Ɂînt- or *ânt- / *înt- ‘you’ (sing.) *int- ‘you’ (sing.) *Ɂânt- ‘you’ (sing.) — nt-, *ʲānt- ‘you’ (sing.) *Ɂnt ‘you’ (sing.) netta "he" (keyy / cek "you" (masc. sing.)) *ku, *ka ‘you’ (masc. sing., bound) — *ku ‘your’ (masc. sing.) (PSC) *ka, *ku (masc. sing.) -k (2s. masc. suffix) -ka (2s. masc. suffix) (Arabic) inek / nnek / -k "your" (masc. sing.) *ki ‘you’ (fem. sing., bound) — *ki ‘your’ (fem. sing.) *ki ‘you’ (fem. sing.) -ṯ (fem. sing. suffix, < *ki) -ki (2s. fem. sing. suffix) (Arabic) -m / nnem / inem "your" (fem. sing.) *kūna ‘you’ (plural, bound) — *kuna ‘your’ (pl.) (PSC) *kun ‘you’ (pl.) -ṯn, *-ṯin ‘you’ (pl.) *-kn ‘you, your’ (fem. pl.) -kent, kennint "you" (fem. pl.) *si, *isi ‘he, she, it’ *is- ‘he’ *Ɂusu ‘he’, *Ɂisi ‘she’ *sV ‘he’ sw, *suw ‘he, him’, sy, *siʲ ‘she, her’ *-šɁ ‘he’, *-sɁ ‘she’ (MSA) -s / nnes / ines "his/her/its" *ma, *mi ‘what?’ *ma- ‘what?’ (NOm) *ma, *mi (interr. root) *mi, *ma ‘what?’ m ‘what?’, ‘who?’ mā (Arabic, Hebrew) / mu? (Assyrian) ‘what?’ ma? / mayen? / min? "what?" *wa, *wi ‘what?’ *w- ‘what?’ *wä / *wɨ ‘what?’ (Agaw) *wa ‘who?’ wy ‘how...!’ mamek? / mamec? / amek? "how? *dîm- / *dâm- ‘blood’ *dam- ‘blood’ (Gonga) *dîm- / *dâm- ‘red’ *d-m- ‘blood’ (West Chadic) i-dm-i ‘red linen’ *dm / dǝma (Assyrian) / dom (Hebrew) ‘blood’ idammen "bloods" *îts ‘brother’ *itsim- ‘brother’ *itsan or *isan ‘brother’ |
is durable. Funny that the other five kids haven’t been able to do any damage when he did so much – we joke Ben was doing crash testing on it, research for his future career at Apple building gear you can’t destroy. I want him to work on shatter proof screens since I broke one of those.
When I was on bedrest a few years back with our youngest child the older ones had a field trip to the Apple store. Bedrest meant we couldn’t all go and sad Ben had to stay home with me. During the trip the kids composed songs with Garage Band and got yellow t-shirts – Ben’s favorite color. This left quite an impression on Ben and when asking about his wish list for trips and places to see he said the Apple store! To get a yellow shirt and ask the Geniuses questions and play on an iPad! We thought that was an easy request to fulfill, though we weren’t sure if we can manage the t-shirts since we’re not an official field trip.
We had mentioned his wish on Facebook because we thought it was so funny and to our surprise learned – wait, apparently we know some people who have Apple connections! They contacted us and asked some questions and started making some plans and were absolutely fantastic every step of the way. While we were hoping to just visit the store and let Ben play at the kid table, the Apple folks had so much more in mind.
Over the last few years Ben’s various vision team members have talked about how wonderful the iPad is as an assistive device. Kit researched and learned more about the amazing technology it has to help people with visual impairments & the long list of apps great for kids with visual disabilities. Even built in features like Siri can make a significant difference in the day to day lives of someone with a vision challenge. We just didn’t know how to make that happen with the budget, so it was something we kept in the back of our minds but hadn’t pursued. Once again little miracles started to fall into place with offers of help, surprises here and there, and so much support and love from friends and family. Suddenly the dream of an iPad for Ben was becoming a reality!!
One night Ben came into my room after bedtime and asked if I could learn more about taking a field trip. We looked online and I told him the field trips aren’t being planned until spring but maybe we could go then? I also told him they don’t sell those special yellow shirts, those are just for field trip kids. We talked about making it happen someday and when he saw the picture of the store online he said, “Wow… awesome!” So he kept hoping to see Apple but knew he needed to patiently wait.
Meanwhile we plotted and planned and this morning we told the kids we needed to run some errands and meet Shannon to return some things to her. Shannon happens to be a dear friend and photographer and she had so sweetly offered to be there to document this experience. There was much texting and coordinating going on as we got up early (before the store opens to the public) and headed out. The kids knew we had a surprise for them but we needed to meet our friend at the mall first. As we walked up to find her what did we happen to see?
The Apple Store.
And what was happening there? Rows of people all dressed in red clapping and cheering and welcoming our family. As you can see in the photos, Ben’s face just LIT UP when he recognized the store. When he realized he was allowed to go inside??? He was stunned. When they greeted him by name? SHOCK! He got a bit bashful as he passed so many people cheering for him. (He later said he felt like a celebrity and wanted to know how they knew his name???)
They did a mini tour & he was allowed to stand behind the Genius bar, which was so impressive to him. Then he asked me if he could play on one of the iPads at the little table like the kids were doing before we left. We sat down and explained not only could he play on one – but the one they had just shown him was FOR HIM. People who loved him had helped make it possible for him to have an iPad of his very own.
Shock. He just sat there staring at the box straight faced. It was probably a good minute before he blinked and asked, “For me?” Yes, I explained – for you to play on not just now but to KEEP. More shock.
The reality set in when they handed him the box to open and he was all smiles. He lifted it out of the box and said, “I get a charger??” Yes, an iPad AND a charger! 🙂 (He’s so easily impressed, I love it.)
Then they spent time talking with him about the assistive technology and zoom and reading books on it and Garage Band and games and Siri. We need to go back for sure to learn more about all of it, Kit said there’s tons we need to explore for Ben. Then I got lots and lots of tight squeeze bear hugs as the reality sunk in for Ben – he got to visit Apple! And tour it! And see a computer and the genius bar and talk to so many sweet people and he got an iPad!! And a t-shirt! Then he told me, as he hugged me tight again, “This goes on my list of best days ever!!”
So to everyone who helped make this possible – thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You made his dream come true, and I know that every single day of his life will be enriched by having this as a resource and tool for independence. Okay, and he’ll just have fun with it, too!
P.S. We’ve been asked how the other kids are handling this situation with B’s vision loss and how they reacted to seeing B get something this big. You can read their responses here.
P.P.S. For our new visitors coming through links to this post – WELCOME! Ben’s been reading your comments and loving every single one. He’s grinning ear to ear knowing that his story is helping other people feel happy. Thanks for your kind words and support! If you have any questions please feel free to contact us – we can be reached at heidi@thadenpierce.org.There’s a push to adopt chip-equipped payment cards in the U.S. following high-profile breaches at large retailers and restaurant chains during the past 12 months, but experts warn that switching to this payment system will not make fraud disappear.
The EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) standard is widely deployed around the world, and for the past 10 years or so it has been the de facto payment card system in Europe, where it’s also known as chip-and-PIN. The cards authenticate with ATMs and payment terminals using the combination of a customer PIN and information stored securely on an integrated circuit.
In order to drive EMV adoption in the U.S., the credit card brands plan to shift liability in October 2015, after which parties that haven’t deployed the system will be held liable for fraudulent transactions.
However, the EMV specification suffers from both regulatory and security issues, some of which have already been exploited in real-world attacks, according to Ross Anderson, a security engineering professor at Cambridge University with 25 years of experience in payment systems security.
During a talk on Thursday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Anderson highlighted some of the attacks that are possible against existing EMV implementations. Banks have tried to downplay these as impractical or too complex for cybercriminals to launch, he said.
The “preplay” and “no PIN” attacks are two examples. In a “preplay,” a card inserted into a rogue payment terminal can be charged for a transaction that’s done with a fraudulent card at a terminal somewhere else in the world. In the “no PIN” attack, a criminal uses a stolen card that’s wired to a portable device with a rogue card inserted into it. That lets the attacker bypass PIN verification at POS (point-of-sale) terminals in order to authorize rogue transactions.
More recently, Anderson’s team at Cambridge discovered that many EMV-capable ATMs and payment terminals generate random numbers in a predictable manner. This allows someone with temporary access to a credit card, such as a waiter, to calculate authentication codes that then can be used for transactions in the future. Worse, a rogue or compromised POS terminal can generate authentication codes for a card inserted into it, and those codes can later be used to authorize additional rogue transactions.
Some of these attacks don’t stem from issues in the EMV standard itself, but rather from the poor implementation of it by payment terminal vendors, according to Anderson. Banks don’t have enough incentive to act, because liability for fraud shifts to the merchants if EMV is not used in a transaction and to consumers if EMV is used with the correct PIN number, he said.
That tendency to blame the card owner is based on the premise that since EMV cards—or rather their chips—cannot be cloned, if a fraudulent transaction is done with such a card and the correct PIN, the card owner has been negligent.
Whether U.S. banks will try to shift liability to consumers for PIN-authorized EMV transactions remains to be seen, as consumer protection in the U.S. is better than in Europe, Anderson said. EMV adoption in the U.S. will be an interesting experiment because some banks want to implement chip-and-PIN cards, while others favor a chip-and-signature model, Anderson said.
The EMV specification as it exists today is vastly complex, and vendors have made additions on top of it, which means that it’s easy to make mistakes when implementing it, Anderson said. Depending on how much attention you pay, you can design a secure system using EMV or an awful one, he said.
Lucas Zaichkowsky, an enterprise defense architect at AccessData whose previous jobs involved investigating credit card breaches and assessing compliance with payment card security standards, agreed with Anderson.
“People think that if we switch to EMV, these breaches will go away, but that’s not true,” said Zaichkowsky, who also held a presentation about POS system architecture and security at Black Hat. During an EMV transaction, RAM-scraping malware can steal the same data that’s on the magnetic stripe if the chip is not implemented correctly, and several banks don’t do it properly, he said.
That data can then be used to create counterfeit magnetic stripe cards to conduct fraud in most countries, even those already using EMV because most EMV readers are also configured to accept the magnetic stripe in "fallback mode."
In addition, most EMV-enabled POS terminals support both chip cards and traditional magnetic stripe cards. When you attempt to swipe an EMV card, the payment terminal should refuse it and ask you to insert it in the smart card reader instead. That doesn’t always happen, according to Zaichkowsky.
As an example, he said that his credit card was swiped at a POS terminal in Italy because the cashier was used to U.S. cards not having chips, despite his card having one. There was no error and the transaction went through, he said.
Even if everyone in the world would switch to chip-enabled cards and traditional magnetic stripe ones would disappear, fraud would most likely shift from card-present transactions to card-not-present transactions, such as those done online or over the phone, he said.
Fraud statistics up to 2012 actually show that this has happened in Europe since the deployment of EMV, Anderson said.
With an EMV transaction, a compromised POS terminal can still get the credit card number and expiration date, Zaichkowsky said. There are many places where this is all you need to place an order, because they don’t ask for the three-digit security code or verify the billing address, he said.
This means that cybercriminals will continue to have an incentive to compromise POS terminals, even with widespread EMV deployment.
The sophisticated EMV attacks that Anderson and his team at Cambridge identified aren’t widely used yet, partly because criminals have easier ways to abuse EMV cards today. That’s because they’re currently designed to also work with ATMs and payment terminals in countries where the system is not deployed, such as the U.S. Information captured from the magnetic stripe of a chip-equipped card can be used to create a counterfeit copy that doesn’t have a chip. That cloned card cannot be used in Europe but works in the U.S., where the chip isn’t needed anyway.
The fewer places in the world where cybercriminals can use such cards, the harder it will be for them to steal money from them. That might lead criminals to start using EMV attacks like those described by Anderson.
One technology that has a much better chance of preventing attackers from stealing card data is point to point encryption from the card reader to the payment processor, according to Zaichkowsky.
Security experts have recommended point to point, or end to end, encryption for card-present payments for years. Adoption has been slow because it requires replacing card readers and PIN pads with new ones that support the technology, a significant investment that most merchants were not prepared to make.
However, now that many of them will have to change their terminals anyway in order to support EMV, it would be better if they also took the opportunity to choose terminals that encrypt the card data at the reader, Zaichkowsky said.
Updated on Agusut 10 to improve clarity and precision at the request of the article’s primary source.Search Continues For Missing Greene County Woman
(BLOOMFIELD) - The family of 18-year-old Marian Boelter is still searching for her and needs the public's help.
Marina has been missing since New Year's Eve.
Marina's mother, Tressie "Cricket" Palmer, her grandpa Craven Plamer and Marina's three sisters live in Greene County. Her three brothers on her father's side live out of state.
The Greene County Daily World reports that Marina planned to attend the Culinary Arts program at Vincennes University to become a pastry chef. She was working at the Bloomfield IGA Deli when she disappeared.
On New Year's Eve, Tressie stopped into the store while Marina was working to talk to her about a family get-together on New Year's Day. But when Marina didn't show up the family became worried.
According to police, Marina finished working her shift in the deli on New Year's Eve and was last seen in the parking lot of the store getting into a four-door 2009 to 2011 Mercury Milan near the Bloomfield IGA.
The vehicle's color has been reported as everything from silver to beige, even gold in color. The Mercury has multi-spoke rims, a spoiler and a blue tooth or cellular shark fin antenna on top.
Investigators also now have an unknown person of interest in the case.
The person has been reported as the driver of the Mercury and has been described as a white male, in his 40's or 50's and heavy set. The male was also said to have been wearing glasses.
Nobody has seen or heard from her since.
Her mother says Marina loved her job, had just recently moved into her own apartment, and things were looking up in her life.
Her family continues to look for her, visiting people who Marina knew, both friends and acquaintances and driving through the city to places Marina might have visited.
Her father and brother have made numerous trips to the area to aid in the search. Family members have handed out fliers, searched fishing holes, fields and wooded areas hoping to find Marina.
Lamar Imaging in Linton is assisting at giving anyone a special rate if they would like to help make posters or fliers for the missing woman.
In the flyers she hands out, she points out the cross necklace Marina is wearing in a photo - it once belonged to Tressie but Marina had asked if she could have it.
When friends and family and community members came together last week in the Bloomfield Park for a vigil to pray for Marina's safe return, they played a song, "Open the Eyes of my Heart." It's a special favorite of Marina's.
Marina first heard the song when she saw a video of a young, autistic, blind boy singing it -- her mother said Marina started to cry and that's when she wanted the cross and has wore it ever since.
Anyone with tips or information regarding the whereabouts of Marina Boelter can remain anonymous and are asked to contact the Indiana State Police Bloomington Post at (812) 332-4411, the Bloomfield Police Department or the Greene County Sheriff's Department.
Have a question or comment about a news story? Send it to comments@wbiw.comIsrael on Monday denounced a decision by the organizers of a major judo tournament in Abu Dhabi preventing its team from wearing national emblems and the playing of its national anthem.
Organizers demanded that the 12 Israeli judokas participating in the mixed Abu Dhabi Grand Slam from October 26 to 28 not wear “ISR” on their uniforms and that the Israeli anthem not be played if they win, according to Israel’s sports minister.
“The demand to appear without symbols is contrary to the mandate of international sports associations, the main aim of which is to separate politics from sport,” Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev wrote in a letter to Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee.
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“It is the obligation of any country which has the privilege of hosting an international competition to allow the competing athletes to represent the country honorably while ensuring their security.”
The United Arab Emirates had not commented.
Israel and the UAE do not have diplomatic relations, as is the case with many Arab countries.
Israel’s participation in international competitions has regularly led to hostile reactions and boycotts from Arab or Muslim organizations or athletes.
Last year at the Olympics, Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby was jeered out of the arena in Rio after refusing to shake hands with his Israeli opponent Or Sasson.
Judo is a leading sport in Israel, and Sasson won one of the country’s two bronze medals in Rio.
Israel’s team will still travel to Abu Dhabi, but the minister will not, according to her spokesman.
Israel had previously accepted the conditions for the Abu Dhabi tournament in 2015, with its judokas wearing uniforms in the colors of the international federation.
The Israel Judo Association said that it doesn’t want to get involved in politics.
“Our goal is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the competitions are a means to that goal,” a spokesman said.
“The important thing is to participate in the competition and to win, even more so in a country that does not want to hear about Israeli athletes,” he said.The Brexit campaign made "false promises and false assurances, specifically designed to deceive", Labour peer Lord Livermore has claimed, adding he will oppose the Brexit bill.
The former adviser to both the Blair and Brown governments' claims came during the House of Lords second day of debating the Brexit bill.
Lord Livermore continued that the Government's "clear goal is an offshore small state Britain" that would mean less money for the NHS and a reduction in the rights of British workers, following the vote to leave the EU.
"I have no doubt this vision of Britain as a mid-Atlantic Singapore is strongly supported by hardline ideologues in the Conservative Party and in some sections of the media.
"But I equally have no doubt they would never have won the referendum had they been honest enough to articulate that beforehand.
"The verdict of the referendum has now become so distorted as to be unrecognisable...
"I believe that working people's lives will be made worse by this Bill.
"I believe that those who voted for Brexit in the greatest numbers will be those that suffer the most from the outcome."
As a result it was with a "clear conscience" that Lord Livermore said he would oppose the Bill and its "profoundly damaging effect on this country".Swainson’s warbler — a secretive, rarely seen songbird that nests in the swamplands of the southeastern United States — may no longer be so hard to find.
Researchers report that the bird has found a new safe haven: private pine plantations.
“I found hundreds of warblers breeding in pine plantations across 10 states,” said Gary Graves, an ecologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, who led the study. “These warblers are encountering a new ecosystem — a man-created ecosystem.”
The study, which appears in the journal Bird Conservation International, suggests that by the end of the century a majority of Swainson’s warblers will breed on pine plantations.
The birds arrive in the Southeast in April, nesting and breeding in swampy regions until it is time to fly south again in September. They like dense thickets, which can be found not just in swamps but among young pine trees, Dr. Graves said.Valentina Palladino
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Sony is switching gears when it comes to smartphones and that shift is embodied in the new X line of handsets. There's the Xperia XA Ultra, a "selfie" smartphone with a 16-megapixel front-facing camera, the middle-of-the-road Xperia X equipped with a Snapdragon 650 processor, and then there's the Xperia X Performance. This device is the "flagship" of sorts for the new line, sporting a 5-inch FHD display, a Snapdragon 820 processor, and 3GB of RAM.
New letter aside, some of these X phones pick up right where the Z series left off, which means that in some ways they feel just a step behind the rest of the competition. The X Performance's biggest problem isn't that it's a bad phone, but that it's a $700 (£500) phone that often feels inferior to $400 (£330) phones.
Look and feel
All of Sony's new Xperia X smartphones look quite similar, and the Xperia X Performance looks nearly identical to the standard Xperia X. Thanks to a better processor and a larger battery, the X Performance is just about a millimeter thicker and a few grams heavier than the Xperia X. While the lower-powered handset resembles a more rigid iPhone 6s, the X Performance emphasizes its blockiness with the additional thickness and weight.
Specs at a glance: Sony Xperia X Performance Processor Snapdragon 820 Display 5-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel LCD OS Android 6.0.1 Cameras 23-megapixel rear; 13MP front-facing RAM 3GB Storage 32GB (up to 64GB flash memory) GPU Adreno 530 Connectivity WiFi Miracast, WiFi MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2 Ports Micro USB, 3.5mm headphone jack Size 5.6 x 2.77 x 0.33 in (142 x 70 x 8mm) Weight 5.8 ounces (640g) Battery 2700 mAh Price $699/£500 unlocked Other perks rear camera: predictive hybrid autofocus, quick launch, HDR, SteadyShot; front-facing camera: ISO 6400, quick launch, SteadyShot
However, that extra heft doesn't mean the X Performance isn't an attractive phone. Its rounded glass edges and brushed metal back give it an elegant look. And aside from the covered Nano SIM slot on the left side, the power button, volume rocker, and Quick Launch camera button are on the right side. It charges via a micro USB port, forgoing the new USC Type-C standard many other OEMs are working hard to introduce into any and all new products.
The 5.6-inch tall handset sports a 5-inch FHD display, which is the same panel that's on the Xperia X. It's a fine display that shows off vibrant colors and can get decently bright, but it's nothing remarkable. It's also slightly smaller than that of Sony's Z5 smartphone, which debuted last year. The X Performance also lacks a fingerprint sensor, a feature that has become increasingly common in other Android phones. Now that Android M natively supports fingerprint sensors, this feels like a big oversight on Sony's part. For whatever reason, the international version of the X Performance does have a fingerprint sensor, so it's anyone's guess as to why it was excluded here.
Sony added a quick launch button for its camera on the bottom right side of the handset, a relatively rare feature found more commonly on Windows phones. The quick launch button does come in handy when you need to snap a photo very quickly: press it once to open the camera in milliseconds and again to take a photo.
Software and camera
The X Performance's software doesn't add much to what we saw in Sony's Z5 Compact, Android 6.0 aside. There's the convenient Quick Settings editing mode, which allows you to change and rearrange the icons in the Quick Settings drawer. There are also Sony's two unique battery saving modes, Stamina and Ultra Stamina, which reduce certain activities on the phone to save power. I'd use Stamina mode more, since it just restricts the use of the GPS, image enhancement, vibration, and rendering performance of the handset. Ultra Stamina mode seems to be for times when you're out in the wilderness for days without a charger with no relief in site and you need the phone to last for days on end. In Ultra Stamina mode, you'll only have access to certain apps including phone, messages, contacts, camera, settings, and clock.
There's also a lot of Sony bloatware that you'll probably never use. A few of them look like poor imitations of Google apps, like Sony's Lifelog app, which is basically the company's version of Google Fit. The only apps that would probably be useful are the Playstation app (also available on other Android phones) and the Sketch app where you can kill spare time doodling.
As for the X Performances cameras, the rear is a 23-megapixel shooter and the front-facing camera has 13MP which is nice for selfie enthusiasts since most smartphones cap their front cameras at 5MP or 8MP. The rear camera performed well in bright, natural lighting, as you can see below, when compared to the more blown-out photos taken by the Nexus 5X. However, the Nexus 5X's photos consistently had sharper detail, whereas the X Performance rendered many of the finer details invisible. The predictive hybrid autofocus is a nice feature as well—immediately when you bring up the camera, a small rectangle appears on the viewer, showing you where it automatically focuses in the frame. You can change that just by tapping on the viewer, but it's convenient to have the feature for simple landscape or even portrait photos.
That's where the expertise of the X Performance's rear camera stops. In low light situations (below), even photos taken with flash were filled with noise and came out slightly blurry each time. Colors also rendered much weaker in these dark situations, giving the upper-hand to the Nexus 5X.
Performance
Instead of the Xperia X's Snapdragon 650 CPU, the X Performance has the speedier Snapdragon 820 chip. Overall, the handset was snappy and took little time to open new apps and switch between already opened programs. While it was on par with competitors like the Nexus 5X in some cases, it did fall short in some of our benchmarks to the Galaxy Note 5 and the OnePlus 3. Possibly thanks to its 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, the OnePlus 3 performed better than the X Performance in nearly every benchmark test (our X Performance has 3GB of RAM and just 32GB of storage).
The X Performance faired better against the OnePlus 3 in our GPU tests, although the OnePlus 3 still managed to out perform it by a hair. The X Performance is also prone to get hot under stress, which will make it uncomfortable to hold after a while.
Battery life
The X Performance's 2700 mAh battery lasted 545 minutes on our default battery test (about 9 hours), and 276 minutes on a WebGL battery test that works the GPU (a little over 4.5 hours). While it's on the low side of our default results, it still offers a pretty good battery life that will last you all day or even longer if you take advantage of Sony's battery saving modes. On both tests, the OnePlus 3 lasted longer than the X Performance, but only by a few minutes on the WebGL test.
Difficult to make a case for
Sony's Xperia X Performance is a confusing smartphone. Arguably the biggest thing about it is that it's the "flagship" of Sony's newest line of smartphones, the X line that the company will be focusing on going forward. However, when you compare it to existing Sony handsets, like the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact, it doesn't offer much more and yet it costs $699 (£500) unlocked. With a price like that, the X Performance should unquestionably lead the pack of Sony smartphones in design, performance, and features, much like Samsung's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge do for its smartphones—but it just doesn't do that. It simply feels like any other Sony smartphone with no truly remarkable features.
The OnePlus 3 also clearly shows up the X Performance in nearly every way. It performed slightly better in all of our benchmarks, has 64GB of storage as well as 6GB of RAM (even if the usefulness of that is debatable), includes a fingerprint sensor, charges via USB Type-C, and has a kicker price of just $400 (£330). It's also worth mentioning that you do have a $400 (£359) option if you prefer iOS to Android—Apple's iPhone SE might be smaller in size than the X Performance, but it provides all-around better performance than Sony's handset since it's basically an iPhone 6S on the inside.
If you're going to spend $699 or more on an unlocked smartphone, you could easily opt for one of the elite flagships like the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge. Even if you didn't like any of the handsets from the major players like Samsung, the OnePlus 3 is a better option than the X Performance, especially now that the company has rid itself of the invite system to let anyone purchase the OnePlus 3.
The Good
Elegant glass and brushed metal design.
Sony's Android skin lets you tweak certain settings more easily, and gives you extra battery saving options.
Quick launch camera button lets you snap photos with just two presses.
Good battery life.
The Bad
Overall performance isn't up to par with the OnePlus 3.
Gets hot easily.
No USB Type-C connector.
Expensive for what it offers.
The Ugly
The obvious lack of a fingerprint sensor.
Listing image by Valentina PalladinoEver dreamed of seeing what the Street Fighter characters would look like if they were zombies? Well consider your dreams answered! Also, consider having some better dreams.
The zombies created by concept artist from Manuel Augusto Dischinger Moura (or Manuhell for brevity's sake) go a step further - they know Kung Fu and other crazy martial arts. The 27-year-old from São Paulo, Brazil has taken some characters from a popular fighting game and given them a zombie makeover.
While most women would argue the zombie makeover is one of the worst ones you can get (what do you mean you're gonna pluck one of my eyes out?!), I actually know a couple girls whose looks might actually improve. I'm looking at you, Susan! Well, not literally because I'm afraid I'll turn to stone but I am nodding in your direction.
Hit the jump for a whole bunch more. Oh really, you'd still take your chances with Chun Li and Cammy? Shocking.
Manuel's CGHub Page
via
Zombie Street Fighters [onelargeprawn]
Thanks to sham, who once drew super-realistic Mortal Kombat zombies and couldn't sleep for three days. Reminds me of the first vagina I ever drew.Hands pressed to the hips or perhaps leaning back with arms crossed behind the head are typical poses of power. Referred to power poses or high status gestures in technical jargon, they are assumed to stimulate both psychological and physiological processes. Researchers around Amy Cuddy of Harvard Business School concluded in a study in 2010 that power poses held for a short time influenced the hormones and the willingness to take on financial risks for the subjects participating in the study. Scientists of the University of Zurich now refute these findings with a large study: power poses affect neither the masculine hormone testosterone, the stress hormone cortisol, nor the subjects' actual behavior.
Power poses let subjects feel more powerful
Bodily demonstrations of power, however, influence one's own perception of power, a result that the previous study also found. Study leader Eva Ranehill of the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich states, "This indicates that the main influence of power poses is the fact that subjects realize that the feel more self-confident. We find no proof, however, that this has any effect on their behavior or their physiology."
In the study, 102 men and 98 women, most of them students from Zurich, were randomly assigned to take on bodily poses with "much power" or "little power." Afterwards, the participants completed a task involving their willingness to take on financial risk where they could choose between a fixed monetary sum and a risky lottery game, the same conditions as in the 2010 study at Harvard. The risky option was a lottery with a 50% chance of either winning either ten or zero francs. The fixed option varied from two to seven francs. In order to assess the effect of the power poses on hormonal levels, two saliva samples from each subject were collected and analyzed. The first saliva sample was taken before the participants had assumed the higher or lower positions and the second at the end of the study, after the behavioral tasks.
It takes more than just one study
"Our study is much more meaningful than the original study, as we have much more data," states Roberto Weber, Professor at the University of Zurich and co-author of the new study. "The greater number of subjects in our study makes it much less probable that our results are due to coincidence. Our study is to the best of our knowledge the only published paper that again examines the effect of power poses on hormones." Roberto Weber adds that the results of the new, larger study also demonstrate how important it is to replicate published research results.
The study was funded by the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation (Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.Yes, that's right, the most lyrical song of the last five years was (supposedly) made in 15 minutes just so Jay Electronica and Just Blaze would have something to debut when they went on Angela Yee's show. Funniest thing is, they never made it to Yee's show. Instead, Jay fell asleep and forgot all about it. That is, until Just Blaze played it on Tony Touch's radio show.
The original radio rip of "Exhibit C" was laced with Mr. Magic's classic radio drops (He passed away shortly before the song's release.), giving it the vintage feel of a cassette tape of a radio recording. The song grew legs, took off, and was eventually released on iTunes. The song's cover art of Nikola Tesla sitting at his Magnifying Transmitter was befitting: This song was truly lightning in a bottle.
Jay Elec testified about his life to the hip-hop court and made a passionate plea about why he's the chosen one. With deft delivery of complex lyrics and symbolism (a man asleep on a train), Jay tells the story of a man in search of his identity, a nomad who finds his home in hip-hop. When Jay drops the greatest Islamic rap reference ever, it's both a revelation as he discovers who he is and it's a straight up lyrical orgasm: "They call me Jay Electronica, fuck that/Call me Jay ElecHanukkah/Jay ElecYarmulke/Jay ElectRamadaan Muhammad Asalaamica/Rasoul Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala through your monitor."
The song created a tremendous buzz for Jay, who failed to capitalize on it by ever delivering an album. But maybe he's better off. This song was a magical moment—one he nor any other rapper in the past five years could top. Maybe the best third act is a disappearing one. —Insanul AhmedThe holidays are officially here! Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and Christmas will be here in no time given how times seems to always fly faster at the end of the year. This means it’s time to start your Christmas decorating, starting with your tree! While many might have specific themes for their Christmas trees, the ultimate Star Wars fan will most likely theirs dressed in ornaments from the epic sci-fi series. For those who are die-hard collectors, casual fans or emerging enthusiasts, here are some cool Star Wars ornaments that will light up your tree and collection. Bring the force to your holiday festivities with these stellar ornaments (all from Hallmark’s special Star Wars collection) that can only be decried as festive and out of this world!
16. 2005 Star Wars #9 Princess Leia
Princess Leia in her slave costume is super hot when she wore it in Return of the Jedi and this ornament perfectly embodies that sexy slave costume, but has a certain edge thanks to the spear she’s carrying. This ornament will spice up your tree!
15. 2011 Star Wars Bossk
The special Edition Bossk is a new ornament for 2011, so make sure you add it to your collection before they run out or become way too expensive on Amazon or eBay.
14. 1999 Star Wars Queen Amidala
No tree will be complete without a Queen Amidala ornament. She captured Star Wars fans’ hearts in Episode One and should be a vital piece for serious collectors.
13. 1997 Star Wars C-3PO and R2-D2
Take it back old school with this 1997-issued set of two ornaments that depict everybody’s favorite droids!
12. 2011 Star Wars Showdown at the Cantina
There’s always a showdown when Han Solo is involved and this ornament captures the hero at his best…with a gun in his hand.
11. 2011 Star Wars #15 Jedi Master Yoda
No one can deny how badass Yoda is as a Jedi and this newest ornament will definitely be a keepsake piece.
10. 1999 Star Wars Chewbacca
No collection would be complete without Chewbacca, and this limited-edition ornament is the perfect piece to bring the force during the holiday season!
9. 2009 Star Wars: A Deadly Duel
Relive the memory where Obi-Wan Kenobie and Anakin Skywalker batter dark forces with this action-packed ornament.
8. 2011 Star Wars LEGO Darth Vader
This piece is great for both Star Wars fans and Star Wars LEGO collectors!
7. 2005 Star Wars Princess Leia
A classic look of Princess Leia’s complete with the ear buns and white dress is a no br |
ah! RSS feeds of Twitter timelines for everyone!To be honest, I've found that, if you self-identify as a feminist, most people don't really have any qualms about just insulting you to your face. Or sighing and rolling their eyes and walking away. Or spewing vitriolic garbage in every online comments section once the dreaded F-word is mentioned. But there are also those who will respond to the fact of your feminism with any number of backhanded compliments — and I can guarantee you that they're backhanded compliments all feminists are tired of hearing.
The good news is that with the rise of artists like Beyonce, comedians like Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Amy Schumer, and writers like Roxanne Gay and Chimamanda Adichie, feminism has well and truly entered the mainstream. The bad, news, though, is that it's entered it juuuuust enough so that people are slightly less inclined to turn to open hostility. Instead, there's a lot of apprehension. Closed-mouth smiles. Sure, gender equality is great, but why are feminists so angry, you know?
This apprehension often results in the kinds of comments that masquerade as something nice said about someone else... that aren't actually nice at all. They're the most obnoxious of barbs, largely because if you call someone out on them, they'll retreat behind the whole, "But I meant it in a good way!" excuse. These five "compliments?" Spoiler alert: They're not compliments. So let's all just retire them from our vocabularies, shall we?
1. "You're so passionate! Don't you ever get tired?"
I do, yeah. It's extremely disheartening to be told to "get over" the fact that, as a waitress, handling sexual harassment with a smile is just part of my job. That I get called "sweetie" and "honey" and patted on the head and spoken down to; that the government likes to parse my own body into pieces that I can control and bits that I can't; that one in four women will experience sexual assault during college; that my friend group is evidence of that statistic... I could go on, and yes, it's exhausting. But the alternative, being silent and accepting that, well, I was born with a vagina so life is just going to suck a bit more, is unbearable.
2. "But you're not like one of those crazy, angry feminists, though. You're so reasonable! You like men!"
Honestly, the number of times I've heard people equate "feminism" with "misandry" is exhausting at this point. I don't want to have this conversation again. I don't hate men overall, as a group. In fact, I like making out with specific ones like a lot. Feminists don't walk around kicking every dude they see in the shins.
3. "You're so girly/pretty/feminine for a feminist!"
I do own a pretty substantial number of pink things, and I like to paint my nails and wear lipstick and rock dresses, and ha ha, fun fact: Part of feminism is dissolving the gender binary. You know, that thing that designates nail polish and lipsticks and dresses and the color pink as "female" and as "lesser?" There is so much more to this big, wonderful world of ours than whatever exists on either end of that binary. You can be feminist and feminine; you can be feminist and masculine; you can be feminist and anything other than feminist and masculine; and while we're on the subject, none of that depends on gender.
4. "You're so confident with your short hair/hairy legs! I could never do something like that!"
Unpack why you could "never do something like that." And then we can chat.
5. "Wow, you really are doing it all!"
And all those dudes living their lives and pursuing their dreams are just doing it? Without any sort of condescending medal around their necks? Cool, cool, cool. Must be nice.
Images: Christopher Dombres/Flickr; Giphy (5)More than 70,000 baby turtles in danger of extinction were released on Tuesday into a river in the Bolivian Amazon bordering Brazil.
The release into the San Pedro River was preceded by a ceremony attended by President Evo Morales and the governor of Beni, the province where the act took place.
"When there is will, when there is a decision, it is possible to conserve our heritage," Morales said, praising the conservation efforts in Beni.
The program, in place since 2007, involves recovering turtle nests from riverbanks, caring for the eggs and the young turtles until they develop a shell that is hard enough to protect them from predators.
The initiative is part of the Repopulation of River Turtles Project, aimed at protecting turtles of the species 'podocnemis expansa' and 'podocnemis unifelis.'
As adults, these turtles can measure up to 3 feet, weigh up to 150 pounds and live 100 years.
They are believed to play a key role in the ecosystem, because they help reforest flooded forests and are good indicators of climate change.
The turtle protection program has allowed the release of 10 million turtles in recent years.
Based on reporting by EFE.USA TODAY Sports
T.J. Dillashaw has certainly made improvements to his striking skill set over the past two years, but apparently Renan Barao isn't all too impressed.
The Ultimate Fighter 14 alum came into the UFC with strong wrestling skills and a well of athleticism that propelled him to victories in his first two showings inside the Octagon. While his talents were obvious, the 28-year-old's attack was borderline one-dimensional, and he knew his arsenal of weapons would have to expand if he were ever going to make a run at the bantamweight title.
Enter Duane "Bang" Ludwig and the evolution of Team Alpha Male.
The retired UFC veteran set up shop as the head coach of the Sacramento-based collective, and the results were immediate. In addition to several standout performances by his teammates, Dillashaw earned impressive stoppage wins in his next two outings, as his much-improved striking dismantled Issei Tamura and Hugo Viana, respectively. While his next bout resulted in a controversial split-decision loss to Raphael Assuncao last October, Dillashaw's performance was solid as he gave the Brazilian veteran all he could handle throughout the 15-minute affair and proved he belonged in the upper tier of the bantamweight fold.
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He would get things back on track in his next showing against Mike Easton at Fight Night 35 back in January as he worked a well-rounded game to earn a lopsided unanimous-decision victory. While his win over "The Hulk" put him within striking distance of a title shot, a booking against Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 173 meant it was going to take at least another win for a championship opportunity to materialize.
Yet, when the UFC's annual Memorial Day event lost its headlining bout, the organization tapped the surging contender to face bantamweight champion Renan Barao in the main event on May 24.
"The Baron" has been a wrecking machine since joining the UFC in 2011. In just three years, the Nova Uniao product has racked up seven consecutive victories on an impressive run that landed him a seat on the bantamweight throne. Those victories also extended his overall unbeaten streak to 32-straight bouts—a monstrous number in the modern era of MMA—and put his well-rounded attack on display at every turn.
The matchup between Barao and Dillashaw this Saturday night in Las Vegas will pit the rising talent against one of the most dangerous stand-up fighters in MMA. While Dillashaw has certainly made improvements in the striking department, Barao believes the California native is confused about the type of fighter he is, and that will create the opportunity he needs to end the fight.
"I believe T.J. [Dillashaw] thinks he is a striker now, and he isn't," Barao told Bleacher Report through the assistance of a translator. "I think he will mess up and make mistakes in this fight, and this will present the chance for me to finish him. I'm very calm and ready for this fight, and I believe I will win this fight because I'm the better fighter."
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While the two fighters will meet for the first time on May 24 in Las Vegas, their respective camps are certainly familiar with one another. The team at Nova Uniao holds three victories in title bouts over the Sacramento-based collective, with two of those wins coming from Barao defeating Dillashaw's team leader and mentor, Urijah Faber. "The California Kid" was also dealt a lopsided loss by Barao teammate and close friend, Jose Aldo, when the two top featherweights scrapped it out for the 145-pound crown under the WEC banner back in 2010.
Although Barao doesn't pay much mind to the past holding any sway on what is yet to come, he does credit his coach Andre "Dede" Pederneiras, Aldo and the rest of their close-knit team for driving him to be the best fighter he can be.
“We have an amazing team at Nova Uniao," Barao said. "We have great fighters that all push one another to be better. 'Dede' is an amazing guy. He has fought in the past and is very strategic, and that helps us very much. Aldo is like a brother to me, and I feel like I learn something new from him every day. It is a great team and an amazing thing to be a part of."
Duane Finley is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.This is what happens when you try to make the fight fit Zimmerman’s telling. Things don’t make sense.
But what if we back up to the cellphone moment, before any physical encounter occurred, when Zimmerman and Martin had their first verbal exchange. What if we dispense with Zimmerman’s version, revisit the order of things and ask a different set of questions?
In the video Zimmerman looks to his right front pocket when he says he’s looking for the phone. That’s the same area as the gun, which he says he has on his right hip.
Is it possible that Zimmerman didn’t go for his phone but for his gun? And even if he doesn’t retrieve it, is it possible that he exposed it? (In the video, Zimmerman demonstrates that he can expose the weapon without even using his hands to lift his jacket.)
Is it possible that Martin first saw the gun when they were standing and talking? Is it possible that the physical struggle was about the presence of a weapon: between a man trying to retrieve it and an unarmed teenager who had seen it? In that scenario, is it possible that Martin could be on top of Zimmerman and still yelling for help? Is it possible that Zimmerman wasn’t using his hands to fend off Martin because he was using them to go for, control, or aim a weapon?
And, what happened to the “cellphone” Zimmerman said he got out just before a prolonged struggle? He makes no mention of putting it away. His key and flashlights were photographed in the grass, as was Martin’s cellphone. They didn’t hold on to those things. What about Zimmerman’s phone? Where was it when the police arrived?
(By the way, the night of the shooting Zimmerman says he got the cellphone out. The next day, during the re-enactment he changes that part of his story, saying: “I went to go get my cellphone, but my, I left it in a different pocket. I looked down at my pant pocket, and he said ‘you got a problem now,’ and then he was here, and he punched me in the face.”)
These are interesting questions to ponder, the answers to which might make what followed make more sense. But of the two people able to answer those questions, one will never take another breath and the other may never take the stand.The Atlanta Falcons’ plan for a $1 billion retractable-roof downtown stadium cleared the final political hurdle Thursday, amid cheers from supporters but also acknowledgement that daunting work lies ahead.
The 8-1 vote by the city’s economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, to approve issuing bonds marks the end of three years of dealmaking over how much public money will go into construction. It’s also the beginning of an equally challenging phase to shape the building - and try to reshape the neighborhood around it.
The Falcons want the new stadium ready for the 2017 season. The Georgia Dome, where the team has played since 1992, will then be demolished. The plan has survived public skepticism about the need for a new stadium as well as the use of public money to build it.
“This is really about the best vision of ourselves: Not being mediocre, not being old, not being tired,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, the chief political cheerleader for the project, said after Thursday’s vote.
Falcons executives now must select architects and contractors. They must work with government officials to buy the property for their preferred site and build out the infrastructure around it.
They must also decide how to mete out as much as $45 million in assistance to nearby struggling neighborhoods, wary of creating another isolated sports behemoth in a sea of parking lots. The specter of Turner Field, the popular but disconnected Braves stadium, looms large.
“We realize we can’t take a deep breath yet,” Falcons president Rich McKay said. “There’s a lot of work to be done if we need to do it right.”
The vote enables Invest Atlanta to issue more than $200 million in bonds backed by city hotel-motel taxes for the project. Board member Julian Bene, a management consultant, broke with his colleagues in questioning the stadium’s economic impact on the city, saying it would create “surprisingly few jobs.”
“My perception is that we’re switching one stadium for another and that we don’t get an additional amenity for the city,” said Bene. He urged state law be changed to allow the dedicated hotel-motel tax money to be used for other things, such as a streetcar route for Atlanta’s Beltline.
Reed argued that the project was the only way to keep the Falcons in the city and spare the Dome from having to compete with a flashy competitor in the suburbs if the franchise landed there. He dismissed criticism of the plan as empty chatter from the “cheap seats.”
“We’re not simply swapping one stadium for another. We’re building a best-in-class facility that will help us attract new events and retain the Falcons,” Reed said. He added: “They were going somewhere … Whether that was the suburbs or another city, they weren’t staying here.”
Falcons owner Arthur Blank began lobbying years ago for a new home field, arguing that while the Dome was adequate now it would become outdated in coming years. The Falcons also want to make more money in a new facility.
Blank is on the board of directors of Cox Enterprises, whose media holdings include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Talks jelled late last year but then stalled in January when the Republican-dominated state Legislature - which had already approved a hotel-motel tax extension to help fund a new stadium - got cold feet about following through with state-issued bonds.
Gov. Nathan Deal then punted the project to Reed, who pushed the City Council to approve a plan to have Invest Atlanta handle the public financing.
In addition to keeping the Falcons downtown, Reed hopes the deal helps the city lure a Super Bowl, a soccer franchise and other marquee events. He noted the latest vote came as Atlanta prepares to host the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament at the Dome.
The Falcons are responsible for all construction costs beyond the $200 million in public construction bonds. However, under the law extending the city’s hotel-motel tax, potentially hundreds of millions more will go to financing costs, as well as to maintenance and upgrades of the facility through 2050.
Meanwhile, the Falcons also agreed to pay up to $70 million in infrastructure costs and another $15 million to support the troubled surrounding neighborhood. Invest Atlanta would chip in another $15 million from a pool of property taxes it collects from a special taxing district, and it must craft a “community benefits” plan for the area. An additional $15 million for the community could come from private businesses.
State and city officials will get perks such as access to luxury suites and free seats as part of the arrangement. Invest Atlanta will also get the rights to host one event each year; an example offered was a national political convention.
Two sites near the Dome are still being considered for the new stadium, and one must be selected by August.
The Falcons and state officials prefer a location immediately south of the Dome that would keep the new stadium about the same distance from CNN Center and the MARTA station there. But first they must buy out two historic churches.
The team has set aside $20 million to pay for some of the property. If negotiations fail, Reed said the Falcons must resort to a lot about a half-mile to the north that’s not as close to public transit.
Other infrastructure challenges await, too. Roads will need to be rerouted, sidewalks expanded, lights replaced and utilities upgraded. The team will also need to finalize details of the personal seat licenses that would help pay for the stadium’s costs, as well as possible naming rights.
Perhaps the biggest unknown is how plans to boost the nearby Vine City and English Avenue communities will play out. Neither benefitted much from the Dome, and in the last two decades the population has fallen from 9,000 to 4,000 while poverty and crime persist.
City officials and Falcons executives say the $45 million can help but won’t be a cure-all.
“The challenge of building the stadium is one thing. The challenge across the street is much bigger,” said McKay, the Falcons president. “It will take a lot of effort by a lot of people to move the neighborhood forward.”The arrests of the detainees took place late in 2012 and early in 2013, with the bodies of the missing men discovered over the next several months. After Mr. Karzai ordered the A-Team to leave Wardak Province, what were believed to be many of the bodies were found buried close to the A-Team base in Nerkh.
At one point, the Afghan president expressed his anger by ordering all American Special Forces out of Wardak Province, a strategic area only a half-hour’s drive from the Afghan capital. The move was later reversed.
With family members of the disappeared men staging protests and accusing the American military and Mr. Kandahari of killing them, Mr. Karzai ordered an investigation and also demanded Mr. Kandahari’s immediate arrest. Top officials close to Mr. Karzai said it was clear that the Special Forces had protected Mr. Kandahari from capture.
Mr. Kandahari was later apprehended by the National Directorate for Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence service, and officials said he would be tried for murder. The outcome of that trial has not been publicized.
American military officials insisted that Mr. Kandahari was not an American citizen; many Afghan officials disputed that. The Americans said that Mr. Kandahari had left the control of the American military long before the video of him carrying out torture surfaced, but Afghan officials said the torture session took place on an American base while Mr. Kandahari was working for the Americans.
At the time of the controversy, the American military responded hotly to the allegations, both from Afghan officials and from the Western news media.
“We have done three investigations down there, and all absolve I.S.A.F. forces and Special Forces of all wrongdoing,” a military spokesman for the American-led military coalition, which was then known as the International Security Assistance Force, said in July 2013.
Family members and other witnesses to the disappearances in Nerkh said they were never approached by American military investigators to hear their own accounts. Many said they saw their loved ones taken away by Mr. Kandahari, accompanied by Special Forces soldiers, never to be seen alive again.Jose Fonte: In talks over a new deal at Southampton
Jose Fonte has revealed that he is in talks over a new deal at Southampton after interest from other clubs was rejected.
Saints have lost many of their key men this summer and reports had suggested that Fonte could also be on his way out of St Mary's, with Cardiff City and Hull City both thought to be keen.
However, the centre-back is ready to pledge his future to the club by signing an extension to his current contract, which runs out next year.
"I am in negotiations to renew my contract. There have been offers from other clubs but I feel happy at Southampton," said Fonte in the Daily Mirror.
Fonte concedes that it will be difficult for Southampton to overcome the departures of Luke Shaw, Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Calum Chambers and Dejan Lovren.
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However, new boss Ronald Koeman has already brought in some reinforcements and Fonte is expecting further business to be done.
The 30-year-old said: "Ronald Koeman already knew he was going to lose some players. Of course, he can't be very happy with the situation but he has already signed three quality players.
"Ryan Bertrand came in to Luke Shaw's place and has done good work, Graziano Pelle scored a lot of goals last year in Holland and Dusan Tadic has a lot of technical quality.
"We still need another three or four more. The players who have arrived have brought competitiveness."
Fonte added: "I'm sad that so many players have left, but that's football."Authorities say a 28-year-old Texas man was attacked and killed by an alligator “almost immediately” after being warned by a bystander not to swim in the water, replying “fuck that alligator” before jumping in, Buzzfeed reports.
“I asked him please do not go swimming, there’s a bigger alligator out here, just please stay out of the water,” an employee of Burkhart’s Marina in Orange, Texas told KFDM. “The next thing I know, I don’t even know how long it was, I saw his body floating face down and then he’s up there for a couple seconds and then he gets dragged back down and pulled off.”
According to police, marina employees put up a sign forbidding swimming after recently spotting a “pretty damn big” 11-foot alligator in the water. From the Houston Chronicle:
But that didn’t deter [Tommie] Woodward, who showed up early Friday with a young woman, telling the staff closing the marina’s burger joint that he was jumping in. They begged him not to, but the 28-year-old did anyway and his friend followed. Suddenly, witnesses told police, a large alligator emerged from under the dock. [...] Sheriff’s deputies and park rangers found Woodward dead in the water more than two hours later at about 4:30 a.m. near the marina in the 1800 block of Mississippi Street. Orange Police Capt. Robert Enmon said he suffered major trauma to his left arm and puncture wounds to his upper left chest. The alligator attack, the second one in the region this week, is believed to be the first fatal encounter in Texas in at least two centuries.
“Whether it’s a speed limit sign on a freeway, a fireworks message, whatever, heed the warning sign,” Orange County Justice of the Peace Rodney Price said Friday, “follow that because a failure to heed that can result in a terrible tragedy for your family.”
[Image via CNN/KFDM]POSTED March 16, 2017
This is the third part of a three-part story. Read part one about the hardships Yoon Ha experienced growing up in North Korea, and part two about being trafficked in China.
After connecting with LiNK’s network, I had to hike up more mountains to get out of China. It was very difficult being eight-months pregnant. My legs hurt and began to swell up a lot. It was really dark and I fell a few times. It was so hard – I was completely exhausted.
There were other North Koreans escaping China with me and they were pulling me and helping me up. Whenever I wanted to give up, they encouraged me.
“We must go. We must go to South Korea to live. To live…”
I felt like it was my responsibility to keep going and to survive for myself and my daughter. The journey getting out of China was so tough. I was worried that my unborn baby might have died because I didn’t feel the baby moving in my stomach for a while.
After many months in government processing and after going through the Hanawon resettlement education center, I was finally able to live freely in South Korea. I was overjoyed.
Thankfully, my baby survived and I had a beautiful baby daughter right after I came to South Korea. More than a year later now, I am thankful that she is growing well and is in good health.
In North Korea, the police oppressed me, keeping me from doing what I needed to do to survive. And in China, the police were trying to find North Korean refugees who were living in hiding. They wanted to send us back to North Korea, even though they knew we would be brutally punished by the regime. Whenever the police came around, I locked all the doors and hid in fear until they left town. So at first, I was scared of the police in South Korea.
I got to know my assigned police officer and realized he is just a person like me and we are not that different. (Every resettled North Korean refugee in South Korea is assigned a police officer for their first five years. They check in on them on a regular basis, and provide basic legal advice and special protection if necessary.)
We talked openly and he shared about the challenges he had when he was younger. He calls me once a week to see how my daughter and I are doing. He has brought us fruit and diapers for my daughter. He is so sweet. He also helped me with paperwork, paying bills, and getting my phone fixed when it broke. I really appreciate him and now he feels like a friend to me.
Thanks to people like him, I can sleep well.
I have been surrounded by many good people from my church community, the Hana Center (the local South Korean government resettlement assistance center) and my designated police officer.
It felt so good to talk freely with many people in my first language–Korean. I had lived in China for many years and when I first went there, I knew no Chinese. I struggled so much with communicating and I couldn’t talk to people freely either because of the fear of getting caught.
Now I can talk to anyone without worrying about getting caught.
I am so glad I came to South Korea. My life here is much better than my life in North Korea or China. I feel very safe and free in South Korea.
I am still learning the meaning of freedom as I experience it in this new society. I can do what I want and go where I want to go. I can go somewhere just to have fun and no one stops me.
That is freedom to me, and I am living it right now.Documentation
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Exclusion compliant
This bot is an exclusion compliant bot.
Summary
ClueBot NG is an anti-vandal bot that tries to detect and revert vandalism quickly and automatically.
Team
Christopher Breneman — Crispy1989 (talk · contribs) — wrote and maintains the core detection engine and core configuration.
contribs) — wrote and maintains the core detection engine and core configuration. Cobi Carter — Cobi (talk · contribs) — wrote and maintains the Wikipedia interface code and review interface.
Special thanks to:
Tim — Tim1357 (talk · contribs) — For writing the original dataset downloader code and providing the original dataset.
contribs) — For writing the original dataset downloader code and providing the original dataset. Methecooldude (talk · contribs) — For providing server resources at ClueNet.
contribs) — For providing server resources at ClueNet. DamianZaremba (talk · contribs), SnoFox (talk · contribs), H3llkn0wz (talk · contribs) & b930913 (talk · contribs) — For helping with minor issues, testing, and people-handling.
contribs), SnoFox (talk contribs), H3llkn0wz (talk contribs) & b930913 (talk contribs) — For helping with minor issues, testing, and people-handling. Every user who has contributed to the dataset review interface.
Everyone who has made a helpful and useful suggestion.
Questions, comments, contributions, and suggestions regarding:
the core engine, algorithms, and configuration should be directed to Crispy1989 (talk · contribs).
contribs). the bot's interface to Wikipedia and dataset review interface should be directed to Cobi (talk · contribs).
contribs). the bot's original dataset should be directed to Tim1357 (talk · contribs).
Dataset Review Interface
For the bot to be effective, the dataset needs to be expanded. Our current dataset has some degree of bias, as well as some inaccuracies. We need volunteers to help review edits and classify them as either vandalism or constructive. We hope to eventually completely replace our current dataset with a random sampling of edits, reviewed and classified by volunteers. More thorough instructions on how to use the interface, and the interface itself, are at the dataset review interface (currently broken).
Extended statistics on contributors, including edit review counts and accuracy, are available here.
For those that help with and contribute to the review interface, a user box is available for you:
Use it with: {{User:ClueBot NG/Review User Box}}
Statistics
As ClueBot NG requires a dataset to function, the dataset can also be used to give fairly accurate statistics on its accuracy and operation. Different parts of the dataset are used for training and trialing, so these statistics are not biased.
The exact statistics change and improve frequently as we update the bot. Currently:
Selecting a threshold to optimize total accuracy, the bot correctly classifies over 90% of edits.
Selecting a threshold to hold false positives at a maximal rate of 0.1% (current setting), the bot catches approximately 40% of all vandalism.
, the bot catches approximately 40% of all vandalism. Selecting a false positive rate of 0.25% (old setting), the bot catches approximately 55% of all vandalism.
Currently, the trial dataset used to generate these statistics is a random sampling of edits, each reviewed by at least two humans, so statistics are accurate.
Note: These statistics are calculated before post-processing filters. Post-processing filters primarily reduce false positive rate (ie, the actual number of false positives will be less than stated here), but can also slightly reduce catch rate.
Frequently Asked Questions
See the FAQ.
Vandalism Detection Algorithm
ClueBot NG uses a completely different method for classifying vandalism than all previous anti-vandal bots, including the original ClueBot. Previous anti-vandal bots have used a list of simple heuristics and blacklisted words to determine if an edit is vandalism. If a certain number of heuristics matched, the edit was classified as vandalism. This method results in quite a few false positives, because many of the heuristics have legitimate uses in some contexts, and only about a 5% to 10% vandalism catch rate, because most vandalism cannot be detected by these simple heuristics.
ClueBot NG uses a combination of different detection methods which use machine learning at their core. These are described below.
Machine Learning Basics
Instead of a predefined list of rules that a human generates, ClueBot NG learns what is considered vandalism automatically by examining a large list of edits which are preclassified as either constructive or vandalism. Its concept of what is considered vandalism is learned from human vandal-fighters. This list of edits is called a corpus or dataset. The accuracy of the bot largely depends on the size and quality of the dataset. If the dataset is small, contains inaccurately classified edits, or does not contain a random sampling of edits, the bot's performance is severely hampered. The best thing you and other Wikipedians can do to help the bot is to improve the dataset. If you're interested in helping out, please see the Dataset Review Interface section.
Bayesian Classifiers
A few different Bayesian classifiers are used in ClueBot NG. The most basic one works in units of words. Essentially, for each word, the number of constructive edits that add the word, and the number of vandalism edits that add the word, are counted. This is used to form a vandalism-probability for each added word in an edit. The probabilities are combined in such a way that not only words common in vandalism are used, but also words that are uncommon in vandalism can reduce the score.
This differs from a simple list of blacklisted words in that word weights are exactly determined to be optimal, and there's also a large "whitelist" of words, also with optimal weights, that contributes.
Currently, there's also a separate Bayesian classifier that works in units of 2-word phrases. We may add even more Bayesian classifiers in the future that work in different units of words, or words in different contexts.
Scores from the Bayesian classifiers alone are not used. Instead, they're fed into the neural network as simple inputs. This allows the neural network to reduce false positives due to simple blacklisted words, and to catch vandalism that adds unknown words.
Artificial Neural Network
The main component of the ClueBot NG vandalism detection algorithm is the neural network. An artificial neural network is a machine learning technique that can recognize patterns in a set of input data that are more complex than simply determining weights. The input to the ANN used in ClueBot NG is composed of a number of different statistics calculated from the edit, which include, among many other things, the results from the Bayesian classifiers. Each statistic has to be scaled to a number between zero and one before being input to the neural network.
The output of the neural network is used as the main vandalism score for ClueBot NG. As with other machine-learning techniques, the score's accuracy depends on the training dataset size and accuracy.
Threshold Calculation
The ANN generates a vandalism score between 0 and 1, where 1 is 100% sure vandalism. To classify some edits as vandalism, and some as constructive, a threshold must be applied to the score. Scores above the threshold are classified as vandalism, and scores below the threshold are classified as constructive.
The threshold is not randomly chosen by a human, but is instead calculated to match a given false positive rate. When doing actual vandalism detection, it's important to minimize false positives to a very low level. A human selects a false positive rate, which is the percentage of constructive edits incorrectly classified as vandalism. A threshold is calculated to have a false positive rate at or below this percentage, while maximizing catch rate. False positive rate is set by a human, and the bot stays at or below that false positive rate, while catching as much vandalism as possible. The false positive rate is not fixed, but is adjustable.
To make sure the threshold and statistics are accurate and do not give inaccurate statistics or a higher false positive rate than expected, the portion of the dataset used for threshold calculations is kept separate from the training set, and is not used for training. Also, only the most accurate parts of the dataset (currently, the ones that are human-reviewed from the review interface) are used for this calculation. This ensures that all statistics given here are accurate, and that false positives will not exceed the given rate.
Post-Processing Filters
After the core makes its primary vandalism determination, the data is given to the Wikipedia interface. The Wikipedia interface contains some simple logic designed to reduce false positives. Although it also reduces vandalism catch rate a small amount, it also reduces false positive rate, and some of these are mandated by Wikipedia policy.
The first two of these rarely reduce catch rate, but both prevent a fair number of false positives. Note: The false positive rate (and catch rate) are calculated in the core, before post-processing filters. This means that actual false positive rate will be less than stated false positive, often by a significant factor.
User Whitelist — If an edit made by a user that is in a whitelist is classified as vandalism, the edit is not reverted.
Edit Count — If a user has more than a threshold number of edits, and fewer than a threshold percentage of warnings, the edit is not reverted.
1RR — The same user/page combination is not reverted more than once per day, unless the page is on the angry revert list.
Development News/Status
Core Engine
Current version is working well.
Currently writing a dedicated wiki markup parser for more accurate markup-context-specific metrics. (No existing alternative parsers are complete or fast enough)
Dataset Review Interface
Code to import edits into database is finished.
Currently changing logic that determines the end result for an edit.
Dataset Status
We found that the Python dataset downloader we used to generate the training dataset does not generate data that is identical to the live downloader. It's possible that this is greatly reducing the effectiveness of the live bot. We're working on writing shared code for live downloading and dataset generation so we can regenerate the dataset.
This has been fixed and the bot retrained. It's now working much better.
Currently getting more data from the review interface.
Languages
C / C++ — The core is written in C/C++ from scratch.
PHP — The bot shell (Wikipedia interface) is written in PHP, and shares some code with the original ClueBot.
Java — The dataset review interface is written in Java using the Google App framework.
Bash — A few scripts to make it easier to train and maintain the bot are Bash scripts.
Python — Some of the original dataset management and downloader tools were written in Python.
Source Code
The source code for the bot is public, and can be found on github. Please ask the devs for access. If you would like to run the bot for yourself on your own wiki, you should discuss with the devs all the factors involved in making it work properly. You should also be aware that it will only run on a Linux/UNIX system, and the source code can be rather difficult to compile (many dependencies) unless you're experienced with Linux/UNIX systems.
ClueBot NG IRC Feeds
ClueBot NG maintains an IRC-based feed of its data, primary intended for use by other automated tools, located at #wikipedia-en-cbngfeed on the freenode network. It is essentially a copy of the Wikipedia RC feed, but with ClueBot NG's analysis data added. It includes everything the Wikipedia RC feed does, with the addition of the ClueBot NG score and whether it was reverted or not. Format is edit line \003 # score # reason # Reverted or Not reverted.
Note that edits in the feed may not necessarily be in precise order, because ClueBot NG processes them in parallel. Non-reverted edits are usually |
uch, Andruw Jones, Kevin Brown, and Kenny Rogers.
And now with my company Pivot Management Partners — which provides recruiting and talent management services to clients in the sports, legal and technology fields — I have noticed several important parallels.
Salary arbitration is a regimented, established process for deciding a player's monetary compensation for the coming season that is, of course, unique to baseball. The main difference from regular workplace reviews is that an independent third-party makes the final, binding decision on compensation. Another big difference is that most workers don't approach their performance reviews with the same sophisticated, advance preparation that baseball players bring to arbitration.
But they should.
While some workplaces have more regimented performance review systems than others, every review meeting is an opportunity to make your best arguments about your work and how you should be compensated.
Here are a few key takeaways from my experience working on baseball salary arbitration hearings that all employees should use in their own performance reviews:
1. Know your stats
One of the beautiful things about baseball is its rich history of data: home runs, RBIs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, ERA, saves, and so on.
In salary arbitration, each side marshals these statistics in voluminous exhibit books - tied together in a short written brief - to support its case. Both sides advocate for the salary they think is appropriate based on the player's performance and salary compared to those of other major league players.
One of your most important responsibilities as an employee is to know how your performance will be judged. If you are an investment banker, is your key metric the number of deals you have advised on or total deal volume, or both? How is each weighted? If you are a reporter, is the number of stories more important than page views? Are page views more important than shares of your stories?
Luckily, digital technology is making it easier to track performance for many jobs in many industries. But if hard data isn't available, record your own accomplishments, experiences, and improvements throughout the year and bring to your review whatever comparables you can summon to support your position.
2. Emphasize your long term value
Two of the more interesting salary arbitration hearings I worked on were the cases against Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. The hearings were in February 1999, after the Yankees had just won their second World Series Championship in three seasons (and just before they went on to win another two in a row). We lost both cases.
We went into arbitration knowing that both players were indisputably great, one-of-a-kind stars who had contributed to the Yankees success well beyond their respective $750,000 salaries.
But their salary demands were unprecedented and far outside of Major League Baseball's established salary structure. Jeter sought a raise to $5 million for one year; Rivera wanted $4.25 million. We made the case that the players were overreaching at this relatively early stage of their careers and that the club's offer to raise their salaries by four times compensated them amply.
Both players were exceptionally modest, polite, and respectful in the hearing room, which made good impressions on everyone. But what stood out to me was a subtle, non-verbal cue they used to emphasize their value to their employer.
Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman proudly wore his World Series ring, and he was right to be proud of his team's accomplishment. Neither player, however, had on his ring.
I can still see the arbitrator in Jeter's case look at Cashman's ring as he sat down and then turn his head to see Jeter's bare hand. The same thing happened in Rivera's hearing.
The subtle message was that these stars were not hanging their hats on that one championship season. They did not communicate their value in a way that was tied to that season, but in a larger, forward-looking way, as if their best years were yet to come. This was something both players delivered on, contributing memorably to the Yankees' successes over the rest of their storied careers.
The lesson here is that emphasizing your long-term value in the right way is often more powerful than making demands.
3. Play hard, play nice
It is not easy for baseball executives to balance arguing down the financial worth of a star player with the need to maintain that player's motivation and self-confidence.
Salary arbitrations, by definition, let players know exactly how much their boss thinks they're worth. And it can be a powerfully negative charge to a player's psyche if he comes out on the losing end.
In the same way, employees (and their managers) should not get so caught up in winning their argument that they harm the working relationship. Both sides need to remember that they still have to work together after these meetings. It is best for all parties to approach performance and compensation meetings with the view that they are just one part of a long relationship.
You need to remember that, as members of a larger organization, you are building an overall body of work and career progression that is more important than any short-term payoff.
All performance-based discussions in the workplace - formal reviews, informal feedback, or that meeting where you ask for a raise - are important opportunities to emphasize your achievements and improvements, so be as prepared as you can.
Because you often have just one chance to make your case with little time - much like the strict confines of the salary arbitration room - it is best to distill your pitch to its most salient points. And it doesn't pay to overreach or resurrect and argue every little point from the year. Before your meeting, rehearse your pitch with your spouse or a trusted friend or colleague. Success, as any athlete will tell you, is 99% practice and preparation.
In the end, if it doesn't go your way, you should go out and prove yourself "on the field," as they do in baseball. Demonstrating your talent, in sports and in business, is far more persuasive than anything else.
Scott Gilly, Founder and CEO of Pivot Management Partners and DirectDep LLC, participated in salary arbitrations on behalf of Major League Baseball clubs while a lawyer at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.By Elisinio Castillo, Pablo Fletes/Notifight.com
According to former champion Rosendo Alvarez, Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga (31-9-1, 25KOs) will return to the ring as part of a card being staged on February 18th in Managua, Nicaragua.
The card is being promoted by Alvarez's promotional company, Bufalo Boxing Promotions. Mayorga has been out of the ring since last August, when he was knocked out by Shane Mosley in the rematch which took place at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Last month, the former two division champion was attacked at a gas station in Nicaragua. He's looking for one more major - fight and recently called for clash with UFC champion Conor McGregor.
Mayorga, 44-years-old, wants to match his skills against McGregor, who made an unexpected move by obtaining a boxing license in the state of California.
Since 2015, McGregor has discussed the idea of showcasing his skills in a boxing ring, especially in a potential a fight with retired former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"McGregor, I admit that he's has been very good at mixed martial arts, but in boxing he is making mistakes... As soon as I grab him, I'm going to break him down, I'm going to disintegrate him," Mayorga said.
"If you are looking for me, you will find me. I have not fought, as they say, with [scrubs and journeymen], with a ghost record like [McGregor] has. But if he wants to fight and he's looking for me - he's going to find me. Let him tell me when he wants us to fight and where he wants to do it."
"In boxing, when we step in the ring - he's going to know that I'm a man and he's a woman. McGregor is wide open when he fights... I'm going to lower his jaw to his navel, so he learns to fear me and shows respect."
"I'm going to exterminate that clown fast. He's going to be very sorry, because in the sport of boxing he is not on my level. I do not feel old or defeated. I know I can play with that bearded man... and I'll send him back to Mixed Martial Arts and that's where he should be."Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer discover “fireworks jihad”
by Sheila Musaji
Some individuals like Pamela Geller are so anxious to find anything at all that is negative about Islam or Muslims that they are willing to pass on any unsubstantiated rumor from anywhere as “proof” that Muslims are evil. Geller’s professed “love” for Muslims is expressed as pathological hatred.
Geller posted an article Sharia in Colorado: Special accommodations for a special class, Muslims. She said
Once again we see special rules for Muslims in accordance with the sharia and Islamic supremacism. Anywhere American law and Islamic law conflict, it is American law that has to give way. Check this out from Atlas reader Chris: Very few are talking about it here in Denver Colorado. American citizens were banned from celebrating our national birthday the Fourth of July. Fireworks were and are still banned unless it was to celebrate the end of Ramadan. I have asked several police officers what the huge fireworks show was and they replied that it was the local Islamic center celebrating. I then asked if the statewide ban on fireworks was still in effect and they said yes. So logically I asked did they have a permit for such a large display. The answer was no and that the police were not to respond to calls about it.
Robert Spencer (the self proclaimed “acclaimed scholar of Islam”) posted the same article with the same dubious source with the longer title Sharia in action in Colorado: Muslims set off fireworks in defiance of ban, police told to ignore complaints and the introduction “A statewide ban on fireworks is not a statewide ban on fireworks when Muslims are setting them off. To enforce the ban would be “Islamophobic,” doncha know.”
Actually, no one is talking about it except Geller and the sites that picked up this non-story from her. The only source for the story is some guy named Chris who posted a comment on her site.
If she had done just a little fact checking, she would have discovered first, that no one else other than her reader, Chris, had reported on this supposed story, and also that on July 9th Gov. John Hickenlooper had lifted the Colorado fire ban and more than 60 Colorado counties moved to moderate to low fire danger.
UPDATE
This is the first time that I have seen Geller issue any sort of an update on her false claims. She has added an update to her original article stating
UPDATE: On July 8, Colorado Governor John W. Hickenlooper issued an executive order that actually did lift the statewide fireworks ban: “I hereby rescind Executive Order D 2012-015. This Executive Order rescinds the state-wide ban on open burning, including campfires, warming fires, charcoal grill fires, fused explosives, and FIREWORKS.” See it here. He had issued the ban in an earlier executive order on June 14. This meant that Coloradans could not shoot off fireworks on July 4, but Muslims could at the end of Ramadan. And why did the police officers below not know that the ban had been lifted? Was it their malfeasance, or was the lifting of the ban not publicized for some reason, except to special groups?
At least she acknowledged that the ban had been lifted. But she still insists on believing that the commentor Chris’ has his facts straight, and such an incident happened at all.
SEE ALSO:
Geller, Spencer, and the rest of the Islamophobia echo chamber are stark raving mad! They see Jihad everywhere and in almost all cases it doesn’t exist except in their fevered Islamophobic brains. Here are just a few ridiculous claims about nonsensical Muslim plots:
There is a reason that many, even outside of the Muslim community see such demonization of Muslims as Islamophobic. There is a reason that the ADL has stated that Brigitte Gabriel’s Act for America, Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer’s Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), David Yerushalmi’s Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE) are “groups that promote an extreme anti-Muslim agenda”. There is a reason that The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated SIOA as a hate group, and that they are featured in the SPLC reports Jihad Against Islam and The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle. There is a reason that Geller and Spencer are featured prominently in the Center for American Progress “Fear Inc.” report on the Islamophobia network in America. There is a reason that Geller is featured in the People for the American Way Right Wing Playbook on Anti-Muslim Extremism. There is a reason that Geller is featured in the NYCLU report Religious Freedom Under Attack: The Rise of Anti-Mosque Activities in New York State. There is a reason that Geller is featured in the Political Research Associates report Manufacturing the Muslim menace: Private firms, public servants, and the threat to rights and security. There is a reason that the SIOA’s trademark patent was denied by the U.S. government due to its anti-Muslim nature. There is a reason that they are featured (with extensive backgrounder articles) in our TAM Who’s Who of the Anti-Muslim/Anti-Arab/Islamophobia Industry. There is a reason that these individuals are featured in just about every legitimate report on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.
These people consistently promote the what everyone “knows” lies about Islam and Muslims. They generalize specific incidents to reflect on all Muslims or all of Islam. When they are caught in the act of making up or distorting claims they engage in devious methods to attempt to conceal the evidence.
The claim that “truth tellers” are being accused of Islamophobia for no reason other than their legitimate concerns about real issues and that in fact there is not even such a thing as Islamophobia is nonsense.
The reason that this is so obvious to so many is that rational people can tell the difference between legitimate concerns and bigoted stereotypes. The Islamophobia of these folks is very real, and it is also strikingly similar to a previous generations’ anti-Semitism.Richard Svinkin is co-founder and COO at bitcoin remittance service Freemit, and a former UX lead for Kodak and Merck.
In this opinion piece, Svinkin argues that the bitcoin industry’s attempts to revamp the technology’s user experience have so far been misguided, and that they may have obscured the true value of the technology.
The bitcoin market cap is hovering around $10bn, investment in bitcoin and blockchain startups is staggering and everyone wants in on the game, from newly-minted entrepreneurs to banks.
But there’s a problem. All the focus and energy is going into determining the right way to rebuild the global financial infrastructure. In the rush to take down banking, and be more like bankers in the process, the core mission of the bitcoin project seems to have been left behind.
Many startups have tried selling bitcoin to the masses as an alternative to fiat currency, and they’ve largely failed, pivoting to infrastructure or trying to redefine bitcoin.
Now, we’ll see some of the usual suspects try to sell it to Wall Street as an investment product – an asset class. This is already true in places like China but, as we well know, the entire bitcoin project was envisioned, designed, built and released as a peer-to-peer value exchange system. It wasn’t supposed to be a standalone asset class or a messaging system for banks.
Meanwhile, the original tokens, the bitcoins themselves, are increasing in value again.
But the industry, eyes large with impressing bankers and avoiding regulators wrath, knowingly or not, designed access to bitcoin for specific audiences while trying to stay true to a very specific political vision of how bitcoin must be used and by whom.
Using bitcoin means clunky QR codes, weird wallets and addresses, price volatility and confusion. The recent ethereum DAO “contract hack” will of course throw shade on all crypto as Mt Gox is still fresh in collective memory. But we’ve seen disaster after disaster and somehow the value of bitcoin has survived, thrived, and steadily risen year-over-year since inception.
The adoption question
Ultimately, bitcoin is winning. So, the question remains, are we on the verge of mass consumer adoption but just in a slightly different way than we imagined?
Xapo CEO Wences Casares and many other really smart people have their own distillation of this thing – “bitcoin is the best form of money ever invented“. That might be true. But, it also might just be the best store of value ever invented, a true form of “digital gold” as Nathaniel Popper holds.
Think about gold for a second. Gold is portable, hard to counterfeit, impossible to “double spend”. It takes effort to mine, and it looks good. Gold has historically been the best store of value ever used and in many ways it still is. But, bitcoin has nearly all these properties and one more. While you can’t wear it, you also can’t just rip it off my neck or wrist and run.
In fact, if someone manages the digital equivalent of a chain snatching the whole network falls apart, destroying the very value that drives the urge to steal it in the first place.
So, why haven’t tens of millions of people with Internet connected devices bought a nugget or a dash of it? Why hasn’t the world at large tried putting $10 into it? People buy other volatile things. They buy the aforementioned precious metals.
They buy gold and silver that’s fashioned into fashionable things and wear it. It’s a status symbol. It has visual meaning. You can touch it. We all agree it has value. It’s value goes up and down based on global markets.
People buy stocks and bonds that don’t have a physical representation. They obsessively check their portfolios all over the world. And they gamble. Billions of people have thrown much, much more into a slot machine or on the floor for a roll of the dice.
Bitcoin is arguably safer than all of these things yet it still hasn’t reached mass adoption. Why? What’s holding it back?
Looks matter
I think user experience is playing a bigger role than we think.
Sixteen years ago, I started my career at an innovative boutique design agency called OVEN Digital, as the director of UX and that was where and when I made my bones in this business.
OVEN, before I joined, made a reputation for building the first web site for MOMA and beat 40 other agencies to get one of the most coveted e-commerce agency jobs to that point – Tiffany & Co. The website cost quite a lot to build. No one believed that you could sell jewelry on a website.
But, as we discovered and our leadership loved to brag – the site paid for itself in 6 weeks. It did so for a variety of reasons, but our graphic designers and rich media teams were amazing, better at UX than I’ll ever be because they knew that when you have great products you crank up the white space, show nice photos and get out of the way.
Funny, in 16 years the UI and aesthetic of Tiffany.com really hasn’t changed that much:
Now take a look at BTC-e, one of the highest volume bitcoin and crypto exchanges in the world.
It looks like the Bloomberg terminal’s younger, less with-it brother. Also a massively successful product, but the UX is all about trading. It’s all about feeling like a Wall Street product, it’s for traders and speculators and wannabes.
Then, if you go inside Coinbase, it’s clean, sure, but again it’s faceless. It feels like I just walked into a bank.
All the safeguards and the delays in deposits, trade execution, withdrawals, etc are akin to the huge stone edifices of old bank branches and bars on the teller windows that say, “I’ve got the power, you should feel so lucky your money is here”.
And given the big slip-ups in the early days of bitcoin, that’s a natural reaction, it’s human nature to want my money or my “valuables” in a safety deposit box that curls up like a porcupine. But, we already give money, paper, e-cash, etc, value. We give stocks and bonds value.
We know because we see everyone else use it and we can track our stocks in our IRAs on a website or on CNBC.
Reaching utopia
People, regular people, haven’t joined the speculative gamble or fun of bitcoin because we in the industry have violated one of the most basic user experience principles – “Don’t make me think.”
If a product is good enough it sells itself.
Sure we’re hampered by regulation, but more than that we’re too much in a rush to merge proof-of-stake with proof-of-work and make cross-border trading insurance products work.
We may have created a layer of anxiety that’s covering how great the actual product really is.
We’re in too much of a rush to usher in a utopian financial era that we forgot to take a breath, stop, look at what’s there and appreciate what an amazing thing bitcoin is. If we did, we might figure out how to sell it. And if we figure out how to sell it we might be able to bring about the utopian vision we all so secretly want.
I’m not saying we need a physical object or a mascot. I am saying that we can do better.
Wallet to wallet transaction UX is ridiculous for micropayments. All the decimal places make no sense to even smarter-than-average and more-tolerant-than-average people. We can make it much more accessible.
Even with all the KYC/AML and the onboarding nightmare users have with exchanges – when we want something, we fight through stuff like that to get it. Every product has constraints. Every app requires some kind of registration and onboarding.
Venmo sure does, but it took off because it solved a problem that humans have and people have no trouble going through the steps to sign up, link a bank account and wait days to deposit and withdraw money from it. There’s a big UX Problem with the exchanges and the wallets. We can solve it.
We can absolutely do better if we try new approaches on the front end. And these approaches can absolutely stay true to the mission of the community but there will be some trade offs. But it’s worth it if we get millions of new users.
We need a “Jobs” to go with all our Wozniaks. Bitcoin is way too cool and amazing for us to hide it’s full value.
Dirty stove image via ShutterstockThere’s a new game on Steam called Fight of Gods that’s like a version of Mortal Kombat in which you play as Zeus, Odin, Jesus, etc. (May the best God win.)
As someone who doesn’t really do video games, it seems entertaining. Jesus even defends himself by (literally) turning the other cheek.
I'm sure someone has already posted this but I'm kinda losing my shit over Jesus' counter move in Fight of Gods. pic.twitter.com/r0TZs5tQs0 — Ian Walker (@iantothemax) September 6, 2017
But all of this is apparently too blasphemous for Muslim-majority Malaysia. (Even though Muhammad is not a character in the game.)
The nation’s Communications and Multimedia Commission just banned access to all of Steam because this particular game might be too offensive to some. The MCMC initially requested that “Fight of Gods” be blocked, but the censorship has now extended to the rest of the site.
The commission has contacted Valve [the company behind Steam] and requested that the game be geoblocked for Malaysians within 24 hours. … Communications and Multimedia minister Dr Salleh Said Keruak has said that failure to comply with the request would result in further action being taken. He also said that the Taiwanese game degraded religions and threatened racial harmony within Malaysia. Salleh also clarified that creating and spreading offensive content is an offence under section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The game is not promoting any religious agenda and is not designed to offend. The description of the game on the digital platforms through which it is distributed provide clear guidance on the nature of the game and its content so that people can freely choose whether or not to play it. We fully respect the choice of those who would not wish to play it. We are disappointed that such freedom of choice is not given to everyone and in particular that the game has been forcibly removed from sale in Malaysia, although no direct communication has been received by us as to the reasons for this. Nevertheless we respect any rules and censorship imposed in any given territory.
The game’s publisher, PQube, released a statement saying they would work with Steam to resolve this ASAP.
It would be a shame if Steam punished the makers of this game by removing access to it altogether. They haven’t announced how they’ll handle this.
In the meantime, this is just the latest example of the Malaysian government going way too far in protecting religious sensibilities. Just last month, after a picture of atheists went viral, Malaysian officials said they would punish any ex-Muslims who appeared in the image. The Inspector-General of Police also said atheists had to stop causing “uneasiness” among Muslims in the country, as if their mere existence was too much for some believers.
Whenever the creators update the game, they should throw in a new character embodying the Malaysian government that always loses. Let the gods practice their skills that way.
(Thanks to Philip for the link)Following a Global News investigation looking into problems with Canada’s immigration system, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has reopened the case of Jon and Karissa Warkentin – a family from Waterhen, Manitoba – whose application for permanent residency was denied because their six-year-old daughter, Karalynn, has developmental delay.
The decision to reopen the family’s case comes after more than a month of back and forth between the Department of Justice, which represents Immigration Canada in legal matters, and the family’s lawyer, Alastair Clarke.
WATCH: Family in ‘shock’ after permanent residency denied by Immigration Canada due to daughter’s disability
Clarke said the decision by Immigration Canada to overturn its earlier ruling – which would have seen the Warkentins and their four children sent back to the United States once their temporary working visas expire in November – is a direct result of public pressure and attention placed upon the government following Global News’ in-depth look into the family’s situation.
“We received notification today from [Immigration Canada] that they have reversed their decision and reopened the Warkentin application,” said Clarke, who argued the government overlooked important information and relied on unfounded medical diagnoses when initially denying the family’s application. “We have been working on this file for a long time and thank you to Global News for all the coverage in addition to all the public support.”
Family feels renewed sense of hope
Jon and Karissa said Wednesday they were overwhelmed with emotion after hearing that Immigration Canada would reopen their case.
“We are very, very relieved and excited,” Karissa said, adding that she hasn’t yet told her children who are in school. “It gives us a renewed sense of hope that this is going to work and we are going to be able to stay.”
“It’s just been a test of our perseverance, our patience and our determination,” she said.
WATCH: Canada rejects hundreds of immigrants based on incomplete data, Global News investigation finds
Karissa said her family was stunned by the “outpouring of compassion and concern” expressed by Canadians from across the country when Global News first profiled their story. She says the experience has been filled with ups and downs, but knowing so many people cared about their situation made them feel much better.
“It really renews your faith in humanity,” Karissa said. “People that we have never met before. And their willingness to say, ‘This isn’t right and what can I do to help and who do I contact?’”
Parents of five children, Jon and Karissa say they’ll now focus on resubmitting the necessary information on their daughter’s medical condition with the hope the government will then allow them to stay.
READ MORE: Immigration Canada ‘breaking the law,’ when denying some disabled applicants, say legal experts
They also hope Immigration Canada changes the way it reviews cases involving children with disabilities.
“It’s a victory and it’s very exciting, but it doesn’t mean it’s over,” said Karissa. “The government needs to understand how much it’s made people question the authenticity of the [public perception] that we are a welcoming country.”
Clarke, meanwhile, says the family will travel to Winnipeg where they’ll work with a pediatrician to complete the forms and ensure their application is a success.
“This was the right decision. This was the decision that they should have made earlier,” he said. “The family has unfortunately been through quite a stressful experience, but this is definitely the right decision.”About Rasta Vapors
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Happiness studies, a fairly new field, comprises academic disciplines as diverse as positive psychology, neuroscience, positive organizational scholarship and behavioral economics. Hundreds of researchers in some of the world’s top universities, such as Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan’s Ross School of Business, are working in this area.
Their findings — that optimism increases life satisfaction and creates positive business outcomes, that strong human relationships have a direct impact on the quality and length of life, and that developing strengths is more powerful than trying to fix weaknesses — are being applied in the military, health care, education and the highest reaches of several governments. Happiness studies, broadly defined, even won psychologist Daniel Kahneman a Nobel Prize in economics.
In business, while no one has shown a direct correlation between happiness and stock price, “[There] is a lot of compelling evidence — across industries, continents, sectors, that positive practices pay off,” said Kim Cameron, a positive organizational scholar at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “Companies make more money, they are more productive, they produce higher quality, higher customer satisfaction and higher employee engagement” when they focus on positive practices.
Strengths, Strengths and More Strengths
Mainstream happiness studies in the workplace typically focus on strengths. Work in this realm from The Gallup Organization, which is chronicled in StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, head of Gallup Consulting, is well known.
Typically, performance management has been about identifying employee weakness, as is often done in annual performance reviews. Gallup has turned this approach on its head, surveying more than a million workers during the last four decades about their jobs and how often they use their greatest strengths at work. Those who work in environments where they use their strengths daily are “50 percent more likely to work in business units with lower employee turnover, 38 percent more likely to work in more productive business units and 44 percent more likely to work in business units with higher customer satisfaction scores,” write Donald O. Clifton and Marcus Buckingham in Now, Discover Your Strengths. The Gallup annals are filled with success stories of how a strengths approach improves work outcomes in large businesses such as Toyota North America.
For instance, Westin Hotels has used a strengths-based approach to drive engagement at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa, a historic resort situated among the moss-shrouded wetlands of the Georgia coast. Working in 2010 with consultants trained in a process called “appreciative inquiry,” a team-based approach to discovering and building upon strengths as opposed to fixing problems, all front-of-house associates took a survey to get a rank order of their individual character strengths. Then, working from this strengths platform, they created new and innovative ways to interact as a team and serve their guests. Today, the resort is experiencing improved leadership, engagement and guest satisfaction scores.
General Manager Mark Spadoni is sold on a strengths-based approach. “We just seem to be better focused when we orient to the positive and when we are grateful for what we have versus what we do not have or what we are doing wrong.”
Strengths in Assessment
If strengths alignment at work is important, it makes sense to include strengths assessment during the hiring process.
Lisa Dzintars-Pahwul, a managing director in talent acquisition at New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Euronext, is leading a pilot project to assess applicants partly on character strengths that don’t always show up during a skills-based interview — things such as truth, honesty, collegiality and respect for others. The belief is that by considering the right soft skills in addition to technical and business skills during the hiring process, NYSE Euronext will end up with more engaged and productive employees. To measure these, the company has teamed with consultants trained in positive psychology to develop an employee assessment tool based on applicants’ psychological and character strengths.
“We know that employees are happiest when they can use their personality and character strengths — whatever they are — in their jobs,” said Dzintars-Pahwul, who holds a master’s in organizational psychology from Columbia University.
So far, she said the results are promising. Partnering directly with line management, the talent acquisition team uses an assessment tool to customize a strengths profile for each position being sourced. Once an applicant for that position completes the assessment, behavioral interviews are conducted to get information beyond technical and business experience and the candidate’s background.
“It’s a home run,” Dzintars-Pahwul said. By using a scientifically sound strengths-based approach, the company is able to make better, more informed hiring decisions.
Teaching Resilience
There is more to the science of happiness than just strengths. During the past two years, the biggest adopter of a wide range of positive psychology techniques has been the United States Army.
In response to increased incidents of mental and emotional distress among troops facing repeated deployment, the Army started working with positive psychologists from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 to teach “mental toughness” skills to the 1.1 million men and women in uniform. Central among these skills is resilience.
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity. The Army training consists of modules conducted by Penn-trained Army and civilian facilitators to improve skills such as managing emotions and challenging pessimistic thinking processes. Psychologist Martin Seligman, one of the driving forces behind the Penn-Army effort, said the training has direct applicability in the business world. “We believe that businesspeople can draw lessons from this approach, particularly in times of stress or stagnation.”
Freddie Mac employees have seen their share of stress. The mortgage company had a near-death experience during the recent real estate meltdown. “There is so much emphasis on what we do wrong, from media or audits or Congress hearings, there is so much emphasis around what’s broken, we felt like people were losing sight of the positive and how much value they are bringing to their job and to the organization,” said Michele Lockwood, director of talent development at Freddie Mac.
To counter this, and frustrated with the usual change management menu of resources, the company conducted a series of resilience workshops during 2010-11 based on the positive psychological principles underlying the Army training. “Change is constant,” Lockwood said. “We needed to teach new skills that will help employees learn to operate in a state of continual change and an uncertain future, not just one past or future event.” Resilience training does that, teaches employees empirically proven techniques to fight overly pessimistic thinking and how to better regulate emotions.
Freddie Mac has seen the effectiveness of these programs and other positive psychology-related workshops based on follow-up surveys. For instance, 92 percent of attendees agreed or strongly agreed that they could use the knowledge and skills presented during the courses in their job; 84 percent agreed or strongly agreed that they would be more effective in their role as a result of what they learned; and 93 percent of participants said they would recommend the course to others (Editor’s note: co-author Shannon Polly has worked with both Freddie Mac and Westin Hotels).
Positive Psychology Down Under
In 2010, when executives at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Australia explained to the company’s 6,200 auditors, tax advisers and business consultants that client research revealed their technical excellence alone was no longer enough to ensure value to their clients, leaders were met with skepticism.
The firm had been experimenting with the practices of positive psychology within its diversity programs with good results. Michelle McQuaid, executive director of human capital for PwC in Australia, said she decided to apply some of these techniques — mostly those focused on identifying and amplifying core organizational strengths and customer relationships based on the Appreciative Inquiry model — in a comprehensive program to help improve customer relationships.
Results are promising, and the skeptics have bought in:
• Brand health measurements improved across the country, placing PwC as the first or second preferred provider in every Australian state.
• Employees report the program is helping them strengthen and deepen relationships with clients at levels beyond targeted goals for the initiative.
• PwC was named the leading professional services firm, the best consulting firm and the market leader for 2010 in national client service awards.
It is time to stop talking in terms of soft and hard skills as though only the latter are important. Further, talent managers should not treat initiatives to improve employee well-being as luxuries. Research data and the aforementioned examples of practical application indicate that happiness can move the business needle. Data to establish stronger links with financial metrics is forthcoming.
More research is needed, but happiness does drive business results. To capitalize on this fact organizations should:
• Teach new thinking skills to prepare for future challenges and change.
• Change focus from fixing problems to building strengths.
• Rely on empirically proven methods to increase employee happiness.
Dan Bowling is a senior lecturing fellow at Duke Law School and managing principal at Positive Workplace Solutions LLC. Shannon Polly leads human resources consulting firm Accentuate Consulting. They can be reached at editor@talentmgt.com.
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Happiness at work can drive business results, within reason. Talent Management blogger Dan Bowling explains here.Sus |
Raiden ordered while sitting on the throne. The situation was like a wolf had opened its mouth and ran up to the tiger to be killed. The remaining Hermes Alliance users ran towards Ark and Dark Eden. Nearly 100 Hermes Alliance members were still alive. On the other hand, Ark and Dark Eden only had 45 people. And more than half were artillerymen. It wasn’t a situation where he could fight and win.
‘I have to save the NPCs!’
“Raiden! As a knight you would dare to do such a dirty thing……..!”
Cross couldn’t stand it anymore and lifted his sword. However, Ark grabbed Cross’ collar and ran out.
“Dark Eden, retreat at once!”
Ark exited from the Hall of Glory with Dark Eden. After the 20 minutes were over, everyone except for the Hermes Alliance who had occupied the throne would be expelled from the castle. It was regrettable but at least he could still save the NPCs. However once Ark was considered as an enemy, Raiden wanted to completely exterminate him. Raiden ordered the 100 users to chase Ark. So when he rounded the corner towards the stairs, he was faced with dozens of Hermes Alliance users coming from downstairs.
“Damn, these guys are such dirty bastards……!”
“Sir Cross, please understand the situation!”
Ark angrily pulled Cross with him and entered the next room. It was a room that had crumbled a little bit from the previous fights!
‘This is it. They can survive 20 minutes here!’
“Pick up the piles of debris and build a barrier in front of the door!”
“What? But it won’t survive more than a few minutes!”
“I don’t have the time to explain! Please do as I say!”
When Ark raised his voice, the members of Dark Eden hurriedly scraped the wreckage and built a barrier. It was a shabby barrier that would collapse when hit by a mace two or three times. But Ark had a magic item that would make it stronger than the castle wall. He pulled out a big tube from his bag. It was the Spirit Body Glue that would stay stuck once attached.
‘The last one……it is valuable but I can’t lose all the NPCs here in vain!’
Ark bombarded the barrier with the Spirit Body Glue.
-Ooh eh eh eh, I’m out! -Attach to everything!
The babbling of the Spirit Body Glue was annoying but it was effective. Even if it was hit by the Hermes Alliance, it would not move an inch.
‘Now I can rest assured. But……..’
Once their safety was secured he didn’t both pushing down the anger.
‘Did I really come all the way here just to be betrayed? Even though I have dethroned Alan so I can release Sid……..”
“Huk huk huk, Master! What is going on?”
Dedric had sneaked out of the Hall of Glory by flying through the window. At that moment, a large number of ideas went through Ark’s head. He could change the crisis into an opportunity! Ark suddenly stuck his body to the window.
‘Okay it is worth a try. Even if I fail, it is better to die then leave it like this!”
Ark leaned his body out the window and shouted to Dedric.
“Dedric, there is no time. Quickly suck my blood.”
“Eh eh? What, what the? Master, are you crazy? Was your head hit a little bit too hard?”
“There is no time for your chatter. Shut up and suck it quickly!”
“You really want me to do it? I won’t be scolded later?”
“If you say one more word then I’ll make tempura out of you!”
“Ah, I understand. Then……I’ll eat well…….”
Dedric was shocked by Ark’s threat and extended his fangs. He felt like something was being sucked out……..but it still wasn’t enough.
“No, that’s no it. Suck again!”
Dozens of times…….Dedric happily sucked the blood. Then he heard dozens of footsteps and banging against the barrier. The barrier swayed with every hit. At that moment, a message window flashed in front of Ark.
‘I got it!’
“Hahaha, delicious. Master’s blood is so delicious!”
“That’s enough, stop sucking.”
Ark struck Dedric who jumped back. Then he felt a sense of dizziness. However, Ark clenched his teeth and clung to the window.
“Now there’s only 10 minutes left. Please hold on until then!”
“What? What are you doing……..eh? Ark!”
Jjak-tung looked bewildered until he suddenly screamed. Ark had climbed out the window. Of course he didn’t want to commit suicide. Ark began to move sideways on the ledge outside. Under her foot were distant cliffs. It was enough to give someone anaemia. However, Ark had used his strength to climb up the body of Colossus in order to obtain the Sacred Soil. He moved his body carefully and eventually arrived at his destination. It was the windows in the Hall of Glory that Alan had fallen out of. Ark used ‘Stealth’ to enter the Hall of Glory.
“I’ve finally got my hands on Silvana.”
“Congratulations.”
“With Dark Eden gone the proceeds will be distributed as promised.”
“Of course.”
Raiden was convinced of his victory and lowered his guard. He never imagined that Ark would use ‘Stealth’ to sneak into the Hall of Glory.
‘The biggest hurdle in the plan is the magician Jewel. I’ll have to dispose of Jewel first!’
Ark took out a sword from his bag and approached Jewel.
“Blade Storm!”
“Kuaaak, what, what the?”
Thanks to ‘Stealth,’ the storm even applied a backstab effect! Extravagant damage was applied and Jewel’s health quickly went down to 50%. Jewel had rare armour with high defense or else normal magicians would’ve had their health decreased by 80%. Jewel stumbled in surprise. At the same time his ‘stealth’ was deactivated and warriors flocked in the room.
“Ugh, this, this guy……!”
“You’re back? You came back just to die!”
‘I don’t have to deal with those other guys!’
His health decreased from the attacks flying from everywhere. Ark avoided the offensive of the soldiers using Dark Dance and shouted.
“Dirty scum, I’ll beep-beep to guys like you!”
-‘Intimidation’ has triggered a critical effect!
He had cursed using all his sincerity. In addition, all of the users here were extremely tired after fighting for 24 hours. Then they received ‘Intimidation’ just as they were convinced of victory so it was natural that there would be a critical effect. ‘Intimidation’ was a skill that was influence by the conditions of the opponent. 100 warriors froze up at once.
“Jewel, I’ll kill you!”
Ark immediately used Blade Storm again. Jewel’s health fell to 30%. Jewel quickly chanted a spell. That was the moment Ark was aiming for. He waited for the opponent to move first and then used Riposte! Jewel failed the spell and was thrown back by Ark’s counterattack.
“Ugh, this, unbelievable……..!”
Jewel had collapsed to the ground before trying to raise her body…….No that was exactly what Ark had aimed for…….the place where Jewel got up was in front of the room where Dark Eden was hiding. The Dark Eden members had already received a command from Ark and aimed their cannons through a gap in the stone before firing simultaneously. A dozen round of ammunition! Jewel was shrouded in white steam and collapsed.
‘I did it!’
Ark turned around after he was sure that Jewel died. But Raiden just laughed and murmured.
“You’re certainly not normal. But what will killing Jewel do? Do you think you can kill the remaining 100 people in 10 minutes?”
“Let’s see?”
Ark said and laughed.
“I’m certain of one thing.”
“……….?”
“The person who makes me his enemy will end up regretting it!”
“Cheeky, kill him!”
Raiden shouted at the 100 users who gathered and brandished his weapons.
“Blessing of the sea!”
A light was emitted from Adelaine’s Necklace as Blessing of the Sea was activated. Was he calling an enormous summon? The Hermes Alliance flinched and tensed up. But the light disappeared after restoring 500 mana and increasing his defense by 40%.
“What the? It just raised the defense?”
“Are you really going to fight with us?”
“That wouldn’t be bad. Dark Dance!”
After Ark recovered his mana he immediately used Dark Dance. At the same time, a gust of wind passed through the 100 warriors. Once he used Dark Dance, it was inevitable that he would appear like a ghost. However Ark wasn’t planning to fight with them. He only avoided the attacks and by the time he reached Raiden, the percentage of completion was 80%. When the percentage of completion rose, his body disappeared like smoke.
He avoided the attacks with millimetres of difference. But the attacks from the 100 people also weren’t a joke. Although he avoided most of the attacks, by the time he reached Raiden his health had decreased by 70%.
“Hut!”
Raiden flinched as Ark appeared in front of him like a ghost and drew his mace. But Ark had already started attacking. His ensuring spin kick hit Raiden in the temple. Raiden fell to the ground with his mace.
“Ugh, this child……..until the end…………!”
Ark shot Raiden a look of disdain.
“I never thought I would die but thanks anyway.”
“What?”
“Thanks to the betrayal from the Hermes Alliance, Dark Eden became a separate attack group.”
“What is that……?”
“You’re more stupid then I thought Raiden. Don’t you understand yet? As the 6th in command, I didn’t have the right to sit on the throne. But now I’m the group leader of a 3rd force.”
“What you’re saying is nonsense……..!”
“Would you like to confirm if it’s nonsense?”
Ark smiled and sat down on the throne.
Dark Eden’s attack captain Ark has sat down on the Throne. If he manages to defend the throne until the siege ends then the right of a Lord will be granted. Time remaining in the siege: 5 min.
Raiden let out an astounded laugh.
“You stupid bastard, you thought it would be resolved once you sat down? There is still 5 minutes left. Although it would be an honour for you to die in a place where you’ve never sat down in your life. Kill him!”
Raiden and the 100 warriors flocked to him. However, Ark shouted while sitting cross-legged in a relaxed manner.
“Dedric, Vampire skill activate! Target Ark!”
“Oooooooh!”
Dedric appeared outside the window and activated the skill. At the same time, Ark’s body was covered with yellow mucus.
That’s right, it was ‘Slime’s Time!’
It was the reason Ark made Dedric bite him! 24 hours hadn’t passed since the last time Ark used Slime’s Time. Therefore he couldn’t use it again normally. But he looked at Dedric and thought of an ingenious idea. Dedric had the ability to extract a skill from the opponent once he sucked their blood. The problem was whether he could extract a skill from Ark, but fortunately Dedric answered that the first time. He had extracted the ‘Harvesting’ skill. Ark gained hope and had Dedric repeat it many times until he finally obtained Slime’s Time. That was the reason why Ark relentlessly killed Jewel.
There was a weakness in the invulnerability of Slime’s Time. It completely blocked physical attacks but was vulnerable to attack magic, and Jewel was a magician that was still present in the Hall of Glory. However, once Jewel died then Ark was invincible! Once Slime’s Time was activated, both swords and maces slipped off. The warriors looked perplexed.
“This, what on earth is this ridiculous thing……..!”
“Pudding? A pudding?”
“This skill is a ridiculous trick. Is that what you think Raiden? Yes, you don’t know the skill. And in New World, if someone doesn’t know something then they could die. But the skill is not a trick.”
Ark said in a cold tone as he was covered in slime. The time remaining was 4 minutes…………..if he held on for 4 minutes then he would obtain Silvana. Noticing the urgent situation, Raiden lifted his mace and shouted.
“This guy uses a strange skill. So just pull him down from the throne!”
The warriors began to pull Ark. However Ark firmly held onto the throne. He used the techniques he learned working to survive every day and held on. Thanks to that, his arms and hands were as strong as a wrestler. Since his body was sleek, it was hard for them to grab him…….the warriors eventually gave up catching him and started punching instead. However, Ark had no intention of dying.
‘Hang in there. Just 3 minutes left!’
Yes, the violence really fit the realistic game as his face became swollen and he got a nosebleed. But there was no time to think about the pain. Ark clenched his teeth and held out against the pain. And he shouldered the pain until the time ran out. Loud horn sounds came from outside before a message window popped up.
The time limit for the siege has been completed. The person who has occupied the throne is Dark Eden’s attack leader Ark. According to the siege rules, Ark has now become the rule of Silvana. Using the Lord’s special skill ‘Authority,’ you can banish all remaining enemies from the premises. <You have acquired the castle of Silvana. Fame +3000> <You have acquired a bonus for capturing the castle with less than 100 people: Experience for all the group members who survived +250,000>
-Your level has risen. -Your level has risen.
Thanks to the bonus he acquired 5 levels.
“Oh……oh my god!”
All colour disappeared from Raiden’s face. Ark slowly lifted his head. His face was crushed like dough by the warriors’ fists but there was the proud smile of a winner on his face.
“I’ve obtained the castle. Now if you’ll please leave my castle? Expulsion!”
At the moment an intense light flashed and the Hermes Alliance was forced from the castle. The person who occupied the throne after a long battle…….was Ark!
“Hum……..wasn’t today the last day of the castle siege?”
Ho Myung-hwan stretched and yawned as he searched the information window. Since there were 12 castles in Nagaran, there were always two sieges happening every day. One of his morning routines was to monitor the name of any new users that showed up in the siege information. It was in order to understand the overall system as well as keeping an eye on the influences of strong guilds.
“The Lord of Baltania has changed. Indeed, the Boramae guild and their allies were too weak to keep the castle. They didn’t have deep pockets and didn’t waste any money on defense, only attack. It will be hard for the Boramae guild to recover.”
Ho Myung-hwan clicked his tongue and muttered. In fact, Ho Myung-hwan had a keen eye about the situation in Nagaran. The assumption that they would receive a huge tax once they occupied the castle was a misconception from the users. NPCs in New World are clever- the kings and Archbishop set up the Shrine of War in order to set safeguards for those sorts of situations. Sooner or later they’ll discover the truth, but the users would have to defend the castle for at least a month before receiving any proceeds from it. It was only then that the NPCs would recognize them as the Lord.
“However, the kings receive a tax that hasn’t decreased at all……ha! In this instance the NPCs are cleverer than the users. Even so, it is a gamer’s dream to become a Lord.”
Ho Myung-hwan made a wry smile and searched for information on the next castle.
“Now, the next castle is Silvana? Well…..it should be Alan…….eh?”
Ho Myung-hwan stopped moving his mouse. But no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes and looked at the monitor, the results were still the same.
“Alan had the castle taken away? And the user who became the new Lord is………!”
Surprisingly, the name that came up in the information window was one that he knew well. It was one of the candidates that he was recently paying attention to, Ark!
“Ark! Ark managed to take Silvana away from Alan?”
Ho Myung-hwan quickly opened all the information that had been registered at the Shrine of War. However, he felt like he was lost in a maze the more he looked at it.
“This, what on earth is this? First Alan accepted a challenge from the Hades guild……was the Hades guild destroyed on the verge of the siege by Ark? No, it is okay up to there. But what is up with the data that comes afterwards? What the hell happened?”
Including the Hermes Alliance and Dawn Blade coalition, a total of 11 guilds took part in the siege. Ark occupied the lowest seat of command in the Hermes Alliance and participated in the siege. In fact, he only had the power to command. Unless all those above him were killed, there was no chance for him to become the Lord. However, the result from the siege was that Ark was the Lord. At that time, there were still 8 guild masters from the Hermes Alliance and Dawn Blade coalition left.
No matter how Ho Myung-hwan looked at the situation, there was no way to make sense of the result. What on earth happened in the siege? However he only had the information posted in the Shrine of War. He also couldn’t find any videos related to the siege. The siege could only be shown on TV if the Lord allowed it. On the other hand, Alan had kept the siege completely confidential.
‘We still don’t know what happened………’
He wasn’t the only one who would be interested in this. Ho Myung-hwan organized the materials and immediately visited the Planning Department’s chief Ha Myung-woo. He thought that Ark would definitely be excluded from the eliminated contestants list. However, Ha Myung-woo’s response was not impressed.
“Ark? I’ve never heard of that ID.”
“Yes, he was one of the candidates put on the eliminated list.”
“So?”
“So what? An eliminated contestant has managed to push back Alan, who is a part of the highest ranked group…….No, he also managed to beat the pioneers in the Hermes guild and occupied the throne. If the results are to this degree, don’t we have to start paying attention to Ark as a candidate again?”
“Can I see the data again?”
Ha Myung-woo scanned the data and laughed.
“The candidate Ark only had 83 people in his raid party. Do you think he really defeated the Hermes guild and Alan with that number?”
“Yes? But the results……..”
“I think there are two ways that could’ve happened. He got lucky or the Hermes guild leader put him on the throne for some other purpose. Both reasons have nothing to do with his ability. I’m not interested in lucky candidates. I only pick candidates with skill.”
“Then………?”
“But it is still necessary to look at it once. When does the report come in this month?”
“There is still one week left.”
“Okay, that is when the next siege has started. I’ll call the reference room and tell them to send me Ark’s report for this month. I’ll look carefully at how he performed during the siege. But if he performed weakly then his evaluation won’t change. Ark is still eliminated. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
Ho Myung-hwan withdrew with a disappointed face. In fact, he also didn’t think that Ark became the Lord with real skills. Just like Ha Myung-woo, he also thought that Ark obtained the castle due to luck.
‘Ark…….You performed well in the Evil Silrion. You have a lot of experiences against various users in New World. But is it really possible for you to become the Lord with only 83 people? How will you defend Silvana in the future?’
Ark’s last report came 3 weeks ago…….so he didn’t understand that Ark’s group consisted of NPCs. So he could not imagine Ark participating a lot in the siege. He also had to protect Silvana. All those answers would be recorded in the next report.
‘Can Ark really defend his territory? The next submission deadline is in one week…….it is crazy.’
Ho Myung-hwan pulled out a cigarette with a pained face. It was the first time that he couldn’t wait to read the contents of a report.
Now Kang Mi-su at the reception desk……if he visited then he would be able to hear from Lariette how the siege went. But Ho Myung-hwan shook his head.
‘I don’t need half of the information. Yes, there is also some pleasure in waiting.’
He would prefer to read the contents directly from Ark’s viewpoint. That was the wish of Ho Myung-hwan who considered himself a ‘secret fan of Ark.’
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AdvertisementsAlthough peripheral immune system abnormalities have been linked to schizophrenia pathophysiology, standard antipsychotic drugs show limited immunological effects. Thus, more effective treatment approaches are required. Probiotics are microorganisms that modulate the immune response of the host and, therefore, may be beneficial to schizophrenia patients. The aim of this study was to examine the possible immunomodulatory effects of probiotic supplementation in chronic schizophrenia patients. The concentrations of 47 immune-related serum proteins were measured using multiplexed immunoassays in samples collected from patients before and after 14 weeks of adjuvant treatment with probiotics (Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis strain Bb12; n = 31) or placebo (n = 27). Probiotic add-on treatment significantly reduced levels of von Willebrand factor (vWF) and increased levels of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), RANTES, and macrophage inflammatory protein-1 beta (MIP-1) beta with borderline significance (P ≤ 0.08). In silico pathway analysis revealed that probiotic-induced alterations are related to regulation of immune and intestinal epithelial cells through the IL-17 family of cytokines. We hypothesize that supplementation of probiotics to schizophrenia patients may improve control of gastrointestinal leakage.YouTube keeps trying to show that it’s a friend to the music industry. Earlier this week it published a blog post highlighting the fact that, in the last year, it paid out more than $1 billion to the music industry from advertising alone. Today came an announcement that YouTube has reached a deal with the National Music Publishers’ Association to pay millions in royalties to songwriters.
The settlement is reported to be between $30 and $40 million — about the same size as a deal reached by Spotify with the group earlier this year. The money will go to songwriters and publishers who may not have been paid because a lot of online music lacks the proper data, making it hard to establish credit for those streams and pay out royalties.
Will the music industry finally forgive YouTube?
The agreement will try to prevent this problem from cropping up in the future by offering publishers access to songs where YouTube has incomplete data, allowing them to fill in the blanks before they miss a paycheck. This is an opt-in process, and those who don’t join retain their right to sue for copyright infringement instead.
“We appreciate YouTube’s willingness to work with us on behalf of the industry to help pay out millions of dollars in previously unclaimed royalties to publishers and songwriters,” said NMPA president and CEO David Israelite in a statement. “It is essential that we work with digital services like YouTube — the most popular digital platform for music discovery — to fix the challenge of incomplete ownership information to ensure royalties are no longer unmatched and music owners are paid accurately by the platforms that rely on their work.”What are you craving?
We’ve all been there. Sitting at our desk at 3 p.m. on a regular Tuesday. Minding our business. Finishing up some reports or about to run into an end-of-day meeting, when BAM! A nasty craving comes out of nowhere and all of a sudden it feels like you would trade everything you own for a piece of chocolate.
While your stomach controls hunger, your brain controls cravings. When one hits, it’s your brain trying to tell you something. Here’s what, exactly…
What chocolate cravings mean
Craving chocolate is usually more than just a sweet tooth. Chocolate is very high in magnesium, which is a very common deficiency, especially among women. If you are trying to avoid chocolate, you can usually lose the craving by eating other food high in magnesium. Like seafood, dark leafy greens or nuts. But let’s be real, that doesn’t sound nearly as satisfying.
What sweets and sugar cravings mean
If you are craving sweets (sometimes even straight up sugar, no chaser), you are likely experiencing blood sugar fluctuations. Its seems counter-intuitive (and way less fun), but often giving into a sugar craving will only increase your cravings as it sends you on a blood sugar roller-coaster. To really kill a sugar craving, aim for high fiber foods like nuts, legumes or complex carbohydrates.
What salty food cravings mean
Cravings for pretzels, chips, popcorn and other salty foods often mean strong fluctuations in stress hormones in the body. Getting some stress-management in your life (meditation, relaxation, exercise, etc.) will help with these cravings.
What cheese cravings mean
Craving cheese or pizza is often an indicator of a fatty acid deficiency. (Mmmm. Delicious fatty acids.) It is common and normal for most people to experience fatty acid deficiencies on occasion. An alternative to cheese to satisfy these cravings is salmon or raw walnuts, which also contain fatty acids. But we think cheese seems way more delicious.
What red meat cravings mean
Not surprisingly, craving red meat often means you are iron deficient. This often shows up in the form of burger or steak cravings. It’s important to remember to have vitamin C while indulging in your iron cravings so make sure to put some colorful vegetables on that burger.
Satisfy all your cravings with Bite SquadCARSON CITY - Assembly Bill 301, which would simplify Nevada’s complex web of current laws on voter disfranchisement, will be considered by members of the Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections on Tuesday March 22. Nevada has one of the most severe and complex voter disfranchisement policies in the nation, barring individuals convicted of felonies from voting until they complete their sentences and have their rights restored, a process that varies greatly based on the individual’s type, date and place of convictions.
Of the 43,500 Nevadans disfranchised under this policy, almost half have completed their sentences but remain unable to vote. Countless others are kept from voting because current law is unclear and current policies require documentation that is difficult to obtain.
A study conducted by the ACLU of Nevada in 2010 found that the state’s voter registration agencies and websites give conflicting and sometimes incorrect information about registering to vote with a criminal conviction.
Alarmingly, voter disfranchisement in Nevada disproportionately affects people and communities of color. African Americans account for 29% of all disfranchised voters, and 12.4% of all African Americans in Nevada are barred from voting due to felony convictions.
Criminal justice professionals recognize the importance of voting among people with past convictions, and research has shown that those who vote are half as likely to be re-arrested. If AB301 is passed, it could not only save taxpayer money that is currently spent on cumbersome voter restoration procedures, but also potentially reduce recidivism.
AB301 would automatically restore voting rights to all Nevadans who have completed a felony prison sentence, probation or parole and eliminate the requirement to show documentation to register. It would also inform and educate elections employees and past offenders about their restored rights in clear and reader-friendly terms. “Voting is a fundamental right, protected by more constitutional amendments than any other right we enjoy as Americans,” says Rebecca Gasca, Legislative and Policy Director at the ALCU of Nevada. “Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the right to vote, and a healthy community needs to hear the voices of all its citizens.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nevada works to protect the rights and liberties of all Nevadans, including the right to vote.
Additional Information
- Read the ACLU of Nevada's Report: Voting With a Criminal Conviction in Nevada: Administrative Problems and the Need for ReformThe United States of Nothing
What are “Western Values”?
umair haque Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 18, 2017
Today America supposes that it is an arbiter of western values. But the truth is that in every sphere of life, American values have diverged sharply from the rest of the West. And if we examine the difference carefully, what’s really striking is this: the rest of the West has values – but America has none at all.
How can that be? Values aren’t what I want for myself. Those are preferences. Values are what I believe everyone should have. Now that the difference between values and preferences is clear, let’s examine America vs the west a little.
– the rest of the west values human life. Everyone has a right to healthcare. In the US, no one does. The value of life doesn’t exist.
– you might think: well, America at least values money. You are wrong. The rest of the west values money. Everyone has a right to welfare, income, support. In the US, no one does, for long. Even the social value of money doesn’t really exist in America.
– the rest of the west values safety. What’s the most basic kind? A roof over your head. Everyone has the right to housing in other rich countries. In the US, they don’t. The value of safety doesn’t exist.
I can go on. Surely you see the trend. The rest of the West values dignity, the sanctity of the body, peace, safety, justice. It embeds those values into rights offered by great institutions. Only America fails to share such genuine, lived values. So what does it value? We’ll come to that.
First, let’s ask: what do these values mean, create, enable? What’s their purpose? If by “the West” we mean something like “romance language speaking nations that are the inheritors of Athens”, then we must look at what the Greeks, the founders of this whole project of western civilisation, hoped to achieve.
For them, one aim was paramount: a genuinely good life, eudaimonia. And achieving it for all depended critically on valuing the world’s first real public goods: the square, the Lyceum, the polis, and so on, that enabled all to develop the virtues a good life was made of. Hence, a person only interested in money – and not in eudaimonia – was literally an “idiot”, someone uninterested in living genuinely well.
Now that we’ve contrasted America and the rest of the west, let’s ask: who is the idiot, the one uninterested in eudaimonia, and who is the real inheritor of the West? To me it seems crystal clear that the Greeks would have called America an idiot. And applauded the rest of the west for valuing genuinely good lives enough to give everyone a chance to live them.
Now I’m going to make a subtler point, so stick with me. When we say “Western values”, what do we mean? It’s a misnomer. The central innovation of the West, the Athenian inheritance was the idea of values. When they discovered you need a square and Lyceum for good lives to to flourish, they discovered that values underpin virtues. In the modern context: Giving people education, healthcare, and so on, enables them to act virtuously.
Now America believes only one thing, really, because we’ve shown it doesn’t have values: precisely the opposite of what the Athenians did – that denying people basics will lead them to virtue. In that truest sense, America isn’t Western at all.
So what is it? It is its own little island. An island of nothing. America was born in nihilism, and its ending because of nihilism. It began with the belief that some deserve nothing, and only a chosen few deserve anything. It has never had, developed, matured into, real values.
That is a painful truth to face. Yet it also tells us: if America wants to join the prosperous, thriving West, now, like any other poor country, it must develop real values. Not just preferences of self interest, but deep, real, humane values that enable all to live genuinely good lives.
Umair
July 2017"Hungry" redirects here. For other uses, see Hungry (disambiguation)
[1] Martin Luther King (center), one of many 20th century political figures who considered it important to fight hunger: "When I die, don't build a monument to me. Don't bestow me degrees from great universities. Just clothe the naked. Say that I tried to house the homeless. Let people say that I tried to feed the hungry."
In politics, humanitarian aid, and social science, hunger is a condition in which a person, for a sustained period, is unable to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs. So in the field of hunger relief, the term hunger is used in a sense that goes beyond the common desire for food that all humans experience.
Throughout history, portions of the world's population have often suffered sustained periods of hunger. In many cases, this resulted from food supply disruptions caused by war, plagues, or adverse weather. In the decades following World War II, technological progress and enhanced political cooperation suggested it might be possible to substantially reduce the number of people suffering from hunger. While progress was uneven, by 2015 the threat of extreme hunger subsided for many of the world's people. According to figures published by the FAO in 2018 however, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger has been increasing over the last three years. This is both as a percentage of the world's population, and in absolute terms, with about 821 million afflicted with hunger in 2017.
While most of the world's hungry people continue to live in Asia, much of the increase in hunger since 2015 occurred in Africa and South America. The FAO's 2017 report discussed three principal reasons for the recent increase in hunger: climate, conflict, and economic slowdowns. The 2018 report focused on Extreme weather as a primary driver of the increase in hunger, finding that the increases were especially severe in countries where the agricultural systems were most sensitive to extreme variations in weather.
Many thousands of organisations are engaged in the field of hunger relief; operating at local, national, regional or international levels. Some of these organisations are dedicated to hunger relief, while others may work in a number of different fields. The organisations range from multilateral institutions, to national governments, to small local initiatives such as independent soup kitchens. Many participate in umbrella networks that connect together thousands of different hunger relief organisations. At the global level, much of the world's hunger relief efforts are coordinated by the UN, and geared towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal for "Zero hunger".
Definition and related terms [ edit ]
There is only one globally recognised approach to defining and measuring hunger that is generally used by those studying or working to relieve hunger as a social problem. This is the United Nation's FAO measurement, which they typically refer to as undernourishment, sometimes as hunger or 'food deprivation'. For the FAO:
Hunger or undernourishment exists when "caloric intake is below the minimum dietary energy requirement (MDER). The MDER is the amount of energy needed to perform light activity and to maintain a minimum acceptable weight for attained height." [2] The FAO use different MEDR thresholds for different countries, due to variations in climate and cultural factors. Typically a yearly "balance sheet" approach is used, with the minimum dietary energy requirement tallied against the estimated total calories consumed over the year. The FAO defintions differentate hunger from malnutrition and food insecurity:[3][4][5]
Malnutrition results from "deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in the consumption of macro- and/or micro-nutrients." In the FAO definition, all hungry people suffer from malnutrition, but people who are malnourished may not be hungery. They may get suffient raw calories to avoid hunger, but lack essential micro nutrients, or they may even consume an excess of raw calories and hence suffer from obeisity. [5] [4] [3]
results from "deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in the consumption of macro- and/or micro-nutrients." In the FAO definition, all hungry people suffer from malnutrition, but people who are malnourished may not be hungery. They may get suffient raw calories to avoid hunger, but lack essential micro nutrients, or they may even consume an excess of raw calories and hence suffer from obeisity. Food insecurity occurs when people are at risk, or worried about, not being able to meet their preferences for food, including in terms of raw calories and nutritional value. In the FAO definition, all hungry people are food insecure, but not all food insecure people are hungry (though there is a very strong overlap between hunger and severe food insecurity.). The FAO have reported that food insecurity quite often results in simultaneous stunted growth for children, and obesity for adults.[5][4][3]
Not all of the many thousands of organisations in the hunger relief field use the FAO definition of hunger. Some use a broader defintion that overlaps more fully with malnutrition. The alternative definitions do however tend to go beyond the commonly understood meaning of hunger as a painful or uncomfortable motivational condition; the desire for food is something that all humans frequently experience, even the most affluent, and is not in itself a social problem.[6][5][4][3]
As a physical condition [ edit ]
The physical sensation of hunger is related to contractions of the stomach muscles. These contractions—sometimes called hunger pangs once they become severe—are believed to be triggered by high concentrations of the ghrelin hormone. The hormones Peptide YY and Leptin can have an opposite effect on the appetite, causing the sensation of being full. Ghrelin can be released if blood sugar levels get low—a condition that can result from long periods without eating. Stomach contractions from hunger can be especially severe and painful in children and young adults.
Hunger pangs can be made worse by irregular meals. People who cannot afford to eat more than once a day sometimes |
disbursements to insurers, known as cost-sharing reduction payments, on a monthly basis. But Trump had consistently threatened to end the payments, which are worth an estimated $7 billion this year.
In response, 18 states and Washington, D.C., signed onto a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in California.
The complaint will seek a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction and permanent injunction requiring the cost-sharing reduction payments be made.
Democrats also quickly criticized the decision and warned of the impact it would have on the health-care system.A prominent Danish professor warns that western civilization is “threatened” by the influx of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa and that a “civil war” is the most likely outcome.
Writing in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Professor Helmuth Nyborg, who is an expert in the connection between hormones and intelligence, discussed his previous research on how, “The effect of Europeans having few children and immigrants with low IQ” would lead to “Westerners (being) a minority in Europe, and that the average IQ drops so much that prosperity, democracy and civilization is threatened”.
Nyborg has previously asserted that low IQ migrants arriving from non-western countries leads to a decline in the average intelligence of western societies and therefore a drop in living standards and rising crime rates.
“In 2016, the current immigration policy gives us three alternatives – submission, repatriation or civil war. Unless Europe starts to lead a responsible family, immigration and integration policy, stated by the theory of evolution, I think civil war is most likely,” writes Nyborg.
Nyborg goes on to caution that simply referring to “right-wing extremism” will not make the chronic problems caused by overpopulation and failed multicultural policies disappear, warning that ethnic Europeans will be a minority in their own countries by 2050.
Ethnically homogeneous, civilized and democratic societies in Europe will be a thing of the past unless there is an “honorable repatriation” of migrants, warns Nyborg.
As we have previously highlighted, numerous prominent voices in Europe are sounding the alarm bell on the potential for the migrant crisis to explode into civil unrest and even war.
Last week, Swiss People’s Party (SVP) member of parliament Roger Köppel argued that “Europe is about to abolish itself” due to a “megalomaniac” open border policy overseen by the likes of Angela Merkel.
Last year, Swiss army chief André Blattmann warned that the risk of social unrest in Europe was intensifying and that citizens should arm themselves.
Top security experts in Germany also told Chancellor Angela Merkel last October that the middle class was becoming “radicalized” as a result of her open borders migrant policy and that domestic disorder could ensue as a result.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.Welcome to The War of 1812!
Sabres and Smoke: The War of 1812 is a 2-player, turn-based light strategy board game set during the War of 1812. From Trenton in the Michigan Territory, to Fort George and Queenston Heights in Upper Canada, to the shores of Baltimore, Maryland, players will be able to pit British and Canadian infantry, militia, artillery, Native Warriors and naval units against their American counterparts. Across 16 exciting, historically accurate scenarios, both players will determine the fate of North America, with a game that is simple to both set up and learn, yet provides an incredibly rich, entertaining gaming experience. The game is for ages 10 and up.
What’s in the game.
Everything you need to play is included. (Prototype shown.)
Sabres and Smoke: The War of 1812 comes complete and ready to play – no need for expansion packs, extra figure sets, or additional maps to buy.
The game includes 16 historically accurate scenarios - Brownstown, Trenton, Fort Detroit, Queenston Heights, Frenchtown, Ogdensburg, York, Fort George, Sackets Harbor, Stoney Creek, Beaver Dams, Chateauguay, Crysler’s Farm, Bladensburg, and Baltimore.
Click to see a draft PDF of the rules, including the first scenario.
Fighting units are assembled by combining individual pieces. For example, a regular infantry unit contains 4 infantry pieces and an officer. A Native Warriors unit contains 3 native warrior pieces. Artillery units are made of 3 cannon pieces and officer. By combining the attack and defence factors of all the pieces in a unit, players get a combat experience that is rich, varied, and reflective of real combat situations. You'll have to carefully decide which units to position against particular enemy units, what to do with damaged units, etc.
Units have their own attack, defence, range and movement factors.
Naval units and artillery add firepower to both sides.
Examples from the deck of 52 battle cards. Players draw 1 battle card per turn, adding variability to the game play.
44 double-sided terrain hexes add depth and dimension to the battlefield.
The game includes:
- 3 fully-mounted game boards (2 land, 1 coastal).
- 44 double-sided terrain hexes, illustrated to provide depth and dimension to the battlefield.
- 250 military units, including Native Warriors British, Canadian and American infantry, militia, artillery, naval units, and specialized unit markers.
- 100 card stands, allowing all units to ‘stand to’. No need to move stacks around the board.
- 8 battle dice (4 red, 4 blue) with custom-printed icon stickers.
- 32-page Rule/Scenario Book with all the information to set and play the game, quickly and easily. Book also includes 16 scenarios with full-colour set up maps.
- 52 Battle Cards, to add richness and variability to the gameplay.
Our philosophy is that we want gamers to get the WHOLE game, and not have to miss pieces/features because they couldn’t acquire a more expensive level. So we’ve kept it simpler and, we believe, fairer. PLEASE NOTE: All prices are listed in Canadian dollars ( $1 American is worth approximately $1.30 Canadian, meaning the $75 Cdn. list price for one game is approximately $57 U.S. at current exchange rates.)
When we reach these funding levels, these goals will be unlocked and included in every game.
Shipping for one game:
To Canada and the U.S.A: $15.00
To Europe: $35.00
Worldwide: $45.00A sequel to Tim Burton's Beetlejuice has been in development for awhile. The script for the movie was written by Seth Grahame-Smith, author of the book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the screenplay for Dark Shadows. The last we heard, the project was a top priority for Warner Bros. and Burton. Michael Keaton was even excited about reprising his role!
Now according to a source at Schmoes Know, Keaton will return as Beetlejuice and Burton is looking to direct it, which has kind of been the case all along. I always assumed Burton would direct the sequel anyway, and apparently he was even thinking about dropping out of his Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children project set up at 20th Century Fox to do it. He shifted his schedule around, though, and is going to end up making both films.
I guess the biggest news here is that the movie is still moving forward with the two major players we want involved with the film. I loved Keaton as Beetlejuice, and it will be amazing to see him back in the role! I'm also happy to hear that Burton was willing to make any schedule adjustments he could to bring us this long-awaited sequel.Scientist may have cold fusion breakthrough Navy scientist announces possible cold fusion reactions
But evidence also could indicate another type of nuclear reaction, she cautions
A U.S. Navy researcher announced today that her lab has produced “significant” new results that indicate cold fusion-like reactions.
If the work by analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss and her colleagues is confirmed, it could open the door to a cheap, near-limitless reservoir of energy.
That’s a big if, however.
Today’s announcement at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society comes in the same location – Salt Lake City – as one of science’s most infamous episodes, the announcement 20 years ago by chemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann that they had produced cold fusion.
Unlike nuclear energy reactors and bombs, which split atoms, the atoms in stars such as the sun fuse together to produce spectacular amounts of energy, so much so that we are warmed by a stellar furnace 93 million miles away.
Devising a fusion-based source of energy on Earth has long been a “clean-energy” holy grail of physicists.
Pons and Fleischmann claimed to have created fusion reactions in a tabletop experiment, at room temperature. Their claims of producing small amounts of excess heat — energy — in their experiments were at first met with excitement, then skepticism and finally derision as other scientists were unable to reproduce the results.
Nevertheless, in the years since, a small group of scientists has continued trying to produce fusion reactions at low temperatures.
If such experiments did produce fusion reactions, they would generate highly energetic neutrons as a byproduct. These are what Mosier-Boss says her San Diego-based group has found.
“If you have fusion going on, then you have to have neutrons,” she said. “But we do not know if fusion is actually occurring. It could be some other nuclear reaction.”
Today’s announcement is based partly on research published by Mosier-Boss’ group last year in the journal Naturwissenschaften. In this sense, she has not repeated the mistake of Pons and Fleischmann, who announced their findings before they had been tested by the peer-review process and published in a scientific journal.
But that does not mean the results indicate cold fusion, said Paul Padley, a physicist at Rice University who reviewed Mosier-Boss’ published work.
“Fusion could produce the effect they see, but there’s no plausible explanation of how fusion could occur in these conditions,” Padley said. “The whole point of fusion is, you’re bringing things of like charge together. As we all know, like things repel, and you have to overcome that repulsion somehow.”
The problem with Mosier-Boss’ work, he said, is that it fails to provide a theoretical rationale to explain how fusion could occur at room temperatures. And in its analysis, the research paper fails to exclude other sources for the production of neutrons.
“Nobody in the physics community would believe a discovery without such a quantitative analysis,” he said.
Still, the announcement may turn heads, given its stage at the American Chemical Society’s big meeting and the fact that the organization promoted it to science journalists in advance.
“It’s big,” said Steven Krivit, founder of the New Energy Times publication, which has tracked cold fusion developments for two decades.
Krivit said the neutrons produced by Mosier-Boss’ experiments may not be caused by fusion but perhaps some new, unknown nuclear process.
“What we’re talking about may be more than anybody actually expected,” he said. “We’re talking about a new field of science that’s a hybrid between chemistry and physics.”
eric.berger@chron.comPope Francis has approved a second miracle for Mother Teresa, paving the way for the late nun who was known as the “Saint of the Gutters” to be canonised next year. The Vatican said in a short statement on Friday that the Argentinean pontiff had approved the miracle, in which a Brazilian man was said to have been cured of multiple brain tumours in 2008 following the nun’s intercession.
Juliet Stevenson on the rewards of playing Mother Teresa Read more
The honour for the Nobel prize winner, who won acclaim for her work with impoverished and dying people living in the slums of Kolkata, India, has been widely anticipated for months in Italy, and the ceremony to make her a saint – expected to be held on September 4 2016 – will be a highlight of the church’s jubilee year of mercy.
But it is also controversial. Mother Teresa’s work has been questioned for decades by notable critics, who have alleged first that the Catholic missionary, who died in 1997, misused funds that were meant for charity, and second that she was a Catholic fundamentalist more concerned with evangelism than with serving the poor with adequate medical treatment.
The negative assessment was underscored by researchers at the University of Montreal and the University of Ottawa, who concluded in a 2013 report that the nun did not deserve the saintly reputation she had acquired over her lifetime due to her “rather dubious way of caring for the sick, her questionable political contacts, her suspicious management of the enormous sums of money she received, and her overly dogmatic views regarding, in particular, abortion, contraception, and divorce”.
The researchers found that the vast majority of patients who had come to visit Mother Teresa’s missions for the dying had hoped to find doctors to treat them, but instead found unhygienic conditions, a shortage of care, inadequate food and no painkillers.
Vatican journalist John Allen at the Crux website said that the final view on Mother Teresa was ultimately a matter of personal opinion, but that Catholicism did not equate sainthood with perfection. “In reality, declaring someone a saint does, indeed, reflect a judgment that he or she lived a holy life, but it’s not tantamount to a claim of moral perfection. It doesn’t mean they never made mistakes or were utterly free of blind spots,” he wrote.
The late journalist Christopher Hitchens, who skewered the nun’s staunch objection to birth control and abortion and was one of her most vociferous critics, ridiculed the first medical miracle that was attributed to Mother Teresa in 2003, when she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 in a “fast-track” process that, in effect, meant she did not have to undergo the standard five-year waiting period after a possible saint’s death.
“Surely any respectable Catholic cringes with shame at the obviousness of the fakery,” Hitchens wrote in Slate that year. “A Bengali woman named Monica Besra claims that a beam of light emerged from a picture of Mother Teresa, which she happened to have in her home, and relieved her of a cancerous tumour. Her physician, Dr Ranjan Mustafi, says that she didn’t have a cancerous tumour in the first place and that the tubercular cyst she did have was cured by a course of prescription medicine.”
The office that investigates candidates for sainthood has come under fire in two new books that raise questions about the oversight of the church’s finances. The books, allegedly based on church documents, found that every investigation conducted by special sainthood researchers costs about €500,000. When a special committee created by Pope Francis to examine church finances asked the office to produce documentation to back up its expenses, the office allegedly balked, and could not produce any receipts for costs running into the “tens of millions of euros”.
In India, meanwhile, the news about Mother Theresa was being celebrated as a Christmas gift from the Holy Father. “We were waiting for this moment, since many years really, and now that it has come we are very happy, overjoyed,” Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Kolkata said. “Her entire life was spent in service to the poor … She was reflecting God’s love here among the poorest of the poor, and so it comes as a very significant event in this Year of Mercy that the Holy Father has given to the church.”The Role of Women in Mormonism
Author's name: Jessica Longaker
The Bibliography is on the bottom of this page Religious Studies 263
March 27, 1995 Women and Mormonism
Many religions have recently begun changing in an attempt to equalize the roles and responsibilities of men and women. Mormonism is one of the exceptions. The Mormon position on women has changed little since the early 1800's, when the official view was that "woman's primary place is in the home, where she is to rear children and abide by the righteous counsel of her husband" (McConkie 844). This attitude, coupled with the doctrine of polygamy and the absolute power claimed by the men of the church, created a legacy of profound sexism which modern Mormonism has been unable to escape.
Mormonism has created an ingenious system of oppression, in which opposition towards men is tantamount to arguing with God. The Mormon religion makes no distinction between clergy and laity, at least with regard to men (Laake 9). All Mormon men are ordained as members of the "priesthood," with the absolute authority to preach the gospel, bestow blessings, prophecy, perform healings and baptisms, and generally speak for God. "Their priesthood gives them the right to advise and instruct the Saints (i.e., Mormons), and their jurisdiction extends over all things spiritual and temporal" (Snowden 134).
At age twelve, boys become members of the Aaronic, or lesser priesthood, and at nineteen become eligible for the Melchezedek, or higher priesthood. Members of either priesthood are higher authorities on everything than are non-members. Women are, of course, excluded from the priesthood. This practice in effect says that a woman's prepubescent son is more qualified to advise her than she is to advise him. The official explanation is that women are kept from having the priesthood because women are more spiritual than men, therefore, men need to have the priesthood to teach them how to be better people (Johnson 86). Women are also told that, because they have the all- important ability to bear children, men need the power of the priesthood merely to remain equal with them.
The most notorious example of Mormon treatment of women is, of course, the practice of polygamy. In early 1843, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church, announced to the press that, despite rumors to the contrary, the Latter-Day Saints did not practice polygamy and believed it was an abomination (Wallace 53). He spoke the truth as far as the vast majority of Mormons was concerned, for polygamy is expressly forbidden in the Book of Mormon. However, Joseph himself had been married to at least eleven women besides his legal wife by 1843. (Wallace 52). The first of these, in 1835, was a seventeen year old orphan who had been taken in by his wife, Emma Smith. Joseph apparently married all of these women without the knowledge of either his wife or his fellow Mormons (Wallace 52).
On July 12, 1843, Joseph Smith declared that God had given him a new revelation concerning marriage and he revealed it to his brother and other high-ranking male church members. This revelation from God, at one point, specifically instructed "mine handmaid Emma Smith, Joseph's wife" to accept this doctrine and allow Joseph to have as many wives as he liked, as long as they were all "virtuous and pure" (Snowden 191). Emma Smith was a very strong-willed woman, and Joseph was so frightened of her wrath that he sent his brother Hyrum to inform her of God's plan. Emma was understandably scornful, and threw Hyrum out of her house (Wallace 55). Later, she managed to obtain a written copy of the revelation, and while in Joseph's presence, tossed it directly into the fireplace. However, the damage had already been done. Joseph is said to have been married to twenty-seven wives at the time of his death (Snowden 282). Emma left the church after his death and later denied that her husband had ever practiced polygamy (Wallace 65).
There were many reasons given for the practice of polygamy. The one most popular during the time was, of course, that God had commanded it, through Joseph Smith. The Mormon belief is that polygamy is holy and was practiced commonly in ancient times until people began spreading false religions. Adam, in his previous, spiritual existence, had many wives, of whom Eve was just one (Wallace 291). Jesus was also a polygamist "who was married whereby He could see His seed before He was crucified" (Hoekema 56), and his wives were Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene. Mormon Doctrine states that the president of the church had to suspend the practice of polygamy in 1890 because of the conditions at the time, but "obviously the holy practice will commence again after the Second Coming..." (578).
There were other justifications for polygamy. Mormons were often fond of stating that they were better than "Gentiles," as non-Mormons are called, because their system of polygamy kept them from committing the sin of adultery. Polygamous marriage was supposed to "make possible the procreation of enough bodies for thousands of spirits which have long awaited incarnation" (Snowden 141). Some Mormons today explain that many men died from war and disease, and all of the extra women needed husbands to support them. A less sympathetic view of polygamy was voiced by Sir Richard Burton on a visit to Utah. He said, "The..motive for polygamy in Utah is economy. Servants are rare and costly; it is cheaper and more comfortable to marry them" (Wallace 94).
Polygamous marriage is basically essential to Mormon theology. Mormon Doctrine states that God was once a human man, and "He is now a glorified, resurrected Personage having a tangible body of flesh and bones" (250). As a matter of fact, "all gods first existed as spirits, came to an earth to receive bodies, and then, after having passed through a period of probation on the aforesaid earth, were advanced to the exalted position they now enjoy" (Hoekema 38). After death, a good Mormon man who has followed a few certain rules is catapulted to this same status and receives his own planet to populate and rule over (Fife 103). To receive this honor, a man must be "married for eternity" in the Mormon temple. This special marriage is binding after death as well as until it.
"Celestial" marriage, as this eternal marriage is often called, is essential for Mormon women. Without being celestially married to a holder of the priesthood, a woman cannot be "saved" (Green 154). Mary Ettie Smith, a Mormon woman who left the church and Utah in 1856, said that "women do not amount to much in themselves," and that women in those times were often celestially married to men they had no intention of ever living with, so that they could have a man who would be able to get them into heaven (Green 154).
In the temple marriage ceremony, women are given secret names known only to their husbands, for identification purposes, so their husbands can pull them through to "the other side" after death (Laake 118). During the marriage ceremony, until 1990, men made their temple covenants directly to God, while the women had to make their temple covenants to their husbands (Laake 328). This means that while male temple workers representing God lead the men through the cloth representing the veil between worlds, husbands, symbolically, lead their wives through. Women also promise to obey their husbands in everything as long as their husbands obey God (Laake 108). As part of the ceremony, women also receive their endowments. These are sacred ordinances and promises which make a person eligible to enter the highest level of heaven, and Mormons receive them on their first visit to the temple (Laake 93). Men usually receive their endowments when they enter the temple to become a priesthood holder or go on a mission, but women enter the temple for the first time to be married.
After death, while their husbands are creating and ruling over planets, the women have the questionable honor of bearing his "spirit children" for eternity. These spirit children descend to their Father's planet to inhabit bodies as mortals, who are then ruled over by him. Mormon Doctrine states that these celestially married men and women "will live eternally in the family unit and have spirit children, thus becoming Eternal Fathers and Eternal Mothers" (516). A man who has multiple wives can beget many more spirit children, making him much more powerful. Birth control is, of course, very strongly discouraged. Ambitious Mormon men must beget many children with as many wives as possible, for "their glory (in heaven) is in proportion to the number of their wives and children" (Snowden 141).
Mormons believe that all humans are literally the spirit children of God who are momentarily inhabiting fleshly bodies. This creates a philosophical problem for them, for how could their spirits have been begotten by a Father without a wife? Therefore, in addition to the Father in Heaven, there is "a Woman of like glory, perfection, and holiness" who is "associated with him as a Mother" (McConkie 516). This seems quite unusual for such a patriarchal religion, and indeed, there is almost nothing written about Her. There is also no explanation for God's disregard for his own commandments on polygamy.
It is hard to deny the effect of polygamy on the thousands of women who lived with it. Anne Eliza Webb, one of Brigham Young's wives, wrote of her mother, "Polygamy...was the most hateful thing in the world to her, and she dreaded and abhorred it, but she was afraid to oppose it, lest she be found fighting against the Lord" (Wallace 62). This was the main reason so many women grudgingly accepted polygamy. The elders of the church assured these women that those who refused to practice polygamy would be damned, and since the men spoke for God, the believers had to comply (Wallace 74).
Polygamy effectively reduced women to mere commodities. Heber C. Kimball said, "I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow" (Wallace 101). Missionaries, who were almost always men, made a special effort to convert women, and these newly converted women were encouraged to come to Utah. After leaving their families and homes, and depleting their savings to come to "paradise," they discovered the doctrine of polygamy.
If a man felt his wife was not behaving properly, he could always find a more compliant one. Because all women must be married to go to heaven, the pressure to conform to the expectations of men was incredible. If a man was not content with his wife, Brigham Young "recommended...that he take a plural wife or two -- since this was a sure cure for a shrewish and recalcitrant female" (Fife 101). The system did not even provide the camaraderie one might expect from a household full of women, for wives were often in competition for attention. Technically, the first wife had to approve subsequent wives (Wallace 82), but few women chose to risk the wrath of their husbands and the church elders by refusing someone.
Polygamy was officially suspended by the President of the church in 1890, twenty-eight years after polygamy was declared illegal by the U.S. government, and thirteen years after a U.S. court had ruled that polygamous marriages were not valid (Wallace 368). Ann Eliza Webb had filed for divorce from Brigham Young in 1873, forcing the government to take a stand on the continuing practice of polygamy. The court ruled that she could not receive a divorce, since she was never legally married (Snowden 287).
The church has since become militant about preventing polygamy; anyone found practicing it is immediately excommunicated, and those who preach it are ostracized (Johnson 76). However, polygamy is still in practice in the church, just in a less obvious form. If a woman's husband dies, she may, after a suitable mourning period, marry another man as long as she marries him "for time", or only until death. After death, she will be brought into heaven to be with her first and true husband for eternity. However, if a man's wife dies, he may marry again celestially, thus providing for himself a polygamous family in heaven. The government may be able to thwart the holy practice of polygamy on earth, but they can do nothing about it in heaven.
Because of the doctrine of celestial marriage, it is very difficult for Mormon women to obtain divorces in the church. Women are told that "divorce is usually the result of one or both not living the gospel", and that a woman who wants a divorce is "untrue to the covenants she has made in the house of the Lord" (Laake 176). Legal divorces are no problem to obtain, but they create many problems in the religious life of a Mormon; a church divorce is almost impossible. After a civil divorce, a woman's temple recommend is rescinded (Laake 193). In other words, she is considered unworthy to enter the temple, until she can prove to the heads of the church that the divorce was not caused by adultery. This is done by describing one's sexual activities very exactly in a series of letters to the male church authorities (Laake 194). Believers must submit to this humiliating rule in order to avoid spending eternity with their ex- husbands, because they must be able to enter the temple to obtain a "cancellation of sealing" (Laake 210). This cancellation is required if a woman wishes to remarry in the temple, for women can be celestially married to only one man at a time. Men are not required to undergo any of this to get their temple recommends back, and they, of course, have no need to cancel the celestial marriage to one woman in order to marry a second (Laake 223).
Many Mormon men in their late teens choose to go on a mission for the church, to preach the gospel in a foreign land. This practice, in addition to increasing the church's membership, serves an additional purpose by increasing the devotion of these men to Mormonism. Once a man has spent two years of his life in a foreign country for his faith, deprived of any contact with television, music, and women (for this is required), he will almost certainly never leave the church. He has sacrificed too much, and he cannot afford to disbelieve in the religion that caused it. This system also works in the same way with regard to women, for they are the ones left behind. While a woman's boyfriend or fianc� is off preaching for two years, she spends those years waiting for him. Not only will she believe more strongly in the religion which he left her for, but she will feel more devotion for the man. He must be the right man for her, because she has waited so long for him.
Mormon women today are still brought up to believe that the most important thing they can do is "to marry the right person, in the right place, by the right authority" (McConkie 118). Deborah Laake, who was excommunicated in 1993 for writing Secret Ceremonies, states that "it had been repeatedly impressed on me that if I failed to marry a faithful Mormon man...in a Mormon temple, I would be denied access to the highest level of Mormon heaven" (Laake 4). The temple marriage is so important "that a longing for romance on earth should not be allowed to interfere with it" (Laake 77). Twenty-one year old Mormon men returning from missions are told they should be married within six months (Laake 51).
Girls and boys are also told that a good and proper Mormon home is a patriarchal one. A handbook written for fourteen year old boys states that, "The patriarchal order is of divine origin and will continue throughout time and eternity" (Laake 39). Husbands conduct family prayers, bless their wives and children, and generally control the household. They also are in charge of "family home evening", one night per week set aside for family prayer and togetherness. The Mormon belief is that Eve's roles in life, those of help-meet and child-bearer, set the pattern for all of her daughters (McConkie 844). Girls are told that God wants them at home (Laake 153), and boys are never taught to clean up after themselves, since when their mothers stop doing it for them, their wives will take over the job. These ideas, at least, have not changed at all since the nineteenth century.
Mormons, and particularly Mormon girls, are commanded to remain completely chaste until marriage. Girls grow up believing that their virginity is what makes them worth marrying (Laake 195), and they are told that "If you sully your body by allowing boys to touch it in forbidden ways...no good man will ever want to marry you" (Johnson 74). According to Mormon Doctrine, "Loss of virtue is too great a price to pay even for the preservation of one's life--better dead clean, than alive unclean" (McConkie 124). In order to enter the temple for the all-important marriage ceremony, Mormons must undergo a rigorous interview by their bishops about the intimate details of their sexual history to ensure their purity (Laake 86). Mormon colleges today have dress codes for women which forbid shorts, short skirts, and other articles of clothing that could possibly incite a young man's lust.
Mormons, like most religions, believe that the woman in a relationship bears the guilt for any sexual wrongdoing. Girls are told that if they "let" a man touch them, he will not respect them, even though he is the one doing the touching. One Mormon woman's date, at the front door of her house at the end of a perfectly sinless night, ordered her to enter her house, fall on her knees, and pray for forgiveness for the sins that she had made him want to commit (Johnson 79).
The strict chastity demanded by the church often clashes with the fact that girls are taught please their husbands and the other men in their lives. This lesson makes it very difficult to maintain the strict chastity required of women. What does a girl do when the man she is dating, whom she is supposed to obey because he is inspired by God, wants to do more than kiss her? In Mormon-dominated Utah, in 1978, seventy percent of the teenage brides were pregnant at their weddings (Johnson 39).
However, the Mormon church is more tolerant of unwed mothers or pregnant brides than it is of divorced women (Laake 217). No matter how sinful the circumstances, a pregnant woman is fulfilling God's plan and her purpose in life, by providing a body for one of the many spirits waiting to be born. Bearing children is the main purpose of a woman in this life; Sonia Johnson stated that, "I'd been conditioned to believe that if I didn't have babies, I wasn't worth much. Having children was what women were made for" (Johnson 42).
The Mormon church of today is still clinging to the beliefs of the nineteenth century; ideas which are becoming more outmoded every day. A few women in the Mormon church are trying to make a difference, but they are usually swiftly excommunicated (Laake 342; Johnson 351). In Mormon magazines, which are full of advice for women from the heads of the church, the message has changed in response to the feminist movement. In 1964, advice on marriage and divorce was fairly dispassionate; by 1972, these topics were addressed with increasing panic and harshness (Laake 175). Feminists are described as "the Pied Pipers of sin who have led women away from the divine role of womanhood down the pathway of error" (Laake 176). Obviously, the Mormon church is not going to alter its views on women in the immediate future. It is questionable whether it is even possible for Mormonism to equalize the roles of men and women, because the oppression of women is so integral to the religion. Men and women cannot truly become equal in the church, for the basic tenets of Mormonism are so fraught with sexism that equality would change the religion beyond recognition.
The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1981. First English edition, 1830.
Fife, Austin and Fife, Alta Saints of Sage and Saddle. Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 1980.
Green, N. W. Mormonism: Its Rise, Progress, and Present Condition, Embracing the Narrative of Mrs. Mary Ettie Smith. Hartford, Belknap & Bliss, 1870.
Hoekema, Anthony A. The Four Major Cults. Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1963.
Johnson, Sonia From Housewife to Heretic. Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1981.
Laake, Deborah Secret Ceremonies, a Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary or Marriage and Beyond. New York, Dell Publishing, 1993.
McConkie, Bruce R. Mormon Doctrine. Salt Lake City, Bookcraft Inc., 1966.
Smith, Joseph The Prophet Joseph Smith's Testimony. Salt Lake City, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Snowden, James H. The Truth About Mormonism. New York, George H. Doran Co., 1926.
Wallace, Irving The Twenty-seventh Wife. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1961.I'd love to tell you Pittsburgh Steelers QB has fulfilled his destiny and become a Batman villain in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. But alas, he's just going to play a quarterback.
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Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Willie Colon and Maurkice Pouncey will all be making cameos in the film as members of the Gotham pro football team. The scene was shot today at Heinz Field.
↵ "From what I've heard, it's going to be like a pre-game, warming-up type thing,'' Roethlisberger said. "I don't know the whole concept. There's a Gotham team, a football game. We'll be wearing uniforms." ↵
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Method actors that they are, the four Steelers spent all last season preparing for the role. Like any good Batman villain they dominated the entire time until the final scene when the good guys finally triumphed over evil.
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My favorite part of the whole story? According to Wikipedia, the name of Ben Roethlisberger's team is the Gotham City Rogues. Well played, Christopher Nolan.
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For more coverage of the Gotham City Rogues, check out...oh, nevermind...“We used to carry five to six cartons of milk on each flight for coach,” said Elaine Sweeney, 58, a flight attendant with American for more than 30 years. But that was five or so years ago. Now, she said, |
save for portions of the mushroom that become extremely tough and dirty toward the base. However, the leaves are the most tender and tasty bits of the mushroom, and so more often than not I transform the stumpy base of my hens into broth or mushroom tincture (Grifola frondosa has potent antiviral and anticancer properties).
In general, you’re going to want to treat this mushroom to a good bit of cooking so that it softens up enough sufficiently; if you don’t, it can have an a crunch to it that I don’t particularly fancy. In this vein, I usually add some stock or wine to this mushroom when I cook it on the stove so that it has a little something extra to simmer instead of just pan frying it with oil or butter. This is especially true when dealing with older specimens that may be tough and thick.
Another rule of thumb that I observe when cooking this species (and many others) is not to fiddle with and stir mushrooms in the pan too much; it’s delightful when a mushroom gets a bit browned and crispy, and in order to accomplish this, you must resist the temptation to stir them constantly. Vigilance alone will do, there’s simply no need to go crazy with your kitchen implements while this mushroom is cooking!
If you’re feeling a little lazy, like I frequently do, here’s a great trick for enjoying hen of the woods: cut it into strips or cross-sections, brush it with olive oil, sprinkle it with spices, then bake it at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, flipping it about half way through the baking time. In this way, you can prepare tender and delicious roasted hen of the woods without all the fuss!
Also, this mushroom is terrific for marinating and grilling because it’s got enough substance to take the high heat of charcoal or gas. I do suggest using a marinade that has a little bit of lemon juice, vinegar, or another acid so that you can help break down the tough cell walls of this mushroom, but don’t overdo it (unless you’re going for a sour-citrusy hen of the woods thing) lest you end up with so much lemony zest that you lose track of this mushroom’s delicate, meaty flavors!
Hen of the Woods Dairy-Free Cream Sauce
My personal favorite use of hen of the woods is to create a creamy sauce that brings together the flavors of the mushroom, shallot, olive oil, parsley, rosemary, sage, and a lot of white wine to top gnocchi. Here goes nothing:
Ingredients:
1 medium-sized hen of the woods, sliced into 1 1/2-2 inch pieces
3 shallots, diced
3 cloves of minced or mashed garlic
3 tablespoons extra light olive oil
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon flour
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup veggie stock
Salt and black pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat the oil in a pan on medium-high heat
Saute the shallots and garlic until the shallots are translucent, 2-3 minutes
Reduce heat to medium and add the mushrooms. Saute without stirring much for 8-9 minutes or until the mushrooms start to brown on the edges
Stir in the flour and herbs/spices
Add the wine and veggie stock. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir thoroughly so that the flour is evenly distributed through the mixture. Allow to cook and reduce for 10 minutes or so, stirring frequently.
Serve on top of gnocchi (preferred), spaetzel noodles, or a baked potato.Story highlights Saudi leaders and Donald Trump are alike in the way they want women to behave, Hossain writes
Both prefer women to look pretty in pictures, rather than hold positions of power, she writes
Editor\'s Note: Anushay Hossain is a writer and media personality based in Washington. For more, visit AnushaysPoint.com. The views expressed are her own.
(CNN) — Donald Trump's first major trip overseas may be fraught with diplomatic land mines for the President, but the Trump administration can at least comfort itself with the Donald Trump's first major trip overseas may be fraught with diplomatic land mines for the President, but the Trump administration can at least comfort itself with the clear hit that Melania Trump has been with the Saudi press.
The fact that Melania is communicating with the media and the public in Saudi Arabia -- mainly through what Saudi news reports have deemed her " classy and conservative " fashion choices -- works well in the notoriously anti-woman kingdom. Her intense appeal makes sense, considering the first lady represents so much that Saudi citizens find familiar and can relate to, especially visually. Melania walks behind her husband, is quiet and reserved, does not make obvious demands (at least not ones we can hear), and most importantly, she looks beautiful and polished.
Anushay Hossain
All of that should come as no surprise, given whom Melania is married to. After all, how the Saudi government likes women to behave is similar to how Donald Trump has said he likes women to behave. And they both prefer women to look pretty in pictures, rather than hold actual positions of power.
Melania's husband and the Saudi government also both also know and understand the power and value of a good photo opportunity. In fact, fantastic photo opportunities are something the kingdom values and is hypersensitive about, especially ones that are going to be seen around the world.
For them, Melania Trump was perfectly poised in her black Stella McCartney jumpsuit and gilded gold belt. Melania projected a glamorous image for a country where women live under male guardianship, cannot drive, still do not have the full vote, and cannot travel or seek medical attention without male permission.Today Mads made an excellent post about our overall.NET Language Strategy. As I know this will raise a lot of questions in the VB community I wanted to take an entire post on the VB team blog to dive deeper into how VB fits into that strategy and why and what that means in practical terms for us as a community.
Looking Back
Six and half years ago, the Visual Studio Languages team laid out the motivations for our then-new co-evolution strategy. Mainly the significant overlap in adoption between VB and C# in adoption and use cases and four “powerful unifying forces” they shared:
The common IDE and platform building blocks that VB and C# share.
The shared “multi-paradigm, object-oriented, imperative, strongly-typed, etc.” natures of the languages.
The need for strong inter-language interoperability and the trend for the richest language innovation opportunities to be at the boundaries of APIs (e.g. Generics, LINQ, Async).
Customer feedback on language tooling parity.
What’s Changed?
In 2010, the four “powerful unifying forces” laid out were the dominant forces acting on our two largest languages and they acted on them in roughly the same way. Those four forces are still relevant, though no longer the dominant drivers of growth and innovation for.NET, the languages, or the language communities. Since 2010 several new forces have become major players in our ecosystem and they influence our languages very differently.
The first force is the pull on Microsoft (and.NET) to expand beyond what have been our traditional workloads—Windows desktop software and on premises server software—to new workloads such as Cloud and Mobile. This is no surprise. And you can see the impact of this in Azure,.NET Core, ASP.NET Core,.NET on Docker on Linux, and Xamarin. Now, I see this force interacting with businesses in two ways. A weak interaction to migrate existing solutions from on premises infrastructure to the Cloud and to bridge existing applications into mobile and a strong interaction to build entirely new services optimized for the cloud from the ground up.
The latter aligns very strongly with F#, as it’s a functional-first programming language designed to be very attractive in this arena; and C#, which is designed to appeal to a broad audience of existing developers, especially curly-brace developers, who are already developing in these domains. Our challenge is to ensure C# is competitive for that audience both in the language and in the tooling. It’s not that VB couldn’t be used for those purposes but the people already doing these things aren’t demanding VB and the design philosophy of it doesn’t generally appeal to them. VB.NET was always designed to draw developers already targeting Windows to Visual Studio/.NET (including existing VB6 developers) and developers new to programming in general or for whom programming was a secondary skillset.
The former—the weak interaction to migrate off on premises infrastructure or bridge into mobile—I believe, does have a lot potential with the VB community. To be clear, it’s not because VB is unique in this. In fact, we suspect that there is a sizable equivalent subset of the C# community for whom this scenario is equally valid. But, because of the growing diversity of the kinds of workloads that people use C# for (in part because of the diversity of other languages C# draws from) that group of developers is a much more representative subset of VB developers all up.
The second force is the pull on.NET to expand beyond Microsoft. To non-Microsoft platforms, non-Microsoft tools, and to workloads beyond the enterprise. This started at.NETs inception with the Mono project and continues today. A clear demand exists for.NET (and yes, specifically C#) outside of Windows and outside of Visual Studio: Mono, SharpDevelop, Rider, ScriptCS, Unity for Gaming, Xamarin for mobile, OmniSharp/VSCode. There has always been a set of people who don’t work here who have a fierce hunger to bring the elegance of C# to places beyond Microsoft and Windows. The significance of that force has grown tremendously in recent years and the result of that influence is evident today. A sizable chunk of the C# user base, for example, is from Unity. Game development, and development on or for Mac OS X are—not surprisingly—outside of Visual Basic’s wheelhouse.
The third force is the pull to embrace open source software, practices, and tools. This has been part of F#’s DNA forever and F# is leading the pack here. C# is ramping up here but has a great head start, again look at Mono. But also, because C# competes/attracts from languages and communities, like Java and C++, where a lot of this is already in their DNA. How long has C# been bringing Java open source tools to.NET (NHibernate, NUnit, etc.)? VB doesn’t have that in its DNA. It’s along for the ride in places like Roslyn but it’s a challenge to create that culture where there hasn’t been one before and where you can’t draw developers from communities where that culture exists.
The fourth force is an accelerated development cycle. Shipping software quickly is hard. Shipping quality software quickly is harder. Shipping quality software quickly for two (or three) languages so that they all get there on the same day is insanely hard. Realizing the software you shipped quickly was perhaps shipped too quickly and was possibly not the right design two (or three) times and now all the samples have to be redone is just wasteful. And when you’re a team putting out a minimum viable product looking for feedback to drive rapid iteration it makes sense to target the largest and most diverse set of developers you can with the highest probability of using it early and providing valuable feedback. Based on numbers and past behavior that’s C#. This isn’t always the case, as technologies such as the Universal Windows Platform, Windows 8.x apps, and Roslyn were all released with both VB and C# support out of the gate. These technologies had very long development cycles that lent themselves to the kind of planning and execution coordination required to deliver both as the same time. But agile products are increasingly the norm at Microsoft (and beyond), and in most cases we will draft in C# and follow with Visual Basic based on telemetry and talking to customers to identify high value scenarios.
Maybe I’ll call these the four “powerfuller entropic forces” because I’m a nerd.
A worthwhile observation is that, contrary to how customers often think of the causal relationship between them, the investments we make aren’t the force pushing the languages in these new arenas. The arenas are the forces pulling on them and the investments are responses. It’s not “if you just pushed Visual Basic harder on Linux it would be a huge player there” but “Gee, they really want C# on Linux, let’s make it easier for them”.
Moving Forward
So, what about the unifying forces—the common IDE and platform, the shared language heritage, the need for strong inter-language interoperability, and customer feedback? Those are all still active, alive and well. VB and C# still share an IDE in Visual Studio for Windows, they still share the.NET platform, a lot of the same customers, and they’re still basically similar languages. The “powerful unifying forces” aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
But with regard to the cloud and mobile, development beyond Visual Studio on Windows and for non-Windows platforms, and bleeding edge technologies we are leading with C#. This is because the audience in those spaces is demanding it. We will not shy away from Visual Basic open source contributions because in the long term any open source VB community is better than none. However, the focus for VB will be where VB is already or likely to be successful, i.e. primarily on Microsoft technologies and for Windows with an emphasis on bringing modern capabilities to existing solutions, developers, enterprises, and scenarios (e.g. SQL Azure). We’ll look for opportunities to bring new first-time developers into the Microsoft ecosystem through reinforcing Visual Basic’s brand as an approachable, productive tool for learning programming and rapidly building the kinds of applications it’s traditionally been great at.
This means:
Same great tooling—We started this with Roslyn in VS2015 with improvements to the code editing experience, such as refactoring and analyzers, and improvements to debugging such as new Edit-and-Continue functionality and support for LINQ and lambda expressions in the Immediate and Watch windows. Since VS2015 RTM almost every refactoring we’ve released in quarterly updates has been available in both C# and Visual Basic. And in VS2017 the new Live Unit Testing feature works for both C# and Visual Basic. Since 2015 we’ve been working on a language-neutral analysis API to make library analyzers which target both Visual Basic and C# much easier. We’re moving all three languages to the new project system. And the adoption of the Roslyn workspaces platform by F# are enabling both the F# team and the community to light up many of the same great experiences all Visual Studio users have come to expect from their IDE regardless of language. Keeping in mind the huge number of Visual Basic developers that also use C# and vice versa we delivered an unprecedented cross-language refactoring and code navigation experience in VS2015. We will continue to make the experience of dual-wielding VB and C# an epic one.
Same great platform—I continue to believe that.NET is the best thing to ever happen to Visual Basic, followed closely by Roslyn. Every time the platform has taken a leap, Visual Basic and C# have both jumped together (e.g. Generics, LINQ, Dynamic, and Async). Both languages were open sourced together, both compilers were made cross-platform together. In VS2017 Visual Basic will have full support for producing and consuming tuples and consuming ref-returning methods defined in referenced libraries. We want to make sure that VB continues to enjoy the benefits of the.NET platform, chief of which is a seamless interop on a common type system. It’s worth noting that F# did work here as well to ensure that it enjoys that same benefit. I would expect that as the design of Async streams and nullable-reference types stabilizes to see work in both VB and F# to take advantage of the new platform offerings. And we are working to ensure that Visual Basic can target.NET Standard to ensure your VB assets can continue to add value on.NET Core.
Same great language—Visual Basic is a powerful fully-featured language. There will be new features in Visual Basic that make it more productive with each version. Because of their similarities often a productive feature added to one language has been adopted by the other at the same time, not because anyone made us or because they were tied to the platform but because they were awesome (e.g. String Interpolation, the?. operator, and NameOf). And thanks to the open source community we’ve seen that true of F# as well where community contributors have added nameof and string interpolation. That will continue. But a feature that doesn’t add significant value to the VB customers and scenarios and isn’t central to the platform (e.g. UTF-8 strings) won’t be added to VB just because it’s added to C#. And I, as a language designer and compiler contributor, will be focusing my efforts on language improvements to double down on its approachability and productivity.
Hopefully this gives some insight into what I believe this shift in strategy means for Visual Basic and, as importantly, what it doesn’t mean.
RFC,
Anthony D. Green
Visual Basic Language DesignerSolomon challenged my definition of the word complementarian in the last post:
This isn’t true. Complementarianism is a term coined a little over twenty five years ago by Christians who wanted to preserve what they saw as feminist progress while avoiding what they saw as feminist excess. John Piper and Wayne Grudem explained this back in 1991 in the preface to their seminal book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism. Piper and Grudem explain that their purpose is to push back against the evangelical feminists arguing that there should be no difference between the roles of men and women. However, they are largely sympathetic to the feminist position, seeing it not as rebellion but as the understandable pushback from thousands of years of Christian error (emphasis mine):
…these authors differ from secular feminists because they do not reject the Bible’s authority or truthfulness, but rather give new interpretations of the Bible to support their claims. We may call them “evangelical feminists” because by personal commitment to Jesus Christ and by profession of belief in the total truthfulness of Scripture they still identify themselves very clearly with evangelicalism. Their arguments have been detailed, earnest, and persuasive to many Christians. What has been the result? Great uncertainty among evangelicals. Men and women simply are not sure what their roles should be. Traditional positions have not been totally satisfactory, because they have not fully answered the recent evangelical feminist arguments. Moreover, most Christians will admit that selfishness, irresponsibility, passivity, and abuse have often contaminated “traditional” patterns of how men and women relate to each other.
Note their adoption of the feminist frame via the claim that traditional marriage is contaminated by passivity and abuse. Here they are referencing their creation of the new feminist sin for wives (the sin of servility to husbands), as well as the feminist claim that traditional marriage is characterized by abuse of wives. They explain that their primary purpose is convince Christian feminists that complementarians have banished the errors of the patriarchal past. Complementarianism is a new vision that incorporates the best parts of feminism while retaining separate gender roles (emphasis mine):
But our primary purpose is broader than that: We want to help Christians recover a noble vision of manhood and womanhood as God created them to be -hence the main title, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Our vision is not entirely the same as “a traditional view.” We affirm that the evangelical feminist movement has pointed out many selfish and hurtful practices that have previously gone unquestioned. But we hope that this new vision-a vision of Biblical “complementarity”-will both correct the previous mistakes and avoid the opposite mistakes that come from the feminist blurring of God-given sexual distinctions. We hope that thousands of Christian women who read this book will come away feeling affirmed and encouraged to participate much more actively in many ministries, and to contribute their wisdom and insight to the family and the church. We hope they will feel fully equal to men in status before God, and in importance to the family and the church. We pray that, at the same time, this vision of equality and complementarity will enable Christian women to give wholehearted affirmation to Biblically balanced male leadership in the home and in the church.
This is not a call to end feminist rebellion, because they are largely sympathetic to feminism. When complementarians encounter the most overt feminist rebellion they go to laughable extremes to deny feminism and blame men and men alone. This is a plea to Christian women in rebellion to come back without fear of having their feminist sensibilities challenged. You can almost hear the music playing in the background as Piper and Grudem wrote the preface:
Baby come back! You can blame it all on me! I was wrong, and I just can’t live without you!
A bit further down they reiterate that they have coined a new term in order to avoid what they see as the stigma of traditionalism:
A brief note about terms: If one word must be used to describe our position, we prefer the term complementarian, since it suggests both equality and beneficial differences between men and women. We are uncomfortable with the term “traditionalist” because it implies an unwillingness to let Scripture challenge traditional patterns of behavior, and we certainly reject the term “hierarchicalist” because it overemphasizes structured authority while giving no suggestion of equality or the beauty of mutual interdependence.
This is the origin of the term from the founders of the CBMW, one of the two flagships of the complementarian movement*. The other flagship of the movement is The Gospel Coalition (TGC), founded by D.A. Carson and Tim Keller. Here is women’s studies professor Mary Kassian explaining the origin of the term at TGC:
Though the concept of male-female complementarity can be seen from Genesis through Revelation, the label “complementarian” has only been in use for about 25 years. It was coined by a group of scholars who got together to try and come up with a word to describe someone who ascribes to the historic, biblical idea that male and female are equal, but different. The need for such a label arose in response to the proposition that equality means role-interchangeability (egalitarianism)—-a concept first forwarded and popularized in evangelical circles in the 1970s and 1980s by “Biblical Feminists.” I’ve read several articles lately from people who misunderstand and/or misrepresent the complementarian view. I was at the meeting 25 years ago where the word “complementarian” was chosen. So I think I have a pretty good grasp on the word’s definition.
Kassian emphasizes that the term is designed to conserve the progress of the 1960s:
2. June Cleaver is so 1950s and so not the definition of complementarity. In our name-the-concept meeting, someone mentioned the word “traditionalism,” since our position is what Christians have traditionally believed. But that was quickly nixed. The word “traditionalism” smacks of “tradition.” Complementarians believe that the Bible’s principles supersede tradition. They can be applied in every time and culture. June Cleaver is a traditional, American, TV stereotype. She is not the complementarian ideal. Period. (And exclamation mark!) Culture has changed. What complementarity looks like now is different than what it looked like 60 or 70 years ago. So throw out the cookie-cutter stereotype. It does not apply.
*These two groups aren’t entirely separate, as there is much overlap among the major movers of these organizations. John Piper is featured in the TGC overview video, and Mary Kassian is a member of the CBMW Council.
Related:
AdvertisementsWhat’s going on with young American men? Another mass shooting has led to another round of social and political recriminations. A young man—a “loner” and “adrift,” as usual—seizes a vile cause and attacks innocent people. Amidst the wreckage, we look for reasons that already fit our preconceptions about violence, and we blame racism, guns, unemployment, drugs, a bad family, or whatever else helps us to make sense of the tragedy.
But the truth of the matter is that Dylann Roof (at least from what we know) isn’t that different from so many other young, mostly white men over the past 30 years or so who have lashed out against their society in different ways. Although mass killers understandably seize our imaginations and dominate the media, and not all dysfunctional young males are violent and not all of them gain the publicity they crave. Some are terrorists, others are murderers, and some are merely vandals. A few are traitors and deserters.
What they all have in common is their gender (male), their race (most are white), and their youth (almost all under 30 at their peak destructiveness). Beyond this, they seem to share little beyond a stubborn immaturity wedded to a towering narcissism. In almost every case, they dress their anger in the clothes of ideology: white supremacy, jihad, hatred of abortion, or anti-government paranoia. Stuck in perpetual adolescence, they see only their own imagined virtue amidst irredeemable corruption. In a typical sentiment, Roof wrote before his rampage that “someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”
The Lost Boys Arise
This is the battle cry of the narcissist, and we’ve heard it before. Western societies are producing more and more of these Lost Boys, the fail-to-launch young men who carry weighty social grudges. Some of them kill, but others lash out in other, more creative ways: whether it’s Edward Snowden deciding only he could save America from the scourge of surveillance, or Bowe Bergdahl walking away from his post to personally solve the war in Afghanistan, the combination of immaturity and grandiosity among these young males is jaw-dropping in its scale even when it is not expressed through the barrel of a gun.
These young losers live through heroic fantasies and constructed identities rather than through work and human relationships.
Obviously, I am not suggesting that Snowden or Bergdahl are killers. If anything, these lost young men seem to be impossibly sensitive souls. (I will leave aside the actions of Chelsea Manning in this context, whose story is more complex than I can comprehend.) Yet all of them committed immensely destructive acts, and for reasons that were as rooted in their own failed manhood and maturity as Roof’s.There are others: John Walker Lindh, “the American Taliban,” spent his teen years hanging around in Internet chat rooms before became a jihadi at 20. Timothy McVeigh, a bullied little boy, planned his terrorist attack on a federal building after quitting the Army in his twenties. John Salvi, another loner, shot up an abortion clinic at 22. The list could go on.These young losers live through heroic fantasies and constructed identities rather than through work and human relationships: on the Internet, Snowden was “Wolfking Awesomefox,” which almost defies parody, while McVeigh thought of himself as a modern Paul Revere. Their lives, until the moment of their individual tragedy, are full of desperate attempts to spackle over the gaping hole of insecurity that should have been filled by the arrival of manhood sometime after high school.
Deep Frustrations about Sex and Identity
Make no mistake: this is almost exclusively a masculine phenomenon. Women, especially in the West, are not usually the perpetrators of massacres or other spectacular anti-social acts. This is not a novel observation, but it’s worth remembering the important role sex and masculine identity—or the lack of one—play in the life of dysfunctional young men. In many cases, these man-boys are confused about their sexuality and frustrated by their own social awkwardness, and seek to compensate for it. They turn into what German writer Hans Enzensberger called “the radicalized losers,” the unsuccessful males who channel their blunted male social impulses toward destruction.
These man-boys are confused about their sexuality and frustrated by their own social awkwardness, and seek to compensate for it.
These frustrations about sex and identity are especially dangerous when they flare into violence. Roof raged about blacks “raping our women,” a concern almost identical to those expressed by the group of wannabe-jihadis thwarted some years ago in Canada who were obsessed with the idea that Canadian soldiers were raping Afghan women. Eliot Rodger, the young man who killed three people before plowing his car into many others near the University of California-Santa Barbara in 2014, explicitly said he was punishing other men—and, of course, the slutty women who love them—for being more sexually successful than he.
Jihadis, of course, are the object lesson in this kind of deformed male identity. For all their faux piety and supposed distaste for Western immorality, the young men from North America and Europe who gravitate toward jihadism are often gleeful consumers of forbidden Western delights, and they have a particular obsession with rape, pornography, and an adolescent fixation on the subjugation of women. Terrorist organizations overseas are happy to accommodate this need: it’s not a coincidence that almost every time a jihadi nest gets raided, there’s plenty of porn to be found. Even Bin Laden had a voracious appetite for it.
The Narcissistic Revenge of Angry Losers
Angry losers are not a new or exotic phenomenon. What’s different now, however, is how social media and the unarguable growth of narcissism among younger people are creating a new kind of lashing out. It’s not enough to kill people or to strike at symbols of authority like the government; today, a new breed of young losers insists on larger social relevance and mass recognition for their actions. We once thought it disturbing that someone like the Unabomber would demand that the world read his silly manifesto; now we’re surprised if a young man who engages in a gigantic crime of any kind doesn’t leave behind some kind of testimony for his imagined legions of fans on the Internet.
Social media and the unarguable growth of narcissism among younger people are creating a new kind of lashing out.
Young black men, of course, actually harm each other more often and in more disproportionate numbers than the angry white losers. I am not a sociologist, and I am not going to digress into the problems of the inner city. It seems unarguable, however, that young black males who prey on their own society share one essential trait in common with the white losers who act out and harm strangers: they are not men in any sense of the word that connotes responsibility, restraint, self-discipline, or the other traditional masculine virtues.
These are the qualities of “manliness” described by Harvard University professor Harvey Mansfield some years ago, and whose disappearance from modern society Mansfield not only lamented but also presciently warned would have baleful consequences. Like their white brethren, dangerous black males are angry and childish, but their effect usually does not reach beyond their own neighborhoods. Likewise, the media and the public, for a variety of tragic reasons, simply do not respond to the daily violence among young blacks the same way they respond to the showy productions executed by angry white males.
Portrait of a Misfit as a Young Man
Indeed, it is telling that we pay attention only when white kids—or, as in the Virginia Tech case, an emotionally disturbed Asian—snap. There is a subtle, even unconscious racism at work here, to be sure. Perhaps we are shocked when young men who we think might have more of a stake in the social order turn on it. Or perhaps we are now simply numb to urban black violence.
It is telling that we pay attention only when white kids snap.
Even in the world of espionage, however, there seems to be a public double standard: many people look up to Snowden as a celebrity, while just a few months ago former Central Intelligence Agency officer Jeffery Sterling, an African-American, was sent off to federal prison for leaking American secrets with nary a peep from the public. (I think both Sterling and Snowden are criminals, for what it’s worth.)
Still, the alienated young loners, especially those who commit spectacular acts of violence, are largely a white phenomenon. As loath as we are to accept it, Roof is different only in degree, but not in kind, from young men like Lindh, Snowden, Bergdahl, Salvi, Britain’s “Jihadi John” (another middle-class “quiet kid” who turned against his own society) and others.
This is a disturbing charge, but consider for just a moment the ways in all these young men are similar, rather than different. They are aloof, and their peers generally do not understand them. They may be liked in a small circle of people, but they also make those same people uncomfortable. Their adolescence, which should have been shed years earlier, has stayed with them like a worn t-shirt or a beat-up pair shoes they couldn’t bring themselves to throw away. Whether fascinated by hip-hop culture like Lindh and Jihadi John, or living a virtual life online like Snowden, they do not move on to the responsibilities of adulthood.
Working life is out of the question: these are young men who imagine themselves cut out for more important things.
They find education tedious, not least because even the normal challenges of high school require the social skills they lack. College, if they make it that far, is just another arena for social failure. Working life is out of the question: these are young men who imagine themselves cut out for more important things, whether music stardom or greater missions like, say, saving the United States from tyranny or from a foreign war. Or, in Roof’s case, white maidens from the fearsome sexuality of black men.
The military, or at least a fascination with the military and its symbols, is often a short-term solution for these boys. Many of these young misfits are mesmerized, as boys transitioning to men often are, with symbols of sex and power: guns, the military, and heroic medieval myths. (It is now a sad trope that every tragedy inevitably turns up Facebook pages and pictures of the perpetrators in wannabe gangster or paramilitary poses.) Very few Americans serve in the military, yet among this small sample of alienated losers, many either joined or tried to join the Army, including McVeigh, Snowden, Bergdahl, and, while he identified as a male, a young Bradley Manning. Two tried for the Special Forces. (Lindh, I suppose, joined up too, but in a different army.) You don’t have to be a statistician to find that odd.
An Inability to Handle Real Difficulty
Their experiences varied, but none were successful. McVeigh was briefly a competent soldier, but left the Army after being judged too psychologically unstable for the Special Forces assignment he wanted. Bergdahl went to Afghanistan to change the world. When life in the Army turned out to be beneath him, he decided that he was special enough to walk off and reason with the enemy one-on-one—after, of course, leaving a list of gripes. Manning was a problem from his first days in the Army, and was finally sent to Iraq to a desk job.
This Manichean worldview, the division of the world into a childish game of Cowboys and Indians, is another commonality among these man-boys.
Snowden, too, made a run at being a military hero. Unable to finish high school, Snowden tried the military cure and never even got through infantry training. With adolescent fantasies of grandeur, the young Wolfking, the “TrueHOOHA” (as he was known in another of his identities on the Internet) also headed for the Special Forces—every little boy wants to be the bravest soldier in the Army, apparently—only to find that things like standing up straight and getting out of bed in the morning were skills he’d have to master before he could jump out of airplanes with a knife in his teeth.
Snowden found people on the Internet—or, far more likely, they found him—and suddenly, a life with meaning was in his reach. He would be the greatest champion of liberty in U.S. history. Like many permanent teenagers, his political beliefs were rigid, but fickle: before he became a champion of stealing U.S. secrets, he said that people who reveal classified information should be shot. Taking a shortcut to glory, he stole thousands upon thousands of documents, most of which he now admits he never read. These days, he lectures us on our civic duty to democracy from his safe house in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
This Manichean worldview, the division of the world into a childish game of Cowboys and Indians, is another commonality among these man-boys. Roof chose white supremacy, Lindh and the radicalized losers of Europe chose jihad, Snowden chose a caricature of civil libertarianism. If it hadn’t been one of these causes, it would have been something else: I have no doubt that at some point we will see a mass murder or anti-government attack committed by a spelling reformer or a raw-milk advocate, if that’s what it takes for a screwed-up adolescent to act out his rage against a world that refuses to acknowledges his specialness.
A Failure to Mature Out of Social Confusion
Intelligence analyst John Schindler has identified these males as a generational “insider threat” to the security of the United States. He has a point. For years, Schindler warned anyone who would listen that that the U.S. intelligence community, as he later put it on Twitter, was “one disgruntled, maladjusted dork away from disaster,” and he was right. In a darker but similar vein, former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Dave Gomez noted after the Roof case that many of these young men “are guys with anger issues about race and unfairness and loneliness and inadequacy, and they find this stuff online and start copying the rhetoric. Instead of meeting in a hall somewhere, they meet in chat rooms….and most of them never do anything but talk.”
The mainspring of their actions is a juvenile narcissism that grows out of social resentment and a failure to mature.
The argument here is not that Bergdahl and Snowden are potential killers, or that all introverted or awkward young men threats to society. Indeed, any man who has never gone through phases of introversion and awkwardness is unusual. In fact, sometimes extroverted young men are monsters: in the case of the Boston bombing, the older Tsarnaev brother fits the bill of the creepy, disappointed narcissist, while his younger brother, now sentenced to death, really does seem to be nothing more than an aimless pothead who knew how to have a good time, but who could not bear to disappoint his weird brother.
Nonetheless, social isolation is an important, even key, factor in the paths chosen by these males. The mainspring of their actions is a juvenile narcissism that grows out of social resentment and a failure to mature. And this should matter to all of us, because when society breeds too many narcissistic males determined to get even with a world that denies them their due—the fame, recognition, or sexual mate they think they deserve—we’re all in danger.
Why Modern Society Creates Destructive Outcasts
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tracked by the Time Projection Chamber of the STAR detector. Because the proton comes out nearly aligned with the hyperon's spin direction, tracking where these "daughter" protons strike the detector can be a stand-in for tracking how the hyperons' spins are aligned.
"The theory is that if I have a fluid with vorticity — a whirling substructure — it tends to align the spins of the particles it emits in the same direction as the whirls," Lisa said. And, while there can be many small whirlpools within the QGP all pointing in random directions, on average their spins should align with what's known as the angular momentum of the system — a rotation of the system generated by the colliding particles as they speed past one another at nearly the speed of light.
To track the spinning particles and the angular momentum, STAR physicists correlated simultaneous measurements at two different detector components. The first, known as the Beam-Beam Counters, sit at the front and rear ends of the house-size STAR detector, catching subtle deflections in the paths of colliding particles as they pass by one another. The size and direction of the deflection tells the physicists how much angular momentum there is and which way it is pointing for each collision event.
Meanwhile, STAR's Time Project Chamber, a gas-filled chamber that surrounds the collision zone, tracks the paths of hundreds or even thousands of particles that come out perpendicular to the center of the collisions.
"We're specifically looking for signs of Lambda hyperons, spinning particles that decay into a proton and a pion that we measure in the Time Projection Chamber," said Ernst Sichtermann, a deputy STAR spokesperson and senior scientist at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Because the proton comes out nearly aligned with the hyperon's spin direction, tracking where these "daughter" protons strike the detector can be a stand-in for tracking how the hyperons' spins are aligned.
"We are looking for some systematic preference for the direction of these daughter protons aligned with the angular momentum we measure in the Beam-Beam Counters," Upsal said. "The magnitude of that preference tells us the degree of vorticity — the average rate of swirling — of the QGP."
Super spin
Tracking particle spins reveals that the quark-gluon plasma created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is more swirly than the cores of super-cell tornados, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, or any other fluid!
The results reveal that RHIC collisions create the most vortical fluid ever, a QGP spinning faster than a speeding tornado, more powerful than the fastest spinning fluid on record. "So the most ideal fluid with the smallest viscosity also has the most vorticity," Lisa said.
This kind of makes sense, because low viscosity in the QGP allows the vorticity to persist, Lisa said. "Viscosity destroys whirls. With QGP, if you set it spinning, it tends to keep on spinning."
The data are also in the ballpark of what different theories predicted for QGP vorticity. "Different theories predict different amounts, depending on what parameters they include, so our results will help us sort through those theories and determine which factors are most relevant," said Sergei Voloshin, a STAR collaborator from Wayne State University. "But most of the theoretical predications were too low," he added. "Our measurements show that the QGP is even more vortical than predicted."
This discovery was made during the Beam Energy Scan program, which exploits RHIC's unique ability to systematically vary the energy of collisions over a range in which other particularly interesting phenomena have been observed. In fact, theories suggest that this may be the optimal range for the discovery and subsequent study of the vorticity-induced spin alignment, since the effect is expected to diminish at higher energy.
Increasing the numbers of Lambda hyperons tracked in future collisions at RHIC will improve the STAR scientists' ability to use these measurements to calculate the strength of the magnetic field generated in RHIC collisions. The strength of magnetism influences the movement of charged particles as they are created and emerge from RHIC collisions, so measuring its strength is important to fully characterize the QGP, including how it separates differently charged particles.
"Theory predicts that the magnetic field created in heavy ion experiments is much higher than any other magnetic field in the universe," Lisa said. At the very least, being able to measure it accurately may nab another record for QGP.
Research at RHIC and with the STAR detector is funded primarily by the DOE Office of Science (NP), and also by these agencies and organizations. Lisa's work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
Visit Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics, and more at http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom, follow Brookhaven Lab on Twitter, http://twitter.com/BrookhavenLab, or find us on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/BrookhavenLab/.Millennials, contrary to public opinion, are prudishly conservative investors, not the "lazy, entitled narcissists" of lore. But they sure could learn a thing or two from their elders about investing. Though some of the Millennials surveyed, aged 21 to 36, are not quite Penta's multi-millionaires themselves, if they ever hope to be, they had better become more tolerant of risk.
In a study conducted by UBS, of some 1,600 affluent and high net-worth investors, Millennials kept a startling 52% of their portfolio in cash, with 7% in fixed income, and just 28% in stocks (the remainder is a catch-all category, including alternative investments and commodities, labelled "Other"). By itself, unreasonably conservative, but particularly so when stacked against the average asset allocations of non-Millennials, ages 37-plus, who kept 23% cash, 15% in fixed income, and 46% in stocks.
"The Next Gen investor is markedly conservative, more like the WWII generation who came of age during the Great Depression and are in retirement," UBS concluded.
Having come of age during the financial crisis, a deep skepticism of the stock market seems to be behind their preference for cash piles. UBS asked, "How did you, or do you, plan to achieve success? Please select up to three most important factors." Millennials chose a few obvious factors, like "working hard" and "saving/living frugally;" only 28% picked "long-term investing," their second to last choice. Investing for the long haul was the top selection of 52% of the non-Millennials.
There was more of the same sort of data emerging from a similar Fidelity study of 813 young investors. About half of Fidelity's "Millionaires of Tomorrow," are 21 to 48 year-olds with nearly $1 million in investable assets. These future high net-worth types are expected to amass $41 trillion in assets by 2023. Fidelity reports they are "focusing their investment strategies on reducing risk, minimizing loss and avoiding market volatility." That's not a bad strategy if you're approaching retirement, but given the age of these folks, history suggests they should be much more risk-tolerant with their allocations, if they want to retire fat.
What they don't realize, perhaps, is that their second largest asset class –"cash, CDs, and money markets"—are earning negative returns after inflation, slowly eroding their nest eggs. Over the past 141 years, equities on average have returned 6% annually, after inflation. That data even includes the most recent financial crisis and the Great Depression. (Millennials wanting to better understand why, historically, investing in the stock market is wise, should read Barron's recent cover, "We Were Right!")
So how should an aspiring Penta millionaire be positioned for the future? One simple tip is to learn from his or her elders. TIGER 21 is an organization of 240 investors, each with an average $23 million in assets and 30% of whom are finance professionals still actively managing assets for clients. On a monthly basis, TIGER members get together for a workshop named "Portfolio Defense," whereby 10 to 14 peers sit down to discuss, or perhaps a better word is "criticize," each other's asset allocation.
Contrary to the hunkering Millennials, TIGER members are ratcheting up the risk continuum. Their allocation to risky assets—public and private equity— has become an overwhelming portion of their overall portfolio, now at 73%. That's on the recognition that cash will earn negative returns and yields on bonds are at best middling, says TIGER co-founder Michael Sonnenfeldt.
Private equity, now averaging 21% of the members' portfolios, is up 10 percentage points from five years ago. These well-heeled investors were also severely affected by the financial crisis, but they recovered their risk appetite, and the private equity push reflects a strong "back-to-basics" sensibility among the group. "Members are increasingly embracing private equity, either through [leveraged buyouts] or venture capital," says Sonnenfeldt, but do so wisely, primarily taking stakes in companies and industries where they have expertise.
Others made thematic investments, such as investing in private equity firms that capitalize on the U.S. energy revolution or on European distressed debt. An appreciation for ETFs is also new to the model TIGER portfolio, with two ETFs creeping into TIGER members' top five equity selections list these last two years. They are, the iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (ticker: EFA), that tracks developed market stocks in Europe, Australia, Asia and the Far East, and the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), that tracks the U.S. market. Irrespective of the bloodletting last month, the Emerging Markets ETF is a play on long-term emerging market growth that members think will be profitable over a longer time horizon. Furthermore, ETFs have low fees, at 0.34% and 0.09% respectively, that are attractive to TIGER members, Sonnenfeldt says, since capital gains taxes have increased to 23.8%, from 15%, for single filers with annual income over $400,000.
Millennials have largely missed the stock market recovery these past few years. When an old codger starts wheezing on about investing in the stock market, a better strategy – to rolling eyes – is actually listening to what he has to say.Zeli
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Flesh Jelly Happy 10th Anniversary MPers! Quote Select Post
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Yesterday was the 10 year anniversary of the day we made our first guild together in DAoC. Over the years, we've made some mistakes, learned some lessons, played more than a few games and managed to pick up a few new friends.
We never intended to make a guild or a gaming community. It just happened out of a stubborn desire to keep gaming together. Our interest in a game may fizzle, we may wander off for a time, conflicts arise and get resolved, and we keep coming back to this online gaming family that started a decade ago.
You can still find our original guild from DAoC, Circle of Trust, still going through our great and powerful Wubbie who posted this yesterday to the Circle of Trust facebook page:
Circle of Trust I love you. While everyone else abandoned you in Dark Age, I, the Wubbster, have not. Our love grows deeper and deeper with each arrow I put into some unsuspecting mid or hib. Later on, you can unwrap the present I got you and we'll turn the lights down low. Shhh....you had me at taint
Yesterday was the 10 year anniversary of the day we made our first guild together in DAoC. Over the years, we've made some mistakes, learned some lessons, played more than a few games and managed to pick up a few new friends.We never intended to make a guild or a gaming community. It just happened out of a stubborn desire to keep gaming together. Our interest in a game may fizzle, we may wander off for a time, conflicts arise and get resolved, and we keep coming back to this online gaming family that started a decade ago.You can still find our original guild from DAoC, Circle of Trust, still going through our great and powerful Wubbie who posted this yesterday to the Circle of Trust facebook page:Lim said he believes that there are currently civil servants who are drowning in debt as they are unable to repay loan sharks who charged high interest repayment rates. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng
GEORGE TOWN, Feb 6 — Civil servants should seek the help of the Penang government if they had taken loans from loan sharks, Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng said today.
In a bid to stop civil servants from taking loans from illegal money lenders known locally as "ah longs", Lim said the state will ensure that these "ah longs" will not want to lend money to civil servants in future.
"Those who have borrowed from ah longs, come to us. We will make reports and take action to help so that you only pay back the capital and not the high interest rates," he said in his speech at the monthly civil servants assembly this morning.
He added that once civil servants borrowed from ah longs, they have to pay back the sum they borrowed but the state together with the police will ensure that the ah longs will not get any interests from the loans.
"This is so that they know that they will not profit from giving loans to civil servants and this will stop them from lending money to civil servants," he said
Lim said he believes that there are currently civil servants who are drowning in debt as they are unable to repay loan sharks who charged high interest repayment rates.
"This may be a sensitive issue but this problem exists amongst the civil servants as it exists amongst the general public," he said.
He said this is why the state government must do something to stop this unhealthy habit.
"We are not blaming the ah longs or those who borrowed from ah longs, we will not punish anyone. The ah longs will get back their capital but without high interests so that they get the message that they must not loan money to civil servants," he said.
He said the state secretary Datuk Seri Farizan Darus will monitor this issue closely.
In commenting on this, Farizan said he had issued a circular in mid January to all heads of departments to check for "high risk" staffs within each department.
"The high risk group is those whose take home pay is 40 per cent and less of their salary where deductions constituted more than 60 per cent of their salary," he said.
He said the head of departments will list out those in the high risk groups and arrange for one-to-one meetings with them.
"I am still awaiting reports from the head of departments and we will also check if any of them took loans from ah long," he said.Hyderabad: Firebrand Muslim leader Asaduddin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has received threat from the Islamic State.
The Hyderabad MP said that he has been warned by the ISIS terror group on Twitter to keep his mouth shut.
“Its better for you to shut your mouth on Islamic State if you don't know the truth, IslamicState will invade india soon (sic),” a Twitter handle in the name of @abotalout warned Owaisi.
A second tweet read: “Your Disgrace for Muslims of India. Opposing islamicstate will lead you to hell only repent before end (sic).”
The tweets are suspected to have originated from an ISIS managed account.
Owaisi, meanwhile, responded to the tweets:
@abotalout sir you are a bloody Takfiri if you want to debate on Evil ISIS I am ready you will not be able to counter my Theological Points — Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) January 6, 2016
@abotalout you can dream so keep dreaming Takfiri read @Shaykhabulhuda book on ISIS will bring y out of Darkness of ISIS Allah give Taufeeq — Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) January 6, 2016
The AIMIM chief has in the recent past spoken against the ISIS and this is what is believed to have led to the threatening tweets.According to a Farsi report by IRNA, an anonymous group recently posted invitations in social media, asking people to attend a protest gathering in front on British embassy in Tehran on Monday.
However, Ali-Asghar Nasserbakht, the deputy governor of Tehran, announced that no licence has been issued for holding any gathering in front of foreign embassies, including the British embassy, in Tehran.
“No request for holding any gathering in front of British embassy has been submitted to the governor’s office yet,” he noted.
Therefore, he added, holding any gathering in front of embassies, including that of Britain, is a violation of law, and protesters will be prosecuted.
“Security bodies, including the Law Enforcement, will legally prevent any illegal gathering in front of embassies,” Nasserbakht went on to say.
The calls for protest rallies against Britain came after the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei harshly criticized British officials, particularly Prime Minister Theresa May, for their recent anti-Iran allegations.
“In recent days, the Britons have labeled – in the most shameful manner – the oppressed and dear Iran as a threat to the region but everybody knows that contrary to such allegations, this is the British (officials) who have been always the source and root cause of threat, corruption, danger and misery,” the Leader noted on Saturday.
The Leader made the remarks after British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Thursday summoned the Iranian and Russian ambassadors to convey his ‘profound concern’ over Tehran and Moscow’s roles in the ‘suffering’ of Aleppo’s residents.
Johnson alleged that Iran and Russia had failed to uphold “humanitarian law” by not helping aid get to Aleppo when it was under siege, Tasnim reported.
In the meantime, British Prime Minister May has also said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia and Iran “bear responsibility for the tragedy in Aleppo.”The creators of Guitar Center Sessions are musicians themselves, so they have a very clear goals in mind when it comes to their nationally aired program: The want it to be the best sounding music show on the air, they want to give artists a platform to expose their music and they want to bypass the usual sensationalist television schtick.
“We wanted to make this show about the art,” says Executive Producer of 'Sessions, Dustin Hinz. “We're musicians so we [wanted to make it so] when you watch the show, you're actually inspired to pick up an instrument.”
To do that, they recruit artists that, as Hinz says “have a sincere level of musicianship.” And if you want to find artists that still play their instruments and write their own songs in a musical climate saturated with vocal-based pop music, you need look no further than our scene.
“Bands like Frank Turner and Asking Alexandria and Alkaline Trio [who are all featured on this season of Guitar Center Sessions] are inspiring the next generation of musicians the same way that a guy like Joe Walsh might have—a nd to this day still does, but definitely did back in the ‘60s and ‘70s when he was the same age as the bands today.”
—
This season's airing schedule:
JUNE 21 ALKALINE TRIO
JUNE 28 TALIB KWELI
JULY 12 ASKING ALEXANDRIA
JULY 19 ALL TIME LOW
JULY 26 THENEWNO2
—
Today, we’re giving you a preview of this Friday’s session, featuring Alkaline Trio with a performance clip of their classic and fan-beloved “Cringe,” the opening track from the band’s debut full-length, Goddamnit!.
“[Cringe] is a pretty fun, high-energy tune, and the few fans we had at the time [we released it] really responded to it,” says Alkaline Trio vocalist/bassist Dan Andriano. “I love playing it to this day because it reminds me of that energy and the connection we began to share with the crowd, which is something we've strived to maintain to this day.”
Of collaborating with Guitar Center for the session, Andriano adds:
“Besides stopping by multiple Guitar Centers on every tour we've ever done, we were fortunate enough to do “Live At Guitar Center” last year. It was an acoustic performance and fun, but we were excited to come back for a full plugged in set on Guitar Center Sessions around the release of our new record, My Shame Is True.
“We are fans of the show and it was on our wish list, so when the opportunity came up, we jumped on it. The performances of the new songs are the first time those were played live, actually.”
Tune in this Friday, June 21, at 9 p.m. ET to catch ‘Trio’s session on Direct TV!The mine would be kept warm by chickens
Civil servants at the National Archives say it is a coincidence the secret plan is being revealed on 1 April.
The Army planned to detonate the seven-tonne device on the German plains in the event of having to retreat.
Operation Blue Peacock forms part of an exhibition for the National Archives, in Kew, London, on Friday.
Professor Peter Hennessy, curator of the Secret State exhibition, told the Times: "It is not an April Fool. These documents come straight from the archives at Aldermaston. Why and how would we forge them?"
The Civil Service does not do jokes
Tom O'Leary, National Archives
The bomb was designed to stop the Red Army advancing across West Germany during the height of the Cold War.
But nuclear physicists at the Aldermaston nuclear research station in Berkshire were worried about how to keep the landmine at the correct temperature when buried underground.
In a 1957 document they proposed live chickens would generate enough heat to ensure the bomb worked when buried for a week.
The birds would be put inside the casing of the bomb, given seed to keep them alive and stopped from pecking at the wiring.
The landmine would be remotely detonated.
Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the National Archives, told the paper: "It does seem like an April Fool but it most certainly is not. The Civil Service does not do jokes."You can’t swing a dead cat six inches these days without hitting a a new Kickstarter project. When it works, Kickstarter is a great way to tie niche ideas or new concepts directly to people interested in funding the exploration of those concepts. Not every type of product works with crowdfunding, however, and some of the ideas being marketed through the site attempt to hide underlying flaws that make the venture a dubious proposition.
Case in point: Adapteva. The fledgling company has designed a many-core floating point processor with extremely low power consumption. Current designs can scale up to 4096 cores and are built on a mainstream 65nm process to save money. The company’s website and introduction contain a great deal of information on topics we’ve also covered. It identifies the scaling issues facing multi-core/many-core devices and the challenges associated with scaling current architectures. So far, so good.
What Aptiva is campaigning for on Kickstarter is sufficient funding to build a completely open platform that provides both programming environments and commodity hardware for parallel programming. This platform, dubbed Parallela, eschews NDAs and licensing and is targeting a $100 price point. Hardware specs are as follows:
Dual-core ARM A9 CPU
Epiphany Multicore Accelerator (16 or 64 cores)
1GB RAM
MicroSD Card
USB 2.0 (two)
Two general purpose expansion connectors
Ethernet 10/100/1000
HDMI connection
Ships with Ubuntu OS
Ships with free open source Epiphany development tools that include C compiler, multicore debugger, Eclipse IDE, OpenCL SDK/compiler, and run time libraries.
Dimensions are 3.4 x 2.1 inches
The dual A9 cores are necessary, Adapteva’s Epiphany Iv processor is an FPU co-processor, not a full chip in and of itself. The company claims that “the Parallella computer should deliver up to 45GHz of equivalent CPU performance on a board the size of a credit card while consuming only 5 Watts under typical work loads. Counting GHz, this is more horsepower than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and consuming 400W.”
Reality would like a word with you
The problem with what Adapteva is claiming is neatly summarized by a blog post on the company’s own website. On September 7, Andreas Olofsson published a list of parallel processing efforts by different companies. According to him, “There have been some bright spots for application specific parallel processors with limited programmability, but the success rate of general purpose parallel programmable processors is an approximate 0%. I compiled the the following list to stay sober regarding our own chances to succeed as a parallel processor company.”
There are 84 separate initiatives listed.
The reason for this is pretty simple. The Epiphany IV architecture, like a number of many-core architectures, dumps most of the features that CPUs (both RISC and CISC) have relied on to boost performance over the past thirty years. There are no caches; each core is assigned its own slice of RAM. Cores can access data held by other cores, but the latency impact will inevitably be considerable. The goal is to create parallel structures that can be split into independent workloads that fit in each core’s local memory. The specs above imply that each Parallela platform will have between 16-64MB of RAM depending on the final number of processors.
The reason Intel, AMD, and Nvidia haven’t gone down this road is because the final product is extremely specialized. Adapteva has created an FPU co-processor that’s extremely good at a very narrow set of tasks. Unfortunately, this is completely out of step with the general goals of the computing industry. Over the past thirty years, controllers and co-processors that once required their own expansion cards or motherboard sockets have steadily moved away from separate hardware implementations and towards integration — first on the motherboard, and now on the processor.
The problem with using Kickstarter to fund a venture like this is that Adapteva is drastically overselling what the Epiphany IV can actually deliver. 16-64 tiny cores with small amounts of memory, no local caches, and a relatively low clock speed can still be useful in certain workloads, but contributors aren’t buying a supercomputer — they’re buying the real-world equivalent of a self-sealing stem bolt.
Now, if you happen to need a self-sealing stem bolt, that’s a fine thing. For the 99.9% of tasks that aren’t suited to the particular features of a stem bolt, it’s not very useful. Seeding a few thousand development kits to contributors is an interesting way to drive grass roots adoption, but there’s no reason to think that the real future of many-core computing will rely on thousands of slow, tiny cores with minimal features. If anything, current trends point in the opposite direction, and the company’s grandiose promises of supercomputing leave us even more suspicious.Three more weapons from Fast and Furious have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico, CBS News has learned, as the toll from the controversial federal operation grows.
According to Justice Department tracing documents obtained by CBS News, all three guns are WASR-10 762-caliber Romanian rifles. Two were purchased by Fast and Furious suspect Uriel Patino in May and July of 2010. Sean Steward, who was convicted on gun charges in July 2012, purchased a third. The rifles were traced yesterday to the Lone Wolf gun shop in Glendale, Ariz.
During Fast and Furious and similar operations, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) encouraged the Lone Wolf and other gun stores to sell massive amounts of weapons to questionable purchasers who allegedly trafficked them Mexican drug cartels.
Patino is said to have purchased 700 guns while under ATF's watch. Ever since, a steady stream of the guns have been recovered at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. But the Justice Department has refused repeated requests from Congress and CBS News to provide a full accounting. An estimated 1,400 guns are still on the street or unaccounted for.
Slain border agent's family wants answers
Agent: ATF partly to blame for Mexico violence
Holder held in contempt
Last November, a Fast and Furious weapon wasfound at a shootout between a Mexican drug cartel and soldiers where a beauty queen was killed. Two weapons used in the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico on Feb. 15, 2011 also came from suspects who were under ATF watch but not arrested at the time. And two Fast and Furious AK-47 type rifles were recovered fromthe murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010; he'd been shot by illegal immigrants who were smuggling drugs.
ATF special agent John Dodson blew the whistle on his agency's gunwalking in an interview with CBS News in 2011.
The government first denied any guns had been allowed to "walk" into criminal hands. Later, the Justice Department acknowledged using the strategy, claiming it was intended to see where the weapons ended up in hopes of capturing a major cartel leader. But the agency ordered an immediate halt to the practice calling it highly improper.
The Justice Department's refusal to turn over certain Fast and Furious documents led to a bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives in June 2012 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Then, the Obama administration used executive privilege for the first time, to withhold requested documents from Congress. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is suing for release of the material.Dan Matson of Ashburn, Va., Ned Ende of Richmond, Va. and Tyler Rihn of Leesburg, Va. celebrate graduation at the University of Virginia, Sat. May 20, 2017 while remembering their friend Otto Warmbier who is being detained in North Korea following a trip there in January 2016. (Photo by Norm Shafer/ For The Washington Post).
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A champagne bottle-shaped balloon broke free from thousands of bobbing balloons held by University of Virginia graduates Saturday morning and drifted off into the blue sky over the school’s historic Rotunda, with the black-robed crowd cheering it on. Just before the graduates marched up the stairs to walk the Lawn for commencement weekend, Sanjana Sekhar, holding her own balloon, handing out stickers, smiled and said, “I think this is what Otto would want — for us to enjoy the day, and think about him too.”
Amid all the joy, and the orange sundresses, and the cartoon-like balloons, and the promise of bright futures, and the beaming parents snapping photos, one person was missing.
Otto Warmbier, whose classmates at U-Va. are graduating this weekend, has been detained in North Korea with no contact with the outside world for well over a year.
Otto Warmbier, left, with friends Emmett Saulnier, center, and Ned Ende in May 2015. (Sanjana Sekhar)
His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, didn’t come to Charlottesville from their home in Cincinnati this weekend. “It felt to us like a wake,” Fred Warmbier said. They wanted everyone else to enjoy the day.
[Worried about North Korea? Spare a thought for Otto Warmbier’s family]
“There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about Otto,” said U-Va.’s president Teresa Sullivan, and how to help in a confounding situation.
In the mass of graduates Saturday morning, people kept reaching out to his friends, who were handing out piles of stickers that showed a padlock swinging open and the message: #FreeOtto (and a border repeating “We miss you” over and over) for graduates to wear on their caps and gowns. It was an effort to keep the 22-year-old – described by friends as quirky, funny, charismatic and studious – in everyone’s thoughts.
Warmbier always seemed to have everything planned out, friends and family said, from his intended career path to his workout sessions. Until January 2016. Now his future is completely unknown.
He went to North Korea with a tour group in January on his way to a U-Va. McIntire School of Commerce study-abroad program and was not allowed to leave the country.
Otto Warmbier’s friends handed out stickers during commencement weekend. (Sanjana Sekhar)
“There’s no reason to have him detained,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has met with more than two dozen officials from the U.S. and other governments, as well as other experts, to try to find a resolution. Warmbier apparently tried to remove a propaganda poster as a tourist memento — a move that prompted considerable criticism from those who felt he should have avoided the country entirely and that resulted in a charge of “hostile acts against the state” and a 15-year sentence in prison with hard labor.
A State Department official said in a written statement the sentence is unduly harsh for the alleged offense. “Despite official claims that U.S. citizens arrested in the DPRK are not used for political purposes, it is increasingly clear from its very public treatment of these cases that the DPRK does just that.
“Mr. Warmbier has gone through the criminal process and has been detained for more than a year. We continue to urge the DPRK to pardon him and grant him special amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds.”
Or as Portman said, “He’s a college kid. He shouldn’t be used as a pawn in a broader geopolitical dispute between our countries.”
As tensions between the two nations escalate — nuclear tests, missile launches, threats and warships — Otto Warmbier’s friends are increasingly worried.
“It’s a national security issue,” Sekhar said. “And — he’s our Otto.”
[North Korean video apparently shows U-Va. student trying to take a propaganda sign]
Their Otto was a top student at U-Va. with a prestigious academic scholarship intended for the most intellectually curious. He’s a sports fan who can reel off stats about seemingly any team, a friendly Midwesterner who can break down underground rap lyrics (and craft some of his own), a deep thinker who would challenge himself and others to question their place in the world, a guy from an entrepreneurial family who ate half-price sushi, an insatiably curious person with a strong work ethic and a delight in the ridiculous.
He might bang on a piano (without knowing any keys), swing a girl onto his back for a piggyback ride home, wear an immaculate tuxedo or show up for a formal event in a $2 royal-blue blazer from Goodwill.
He’s a loyal friend. And he was a planner.
His calendar was full of hand-written commitments, from courses he would take (mapped out from the earliest days of college) to academic assignments, to social plans, such as bringing a friend with disabilities to basketball games.
“If Otto had anything schoolwork-related, job-related, family-related that he needed to do,” his friend Ned Ende said, “there was absolutely nothing you could say to him to convince him to do stuff with you.”
With a sharp interest in economics, Warmbier knew early on — when most of his friends had no idea what to major in — that he wanted to go into investment banking, and he had already completed some advanced training in financial analysis in his sophomore year.
By the fall of his junior year, he had a summer internship locked in. He wanted to travel, study abroad and visit places such as Israel, the Galapagos and Cuba while he could, places entirely different from his hometown; he knew 80-hour work-weeks were ahead, and then graduate school.
Ende said when he thinks of his friend he remembers him in fall 2015, in the chair at his desk wearing, with confidence, a thrift-store cardigan covered with lighthouses, hanging up the phone and saying, “I got the job.”
“There are not too many people around the country saying those words” about the sought-after internship, Ende said. “And there’s no one in the country who would be saying those words while wearing a lighthouse sweater.”
[U-Va. student held in North Korea “confesses" to “severe crimes"]
When Otto Warmbier didn’t arrive in China in January 2016, according to plans, his friends and family worried. But many assumed it was a mix-up. One of his roommates, Emmett Saulnier, said they were sure he would be able to return soon. Days passed. Classes resumed for the spring semester.
Warmbier’s family and friends kept quiet, counseled by the State Department to be cautious. In early March of 2016, Fred and Cindy Warmbier got one message from their son, relayed through a Swedish official. Later that month, North Korea released video of the trial.
That was the moment when they realized the gravity of the situation, his friend Tim McKinney said. They would hang out in his room at their house, full of his things but empty, missing him. They tried to fathom a 15-year prison sentence — almost a lifetime for college juniors.
For Saulnier, it was a relief to see images of his friend alive. The off-white blazer Warmbier wore in the video made him smile, too; it reminded him of his friend’s thrift-store turtlenecks, Hawaiian shirts and throwback jerseys.
But time kept passing. Senior year began. The election came, a new administration. No news.
“We’ve been talking about this a lot over the last year for sure,” his friend Zach Gelfand said. “Graduation day has been creeping up on the calendar, and we have been thinking a lot there is someone who should be with us, but he’s not. That’s breaking our hearts.”
“I’ll carry that with me as I walk the Lawn,” said Tim McKinney.
Warmbier would have been wearing something odd under his robes at Sunday’s ceremony for McIntire graduates, something from a thrift store, Ende said. He would have been |
4 fused uops and dispatching 8 uops each cycle. The Haswell core is the basis of Intel’s upcoming generation of SoCs and will be used from tablets to servers, competing with AMD and a variety of ARM-based SoC vendors.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next »Author's Note: I've been meaning to write this story for awhile, and I just haven't had the time. Not sure about how regular updates will be, but I just had to start it. Fred and George are two of my absolute favorite characters from the HP series, so I've been wanting to write a story with them in it. This story is kind of AU, not necessarily canon-compliant, but probably fits in there fairly well. I'm setting the rating as T but that might change because I think there might be some sexy bits at some point. Kind reviewers, please do let me know what you think!
Chapter 1: Closing Time
George Weasley practically had to slam the door shut on their last customer of the day as a number of other witches and wizards who had reached the door only moments too late were greeted by the sight of a giant purple CLOSED sign, complete with little animated doodles of Fred and George pulling faces at them.
"Ahhh, the weekend is finally here!" he sighed, the relief palpable in his voice.
"You do know that the weekend is our busiest time, right?" Fred replied with a grin as he seemed to materialize from the tall shelves piled to the ceiling with various products.
"That's not until tomorrow, though," George replied, feeling the same grin mirrored on his own face.
There was something about the easy symmetry of their faces that just made sense.
"And you know what they say," Fred said snarkily.
"Ain't no rest for the wicked!" they both chorused together, giving each other a high five.
A light tapping noise came from the glass behind them, and George turned with an annoyed look on his face, nearly ready to tell whoever it was off.
And then he froze.
"What's wrong?" Fred asked, twisting his head to the side so he could see who was standing at the glass, "Hey, is that who I think it is?"
Angelina Johnson stood on the other side of the glass, shivering in her robes as she tried to look in through the One Way Two Way glass, which went frosty and opaque when the shop was closed as a way to dissuade would-be burglars from window shopping.
"Oh, too bad," Fred said with a laugh, "She's just a bit too late, eh brother? Just because she was our Quidditch captain once upon a time doesn't mean we're going to make an exception for- hey wait, what are you doing?"
But George had already gone to the door and was unlocking it.
"It's as cold as a hag's untouched tit out there, George," Angelina cursed as she practically sprinted in through the door, "Oh, hi Fred."
"Hi Ang," Fred said with a bored expression on his face, but George knew better.
His brother was irritated.
Bloody hell.
"Sorry, Fred, I forgot to tell you I had plans tonight," George said sheepishly.
Fred's eyes narrowed as he looked even more bored (and therefore pissed off) at this confession.
"Well, no matter!" Fred said, turning around as though he didn't care at all and waving back dismissively at them both, "I've got plenty of people to do and things to see, myself!"
George felt his chest constrict at this. He could practically see how hurt his brother was feeling, but he looked at Angelina and he couldn't deny how looking at her made him feel.
For once, just once, he didn't want to feel like part of a set. He wanted to be just George. Just for an evening. Or maybe until morning, if she let him stay the night.
"C'mon Angelina," he said pointedly, "We don't want to keep Freddy from doing those important people."
As the door closed behind them, George thought he heard a tiny scoffing laugh, but he decided to pretend it was just his imagination. Fred was a big boy. He could handle himself.
They could make up later, after all. They always did. But a girl like Angelina only came around once in a lifetime.
And besides, he and Fred had been together before they were born. No matter what was to come, he knew that he and his brother would face it together.
Less than a year later, Fred would beyond his brother's reach forever.Bali Nine duo Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan have lost their appeal in Indonesia to challenge the decision to deny them clemency.
Lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran faced Indonesia’s State Administrative Court today, arguing President Joko Widodo should have given their case due consideration. An expert witness was used to try and convince the court the Indonesian president's refusal to grant pardons could be challenged.
A panel of three judges handed down their decision for the pair this evening, upholding their earlier decision that presidential clemency can't be considered a state administrative matter.
Australia has repeatedly appealed for clemency for the pair, including even proposing a prisoner swap.
Mr Joko vowed in December to refuse presidential pardons to any drug criminal facing the death penalty.
However, the Australians’ legal team have vowed to fight on. Earlier today, well known human rights advocate Professor Todung Mulya Lubis said the legal team was “still trying to think outside the box”.
Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death for their roles as the organisers of an attempted to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of Bali to Australia in 2005.
They are expected to remain in semi-isolation on Besi Prison on Nusakambangan - also known as "Death Island" - until the outcomes of the legal cases of other death row inmates are known.
Jakarta is awaiting all of the 10 prisoners in line for the firing squad to run out of options for court appeals before setting a date.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop released a statement tonight expressing her disappointment.
"The Government is disappointed at today’s decision by the State Administrative Court of Jakarta to reject the appeals of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran," the statement read.
"Both men have undergone extensive rehabilitation and I will continue to make representations to my counterpart, just as Australia will continue to use all diplomatic options to seek a stay of execution.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019Jefferson was fortunate. Many lost their lives as a consequence.
---
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 signators of the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two Lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty wouldbe death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress Without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his grist mill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
Source: American Library
---
Meanwhile this new study has just been released:
26% DON’T KNOW U.S. DECLARED INDEPENDENCE FROM GREAT BRITAINAccording to Mr. Ponomarev, when he arrived late to board an evening flight, a flustered Air India employee retrieved his trumpet from a luggage belt at a security checkpoint without explanation to place it in the plane’s hold.
Mr. Ponomarev protested vigorously, he said, because he had hand-carried the instrument on an earlier connecting flight and also had noticed that another passenger was carrying aboard a sitar. His angry complaints attracted the notice of an Air India supervisor, who summoned the police.
Four officers came running to take his trumpet case, but Mr. Ponomarev refused to give it to them, and one of them subdued him by wrenching his arm behind his back and, according to the musician, breaking it.
Photo
The airport authorities and the police confirm that the episode took place as Mr. Ponomarev was boarding the flight at Charles de Gaulle airport. But in the view of the police, the musician bears responsibility for his injury.
“The officers tried to subdue him, and you can say that he hurt himself by rebelling,” said a spokesman for the airport police.
H. Rana, the regional manager for Air India’s Paris office, said airline employees called the police because Mr. Ponomarev insisted on carrying his music case on board. She said that Air India requires the check-in of large instruments.
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In Europe, carry-on luggage rules vary among airlines. Last week, the European Commission moved to standardize the rules with new regulations taking effect next spring that restrict the amount of liquids carried aboard for personal use and limit carry-on luggage size. But there may be exemptions for some cameras and musical instruments.
The rule change comes too late for Mr. Ponomarev, who said that after his arm was broken he was held in detention without treatment for six hours and was not allowed to make any calls.
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Ultimately, he was taken to a hospital where one of the doctors loaned him a cellphone to contact the United States Embassy.
After surgery, Mr. Ponomarev returned on September 13 to the United States on another Air India flight. With a metal plate holding the bones of his left arm together, Mr. Ponomarev said the break had an immediate effect on his career: He was forced to cancel a musical engagement and limit his daily practice because it is too painful to hold the trumpet with a weakened arm.
By late September, though, he decided to participate in a long-scheduled jazz concert in Russia, where he was born, although he has lived in the United States since 1973. The announcer, he said, explained to the audience that Mr. Ponomarev was playing despite a struggle with the French police.
“I think the audience thought that he was joking,” Mr. Ponomarev said, but he still took the microphone to correct the announcer: “They didn’t win the battle. They broke my arm. But the horn is still with me.”Fifty-six year old Hajabba has been selling oranges since 1970s.As this illiterate vendor set out to sell oranges everyday, he watched children of his remote village walk several kilometers to reach school.
He did not like this. He wanted a government school in his own village,Harekala, 54 km from Mangalore. He wanted it so badly that he toiled for several years,visiting government officials,NGOs,elected representatives and everyone else who had the power to get a school erected.
As a result of his repeated requests and appeals, in 2001 Hajabba succeeded in starting a government lower primary school which later grew into a higher primary school and then a high school. At present, there are about 250 students studying in the DK ZP Primary and High School at Harekala.
Apart from government aid, Hajabba managed to collect about Rs 18 lakh through sponsorship. The money he received as awards,like the Rs. 5 lakh that he received from Real Heroes award given by CNN-IBN, too has been utilized for the betterment of his school.
Talking to BBC, Mr. Thufail Muhammad, a senior journalist at The Hindu newspaper who has covered Mr Hajabba during his struggles,said, “He earned very little to even dream of starting a school. But, his determination to educate others drove him towards success. In a country like India where education is not the primary goal for many rural families, Mr Hajabba is a shining light.”
His success story has been featured in several international newspapers. Mangalore University and Kuvempu and Davangere Universities have inducted Hajabba’s story into their B.Com textbooks.
Mr Hajabba is now working to turn his next dream into reality – getting a college for his village.
Image Courtesy: The HinduGot a tip? Send it to us at manila@coconuts.co.
Sad times.
A passport index report by financial firm Arton Capital from Canada ranks the Philippines 57th among passports that allow holders to visit a country without a visa or a visa upon arrival.
According to the report, there are 61 countries that will take us in without a visa, putting us in the same league as Nigeria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Tanzania, Mali, Namibia and Zambia.
The correct figure, however, could be lower.
According to this GMA report published in 2012, there are at least 25 countries that don’t require visas for Filipinos.
We tried to get hold of Department of Foreign Affairs for clarification but were unsuccessful.
Below is the list of countries that our passport allows us to visit, visa-free:
– Brazil
– Bolivia
– Brunei
– Cambodia
– Colombo
– Costa Rica
– Ecuador
– Hong Kong
– India
– Indonesia
– Israel
– Laos
– Malaysia
– Morocco
– Mozambique
– Palau
– Peru
– Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
– Singapore
– Sri Lanka
– Suriname
– Thailand
– Tuvalu
– Vanuatu
– Vietnam
– ZambiaMembers of the contemporary tech industry speak of cloud computing with such awe and reverence that one might think that they were referring to the Kingdom of Heaven. “The cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy,” declared Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, a major business software company, in 2010.
Today, more and more companies are shifting their products and services to the cloud, most recently including Adobe with the successor to its Creative Suite of graphic design and editing software. Tech websites fill daily with articles arguing for businesses and individuals to transfer their data to the cloud. As Steve Jobs once commented, “I don’t need a hard disk in my computer if I can get to the server faster... carrying around these non-connected computers is byzantine by comparison.” Few in the industry would argue against the convenience and opportunities provided by the technology.
This consensus, however, is not without its discontents. Instead of functioning as a digital democracy, the net activist Jaron Lanier sees the cloud as more of a feudal kingdom. In his 2010 book, You Are Not a Gadget, Lanier illustrated the stratification of the digital world into “Peasants and Lords of the Clouds”: the lords own the digital architecture and are rewarded handsomely for it, while the creative class forms the peasantry, reduced to providing content for free and hoping for patronage.
To extend Lanier’s metaphor further, one might compare the emerging predominance of the cloud with the economic transition from feudalism to capitalism. As with their historical counterparts in the countryside during the emergence of capitalism, economic transition and technological improvements are transforming digital peasants into sharecroppers who must pay periodic fees under the lord’s terms for the privilege of utilizing software or viewing content. Historically, as today, elites used legal mechanisms combined with paeans to rights and efficiency to justify their new systems of rents and control at the expense of ordinary people.
The availability and accessibility of information over the past several centuries has, of course, increased enormously as common people have gained access to print, broadcast, and online media through new technological developments. Until recently, as each medium was introduced, it tended to complement rather than replace its predecessors. Over the course of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, newspaper circulation has grown fairly steadily (with declines in Europe and North America offset by growth in the developing world). Book sales continue to grow in all markets. Over 80 percent of the US population has a personal computer at home, and of those 93 percent have broadband Internet access.
Cloud computing seems likely to overturn the personal ownership of those old forms of media like books, CDs, and DVDs. Instead, individuals use a client on an electronic device like tablets, smart phones, and e-book readers to access servers that contain the data they want to retrieve. Under Digital Rights Management (DRM), which form the technologies used to control access to content for the user, this includes streaming services for music like Spotify, film and TV like Netflix and Hulu, books like Kindle and Nook, and computer software and games. Increasingly, the model of “software as a service” is being adopted by both individuals, as with Google Apps, and businesses, as with Salesforce. For those with broadband, it’s faster, simpler, and relies less on the limitations of the hard disk space they possess.
But what does it mean when software is a service, delivering content without physical ownership for the consumer? Strangely, in 2012, the New York Review of Books, one of the flagships of print culture, published an essay entitled “E-books Can’t Burn.” Arguing that the e-book forms a more pure literary experience given the standardization in appearance and configuration:
[... ] the e-book’s ease of transport, its international vocation (could the Iron Curtain have kept out e-books?), its indestructibility (you can’t burn e-books), its promise that all books will be able to remain forever in print and what is more available at reasonable prices, and it becomes harder and harder to see why the literati are not giving the phenomenon a more generous welcome.
All very nice. True, e-books cannot be burned. But to remove content, one does not have to burn anything — content can simply be deleted from the server. In 2009, Amazon quietly erased an e-book version of 1984 from its servers and on the Kindles of customers who had paid for it. The issue in that case was one of licensing from the rights holder to the book’s copyright, but it illustrates how little recourse the ordinary customer has in the cloud against tech giants like Amazon.
Physical books can be held essentially in perpetuity, annotated and defaced as the owner sees fit, loaned to friends, and accumulated into a collection that can be inherited by one’s descendants. None of this is possible with data controlled centrally from a server and rented to customers remotely. The growth of personal book collections coupled with public libraries has given unprecedented access to print information; now, libraries face proposals to ditch circulating print collections in favor of loaning out e-books.
And the stranglehold of major book publishers is nothing compared to the power of e-book platform owners. In July 2013, a federal judge ruled that Apple had colluded with several major publishers to fix the price of e-books. Amazon’s dominance in the e-book market — a 90 percent share in 2010, still at 65 percent today — gives it the power to strong-arm publishers into predatory pricing.
But this is about more than just books — virtually every modern information and entertainment medium is facing the same pressures of shifting toward the cloud.
Previously, the owner of software like Adobe Creative Suite could use the program so long as they possessed a computer meeting the system requirements on which the software is installed. Now, however, Adobe CS has been phased out in favor of Adobe Creative Cloud, turning users into renters of the software, paying a subscription fee and periodically updating their operating system (OS) and hardware.
This doesn’t apply just for business software. Consider the 1998 real-time strategy game Starcraft. For over a decade after its release, it was enjoyed by gamers around the world, and effectively became a national sport in South Korea. The sequel, Starcraft II, is accessed primarily online through a relaunched platform called Battle.net, requiring users to upgrade their OS and even their hardware to continue accessing the game — even if they met the minimum system requirements when they originally purchased it.
In this shift to the cloud, consumers of media are being transformed from effective owners, still legally subject to licensing restrictions but in physical possession of media, to renters, held captive by the whims of corporate rentiers backed by a tightening intellectual property regime. As Peter Frase has argued, this emphasis on intellectual property and rents has been and will remain a defining feature of contemporary capitalism.
As societies transitioned from feudalism to capitalism, the relationship of many peasants to the land was also altered from one of effective control to tenancy. Previously, even though serfs had obligations to their lords, they also possessed certain guarantees from them, such as food assistance in case of crop failure or famine. And despite the overall ownership of lords, many serfs maintained effective control over their own land and were free to farm as they wished once they had delivered a certain amount of goods to their own liege lord.
But as modernity dawned in Europe, British peasants lost their use rights as common lands were enclosed and made private under the Enclosure Acts. Such laws claimed to be “in the public interest,” but in reality empowered landlords to become industrial capitalists, using their lands for large-scale agricultural production or selling them to railroads or other ventures. The dispossessed peasants were left to work these lands as agricultural laborers. If peasants could not afford the increased rents after enclosure — typically doubling — they would have to flee to the cities to work as industrial proletarians.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Russian peasants, too, faced encroachment on the authority of their self-governing communes (obshchina) from a modernizing state and profit-seeking landlords. The serfs shifted from people into commodities, whose “souls” could be cynically bought, sold, and mortgaged, as in Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls. In all cases, the control and influence the aristocratic class exerted over the legal system enabled them to adapt to the changing economic situation, while disoriented ordinary people were subjected to new forms of exploitation. This does not appear to be different for the future of the cloud, as the tech sector’s increasingly massive lobbying efforts influence Congress to strengthen intellectual property laws in their favor.
In time, cloud computing will likely improve access to data for the general public and facilitate further technological progress. But, even ignoring general questions of data security and availability of broadband access, all the cloud seems to promise in the short run is spiraling costs for consumers who will need to update devices and pay rental fees as profits increase for tech companies that will function more as rentiers than innovators.
A sentiment some might consider “Luddite,” perhaps. But even mainstream commentators like Paul Krugman are coming around to the idea that Luddites have usually been ordinary people acting rationally to maintain their income and avoid cost increases in consumption, rather than simple technophobes. These days, it seems better to be a Luddite with an unrestricted physical media collection than a sharecropper in the cloud, constantly beholden to tech companies for current hardware and access to software, information, and entertainment.Alan Belcher File Photo
Belcher was too much for MacDonald.
A lot can change in 53 seconds. Just ask Jake Ellenberger In less than a minute, Ellenberger (Pictured, File Photo) transformed himself from one more face in a deep talent pool of young welterweights to legitimate title contender, as he wiped out former Strikeforce champion Jake Shields in the UFC Fight Night 25 main event on Saturday at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. It was his 26th professional victory, but it may have carried as much weight as the 25 others the preceded it.At 26, Ellenberger has shown flashes of brilliance throughout his 31-fight career, including a nine-second knockout of Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons in 2007. Now, in the midst of an impressive five-fight winning streak inside the UFC, he has displayed the kind of high-level consistency demanded of contenders. No matter who is next for “The Juggernaut,” it figures to have a significant impact on the 170-pound division.A closer look at the six matches we want to see made in wake of UFC Fight Night 25:With a pair of brutal knee strikes from the clinch -- one to the midsection, the other to the head -- and follow-up punches on a grounded and dazed Jake Shields, Ellenberger made himself a factor in the welterweight title picture. He now owns a stellar 5-1 record in the UFC, the lone blemish a disputed decision loss to former WEC champion Carlos Condit. Ellenberger’s wrestling skills, durability and nose for the knockout figure to keep him competitive in virtually any fight. Penn and Diaz will duke it out in the UFC 137 co-headliner in October, and, with Zuffa LLC brass unlikely to pit either man against champion Georges St. Pierre, the winner could perhaps serve as a final hurdle for Ellenberger before he challenges for welterweight gold.Shields was an unfortunate victim and undoubtedly had a lot on his mind entering his ill-fated showdown with Ellenberger, having lost his father less than three weeks ago. Alas, competition has no time for sympathy. In wake of being stopped for the first time in more than a decade, Shields may want to take some time away from MMA to clear his head and his emotions. Considering what he has already accomplished, when he does return, the 32-year-old figures to seek out no less than the cream of the welterweight crop. Koscheck will collide with hall of famer Matt Hughes at UFC 135 on Saturday in Denver, likely entering the Octagon as a significant favorite against the former champion. Provided he can get past the cagy and still-dangerous Hughes, Koscheck could provide a route for Shields to get back in the fray at 170 pounds.Not many -- if any -- will match McGee’s fighting spirit. What he lacks in pure talent he more than makes up for with his grit and determination. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 winner willed himself to another victory at UFC Fight Night 25, as he captured a unanimous decision from South Korean brute Dongi Yang in the co-main event. McGee has won eight fights in a row, three of them in the UFC. The resurgent Herman, who has rebounded from two reconstructive knee surgeries to finish Tim Credeur and Kyle Noke, poses a number of threats, with heavy hands, strong wrestling and a stout submission game.Is Belcher ready for truly top-flight competition at 185 pounds? After his one-sided thrashing of Jason MacDonald, perhaps the time has come to answer that question. The Roufusport representative has always had the tools, but inconsistency and injuries have held him back. At 27, he has spent plenty of time in the grooming stage and warrants a significant step up in competition. Provided Maia can dispatch Santiago -- an excellent middleweight who cannot seem to get over the hump in the Octagon -- at UFC 136, a matchup with Belcher could prove a nice fit.Koch’s ability is undeniable, but, at 22, he needs and deserves more seasoning before he attempts to climb in the cage with someone like champion Jose Aldo or No. 1 contender Kenny Florian, the two men who will vie for the 145-pound throne at UFC 136. Brown returned to the winner’s circle at UFC 133, and, with his punching power, grappling chops and experience as a former titleholder, he would provide a more than serviceable litmus test for a prospect in Koch’s position.Consecutive losses to Sean Sherk and Melvin Guillard derailed Dunham for a time, but the 29-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt remains a superb lightweight. He battered “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 alum Shamar Bailey with a variety of strikes at UFC Fight Night 25, kept himself upright against an aggressive and durable wrestler and put an end to his two-fight skid. He may have to take small steps before he gets himself back in the picture at 155 pounds, but he has time on his side. Volkmann, an elite wrestler who has made a successful move to lightweight, has quietly pieced together a string of four straight wins. Ring the bell, gentlemen.Underground, beneath the surface of the Nesher quarry in Ramle, lies a cave with a vast array of calcite burrows, almost three kilometers long. For millions of years, the only sound interrupting the silence was the gentle scurrying of small, blind, colorless creatures, completely unaware of the world above them.
Before the quarry became active, the cave and tunnels were situated about 100 meters under ground level. In 2005, the first rays of light invaded the burrows, when a quarry bulldozer happened upon them. Scientists arriving at the scene, to research what they swiftly termed the "Ayalon Cave," discovered a unique form of life existing nowhere else on the planet: eight unknown species of crab, other arthropods and an eyeless scorpion.
The scientists shipped the creatures to labs throughout the world and now, six years on, the first part of the research is over, after most species were identified and described.
The scientists discovered an independent ecosystem in the underground cave that isn't based on photosynthesis. Since there was no light in the cave, or other known biological processes, the organisms in the cave were dependent on a process known as chimeotothropia which exists in other areas on earth, such as the bottom of the ocean.
The most important factors in the ecosystem are sulphur bacteria that, lacking light, evolve through a different chemical process. "All the nutrition systems within the cave are based upon these bacteria," says Hanan Dimentman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who led the biological research in the cave. "There are creatures that eat the bacteria, those who devour the bacteria eaters, and there's the carnivores."
Due to their isolation, the creatures evolved into unique species which exist nowhere else on the planet. In fact, they are evolutionary remains of life that became extinct millions of years ago. The largest earth species discovered was the Israchanani scorpion, named after the two researchers of the cave, Yisrael Naaman and Hanan Dimentman.
The largest water creature found there evolved from a crab that roamed the Mediterranean Sea several million years ago. The water species thrive in a small pool in the cave's largest hall, 40 meters high. The pool consists of salty groundwater containing sulphur.
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Prof. Amos Frumkin, director of the Hebrew University's Cave Research Unit in the Geography Department, explains that all the burrows were formed by the groundwater. "The cave was created in a completely different fashion than other caves we're familiar with, since water that contained hydrogen sulfide rose from a few hundred meters deeper. Since the water is acid, it dissolved the calcite rock."
The cave and burrows remained intact for millions of years under a 100 meter rocky envelope, but the quarry's mining work wore it down and now it's only a few dozen meters thick. "The cave is now at the center of an active mining area, which isolated the cave from all directions, leaving it as a sort of mountain in the middle of the quarry," Frumkin says.
After the quarry is fully exploited, existing plans intend the area to be flooded by streams feeding the Ayalon river, to prevent the river being flooded. If that happens, Dimentman says, "it could destroy the whole ecosystem of the cave and the aquifer surrounding it. We must defend our ecological system for the next generations. Not everything must be measured by the needs of our generation."
An eyeless scorpion of a previously unknown species discovered in in 2013 in a cave near Ramle. Dan Keinan
The cave found under Ramle had not been exposed to light for thousands of years. Cave Research Unit
The works that exposed the cave. Dan KeinanTraditionally textbooks of economics presented what can be described as 'one-dimensional' classification of economic systems. Pure capitalism and pure socialism were located on the opposite sides of the picture with a linear spectrum of'mixed economies' between them.
"It is best to think of Capitalism and Socialism as occupying opposite ends of an economic spectrum. Countries' economies lie along the spectrum: some are closer to the capitalist end, and some are closer to the socialist end."(Roger A. Arnold: economics, Third Edition, West Publishing Company, 1996, page 812.)
The pure systems were usually presented as hypothetical extremes that do not exist in real world. All the real economies were considered a mixture of elements of both capitalism and socialism. Each country had specific shares of the two pure systems in its mixture. So for example USA was close to pure capitalism, with only minor admixture of socialist elements, but France or Great Britain had much larger dose of socialism in their mixtures. Similarly USSR was close to pure socialism, but Yugoslavia although prevailingly socialist was a significant step away in the direction of capitalism.
Such a characterization appears, for example, in the textbook "Introduction to Economic Reasoning" by William D. Rohlf, Jr. (Fourth edition, Addison - Wesley, 1998, page 48) "No existing system adheres strictly to either pure capitalism or pure command socialism. All real-world economies are mixed economies; they represent a blending of the two models."
The main ingredients that made the country either capitalist or socialist were type of ownership, market and central planning. So pure capitalism was made of private property and market, while pure socialism consisted of public property and central planning.
"Socialism and capitalism present themselves as two basic kinds, or models, of economic systems in the world today. While capitalism is characterized by the essential features of the private ownership of means of production and reliance on the market system (prices and profits), socialism is normally associated with the public (social) ownership of the means of production and reliance on some form of planning....The ideal types of systems do not exist anywhere in the world today in their pure theoretical forms, yet every nation in the world today is a reflection of some combination of these two systems and their ideologies. For example, we merely have to point to the following examples to appreciate this fact: (1) The French socialism of Francois Mitterand in the early 1980s; (2) the African socialism of Julius Nyerere in Tanzania; (3) the welfare states of Scandinavian countries, particularly Sweden; (4) Eastern Bloc nations such as Bulgaria and Romania;(5) the dynamic capitalist economy of Japan; (6) the economy od South Africa; (7) West Germany. Each example is testimony to the fact that the world's two great economic systems have successfully given birth to many different offspring. Usually what differentiate these systems from each other, aside from basic ideology and property relations, are the roles of the market and the state in the economy.: (Riddell, Shackelford, Stamos: economics, A Tool for Understanding the Society, Third edition, Addison-Wesley, 1987, pages 522-523.)
Convergence Hypothesis: Formulated by the Dutch economist Jan Tinbergen and popular especially in 1960's. Let us quote from the original paper: Jan Tinbergen: Do Communist and Free Economies Show a Converging Pattern?
(Soviet Studies, Vol. XII, No 4. April 1961, pp. 333-41) " WE are witnessing today the coexistence of two radically different economic systems, the “communist” and the “free” economies (according to western terminology) or the “socialist” and “capitalist” systems (according to the eastern vocabulary). The various names given to them are far from precise. Perhaps the most imprecise thing about them is the suggestion that each of these systems represents something well-defined and hence invariant. Reality shows both to be in permanent change. Analysis of the nature of this change can prove quite fascinating. This essay proposes to show that the changes are in many respects converging movements. "
"The main forces behind the changes may be brought under two broad headings. On the one hand each system is learning from experience and trying to overcome some of its own weaknesses. On the other hand the systems begin to influence each other more and more. While in the beginning the communist system was not taken seriously by the free system this has changed to a considerable extent. The communist system has been interested in some “capitalist” achievements from its very start. Now it is not so much imitating some of the western methods as learning economics from its own experience."
Convergent hypothesis starts from the assumption that both capitalism and socialism have good and bad features but distinct each from the other. Where capitalism has faults socialism found better solution and where socialism is defective, capitalism works just fine. Some |
, which contains:
Southern Cross to represent North Queensland as part of the Australian Federation.
White Sun represents the "white heat" of the outback
Marlin found along coast and Gulf country.
Blue and White are the traditional sporting colours of North Queensland
Capricornia Proposal
The site www.newstates.net proposes a new state in North Queensland named Capricornia. Their old page on this proposal, archived here, depicts a flag with at the hoist a triangular section of the Union Jack, with a field divided horizontally into three stripes of pastel blue, green and ochre, with thick white fimbriations. A southern cross with stars arranged similarly to the Australian national flag is superimposed on the stripes in the fly. The website said:
In seeking a, range of flags for the New State movements, this website assumes that initially the bulk (though not all) of the support for New States will be concentrated at the conservative end of the political spectrum. Any new flags must appeal to them while minimising any offence to other more radical supporters. All four proposed New State house-flags have a stylised "Union Pennant" on the hoist. While the pennant is clearly derived from the British Union Flag, it no longer takes up all of the Canton (first quarter of prominence), it is slightly reduced, (from a full quarter to about a fifth), and could no longer be described as a British Ensign of any sort. Its pointed shape can be seen as to represent and acknowledge a British Heritage yet points towards an independent future as evidenced by the now dominant remainder of the flag. The coloured bands represent the three great climatic regions of the proposed new state. Blue for the reef and coastal region, green for forests and croplands and ochre for the arid interior. (Alternatively, the three bands represent the three regions of Cairns and the far North, Townsville and Rockhampton with their hinterlands. White bands represent the two great penetrating rail links). Pastel colours identify this as a tropical flag. The Southern Cross both lifts the design and ties this into the Australian family of flags.
Jonathan Dixon, 6 December 2005My thought process while writing this: let's just do a little Hans drabble, get the ole' writing muscle working again. Maybe include his brothers. Maybe. *watches the news* Well, crap, now all I can think about is The Newsroom. *stares blankly* Hans. Don. Hans. Don. How to write a douchebag sympathetically... Uh... 6k words later, with Helsa undertones. Blatantly ripped off from the Newsroom. mAU. There might even be ice powers in this. I don't know. Just, a lot of talking, and Hans being an ambitious little douchebag.
I really don't know what it is, either.
Newsflash
On Air
"—yet it still remains to be seen if she can present herself as a viable candidate to swingvoters, particularly the male demographic," Bob stated. "She struggled with male voters over fifty-five, and that cost her the ticket in 2008."
Hans wiped the tip of his nose with his thumb, took a quick sip of water and screwed the cap back on. He'd wanted his usual double espresso, but only screwtop bottles were allowed in the control room. He stared at his brother's round, pasty face on the monitor, then turned his attention to the alternate angle.
"Terry, the numbers graphic," he murmured. "Standby camera two."
"Of course she's viable, she's the frontrunner!" Derek interrupted.
Hans touched his headset, pressed a button on the mic pack at his waist.
"You have Sanders there to confirm via satellite from D.C.? Standby after the round table finishes," Hans directed. "Graphic… now. Two minutes, and then go to split screen from Washington on camera four."
"There could always be an upset in the works, especially if the Republicans come up with a strong candidate," Bob countered. "The whisperings are turning into murmurs are turning into real talk as far as Christie is concerned, and Derek, let me cut you off because I know you're planning to rebut: the Right could care less about Bridgegate if they can come up with an appealing moderate. Plus, Rubio's got enough pull with the Hispanic minority to cause a few upsets in states that have swung democratic on that vote alone."
"Gentlemen, 20-16 is still two years away," Charles, centered and unwavering, tried to maintain order at the news desk. "Let's rein this in and get back to the single party ticket. Bob, your thoughts on Hillary in Iowa?"
"No confirmation, no denial. Still too early to tell. But I bet Biden will follow."
"Derek?"
"Actions speak louder than words. She came in third in the '08 Iowa caucus, so she's there to make a point. With Bill going vegan, it certainly wasn't for the steaks."
"Come on Derek, you're beating a dead horse," Hans grumbled into his headset, tiny transceivers stuck in his three onscreen brothers' ears. "Give me context. Terry, split screen in thirty seconds."
"The congressman's retirement barbque was supposedly nothing more than a Democratic fundraiser," Derek said. "She may not have been prepared to announce her candidacy there, but the news team here at Western World has learned, exclusively, that Hilary Clinton will be announcing her candidacy for President in 2016 at the upcoming rally in Denver. With us tonight is the man tapped as Clinton's campaign manager, Peter Sanders. Peter, thanks for being here."
"Thanks for having me, Derek. Charles. Bob."
"You worked on former President Bill Clinton's campaign in the early nineties, then deviated with direct party involvement by jumping ship for a Super PAC," Derek began.
"I wouldn't quite put it that way—"
"Don't antagonize him, Derek. We hardly got him to agree to come on as is," Hans chided.
"What can we expect from the former Secretary's impending announcement, and how will it differ from her goals set during the 2008 primary?"
"I'm afraid you've gotten a bit ahead of yourself, there, Bob."
Hans crushed the plastic water bottle in his hand.
"What the—"
Charles's broad, navy-covered shoulders stiffened minutely. "Her visit to Iowa was particularly illuminating in that—"
"You'll notice the former Secretary did not speak with any press during that visit, aside from the formal greeting she made at the opening of the fundraiser," Sanders commented. "There are no announcements coming from the Clinton camp any time soon."
"Shit!" Hans seethed. "Cut from him to camera two. Chuck, we've got his office on record, and the memos sent this afternoon. It's confirmed, she's running, which is as good as an announcement. He's just pissed we broke it before she called the press conference. Ask the follow-up."
"So you're saying that the Iowa visit was nothing more than support for her fellow party members?" Charles asked, ignoring Hans' instruction.
"Both members of the family were present. Former president Clinton had recently participated in a public conference with former President Bush, so the Clinton family thought it best for the former secretary to speak. There were no political machinations in the works. You've obviously been over analyzing again, Charles."
"Ask him about the intern," Hans growled into the mic. "Ask him about the memos, the preliminary press release!"
"When can we expect an announcement then—" Derek cut in, "—if the speech in Iowa was nothing more than partisanship support?"
"That's a lot further down the line. I'm sure you understand there are many factors to consider."
"Oh come on!" Hans groaned, propping indignant hands on his hips. "I swear Charles, if you don't ask the damn follow-up, I'm putting the memos up on graphic at the top of the next block."
"Any further comment on Hilary Clinton's candidacy?" Charles asked, bland and unagitated.
Star on camera.
America's man.
"Hypothetical candidacy. And only that it's still in the hypothetical stage."
"Well, that was enlightening," Hans grumbled. "Four minute segment wasted. Terry, get me the screenshots of those memos from Sanders's office. We'll move the Apple keynote copy up to the E block and scrap the remaining Clinton supplement. If Charles won't do his job, I'll let Derek lead in."
"Break in twenty, Hans," Terry said, flicking switches on the control board.
"—which is still not a declaration of candidacy," Sanders intoned. "The media outlets are too eager for this type of announcement, they're taking simple fundraising events and twisting them into—"
"Breaking in fifteen guys, dump him out," Hans said, running a jittery hand through his hair. His fingers got caught in his headset and he was tempted to throw the damn thing at the monitor.
"I'm sorry, but we're going to have to end it right there," Charles said. "Peter Sanders, neither confirming nor denying Clinton's candidacy for 20-16 after her trip to Iowa. We'll have more, right after this."
The bell dinged and the On Air lights powered down.
"We're out. Back in two."
Hans pinched the bridge of his nose. He chucked the crushed water bottle in hand across the room in a furious huff, then threw open the doors to the control room and stormed into the studio. It took every ounce of professional restraint he possessed not to bring his fists down on the news desk where his three brothers sat.
"What the hell was that, Chuck?! I've seen better interviews conducted by Terry's two-year-old. We had confirmation from his office!"
"He wasn't ready to disclose yet," Charles spoke dismissively, cat-scratching at a paper before him with a personalized ball-point pen. The American flag pin on his chest glimmered faintly against the overhead lights from the studio. "The candidacy announcement isn't the big story, not when we all know it's going to happen. We'll have leverage with her campaign when that story does hit."
"And you two?" Hans rounded on his other older siblings. "We had those memos on file! You could've jump in instead of sitting with your thumbs up your asses."
"Hey, I did try to—"
"Save it, Derek. I've had to pull you back enough times to know when you're really trying. You usually go at it like a hyena, but you didn't ask the follow-up! The intern confirmed—"
"That's right," Charles said, creased forehead crinkling tiredly. "The intern confirmed. That's not confirmation at all."
"What?" Hans blustered, cheeks flamed with ire and vexation.
"Having an intern confirm something is the lowest grade of authorization. You're asking for a private's clearance level when you need the general's. We need more confirmation, better confirmation than that."
"Confirmation is an absolute, Chuck. It's either confirmed, or it isn't. Nothing can be semi-confirmed. There's conjecture, and then there's facts. As long as we attribute correctly, our asses are covered. This was a fact, and it was our story to break."
"You know better Hans, especially in this business."
"You should not have sprung this on me," Hans seethed. "If you had a problem, you should have brought it up during the preshow meeting."
"We did bring it up, Hans," Bob said genially. "You just wouldn't listen."
"We had enough to run with it," Hans argued. "What about the memos that came directly from the campaign manager's email account?"
"Back in one, guys," a PA pushed passed Hans and placed three copies of the next segment's stats in front of Derek, Charles, and Robert.
"Still not enough," Charles opined. "You want more than two shoddy sources to confirm announcing a presidential campaign. Especially if it's Clinton's. You're letting your ambitions cloud your judgment."
"Not the time, Chuck," Hans glowered. "Those sources were iron-clad. Not to mention that we found the first draft of the preliminary press release yesterday. Sanders confirmed it during the conference call. Bob, you were there."
Robert shrugged, leaning back in his swivel chair while a young woman in black patted his face with stage pancake.
"Did he go back on what he told us?" Hans asked. "I step out to confirm the rundown for two seconds, and he goes off the record?"
"It's not that simple, Hans," Chuck said. The second eldest of the West brood was at the age of perpetual weariness and patronization. He seemed to have honed his bearing over years of reporting, simply to antagonize his younger brother-turned-partner.
Hans loathed him for it.
"These campaign managers have everything planned down to the t, including the first run announcement," Charles elaborated. "Maybe we're scratching their back now by not breaking the story, and they'll return the favor in the future."
"Fifteen seconds, Hans," Terry called back from the control booth.
"You decide to change my story, you damn well better let me know. I'm your EP. That is my booth, don't sabotage it." Hans turned on his heel, stomping back to the control room.
"Hey!" Chuck yelled over the studio. "It may be your booth," he acknowledged brusquely. "But it's not your show."
"And we're back in 5-4-3-2—"
The lights were off in his office at nine a.m.
The blinds were also drawn, and he hadn't yet booted up his computer. Down the hall, twenty-somethings sprinted in and out of the building with cell phones surgically attached to their ears; computer keys click-clacked in constant rhythm. Desk monkeys performed fact-checking and proofreading and copyediting. Out on the grueling streets of NYC was an intern, some sunny-faced college sophomore thinking he was tough shit because he had been entrusted with picking up the anchor's dry cleaning for the day. Informants and contacts phoned in from locales international and domestic while pencils scratched on Post-Its and college-ruled notebook paper, notes tacked higgledy-piggledy upon bulletin boards. Someone who had manned the wires all night took his second smoke break on the balcony. A writer placed a new filter and a handful of ground Columbian dark roast into the coffee maker.
The quotidian happenings of a cable network newsroom.
His door squeaked open and Hans bolted upright, only to have his vision blocked by a piece of paper that had somehow attached itself to his forehead overnight.
Oh, right.
I slept here.
"Oh! Hello."
Hans grunted as he snatched the paper from his clammy forehead. A telephone number for someone in the Clinton camp, smeared from his overnight perspiration.
Well, fuck it.
Turns out sleeping at a desk in yesterday's suit leaves a body sweaty, with the kind of neck crick only a seasoned Swedish masseuse can work out. Hans tilted his neck sideways and winced at the audible pop. He tried not to groan.
"Here's the copy for the guest spot tonight on Western World." A pause, and then: "I didn't think you'd be in this early."
Hans smacked his dry lips together and didn't bother straightening his tie. He knew he looked like hell half cooked.
"Why would you drop it off while I wasn't here? I didn't make enough of a scene to warrant avoidance from people I've never met," he scrambled to make some sense of the organized chaos on his desk. He never looked sloppy, so of course the one time his office looked less than pristine did the new business anchor see fit to drop by.
"I don't have time to review it with you right now," the woman said. "I've got to get started on the market analysis for Business Day at three. Talk to Gerda if you have any questions concerning content."
"Right, finance," Hans said, finally making eye contact with the speaker.
And hell if that wasn't a bad move.
The woman was put together with such attentive detail, it was like God had animated a 5,000 piece puzzle, just so she could stroll into his office and marvel at his personal disarray. No stitch, no hair, no tiny eyelash out of place. Her platinum hair was clipped back primly at the nape of her neck. She was all buttoned up in a Burberry suit and pencil skirt combo, and teetered on heels that Hans believed cost as much as his first Rolex. She possessed the most stilted, unshakeable air he'd encountered since accepting this job at the National News Channel. Her professionalism bordered on hostility, cool demeanor hampering what should have come across as interdepartmental diplomacy.
So, not the greatest people person.
Hans stood to save face, and buttoned the second button of his rumpled blazer.
"My apologies for this ill-prepared meeting. I'm Hans, and if you do well with the boys tonight we might look into making this a weekly thing. Our numbers guy says we'd fair better with a female face, and you seem to be the only blonde in the business Fox hasn't poached from the field. What do you say?"
He extended his hand in greeting, only to be met with a suspicious glare.
"Here's my copy for the VO-SOT. Make sure your teleprompter people type in everything exactly. I've reviewed it several times."
She shoved the paper into his outstretched hand and exited with a clipped gait that paralleled her awkward sociality. The blonde stopped at the door and pivoted one hundred and eighty degrees.
"My name is Elsa Maling, and you have blue ink on your collar. Please spell it correctly when we go to air. My name… I thought you should know. About the ink. It looks like you got into a tussle with a squid and he came out the victor."
"Oh… yes, I… stayed pretty late last night."
"That wasn't a wise decision."
"No," Hans mumbled lethargically. "It wasn't."
Miss Elsa Maling cast shifty eyes over Hans's rumpled form once more, lingered inappropriately over the stain at his neck for twenty seconds, and then left without another word.
Hans flopped back down in his chair and let his head fall forward on top of his desk. His neck protested, as did his pride, but he couldn't find it in himself to care at the moment.
"Shit."
"What the hell did you give me?" Hans asked, barreling into Elsa Maling's office at the top of the five o'clock hour. "This is gibberish. Chuck and Derek laughed me out of the rundown meeting. Additionally, you missed the rundown meeting."
Elsa didn't remove her eyes from her computer screen.
"I gave you my copy, and I've sent talking points to your anchors," Elsa said dismissively, refreshing a page of stock reports. "I'm leading with economic impact of increased military drone usage. We'll pivot from there and talk Amazon, who's finally cracked drone use for international deliveries, and the ensuing commercial ramifications if Congress keeps up with the prohibition on domestic drones. That's your five minute segment, plus the minute-thirty pre-taped piece. I don't understand your frustration."
"You plan on reading this on air?" Hans asked, uncomprehending. He slapped the paper down on Miss Maling's desk so hard the computer monitor shook.
"Yes."
"Read it to me."
"… why?"
"Prove to me you can read this, because this jumps in out and of actual language. Has your copywriter even taken an AP class?"
"I write my own copy."
…
…
…
"Bullshit."
"Excuse me?"
"I call bullshit," Hans repeated. "This is some prank, right? Derek put you up to this? Blonde, distant, you seem like his type."
"There seems to be a misunderstanding happening here," Elsa rose, on the defensive.
"You know what? Whatever," Hans put his hands out, fingers extended in supplicant exasperation. "You're what they use for getting back at me? I don't care. Just remember, I can make you look like an idiot while you're on air, so don't think you can screw with me."
"Don't call me an idiot."
"You're an idiot if you're going along with them."
"The original meaning for the term 'idiot', was a mentally handicapped person. You work in news. Careful throwing that around."
"Now I need workplace sensitivity training?"
"No, but you could use some lessons to tone down your ass-holery."
…
…
…
"Ass-holery? What the—"
"You know what I mean."
"That's not a word," Hans countered.
"It sounds better than ass-holeness. Tacking on certain suffixes can completely change the function of a word, which I find amusing," Elsa sat back down and uncurled her clenched fists. "And appropriate, considering the talk I hear about you. I was hoping you would prove me wrong, and yet, here you stand, full of… assholery."
Hans already knew about his reputation in the office. Consequence of being the youngest senior staff member amid swirling rumors of nepotism and company politics.
"How did we get to arguing about linguistic derivatives of the word 'asshole'?" Hans asked, not taking the bait.
Elsa broke eye contact swiftly, then turned her attention back to the computer screen. A muscle in her cheek twitched. Hans heard the drag of lead against paper, and watched Elsa's left hand scrawl out numbers while her attention was tuned to the screen.
"I frequently contemplate the linguistic derivatives of the English language. The structure is more complex than Danish."
"You speak Danish?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I speak all continental Scandanavian languages. I completed my doctorate in Stockholm. Well, one of them."
"One of—who the hell are you?" Hans asked, taken aback.
"Did we not cover introductions earlier today?"
"Introductions, yes. But you're more than a skirt with a M.B.A. in economics."
"You didn't review my credentials before asking me on your show?"
"It's not my show," Hans resigned tiredly. He slumped, throwing out all kinds of signals that he wanted to sit. Needed to, even, after the forty-eight hour attack from the execs higher up. This middle management crap was for the birds.
Elsa didn't ask him to sit. Doctorate: yes. Social cues: not so much. Hans took his liberty and sat uninvited in the chair across from her desk.
"That is, if my brothers have anything to say about it," he continued. "Wes told me to get you. I know you do Business Day. That's it. Wes is my boss, I have to do what he says."
"You should do more checking up on your guests."
"Yeah, I learned my lesson last night."
"Sanders?"
"Don't," Hans muttered, then sighed. "The hardest part of my job is wrangling the big three behind the desk. I've got subordinates who preinterview, and then report to me. I review what they give me, and just when I think it's going fine, my anchors sabotage my story on air. To top off the shitstorm of the past two days, Wes makes me invite the weird numbers lady from three o'clock, and this is what I get from you," he flapped the paper about in his hand. "Miss Business Barbie, who can't seem to work with more than three people on her own show. Who also, apparently, writes her own copy!" Hans said, disbelieving. "This—" Hans tapped the paper with an aggressive pointer, "—is basically a deconstructive treatise on the English language."
"Give me that," Elsa demanded.
Hans arched an auburn brow.
"Please," Elsa added, though her tone was anything but conciliatory. She turned her attention to the copy, cleared her throat, and began: "President Obama addressed the nation Monday and revealed a four part plan to combat the jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, more commonly know as Isis. The White House initiative for heavy drone strikes against Isis parallels the votes of the American majority, who favor fly-over combat instead of the much debated 'boots-on-the-ground' offensive.
"According to The Wallstreet Journal, the U.S. military spent over three billion dollars last year on drone programs. With the primary offensive being mounted by drone strikes, stock investments for military grade technologies have skyrocketed. In the green are Prox Dynamics, a Norwegian defense company that brought in thirty-one million last year off of a mini helicopter surveillance drone used by forces from the United Kingdom in Afghanistan. In the American green is Boeing, whose drone initiatives have increased tenfold since Amazon completed its first commercial delivery via drone service in New Delhi last month—"
"Okay, I get it."
"What?"
"You memorized it to screw with me."
"You think I'm just making this stuff up?"
"No, it's too polished not to have been thought out beforehand," Hans conceded. "I'm just admitting defeat at the hands of someone smarter than me. They got me, you got me, let's just call it even and let little brother learn his lesson, alright?"
"I'm not trying to do anything to you. I don't even know you. Or your brothers. I know of them, but not them personally."
"Sure."
"Hans, I'm dyslexic."
…
…
…
"Oh."
"It's not something I broadcast. And it hasn't really hindered my career objectives, obviously." Elsa leaned back in her chair, not confident exactly, but frank. As in, 'of course my dyslexia hasn't stopped me from achieving my career goals, I'm a national cable news anchor and a hot genius'.
Or maybe Hans was just putting words in her mouth.
Head.
Mind's voice.
Whatever.
"The copy… makes more sense now, knowing that," Hans amended. "I'll have the guys in the booth double check it to make sure it's entered correctly."
"You make it sound so bad, it's mainly just letter spacing for the teleprompter. I would say you could borrow Gerda. She's my tech in the booth, but she's already gone home for the day."
"I think Terry can manage," Hans continued, placing the tips of his fingers together. A calculating gesture usually, but in this instance, used more so for brainstorming. "I'm assuming you could improvise if we make a mistake. We'll know better from here on out, of course, but you'll forgive us our failings your first night on, won't you?"
"You keep making it sound like I'll be back. Word is the news desk your brothers man is a shark pool. We both know Wes just likes to throw chum in the waters periodically to bump ratings."
"Are you calling yourself chum?"
"Chum, with legs that look pretty good in a pencil skirt. Another ratings boost, I imagine."
Hans cast a calculating look in her direction, glare from the New York skyline blinding his eyes. Like a damn J.J. Abrams flick.
"I never said that."
"You didn't have to," Elsa replied robotically, returning to her typing. "Three postdocs or not, it comes down to aesthetics. You want to talk stock investments and interest rates in your discretionary portfolio with the quarrelsome receding hairline that is Jim Cramer, or do you want the fair skinned, blue-eyed blonde with a demure smile and calming presence to break down your financial options just in time for last minute trades at the closing bell?"
"'Demure smile and calming presence'?"
"My blurb, in Forbes's latest 'Young and Capable' section."
"There are worse adjectives."
"Hot-headed, ambitious, impatient, prone to ass-holery—"
"I see we've stopped talking about you," Hans interjected.
"—and interruption."
"People only think I'm that way because my brothers are like that."
"Uncomfortable shouldering a family legacy?"
"That, and denying claims of nepotism. I almost accepted an anchor position instead of taking this."
Elsa smiled knowingly. "Then why didn't you?"
"Not national. It was for the city."
"And…?"
"And… what?"
"Morning show, right?"
"Yes," Hans confessed.
"I knew it. Somehow, you don't seem the type to get excited over viral kitten videos and claims of Justine Bleiber's deportation."
"Justin Beiber."
"I don't really care, I was just making a point."
"Point made," Hans answered. "Forgive me if my aspirations are rather more substantial."
Hans leaned back in the chair, getting comfortable. He hadn't had such a… pleasurable wasn't the correct word. Not challenging, but… it felt very much like the woman opposite him sympathized with his motivations. Called him out on his bullshit, definitely, which was starting to grate on his nerves. It didn't help that she probably had a few IQ points on him, and looked like she'd walked off the runway from fashion week. Despite all these qualities, he felt competent speaking with her, badgering back and forth. A conversation, not simply talking at somebody.
"I don't fault you for your ambition, but, as we've established, there are ways to go about it—"
"— without coming off as an asshole. I know," Hans conceded. "I just… the posturing, it's almost necessary if I have to oversee those three. Derek was a SEAL when he got into reporting. You wouldn't believe what I've had to do to keep him from going off the rails. Bob's fine, but Chuck—"
"Charles. He's the oldest, right?"
"We have another brother who's older than he is, so second eldest."
"Another one? How many of you are there?"
"Thirteen."
She abandoned the computer screen and made eye contact with him.
"You're joking."
"I'm not," Hans said.
"Then you're Catholic."
"Ha! Good deduction, but not practicing."
"Everybody in journalism?"
"No, thank God. A smattering in international business, one musician, one athlete, two accountants, and a surgeon. I think that's everyone."
"So where do you fall in sequence?"
"Baby."
"Oh. That explains the posturing."
"Yes. Not to mention the fact that Chuck was an EP before he turned anchor. He thinks he knows my job inside-out, but it's been over fifteen years since he was behind the camera," Hans propped his loafered foot atop his opposite knee, settling in. "It's different now. I did my bit at NYU, summa cum laude and everything. No doctorate, but not half bad. Got some production awards, even a spot on camera for New York channel three before graduation. And that's not Scandanavian languages, either, but us bottom dogs feel like we've got a lot to compensate for. So maybe we come off a little… over eager."
"Don't begrudge your elder siblings their successes. Perhaps they feel they have a lot to live up to," Elsa clicked a little more forcefully than was necessary to refresh her page.
"I'll begrudge them all I want if they continuously undermine my authority."
"You weren't going to break the Clinton announcement. Not this week, anyway," Elsa responded. "All thoughts are on the Middle East. It wouldn't have been appropriate for the former Secretary of State to announce her candidacy, not during a beheading spree. The president wouldn't even say Isis in his address. He stuck with Isil, which means he's not yet ready to take on the notion of Syria. Clinton can't compete with that, not when extremists are killing people now. That campaign is two years away."
"But don't you think it makes it that much more important?"
"What?"
"Her candidacy announcement."
"I don't follow."
"She has the potential, and currently, the likelihood, of becoming the President in two years time," Hans explained. "The Middle East will never rest, and you can bet those bone-picking conservatives will resurrect Benghazi during her run. News is always happening, it's always breaking, so why was I denied the opportunity to break her big story?"
"You think it was to teach you a lesson?"
"I think it was so my brothers could show me who's boss. Even though I'm controlling the camera, I can't control what they do on air. There's three of them, and one of me. If they all agree on something and the graphic contradicts it, who are the viewers going to believe? That lone graphic guy, or the three anchors they've watched every night for ten years, that they allow into their homes, to deliver the pressing issues of the day? Who am I to compete with that?"
"… you know my degrees are in economics, right? Not, uhm… psychology."
"Sure."
…
…
…
"Why are you sitting in my chair?" Elsa asked abruptly.
"I was tired and you never offered. That's rude."
"Pointing it out is likewise ill-mannered."
"God, how did you even get this job?"
"My credentials," she said, unconcerned. "Though you've probably surmised through the day's exchanges that I'm not what one would term a 'people person'. When it's just the camera, it's like I'm talking to myself."
"You talk to yourself about Wall Street reports?"
"Doesn't everyone?"
"And you write your own copy because of your… dyslexia."
Elsa froze, and her eyes shifted in Hans's direction. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, as did that dusting of ruddy fluff on his cheeks. He blamed the chilly draft for his consideration of hacking off his beloved sideburns.
"Among other things," Elsa murmured coldly.
"Care to elaborate?"
"No. I prefer a small team."
"Fair enough," Hans answered. "But you'll agree that if tonight goes well, you'll be open to a recurring guest spot on Western World? God knows we could use a 'demure smile and calming presence' in the studio with those three. Wes will basically make you recurring if there's a numbers jump."
Elsa didn't speak for a moment, and then: "Gerda said you threw a water bottle at one of your copywriters."
"I didn't throw it at him. I threw it, and he was just… in the way."
"Well, I hope I'm never in your way, then."
"See that you're not," Hans warned with a smile.
"It's just that kind of warm acceptance that makes me more and more willing to do a weekly spot on your show."
"I told you, it's not my show."
"Hans, from someone who's done a lot of work from the outside looking in: it is your show. You just don't see it yet. You have more power than you know, you just don't know how to use it yet. You're... likely to succeed, if out of nothing but sheer stubbornness."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's my job to study investment risks. That's what you are. We've been through the adjectives that describe you, and I think Wes expects a solid return on his investment."
"Why can't you just speak like a normal person?"
Elsa sighed heavily. "They took a risk hiring you. You're dependable, but not predictable. You're more than capable, more than qualified, but your ambition curtails that capability, leaves you open to mistakes. Men like you coined the phrase 'go big or go home'. That's why you wanted to break the Clinton campaign story, regardless of the international context. You're not short-sighted, you're just… intensely focused."
"Tunnel vision."
"Basically."
"And you said you weren't a psych major."
"I'm an analyst. And I'd like to get back to doing just that, unless you have more inappropriately personal questions for me?"
Hans took another look at the woman's desk, and noted the lack of personal mementos. One picture of herself and another woman, similar facial shape. Maybe a sister… or cousin. No noticeable signs of a boyfriend.
Well, go big or go home:
"Just one: what are you doing Saturday night?"
"I'll be back from the market at four, and I'll select the companies I use for the following week's profiles between four-thirty and six," Elsa responded. "That way I can get the preliminary research out of the way. Then I suppose I'll have dinner, though what, I'm unsure of yet. It will probably depend on what I get at the market. The Mets are playing that night, so I plan on watching the game. Why, what are you doing on Saturday night?"
…
…
…
"I didn't actually mean—you know what, never mind," Hans shook his head, pressed off of his knees with the flats of his hands. He didn't need anymore crazy in his life at the present moment. "Be ready to go on by seven thirty. You're in the B-block."
He was pouring a cup of coffee down the hall when he felt the pains of discomfort, the inexplicable urge for closure. Because his previous conversation certainly hadn't provided it.
Elsa had taken her blazer off and her hair was down when he stopped short at her door. She had her hands crossed over her abdomen, fingers entwined, and was staring blankly at the ceiling.
"I don't understand you," he said.
"Alright."
"You see, for me, that's not alright. That's sort of a bad thing. The only way I know how to help my brothers on air, is because I understand them. I'm not going to be able to help you."
"That's okay, I do fine on my own."
"That's because you deliver a thirty minute, one-woman show. You hardly ever have guests, and the ones you do have are call-ins. What is it about talking to other people that freaks you out so much?"
Elsa continued staring at the ceiling, all weighty eyes and unsettling presence.
"The only other person on my news team, besides Gerda, is an acting coach. It took me three months to master the 'calming presence and demure smile' technique. Critiques of my delivery range from 'frigid' to 'judgmental'. I have to remind myself to smile every three minutes while I'm on air. As I said, my degrees are in economic theory. Numbers, not people."
"What were you, home schooled or something?"
"That's an egregious over generalization about the homeschooling community."
"Yeah, but were you?"
"… not the point."
"You shouldn't need a degree to be able to talk to people," Hans argued. "Hell, we've been talking okay, not great, but okay. At least for the last fifteen minutes. Maybe you should just work on coming off as more personable. That's what gets the viewers."
Elsa tapped her fingers against her abdomen, then leaned |
blood loss. Police have stablished identities of some of the subjects and Meskil remains in the hospital resting.
The band has already canceled two scheduled shows in Roselare, Belgium, and Osnabrück, Germany, but aside from those two the group hasn't said anything about future events.
Pro-Pain have been going strong since the early 1990s, steadily releasing 15 albums and a smattering of compilations and other releases. Meskil is also known for his time in the Long Island crossover thrash band Crumbsuckers, remaining the band's bassist since the beginning.
In our interview with Meskil a few years back, he spoke about the band's timeline, how it's shifted members throughout the years. "In a perfect world, we would have endured the past 22 years with the same lineup," Meskil says. "In the real world, Pro-Pain have struggled to keep things afloat for most of those 22 years and sometimes real life situations take over and shake things up a bit in terms of our lineup. The best that the remaining members can do is to try and move forward with a lineup that represents the band 100% onstage and off. I think we’ve done a fine job of that, all things considered."
Our best wishes go out to Meskil and the rest of Pro-Pain.
10 Greatest Songs Under One Minute LongThe news Tuesday that MLB has approved a padded cap for pitchers certainly pleased Matt Harrison.
The Texas Rangers left-handed pitcher hasn’t been hit in the head while on the mound, but he knows it’s something that could happen at any time. So if there is a cap that is comfortable that will help protect him, he’ll wear it. But Harrison and teammates Derek Holland and Michael Kirkman want to see if the new product makes sense to wear before committing to it.
“I’m not a fashion person, so I don’t care how it looks as long as it’s protecting me,” Harrison said.
Pitchers will have a chance to try the new caps -- designed to provide some protection for balls coming at pitcher’s at 83 mph, the average speed of a line drive when it reaches the mound, according to an MLB study -- in spring training. They are optional.
“I read a little bit about it, and my biggest thought was the weight and size of it,” said Kirkman, who will go to spring training to try to earn a spot on the staff. “I think it’s something you have to try out and see how it feels. But it seems like a good idea.”
Holland, who is rehabbing after knee surgery and could return to the rotation around midseason, said he’s seen some prototypes and is encouraged that MLB is working so hard to do something.
“If it’s going to save people, it’s definitely worth it,” Holland said. “It may take some time to find something real good, but it’s a start and hopefully it will help eliminate the major injuries. Anything that’s going to keep me safe, I’ll wear it. To see friends and other teammates that have been affected by it, like Brandon McCarthy, I’m going to be with them on it.”
McCarthy said today that he won't wear the new cap, saying "the technology is there" but that he doesn't think it's "a major league-ready product" yet.
Holland, Kirkman and Harrison said they’ve never been hit in the head by a line drive. But Harrison remembers watching Dustin Nippert, who pitched with the Rangers in 2010, get hit by a line drive that contacted his head hard enough that the ball went out to left field. Nippert never lost consciousness, but he was out for six weeks with concussion symptoms and headaches.
Rangers pitcher Eric Hurley was hit by a ground ball in the head and suffered a concussion and small fracture during a minor league game in 2011.
“It’s a very serious thing when you’ve got an object coming at you that hard,” Kirkman said. “I’m glad they are doing something."Google revolutionized the Internet by making the global brain easily searchable by anyone. In addition to search, Google has created all kinds of different tools like Google Maps, Gmail, Analytics, Android and Apps that many of us use everyday.
One of the reasons why Google has consistently released new innovative project is because of their 20% time policy, which gives many of their employees one day a week to experiment with new concepts and ideas. This has resulted in many lesser-known creative projects that have emerged from within Googleplex.
In this post, I want to show you some of most fascinating websites that Google employees have created and how you can use them as educational tools.
Tap into the visual intelligence of the global brain by visualizing search trends as they are happening right now in every country in the world. I recommend downloading the free Google Trends Visualizer screensaver so you can observe real-time trends anytime.
Explore the ancient and modern wonders of the world like Angor Wat, the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge and the Great Barrier Reef in high-res photos and 3D Street View style imagery. It will surely inspire you to learn more about these mysterious and beautiful places.
Solve For A is a platform for discussing radical technology ideas for solving global problems. Inspired by Google X, this website will challenge you to think bigger and to speculate about technological “moonshots” that could change the world for the better.
Search through databases from around the world, including the World Bank, OECD, Eurostat and the U.S. Census Bureau. After you find what you want, filter through categories to make graphs with the axes you want.
Explore the evolution of the technologies that power the World Wide Web. You can even look at how webpages and technologies like web browsers used to look like, if you want to be reminded of how far we have come in such a short time.
Google’s intriguing augmented reality mobile game for iPhone and Android. Discover interesting places where you live in this urban exploration game.
I’m sure you’ve explored Google Earth, but did you know that you can fly through space with Google Sky? In addition to exploring our solar system and distant constellations, you can also check out the awe-inspiring topography of Google Moon and Google Mars.
Now you can build with LEGO bricks using Google Maps as your baseplate in Chrome. Google and LEGO have built an excellent creative academy that shows you how to build your own LEGO cities and LEGO-fied versions of popular landmarks.
Browse super his-res photos of artwork from over 400 of the world’s greatest art museums. You can take virtual gallery tours with audio and video guidance, zoom in on individual artwork masterpieces and even create your own virtual collections.
Google’s Creative Sandbox is a guide to ideas that blend creativity with technology. It shows you how to use new technology to solve problems for businesses and organizations and ties together with their excellent educational resources Think With Google and Our Mobile Planet.
I’m sure you’ve probably already heard of Google Earth but if you haven’t used it in the last year, you’ll be amazed at the 3D detail in the latest version. Zoom in on the 3D ridgelines of mountaintops and between skyscrapers in major cities. To activate the awesome flight simulator download Google Earth and and press CTRL + Option + A.
Google has recently released a new Maps game called SmartyPins for geographic trivia. It’s a fun way to explore and learn about your community.
If I missed any of your favorite creative projects from Google then feel free to share them with everyone in the comments.The Utilities: Under Siege
In the past year, much has been written by various analysts concerning the risk to the utilities of declining sales volumes as a consequence of numerous factors, especially on-site solar. Every time a solar panel goes onto a roof, sales volumes decline. In May, Barclays downgraded the entire U.S. utility sector to underweight, focusing on the threat of on-site solar and the potential for storage as well. The Barclays analysts commented:
In the 100+ year history of the electric utility industry, there has never before been a truly cost-competitive substitute available for grid power. We believe that solar + storage could reconfigure the organization and regulation of the electric power business over the coming decade.
But it’s not just solar power that utilities need to be concerned about. Each time an LED bulb supplants an incandescent, sales volumes for that application of illumination drop by 70 or 80%. A similar dynamic applies with efficient appliances and other measures.
Innovation And Disruption Is The New Normal
To some extent, we are developing a nascent trend of substituting commodities with intelligence and improved technologies. And that is a good thing. As a society, we want that to happen. To some extent, it has to happen if we are to successfully get out of this climate change box we have created and create space on this planet for another three billion souls. It also makes us more economically competitive and frees up capital for other uses.
And yet, if utility sales dry up too quickly and companies go into free-fall, as has happened in Germany where the utilities lost half a trillion Euros in market capitalization, that is not necessarily a good thing. Innovation and disruption may be beneficial, but the pace of change matters.
However, disruption and innovation can also involve shifts that move benefits and losses from one industry to another. And if the electric industry can steal from the petroleum industry by vastly increasing the number of EVs, perhaps everybody wins except for the oil exporters (whom we are generally not so fond of anyway).
Could A Wholesale Shift To Electric Vehicles Save The Day?
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) just came out with a report extolling the virtues of electric vehicles (EVs), and arguing for their rapid adoption in order to maintain sales volumes and restore health to a threatened industry. EEI states that “electrification is our biggest opportunity.” The Institute comments in the report that 93% of energy in the transportation industry today comes from petroleum, and that electrification of the transportation fleet could benefit the economy and the environment, while offering utilities new opportunities to engage their customers.
Against the backdrop of slowing growth in the electric power industry, bringing electricity to the transportation sector is a huge, albeit long-term opportunity for load growth.”
In one sense, you would think that this is obvious, but you would not know it yet by the actions of the utilities themselves: to date only 1.7% of the vehicles purchased for the utility fleets in the past five years have been electric. So much for eating one’s own dog food.
The good news is that this dynamic can change quickly, if the will is there. EEI comments that over 200,000 plug-in EVs are currently on the road. Last year, approximately 96,000 plug-in EVs were sold in the U.S. and we are on track to increase that number by approximately one-third in 2014. It seems as if every manufacturer is now offering a model: even Mercedes Benz just started taking orders for its S500 model (for $146,000 you get the equivalent of 442 hp equivalent, can accelerate from 0-60 in 5.2 seconds, and reach a top speed of about 155 mph).
It’s not just cars, either. Electric pick-ups and service trucks offer superior performance, while school buses would have distinct advantages over their diesel brethren, according to a recent University of Delaware study.
As far as vehicles specifically dedicated to the service of electric utilities, EEI cites a number of benefits from an electrification, including:
Reduced operating costs over the vehicle lifetime
Extended lives based on mechanical simplicity
Improved crew safety through noise reduction
Extended work hours in areas where noise restrictions would otherwise be a limiting factor
Enhanced brand image
EVs Bring Other Valuable And Capabilities To The Electric Power Grid
And then there is the potential value of being able to use electric batteries to provide services to the grid, such as shifting demand to when it can be best accommodated -usually to off-peak hours – and providing other services which enhance grid reliability (such things as frequency modulation and voltage regulation).
EEI notes that plug in hybrids with a liquid fuel and battery combination (set up in the same way as the Chevy Volt) serve another potentially useful purpose. A utility service vehicle with this type of architecture could provide ‘exportable power.’ That is, they could essentially serve as mobile generators on wheels – providing as much as 125 kilowatts of power which could be delivered right to the distribution grid. The first such ‘Class 5’ vehicle will be in testing by the end of this year, with Pacific Gas & Electric working to develop the appropriate interfaces and protocols relative to safety.
Time To Plug It In And Get Going
U.S. electric utilities need to find new sources for electricity demand. With batteries that can store a day or more of typical household electricity use, (the largest Tesla battery, at 85 kWh, can store the equivalent of four days of average household use) EV’s can clearly suck up a good deal of juice. If adopted in large numbers, EVs could help offset declining power demand.
The utilities also need to find ways to increase adoption of renewable energy sources, particularly solar power. Properly coordinated, and with intelligent and market-aware software, EVs can represent a critical storage component to the grid, facilitating the integration of more renewable energy. Finally, as noted, electric vehicles have numerous advantages that are specifically of value to the utility industry.
U.S. utilities are under a lot of pressure in this new and disruptive world they now find themselves in. If they are suitably forward looking and take advantage of the opportunities, they could become proactive agents of disruption and positive change. They probably don;t have much choice in the matter.
The EEI study puts it bluntly:
The bottom line is that the electric utility industry needs the electrification of the transportation sector to remain viable and sustainable in the long term. While the market has started moving in this direction and the technology has been proven, there is still more to be done... Electrifying our own fleets is an important first step in moving the industry forward.
To that end, The Edison Electric Institute is laying down a challenge, asking each of its member utilities to spend 5% of its annual fleet purchases on plug-in vehicles. OPEC’s probably not worried yet. Maybe it should be…The International Olympic Committee said today that it is banning Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea following its investigations of a doping scheme. The news was met with applause by Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan, filmmakers behind the Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary, Icarus, an exposé chronicling Fogel’s investigation into the international world of sports doping. Netflix has rights and premiered the film in August.
“We applaud today’s decision by the International Olympic Committee,” he pair said today in a statement obtained by Deadline. “As we learned in the making of our documentary Icarus, the Russian state ran a vast, state-sponsored doping system that made a mockery of the Olympic ideals of brotherhood and fair play. We salute whistleblower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who risked so much to tell this story, and support all those who are willing to speak truth to power.”
Rodchenkov, the head of Russia’s anti-doping program, was a key cog in Icarus, which won the Sundance Film Festival’s inaugural Orwell Award. The film chronicles Fogel’s investigation into the international world of sports doping.
According to Rodchenkov’s lawyer Jim Walden, his client provided “credible and irrefutable evidence” of a system that was supervised and financed by then-Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko and other “high-level government officials.” According to Rodchenkov, he replaced tainted urine samples with clean ones for Russian athletes during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The World Anti-Doping Agency and IOC confirmed Rodchenkov’s account and banned Mutko and his deputy Yury Nagornykh from future Olympics.
“Today’s decision by the International Olympic Committee sends a powerful message that it will not tolerate state-sponsored cheating by any nation,” Walden said today.
As part of the IOC’s decision, Russian athletes will be able to compete in PyeongChang next February only after being approved by an IOC panel, and will compete as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia” (OAR) and wear a specific uniform. Instead of marching behind of the Russian flag during the opening ceremonies, they will march behind the Olympic flag. During medal ceremonies, the Olympic anthem will be played.
Icarus opened the 2017 AFI Docs fest in Washington, D.C. and won the audience award at Sundance London.By Brad Jordan
🔊 Listen to Article
Less than a week left to submit comments on FDA’s food “safety” rules
The deadline for submitting comments on two key rules the FDA has proposed as a part of the Food Safety Modernization Act has been extended to Friday, Nov. 22.
Hailed as the most sweeping overhaul of farm and food policy since the Great Depression, many fear the law will actually make our food supply less safe – not to mention sterile – by regulating small, organic farmers out of business and leaving it in the hands of a few mega farmers and processors.
Founder of Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance Judith McGeary shared her concerns about the federal Food and Drug Administration’s first draft of the “Produce Safety” and “Preventative Controls for Human Food” rules in a Food Riot Radio interview earlier this year. Despite thousands of comments from concerned stakeholders over the last ten months, the rules haven’t got any better.
While submitting our comments probably won’t stop the train wreck, we can’t let food safety “modernization” go into effect without putting up a fight. If you thought the government taking control of our “health”care was bad, imagine what it’ll be like when they take over our farms. People should be fighting this harder than they fought Obamacare.
Extinction of small, local farms
The cost of compliance with the new food safety law is high, so high even the FDA admits it expects some small farmers to go out of business. While the very smallest farms – those generating less than $500,000 in annual revenues – will be exempt from some of the most burdensome regulatory requirements, they are not fully exempt from the new food safety rules.
The small farm “exemptions” are not helpful for a few reasons.
First, they only apply to very, very small farms. While $500,000 may sound like a lot of money, keep in mind we’re talking about revenues or sales – not the farmer’s profit or income. The average farmer’s net income is about 10 percent of his sales. That means a farmer with a household income of as little as $50,000 would most likely have to comply with the full-load of regulations, which were supposedly designed for mega farms and food processors.
Second, even these very, very small farms are not fully exempt. The FDA admits that farmers with revenues under $500,000 will spend 4-6 percent of their revenue complying with a smaller set of regulations. Since their average total net income is only about 10 percent of their revenues, small farmers will likely spend over half of their profits on regulatory compliance costs.
Third, the exemption granted to very, very small farms can be revoked at any time if the FDA suspects there is a food safety problem on the farm, and the agency has to show no evidence or proof for its suspicion.
On top of the cost in dollars, the law will cost farmers time. Farmers, especially small farmers who can’t afford legal counsel, don’t have time to mull through and comply with 1200 pages of new rules and regulations, many of which are vague and poorly written. Tracking the origin and destination of every crop sold, for example, isn’t going to benefit the farmer or the consumer of local foods.
Sterile soil, sterile food
According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the rules make it “nearly impossible to use natural fertilizers like manure and compost. Farmers will be pushed to use chemicals instead of natural fertilizers.”
“The FDA seems to be scared of anything that was ever part of an animal. If you don’t follow their instructions to the letter, which includes extensive documentation of how the compost was made, you have to treat compost — including worm castings — as if it were raw animal manure and wait 9 months in between putting the compost down and harvesting the crop. In practice, this is a death knell for the use of many types of compost, which are vital to growing food sustainably,” McGeary said.
What does all this mean for consumers? Dead, lifeless food made of synthetic nutrients.
So, if you’re concerned about local, sustainable food, support The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and submit comments through its website.
Or, if you want to go right into the belly of the beast, go to Regulations.gov and leave a comment there. But beware – it looks like the website may be run by the same people who run Healthcare.gov, as both are having technical difficulties right now. Regulations.gov has crashed three times in the past week, which may be a good thing, because, let’s be honest, the longer the federal government is delayed, the better.
Previous post: Your Seafood is Sick
This article appeared at Food Riot Radio. Please “like” Food Riot Radio on Facebook.Posted on September 13, 2014 by Josh Finnie
Category: DevOps |
Here at TrackMaven, we have made it our goal to provide our customers with the most secure access to our application as possible. And in light of the recent news emerging in web security, most concerning Heartbleed, we rethought our best practices and now limit access to our application to only secured HTTPS and making sure that we have the full range of coverage based off of SSL Lab's standards for security. It is often thought that securing your site through TSL/SSL is hard, but hopefully this post will show you just how easy it can be.
What is HTTPS?
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a way in which computers can securely communicate over the internet. The secure communication is done either the through the newer Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption protocol or its predecessor the SSL Secure Sockets Layer (SLS) encryption protocol. Each uses asymmetric cryptography involving private and public certificates to make sure the communication is secure; the creation of these certificates is commonly believed to be the difficult part of implementing HTTPS on your own servers.
Setting up HTTPS on your server
The first thing you will want to do is to secure your certificates. A certificate will consist of the owner's name, a identification number, expiration date, a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. The certification creation process asks you for this information automatically, so don't worry about knowing how to input all the information.
You could, of course, create a certificate yourself (self-sign) without the help of any Certificate Authorities (CA), but you will lose the ability to be validated by them. For better or worse the CAs exist to make sure the public key given to you is true and unadulterated. Going through a CA will make sure that modern web browsers recognize your certificate as valid and trusted.
There are a few different versions of certificates. It is best to read up on them and find which one best fits your needs. Here at TrackMaven, we went with a Wildcard SSL which allows us to use it on multiple subdomains (i.e. app.trackmaven.com and blog.trackmaven.com). For example, DigiCert offers 5 different types of certificates:
To continue with the process of securing your web application, you will need to purchase a SSL certificate from a reputable vendor. Shop around; prices do vary. Once you have purchased an SSL certificate you will need to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The below command will generate both a server key and CSR:
openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout your_server_name.key -out your_server_name.csr
You then take the newly created CSR file to the certificate provider of your choice and purchase a SSL Certificate. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks depending on the level of certification you purchased. Once your provider has generated the certificates you should receive them via the email address which you used to sign the CSR.
I would recommend you follow the instructions of your certificate provider closely as all providers do things slightly differently. Once you have successfully received the email with your certificates all that is left to do is to put them on the server and tell your http server (either NGINX, Apache, etc.) to start hosting content through HTTPS.
Setting up your server is the easier of these processes; you only need to save the key you created above and the output of the directions your CA provided you to your server. I'd recommend putting it under /etc/{apache2,nginx}/ssl/ for safe keeping.
Setting up Apache
You first want to enable the SSL module in Apache: a2enmod ssl
Secondly, you'll need to turn on port 443 listening by editing the /etc/apache2/ports.conf file
file Update your VirtualHost file to listen on port 443 and have the following configurations: SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/your_server_name.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/your_server_name.key SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/apache2/ssl/DigiCertCA.crt
This should give you a working secure connection through TSL using Apache.
Setting up Nginx
You first want to bundle your CRT with the CA's cert: cat your_server_name.crt DigiCertCA.crt >> bundle.crt and move that to your /etc/nginx/ssl/ folder
and move that to your folder Second edit your server virtual host to include the following configurations: listen 443; ssl on; ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/bundle.crt ssl_certificate_key /etc/ngin/ssl/your_server_name.key
This should give you a working secure connection through TSL using Nginx. At this point, I would suggest finding the best way for you to forward all traffic hitting HTTP to HTTPS. There is no real reason that, with HTTPS now set up, you should be serving insecure content.
Hardening your HTTPS connection
Now that we have set up a secure connection on your server of choice, it is important to make sure that you are using HTTPS to the best of its abilities. There are a few steps that one should take to make sure their server is hardened as best as possible when using HTTPS.
Hardening Apache
Adding the below lines to your VirtualHost will give you all the benefits of the most up-to-date ciphers while disallowing some of the known-to-be-weaker ones:
SSLProtocol ALL -SSLv2 SSLHonorCipherOrder On SSLCipherSuite ECDH+AESGCM:DH+AESGCM:ECDH+AES256:DH+AES256:ECDH+AES128:DH+AES:ECDH+3DES:DH+3DES:RSA+AESGCM:RSA+AES:RSA+3DES:!aNULL:!MD5:!DSS SSLCompression Off
Hardening Nginx
Adding the below lines to your server virtual host will give you all the benefits of the most up-to-date ciphers while disallowing some of the known-to-be-weaker ones:
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on ; ssl_protocols SSLv3 TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 ; ssl_ciphers ECDH + AESGCM :DH + AESGCM :ECDH + AES256 :DH + AES256 :ECDH + AES128 :DH + AES :ECDH + 3DES :DH + 3DES :RSA + AESGCM :RSA + AES :RSA + 3DES :! aNULL :! MD5 :! DSS :! AES256 ; ssl_session_cache shared :SSL:10m ; ssl_session_timeout 10m ; ssl_stapling on ;
Conclusion
With this article, I hope I cleared some of the air around setting up HTTPS on your server. Setting up HTTPS isn't too scary, for a small time investment you'll gain a huge security boost for your application and your users.
Further Reading and Resources
HTTPS TLS/SSLRapper-turned-sugar-water-pitchman-turned-overpaid-underwear-model 50 Cent has found himself on the wrong end of a police investigation into the theft of some blinged-out accessories that are worth about 500,000 times his namesake.
Robert Marin, owner of LAX Jewelry, which, from the looks of their bedazzled Instagram page specializes in frosty, hard-to-get Rolexes and other hip-hop-centric must-haves, is claiming that a couple of 50’s heavies pistol-whipped him and took a watch and gold and diamond chain he was in the process of selling the rapper.
It all started when Marin met 50 and crew in Vegas before the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. A tentative deal was struck, and the party was on. After a night of raging at posh Drai’s nightclub on the Strip, Marin alleges that he was invited to check out none other than boxer Floyd Mayweather’s personal gym, which, of course, he accepted.
Upon arrival at the gym, Marin alleges the vibe turned ugly, and he was assaulted and robbed, after which 50 and posse disappeared into the night.
50 Cent et al claim otherwise, with the rapper’s lawyer Scott Leemon telling TMZ: “On behalf of 50, I can adamantly deny that he or his security had anything to do with these baseless and false allegations.”
50 Cent also made headlines around the fight after boasting he was going to be betting $1.6 million on Mayweather, who happens to be his estranged business partner, to win. Caught leaving the bout, however, 50 played demure when asked about his winnings, saying, “I didn’t win nothing!” and joking about the taxman being there.
This isn’t the first time the multi-millionaire with the humble name has been accused of stealing shiny items. Last year, he was named a suspect in the theft of the theft of a gold chain from a clothing designer at one of his concerts.San Diego’s support for bicycling whooshed forward Monday with the adoption of a blueprint that calls for doubling the city’s bicycle network during the next 20 years.
The City Council unanimously approved the San Diego Bicycle Master Plan Update, which builds on the city’s original bicycle plan of 2002.
The update recommends adding 595 miles of bikeways across the city, filling gaps in the existing 510-mile network and creating new paths. It aims to connect neighborhoods within the city, create regional corridors throughout the city and make bicycling a regular means of transportation for residents.
“This is the right thing to do,” Councilman David Alvarez said of the plan. “We must move on this as quickly as possible.... It’s a bike plan in name. But it’s really a plan for mobility.”
Councilman Kevin Faulconer said: “I’m a big fan. I’m a big supporter of this … and (of) putting the resources (forward) to make this a reality.”
City officials estimated the new plan’s price tag at $312 million for the full build-out. It would cost $4 million annually to maintain this larger network.
But Monday’s adoption does not immediately commit taxpayer dollars. The plan is only a set of “goals and guidelines,” said Bill Harris, a city spokesman.
It will inform what Harris described as a vast set of bike upgrades already underway across the city. Those projects have included new protected bike lanes and turn pockets in the College Area, plus street markings called sharrows in other spots reminding auto drivers to share the road with bicyclists. Work is continuing on a downtown bicycle loop, Harris said.
The city plans to use a mix of grants and existing funds to build the network, he said.
The council will consider the bicycle update’s individual projects or sets of projects as funding and city construction schedules allow. Many projects will be coordinated with city street repairs or repaving to streamline costs, Harris said.
City officials identified 40 high-priority bicycle projects in the plan, with a combined estimated cost of $35 million. Some are set in downtown, others in Mission Valley, the College Area and Mid-City neighborhoods.
Several bicycle advocates spoke in favor of the plan at the meeting.
Other speakers, however, expressed strong worries about the environmental damage that bike routes planned through Rose Canyon in University City could cause. The council agreed to remove the bike segments planned through the canyon.
City officials said they would inform residents and businesses well in advance about any bike projects that might reduce parking spots for cars or road lanes for vehicles.
The city’s update comes amid a surge of support for bicycling across the county. Council members, including mayoral candidates Alvarez and Faulconer, seemingly competed to be the most bike-friendly city leader in the past week. Faulconer held a news conference last week laying out his support for the master plan, while Alvarez invited the media and public to join him Monday as he rode his bicycle to City Hall.
Cycling events are growing in number and size. Bike advocacy groups, such as the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and BikeSD, are becoming more prominent and government funding is coming through for related projects, driven in part by clean-air laws and greater public awareness of cycling’s health benefits.
In late September, the San Diego Association of Governments approved $200 million for bicycle projects countywide. The initiative, officially called the Regional Bike Plan Early Action Program, includes 42 projects totaling about 77 miles of bikeways, according to SANDAG, which helps plan and finance the region’s transportation network.
Those projects stretch from San Ysidro to Oceanside to Escondido. Many would complete large stretches of “high-priority” bike corridors that have been on the drawing board for years, such as the 44-mile Coastal Rail Trail from Oceanside to San Diego and the 21-mile Inland Rail Trail from Oceanside to Escondido.
chris.nichols@utsandiego.com
(760) 529-4929
Twitter: @christhejournoApologists for NSA redouble witch-hunt of Edward Snowden
20 January 2014
If anyone had any doubts about the real content of President Barack Obama’s “reform” of the National Security Agency’s massive spying programs, they should have been cleared up Sunday by the vicious bipartisan witch-hunt of the individual who made the NSA’s illegal activities known to the public, Edward Snowden.
Three leading members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, appeared on television talk shows to brand Snowden a traitor and Russian spy, providing a justification for his being tried and executed. The former NSA contractor has been charged by federal prosecutors—though not yet indicted—with felony counts under the 1917 Espionage Act.
Without Snowden’s revelations of spying on the telephone calls, emails, text message and Internet activity of hundreds of millions of Americans and countless millions more around the world, there would have been no need for Obama to deliver his remarks at the Justice Department on Friday.
The US president’s response consisted of meaningless rhetoric about “privacy” and vague proposals for “oversight,” accompanied by a full-throated defense of the police state operations carried out by the NSA and other US intelligence agencies within the United States and around the world.
Obama’s lying remarks, which included an attack on Snowden, were a green light for the most right-wing sections of the ruling establishment to go on the offensive, braying for the whistle-blower’s blood.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press”—appropriately sponsored by the Boeing Corporation—Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, described Snowden as “a thief, who, we believe, had some help; who stole information, the vast majority [having] nothing to do with privacy,” but rather “had to do with how we operate overseas to collect information to keep Americans safe.”
This is utter nonsense, given the multiple programs exposed by Snowden in which literally trillions of telephone and Internet records have been intercepted by the NSA. As for “how we operate overseas,” this, as Snowden’s revelations have made clear, includes bugging the phones and computers of government leaders such as Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, snooping on international meetings of the European Union and other bodies, and conducting industrial espionage on Brazil’s state-owned oil corporation Petrobras as well as European companies and economic officials. These are all activities that have nothing to do with “keeping Americans safe” and everything to do with furthering the profit interests of US financial and corporate giants.
Rogers attempted to bolster his totally unsubstantiated allegations that Snowden is a spy by noting that “he arranged travel before he left,” and that “he had a go bag, if you will.” Arranging travel before you leave is a practice common to most rational people, not to mention someone who knew he would become the object of a worldwide manhunt once he revealed the NSA’s illegal spying.
The congressman went on to state: “I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB [Federal Security Service] agent in Moscow… I don’t think it was a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the FSB.”
Asked whether she agreed that Snowden had been working with the Russians, Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, replied: “He may well have. We don’t know at this stage. But I think to glorify this act is really to set sort of a new level of dishonor.”
Echoing these slanders, Mike McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News: “I personally believe that he was cultivated by a foreign power to do what he did. And he—I would submit, again, that he’s not a hero by any stretch. He’s a traitor.”
None of these officials, who have all served as rubber stamps and cheerleaders for the US military and intelligence apparatus, can offer a shred of evidence to back up charges that would condemn Snowden to death.
Some of what they say is simply absurd. The claim that Snowden flew into “the loving arms of an FSB agent in Moscow” is a flat out lie. After revealing multiple NSA crimes, Snowden was attempting to reach safe haven in Ecuador when the US government revoked his passport, leaving him stranded for 39 days in the transit lounge of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo international airport, where he had sought to change planes. This hardly suggests FSB handlers waiting to receive him.
Clearly, Washington did not expect Snowden to stay in Russia, given the US government’s thuggish operation to force down the airplane of President Evo Morales on suspicion that it was flying the ex-NSA contractor to asylum in Bolivia.
This campaign of lies and slanders, like Obama’s speech, is aimed at intimidating the public and suppressing opposition to the NSA’s police state operations both in the US and around the world. The intention—as with the witch-hunt and persecution of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning—is to cast Snowden as the criminal for exposing the real criminals, including Obama and the intelligence chiefs, who are responsible for shredding the US Constitution and conspiring to destroy the democratic rights of the American people.
The latest Quinnipiac poll, conducted earlier this month, showed support for Snowden has only grown in |
kitchen.
"Get new hose."
"Fix crack in sidewalk."
"New latch for gate."
The bathroom had two sinks. Hers still had a hair dryer plugged in and hung on a hook. His side had a cup with a comb and whatever medication he took in the morning and at night — it was different every time.
Across from the sink was a wicker shelf. It had a picture of their eldest son on top of a mountain. He had a green bandana and a beard, and gave a peace sign; the photo was framed with that poem you see on bereavement cards: "Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep." That's how it starts. I copied it down to give to a friend who'd just lost her dog.
Beside the photo were two little boxes, one made from a heavy clay, the other some kind of dark pewter. His wife's picture leaned behind the clay box. I opened them once. They had ashes, and tags and statements from the funeral home. I wondered if it comforted him to have them there, behind him, while he combed his hair.
The money my clients spent startled me. One house had a receipt for a throw blanket more expensive than my car. I vacuumed children's bedrooms bigger than my apartment. Rob's House — my picky Friday client who adored me — had $3,000 worth of television and stereo equipment just in the living room. The TV was always on. My Christmas card from him and his wife contained a $100 bonus, the highest the company had ever seen. That was around when the prescription bottles multiplied by the bathroom sink and Rob's skin took on a yellow tone.
Usually I never met my clients. I saw the lady from the Porn House after cleaning one time, at the store. She had on green hospital scrubs under a long red coat. Her short brown hair stuck out on one side, and she smoothed it while inspecting the steaks on clearance. I stood about 10 feet away from her, trying not to stare, holding cough syrup and juice for my daughter. She had no idea who I was. I knew she'd just gotten over a long sinus infection, and spat large wads of snot in the shower.
I saw the lady who used the testosterone cream at a restaurant. Her date was tall, in good shape, with fluffy blond hair. She had on high heels and too much makeup. They smiled at each other, but didn't hold hands. He'd left an overnight bag at her house that week while the kids were at their dad's. It had lube and one of those egg vibrators in it. I stood across from them at the bar, waiting for a friend, thinking how sad it must be to lose something like your libido.
The money my clients spent startled me. One house had a receipt for a throw blanket more expensive than my car.
After a while, I got used to the loneliness these houses held. I got used to Cigarette Lady, whose husband went out of town a lot. She kept cartons of cigarettes in a freezer in the garage. They were the long, skinny types; I don't remember the brand. A pantry off the kitchen had fat-free soups, crackers, and fat-free salad dressings. The refrigerator contained not much more than water and lettuce. A toilet in the upstairs bathroom off the kitchen always had crusted vomit under the rim.
My most regular client had me come twice a week for a few hours. Along with cleaning, I folded the laundry of a mother, father, and two young sons and put it away. The mother came out from her office once to pay me, and asked if I knew of any midwives in town. "I'm pregnant," she said. "I can't believe I'm telling you this; you're the first person I've told besides my husband."
We talked for a bit while I cleaned her stainless steel appliances and granite countertops in the kitchen. She wanted to try a home birth this time. I told her about mine. She hoped for a girl but didn't really care either way.
A week or two after she told me about the pregnancy, I noticed spots of blood by the toilet. She told me about the miscarriage when I left. I acted as if I didn't already know. She slouched. I wasn't sure what to say.
After a while I decided to take on private clients along with my work for the cleaning company. That meant doing everything from fielding the initial call of interest to scheduling a day, time, and frequency of the clean. It meant weeding out the ones who wanted me to clean in costume or naked.
I vowed never to have a house bigger than I could clean myself
I stopped snooping after that. I didn't have to. The bigger the house, the more they worked to afford it, the more prescription bottles they had. I started to see the fact that I couldn't afford to buy my daughter fancy electronics as a luxury. We went to the beach and looked for crabs under the rocks instead. We spent rainy Saturdays doing a 25-cent puzzle. I vowed never to have a house bigger than I could clean myself.
I soon made enough with my private clients to quit the cleaning company entirely. I lost those houses, but there were no goodbyes. I'm not sure if they noticed I'd been replaced.
Stephanie Land is a writer whose work has been featured in Mamalode magazine, the Huffington Post, and Scary Mommy. She lives in Missoula, Montana, with her two daughters and their shelter dog. Read more of her story at stepville.com.
First Person is Vox's home for compelling, provocative narrative essays. Do you have a story to share? Read our submission guidelines, and pitch us at firstperson@vox.com.SF's iconic Brown twins face life apart S.F. PEOPLE Health woes, financial worries split up iconic pair
For once, the Brown twins are not in matching outfits. Marian B. is in hers, a leopard-print cowboy hat and car coat, but her sister, Vivian A., older by eight minutes, is in bedclothes at Davies medical center.
"My sister has Alzheimer's, so she has to have 24-hour care, because they're afraid she will go out and get run over or something," says Marian, offering a straight answer to the question everybody who sees her on the streets stops to ask. "Where's your sister?"
The identical twins, who have built themselves into a living San Francisco landmark of irrepressible inseparability, are now barely holding it together, at age 85.
"We don't look much alike anymore," Marian says, in a taxicab en route to visit Vivian at California Pacific Medical Center's Davies Campus. Her memory has been going for a year now, says Marian, who has been caring for her sister in the one-bedroom apartment on Nob Hill where they sleep in twin beds. But a slipping mind led to a slip and fall about a month ago. Vivian went to a doctor, who referred her straight to the hospital, where she has been ever since.
'Separated before'
"We've been separated before," Marian says, with a tone that would indicate it did not work out. "We taught school for three years. I taught in Hillsdale, Mich., and she taught north of St. John's, Mich."
Marian would like to bring her sister home to be among their 100 or more matching outfits. But she understands that's probably not practical. An assisted living facility would do, even if it means separate bedrooms. She would prefer that to the current predicament of taking a cab to visit her sister only twice a week, which is all she can swing.
"Thirty dollars round trip, I can't afford that. I'm not a millionaire," she says on a drive west from Nob Hill, her mood brightening by the block. She's unfamiliar with seat belts and needs assistance in freeing herself from the device and getting from cab to curb. But by the time she is at the front desk, she's wearing that familiar smile as she proudly announces, "I'm going to visit my twin sister, Vivian A. Brown. She's in Room 3208."
Vivian's interests are being represented by an attorney, but Marian says she has her own interest, which is to find a situation where the twins can be twins. Cost is a barrier. Their rent is $1,088 while all the options she's seen start at $2,000.
"I'm not going to get knee high in debt," says Marian, still a Midwestern pragmatist. "I'm not signing anything until I see the bare facts about the finances."
A relative living in San Diego came up to drive Marian around looking for alternatives, and they wound up in Foster City. "I was worn out by the time I got there," Marian says. "It took over half an hour." Besides, they aren't the Foster City Twins.
"People know us as the San Francisco Twins, and we want to finish up our lives here in San Francisco," says Marian. When they arrived from Michigan more than 40 years ago, she worked as a bank auditor, and Vivian was a legal secretary at an insurance agency. But at 5 foot 1 and 98 pounds, they were meant for bigger things. They've done 25 commercials, and Marian can fire off the names of their clients as if they were the lyrics to a Johnny Cash song.
"We've been on Reebok, IBM, Payless Drugstore, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Joe Boxer shorts, AT&T, Dell Computer, Atachi, Apple Computer," she says before stopping to take a breath. "We've been on 'The Richard Simmons Show,' the Tom Snyder show, the Vicki Lawrence show, the AM show, the PM show. Richard Branson flew us to London for Virgin Atlantic and took us on a shopping trip to Harrods."
'Waiting to see'
But the residuals dried up years ago. There isn't much demand for a single twin, so Marian is living on Social Security while protecting what little savings she has for a proper funeral and burial, the two sisters side by side.
"I don't know which way this is going to turn out," she says. "I'm waiting to see like everybody else."
Former Mayor Willie Brown has vowed to help and recommended donations be made to Jewish Family and Children's Services. The twins are Protestants, but it doesn't matter. The agency will help anyone and has done so for 162 years. It accepts donations through the San Francisco Emergency Assistance Fund ( www.jfcs.org). "We are grateful for the donations that have been made and are making sure the twins are being helped," says Barbara Farber, director of development at the agency.
One way to offer direct aid is to go by Uncle Vito's pizza at Bush and Powell any afternoon at 4 and offer to pay for Marian's daily meal, which costs $20, tip included. The restaurant always throws in a glass of wine.
For years, the twins have sat at the window table so they can watch the colorful new models of cars go by. "We had twin Oldsmobiles back in Kalamazoo," says Marian, referring to the place they grew up. "We tried dressing differently for six months. We didn't like that at all."
Dining alone, Marian has downsized to a mini pizza, from the small they normally split. But she hasn't downsized the chocolate cake for dessert.
"I'm eating the whole piece, which my sister and I used to split," she says with a laugh that doesn't last long. "I'm lonesome," she says. The only relief is the daily phone call to her sister's bedside.
"I say, 'This is a hug for you, Vivian, and that's a kiss,' and we both smack our lips on the phone," she says. "I see improvement, even over the phone."When and how should we talk about fascism?
When Donald Trump started talking about closing American mosques and perhaps even having Muslims register with the government, when he called for a “deportation force” to search out and expel the 11 million Hispanic immigrants estimated to be in the country illegally, and then when he justified his supporters in “roughing up” a protester at his rally, a number of his fellow Republicans began to use the word fascist.
Once you start viewing Trump through that lens, a number of his previous statements — many of which were seen at the time as so outrageous they would doom his campaign — take on a different significance, particularly his xenophobic comments about immigrants and the way his speeches rely more on assertions of his own greatness than on any identifiable policies or political philosophy. (It also wasn’t the first time he had justified the violence of his followers.)
Pundits have reacted to labeling Trump a fascist in three different ways:
None of those reactions is entirely wrong, as we’ll see. But that conclusion just raises a larger question: Would we have a basis for calling any contemporary figure a fascist? Or has the word just become an insult with no identifiable content? What is fascism, anyway?
If you try to answer that question by looking at expert opinion, you’ll find a muddle. Just about any good article on fascism starts by explaining why it’s so hard to define. Here’s how David Neiwert puts it:
In contrast [to communism], hardly anyone can explain what it is that makes fascism, mainly because all we really know about it is the regimes that arose under its banner. There are no extant texts, only a litany of dictatorships and atrocities. When we think of fascism, we think of Hitler and perhaps Mussolini, without even understanding what forces they rode to power.
Communism has a very concise description: public ownership of the means of production under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Liberal democracy is a government elected by the majority but constitutionally restrained from violating minority rights. For fascism, well, we’ve got the example of Hitler. But what was it about Hitler that made him Hitler? [1] Given that we don’t want another Hitler regime, or anything remotely like it, what should we be looking for and trying to avoid?
In his influential essay “Ur-Fascism“, Umberto Eco warns:
It would be so much easier, for us, if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, “I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares.” Life is not that simple.
You can’t identify fascism by blindly correlating policies. Hitler built the autobahn and Eisenhower built the interstate highway system, but Eisenhower was not a Hitler. Reagan and Hitler both increased military spending, but Reagan was not a Hitler. Fascism also is not a political philosophy. (Eco: “Mussolini did not have any philosophy: he had only rhetoric.”) It’s not an economic theory, and it’s not tied to a particular religion.
In his book In God’s Country (about the American Patriot movement of the 1990s), Neiwert adopts this definition (which he attributes to “historians and sociologists”):
a political movement based in populist ultranationalism and focused on an a core mythic ideal of phoenix-like societal rebirth, attained through a return to “traditional values.”
But Eco, who grew up under Mussolini, avoided all definitions, writing that “fascism had no quintessence”. Instead he tried to find deeper, pre-rational roots: “Fascism was philosophically out of joint, but emotionally it was firmly fastened to some archetypal foundations.” and “behind a regime and its ideology there is always a way of thinking and feeling, a group of cultural habits, of obscure instincts and unfathomable drives.”
He reduced these “unfathomable drives” to 14 traits of what he called Ur-Fascism, upon which any specific form of fascism would be based. These 14, he said, “cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism.” The traits include a cult of tradition, anti-intellectualism [2], equating disagreement with treason, fear of difference, permanent warfare, and contempt for the weak. But the one that I want to focus on is #6:
Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. [italics in the original]
This points to what I see as the real difficulty of defining fascism as a political movement: It’s not fundamentally about politics at all. Fascism is primarily a phenomenon of social psychology. I would summarize it as a dysfunctional attempt of people who feel humiliated and powerless to restore their pride by:
styling themselves as the only true and faithful heirs of their nation’s glorious (and possibly mythical) past,
identifying with a charismatic leader whose success will become their success,
helping that leader achieve power by whatever means necessary, including violence,
under his leadership, purifying the nation by restoring its traditional and characteristic virtues (again, through violence if necessary),
reawakening and reclaiming the nation’s past glory (by war, if necessary),
all of which leads to the main point: humiliating the internal and external enemies they blame for their own humiliation. [3]
Now, I think, we’re in a position to talk about Donald Trump and his relationship to the conservative movement. Trump may or may not harbor fascist ambitions himself, but his campaign targets a segment of the population that is psychologically ready for fascism: working-class white Christian males, who have seen their privileged place in American society erode as blacks, women, gays, non-English-speakers, and non-Christians get closer to equality. What’s more, the good-paying no-college-necessary jobs that allowed their fathers to achieve the American dream have vanished, leaving them incapable of carrying forward their patriarchal legacy.
In his scapegoating of immigrants at home and foreign enemies abroad, and his vague promises to “make America great again” by applying his own greatness to a government that for decades has been run by “losers”, Trump is playing the role of a charismatic fascist leader.
But the audience he is appealing to didn’t pop out of nowhere. Its sense of grievance has been carefully nurtured and cultivated by decades of conservative propaganda, which has diligently pointed its resentment downward at scapegoat groups like blacks, Muslims, and Hispanic immigrants, rather than upward at the wealthy bosses who profited by shipping jobs overseas.
In their defense, the propagandists probably didn’t intend to create a fascist movement. Instead, from one election to the next, it was easy to split the natural constituency of the Left by appealing to a sense of victimization among the white working class, using xenophobia, racism, and hot-button religious issues to turn them against the non-white working class, against women and gays, and against the liberal politicians who looked out for the interests of the emerging minorities. [4] As Neiwert concluded in 2004 after an analysis of Rush Limbaugh’s rhetoric:
What this exercise reveals is not so much that Limbaugh is a fascist, but rather, that he is making a career out of transmitting the themes and memes upon which fascism feeds to a mainstream conservative audience.
The result is the confusion that Trump has sown inside the Republican establishment. Fascistic themes of wounded pride and affronted identity were supposed to keep working-class white Christian men voting against their economic interests. [5] But nobody was supposed to take things this seriously.
Now that Trump is doing so, establishment Republicans are starting to yell “fascist!” But that won’t work at this late date, because by now “the themes and memes upon which fascism feeds” have been woven too deeply into standard conservative rhetoric. The audience that Trump has found and speaks to are the same people whose support Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio hoped to gain with winks and nods.
You can, if you want, regard that last sentence as a conclusion marking the end of the article. Or you can keep reading as we make a deeper pass through the psychology of fascism and its relationship to mainstream American conservatism.
To grasp fascism and its shape-shifting nature, you need to understand a series of concepts that can manifest differently in different times and places. What follows are some “themes and memes” of fascism, and where you can hear them in conservative rhetoric today.
Volkheit. A fascist believes that his nation has an essence, which does not evolve with the times, but is a fixed and eternal ideal. In German, an ethnic group is ein Volk, and their Volkheit (i.e. folkhood) is whatever makes them what they are.
The United States is a nation of immigrants that hasn’t seen itself as English for a long time, so its volkheit wouldn’t be strictly ethnic. For a time it was defined by the constructed ethnicity “White”, but even that characterization has become obsolete. Consequently, the “essence” that makes an American an American is hard to define.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a volkheit. The yearning towards a volkheit can be seen in way that various Americans feel threatened by non-English-speaking citizens, by the equality of non-whites, by multiculturalism, by non-Christian religions, and by any transnational authority like the United Nations or the WTO. Race plays a role in defining the American volk, but other factors weigh in the scale as well.
Whenever someone uses the phrase real Americans to mean something more than the people who live in or are citizens of the United States, they’re talking about our volkheit, particularly if they cite “real Americans” as the upholders of our “traditional values”.
One place you can see this playing out is in the otherwise inexplicable attempts to make President Obama an “other”: the baseless controversy over his birth certificate, the attempt to portray him as a Muslim, the unique sense of outrage when he does things many previous presidents did without anyone noticing or caring. It’s easy to read this as simple racism, but the real point being argued is that Obama doesn’t belong to the American volk. [6]
Herrenvolk. Fascism depends on a belief in the special status of our particular volk. There is a natural hierarchy of peoples, and we are meant to be at the top of it.
Herrenvolk is usually translated as “master race”, but that’s not exactly right. Herr has an aspect of master or lord — the German word for dominance is Herrschaft — but also of a respected head-of-household. (Herr Schmidt is just Mr. Schmidt.) So the herrenvolk doesn’t necessarily hold everyone else on a leash, but in a well-ordered world all the other volk recognize its natural superiority.
The contemporary American form of herrenvolk is American Exceptionalism. When de Toqueville described Americans as “exceptional” in the 1800s, he meant only that a uniquely favorable set of circumstances — like the lack of a competing power on our continent, and the absence of an established class structure and its corresponding centuries-long grudges — had given us a unique opportunity to leave behind Europe’s baggage and make a new start on civilization. That’s why our revolution could succeed, but the revolution in de Toqueville’s France got sidetracked into the Reign of Terror.
But since then, American Exceptionalism has developed into something more than just circumstantial: We are morally exceptional, so things that would be wrong for anybody else are OK for us. Consequently, we can torture people; we can start unprovoked wars; Iran shouldn’t feel threatened by our nuclear arsenal, but we’d be justified in attacking to prevent them acquiring nukes; and so on, because we’re the herrenvolk.
Grievance. Fantasies of belonging to the herrenvolk are like fantasies of secret royalty: If a child is happy with her life and home, she doesn’t need to dream about her real parents coming to claim her. This is why fascism is a product of hard times. When a nation is doing well — its ruling class feels secure, its middle class is confident in its upward mobility, and its lower classes are more docile than desperate — fascism has no place to take root.
But once you start claiming herrenvolk status, you’re left with a conundrum: Why is my life so hard? We’re better than everyone else, so why aren’t we more successful? This is the issue Trump is raising when he complains that “America doesn’t win any more.”
Fascism’s answer is that we have been robbed of our rightful place in the world. Again, fascism’s local variability comes into play. Every fascism has to claim that its volk has been robbed. But who robbed us and how can change in every country.
Neiwert:
Indeed, one of the lessons I’ve gleaned from carefully observing the behavior of the American right over the years is that the best indicator of its agenda can be found in the very things of which it accuses the left.
There is no better example of this than Bill O’Reilly’s characterization of the Left as running a “grievance industry“. O’Reilly’s show is little more than a stream of grievances, of wrongs committed against whites, against Christians, against conservatives, against men, and against Real Americans of all types.
Purity. The strength of a volk is in its purity. Conversely, fascism ties a nation’s problems to its failure to guard its purity.
In Nazism, Jews were the impurity corrupting the German volk. In contemporary America, this impurity worry focuses on non-white, non-Christian, or non-English-speaking immigrants, as well as on American blacks who seem not to be assimilating into the white-dominated society.
Purity is a primal, pre-rational concern, which is why the irritation is not soothed by analyses of the economic benefits from immigration, or the overall good behavior of undocumented Hispanics and refugees, or even the rise in deportations during the Obama administration. Meanwhile, every individual crime by an immigrant sets it off again. The belief that foreigners are corrupting the purity of America is foundational; since this impurity is the cause of all our problems, the simple fact that we still have problems is evidence of its corrosive effect.
Another aspect of impurity is moral. The idealized Real America of the white suburbs and small towns of the 1950s had no place for homosexuals or the transgendered. So their presence — and even acceptance! — in contemporary America is evidence of our impurity. Again, evidence is beside the point. Forget that the gay couple living next door trims the lawn perfectly, or that their daughter is valedictorian. If we have problems — and who can say that we don’t? — the impurities we tolerate all around us must be the cause.
Our glorious past. Fascism looks back to a time before impurity set in, when the volk lived securely in its volkheit. For Mussolini, this was the Roman Empire and il Duce was the new Augustus. American conservatives similarly idealize four golden eras: Philosophically, the Golden Age was the founding era, and the Founders are portrayed as divinely inspired prophets. Economically, the Golden Age was the Gilded Age, when capitalists worked their magic unhindered by regulations. Militarily, it was World War II, when our entire society was mobilized behind the war effort. Culturally, the Golden Age happened in the Ozzie-and-Harriet suburbs and small towns of the 1950s.
The importance of this mythology is why any accurate assessment of American history is so threatening to conservatives that they find it necessary to promote their own pseudo-historians. In his announcement speech, for example, Ben Carson attributed the rise of America to the “can-do attitude” of the “early settlers”. His point comes completely undone if you understand the role of land stolen from the Native Americans and developed by slave labor. Similarly, conservatives can only see World War II as a battle of Freedom against Barbarism; the suggestion that dropping nuclear bombs on civilians is barbaric cannot be entertained.
Any reading of history in which America is a nation like other nations, exemplifying both good and evil, is beyond the pale.
Betrayal. Any myth of a glorious past is vulnerable to the criticism Jack Burden makes in All the King’s Men:
If it was such a God-damned fine, beautiful time, why did it turn into this time which is not so damned fine and beautiful if there wasn’t something in that time which wasn’t fine and beautiful? Answer me that one.
Impurity of the volk is only a partial answer, and the machinations of our enemies can’t be a complete answer either, because they shouldn’t be able to stand against the herrenvolk. No, we are suffering now because we have been betrayed by our leaders and by the culturally influential classes.
For Hitler, this was the famous Dolschstosslegende, the myth that German armies did not lose World War I in the field, but were “stabbed in the back” by traitors in high places at home.
You can hear the current dolschstosslegende in Ted Cruz saying that President Obama “does not wish to defend this country”. Or Michele Bachmann’s description of Obama’s immigration policy:
We have this invasion because a political decision was made by our president to intentionally flaunt the laws of the land and put at risk the American people, our culture, our way of life, our economic standing, and also he’s willing to allow a pandemic of disease to come into our country.
The conservative version of recent American history is full of betrayals: FDR betrayed the cause of freedom at Yalta, JFK surrendered American sovereignty to the UN, the Democratic Congress gave away the victory Nixon had won in Vietnam, and Obama not only gave away Bush’s victory in Iraq, but negotiated a “surrender” to Iran.
What the Republican establishment never expected was that they too would be included among the betrayers. But when John Boehner announced his retirement, no one cheered louder than the Republican base. And who imagined that Eric Cantor would be tarred as a traitor to conservatism? Ben Carson says, “I’ll tell you a secret. The political class comes from both parties and it comes from all over the place.” And Ted Cruz writes:
In 2010, we were told that Republicans would stand and fight if only we had a Republican House. In 2014, we were told that Republicans would stand and fight just as soon as we won a majority in the Senate and retired Harry Reid. In both instances, the American people obliged. Now we’re told that we must wait until 2017 when we have a Republican president.
Trump is just echoing them when he says, “I am more disappointed in the Republicans than the Democrats.”
Cruelty. Psychologically, the key to fascism is the (usually unstated) belief that you can work out your own humiliation by humiliating others. Did you fight bravely in the Great War, only to see your country shamed at Versailles, and your family lose everything in the subsequent inflation and depression? Go beat up a union organizer, or throw rocks through the windows of a Jewish shopkeeper; you’ll feel better.
And maybe you do, for a while, but in the morning you return to the same life you had yesterday. So like any addiction, the temptation is to try more next time. Maybe if you’d killed the organizer or set fire to the shop, the feeling would have lasted.
A similar pattern explains the way Republican presidential candidates seem to glory in their cruelty and heartlessness. Trump mimicked and ridiculed a reporter’s disability (echoing Rush Limbaugh’s mocking of Michael J. Fox), Chris Christie didn’t just call for leaving Syrian refugees to their fate, he specifically said he would refuse entry to “orphans under the age of five”. Several candidates have called for the return of torture, even though it accomplishes little beyond making suspected terrorists suffer. The persistent weakness in the protect-traditional-marriage argument was that its proponents could not identify anybody who would benefit; the point was entirely to make gay and lesbian lives harder. Republican deportation policies will break up families, and no one benefits from sending DREAMers back to a country they don’t remember. But none of that seems to matter.
What does matter is that when a candidate says something that is harsh or offensive, his poll numbers go up. [7] The Republican base is angry and is looking for a candidate who will inflict pain on its enemies. That pain is not a regrettable side-effect of a policy that accomplishes something else; inflicting pain is the accomplishment.
What’s the matter with Kansas today? For decades, the Republican establishment has used fascist themes as a tactic: While their policies destroyed unions, empowered employers, shifted the tax burden from the rich to the middle class, allowed higher education to become unattainably expensive for families not already wealthy, and made it easier to ship blue-collar jobs overseas, they could appeal to working-class whites on a symbolic level, offering them pride rather than paychecks or opportunities.
Now those chickens are coming home to roost: Republicans have set the stage for America to have an actual fascist movement, one that will see them as part of the corruption that needs to be purged. Like the businessmen who funded Hitler as a way to distract workers from communism, they thought they could control this, but they can’t.
Donald Trump is taking advantage of this situation, but he is not the problem. Ted Cruz will happily fill his role if something goes wrong, and if the fascist movement can’t win the Republican nomination or the presidency in 2016, there’s always 2020 or 2024. Who knows who might step forward to claim its leadership?
In the long run, I can only see one way out of this trend: Democrats need to offer a program that will genuinely do something for the working class, in the same way that the New Deal headed off American fascism in the 1930s. Americans who feel frustrated and humiliated by the culture and economy of the 21st century need to know that they can get help fixing their lives; there’s no need to seek relief by making others suffer too.
[1] Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism is almost comical in its willingness to latch onto Hitler’s superficial traits (like his vegetarianism and support for universal health care) while never zeroing in on his movement’s toxic essence. The Onion could not write a line more ridiculous than this:
The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.
[2] The anti-intellectual nature of fascism is one reason it remains undefined. A real fascist is in the streets, not sitting in a library making up theories.
[3] The dysfunctionality of this program is why fascist regimes tend toward short-but-spectacular lives, particularly if the Leader is a true believer, and is not just using the movement to gain power. Humiliating others doesn’t really soothe your own humiliation, so the regime must constantly up the ante to maintain its supporters’ enthusiasm. Ultimately, no conquest and no level of enemy humiliation is enough. The world must fall, and the enemies must be exterminated.
[4] This is the theme of Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter With Kansas? from 2004.
[5] For example, the struggling whites in Kentucky who just voted to eliminate their own health insurance.
[6] As you might expect, Trump voters believe these stories about Obama at a higher rate than supporters of other candidates.
[7] Josh Marshall has an interesting take on this: He believes that it isn’t Trump’s cruelty that appeals to the Republican base so much as his refusal to apologize for it.On March 6, a billboard promoting atheism was erected in Harrisburg, Penn. Not more than 24 hours later, vandals had ripped away more than half the sign.
Today, the message is completely gone; it its place is an advertisement for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.
American Atheists, the organization behind the billboard, is no stranger to controversy. They have placed similar billboards along roadsides in several states, and the signs never fail to illicit vehement responses. But this time, it was about more than just religion -- many found the Harrisburg sign racially offensive.
The billboard was dominated by a line of text reading: Slaves, obey your masters. It included an etched drawing of an enslaved man wearing a four-pronged iron collar. The line is attributed to a biblical verse, Colossians 3:22, and smaller text to the left reads: This lesson in Bronze Age ethics brought to you by THE YEAR OF THE BIBLE and the House of Representatives.
This sign, a joint effort by American Atheists and another organization called PA Nonbelievers, was meant to protest a resolution passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on January 24, which declared 2012 The Year of the Bible.
After considering the bill, we thought it necessary to highlight one of those teachings and share it with the public in the form of this billboard, said a statement in the PA Nonbelievers website. Our country's history is in fact built on the moral achievements of great men and women, religious and non-religious alike. We encourage the House of Representatives to remember that when they pass laws, they are passing laws for all Pennsylvanians, both Christian and non-Christian. We humbly suggest it could start by re-considering and ultimately rejecting HR 535.
After controversy erupted, Brian Fields, president of PA Nonbelievers, offered an apology via the Huffington Post. I want to say that I'm truly sorry that many people have misunderstood this billboard, he said. It was never our intention to use race as our message itself.
American Atheists adopted a stronger tone in response to criticism. While we certainly respect the opinions of those who disagree with our tactics, we respectfully disagree with that opinion, said a statement on their website. We are unapologetic about the billboard and stand behind it 100 percent. There will be no apology from American Atheists for saying what needed to be said: sometimes the truth is offensive.
The organization plans to continue with its billboard campaign to raise awareness and spark more discussions.The massive Blue Devil airship in its North Carolina hangar. The aft thruster for the Blue Devil airship, being built by the defense start-up Mav 6. The "power cars" holding the airship's engines. Mav 6 CEO and retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the former head of Air Force intel. The massive tail fins for the Blue Devil airship. The installation of the airship's nose cone. The "cars" that will hold Blue Devil's array of cameras and eavesdropping gear. How big is the Blue Devil airship? Well, over on the left side is an 18-wheeler truck.
After spending more than $140 million, the Air Force is poised to pull the plug on its ambitious project to send a king-sized, all-seeing spy blimp to Afghanistan. Which is a bit of a strange move: Not only is the scheduled first |
ic Jews, officially claiming they were a crucial component of Spanish identity. The law is designed to make the naturalising process highly expensive and complicated, despite it being a Law of Return, which many see as a way to filter out less affluent Sephardim. It is important to note that this same definition of Spanishness was not expanded to include the many Muslims expelled from the land in the 15th and 16th century.
Bayi Loubaris, the president of the Association for Historical Legacy of Al-Andalus, took offence at this double-standard: “The Spanish state should grant the same rights to all those who were expelled, otherwise their decision is selective, if not racist”. The rigid definitions of Spain’s identity were felt more recently in Catalonia. In Place de Jaume of Barcelona, there is a man ensangrado (bloodied) most days of the week (or to use the Catalan for bloodied, ple de sang). He stands with posters of mauled bulls, slaughtered by a matadores. Catalonia’s regional government passed a law in 2010 which banned bull-fighting in the region. But Spain’s government annulled the ban in October of last year, deeming bull fighting a “national heritage”.
These cultural battles become the shibboleths for grander – and altogether more violent – battles over which kinds of government have the right to make and enforce laws on the territories of Spain. What can be seen as a paranoid enforcement of a unified, centralised identity fuelled the notorious Basque separatist terrorist group, ETA, standing for “Basque Homeland and Liberty”. Between 1986 and 2010 they killed 829 people, both politicians to civilians.
Just as laws prevent history textbooks from teaching diverse understandings of the 20th century, the will to limit a pluralist understanding of Spain’s national identity can be seen in the academic field. I spoke to a recent PhD graduate, Angy Cohen, from Madrid University. She specialises in Sephardic Jewish identity, through which she explores the historically shifting identities of Spanishness. She is frustrated at a culture still hostile to deconstructing definitions of Spain’s identity, reflected through funding restrictions:
It’s interesting that Spain has some of the best historians I’ve ever seen, the level is extremely high but Spain’s national identity is blocked – so if you trying to re-define Spain’s national identity – it will be a struggle. It’s all bound up because these questions lead to the claim of certain regions of Spain for self-determination. Its a very complex question that has to do with this inability – this very long history of persecution and repression of Spain’s national identity.
Tanks in Barcelona?
Under the PP, a centralised identity enforced through multiple legal and institutional formations has become a conduit for re-articulating deeply conservative values; the heritage of Franco’s reactionary governance. Thus, it is unsurprising that the fight for independence is seen by many Catalonians as the fight for a more progressive, democratic Spain. Spain’s current constitution states that for any regional law in Catalonia to be changed, the Spanish parliament must vote. Catalonia, with a small minority of representational seats in the national government, will side-step legality to ensure a referendum goes forward this October 1. Its draft legislation is clear:
If the Spanish state effectively impedes the holding of a referendum, this law will enter into effect in a complete and immediate manner when the [regional] parliament has verified such an impediment.
Catalonian’s are far from unified in their opinion on independence. Reasons for wanting national autonomy vary widely; from the primarily economic, to those of a more cultural or historical nature as discussed above. But many Catalonia’s are uncomfortable with voting for an independence that has no clear independence plan. To anyone spectating the fallout from Brexit, this may seem hauntingly familiar.
Though Carles Puigdemont does not have the unanimous support for the illegal vote that he claims, Catalonians are largely unified in their belief that they are entitled to a vote. Despite the fact that the vote is unlikely to swing the way of independence at this stage, the very fact of the referendum re-articulates lines of division and in declaring autonomy and difference, even as it looks to re-sign up to the uneasy contract at the heart of the modern Spanish state, a detente between the unified state and its fractious regions.
If the vote goes ahead, Spanish tanks have been promised on the streets of Catalonia during the voting period. Once again, central state power has failed to fully realise itself through a monolithic cultural identity and so has resorted to the old reliables; money and guns. Catalonian independence is no guarantee of prosperity or liberty for Catalonians, many of whom would likely face just the same ethnic or religious discrimination as is handed down by governments past and present. But the simple fact of holding the referendum tests the limits of what states will do to protect their territorial integrity. A firm fist on the national wallet, and tanks on the streets of Barcelona.New Delhi: A senior Indian diplomat was on Wednesday night despatched to Iraq to try and secure release of 40 Indian workers kidnapped from the northern city of Mosul that was overrun by armed Sunni militants last week, as the Narendra Modi government grappled with its first major challenge—thrown at it within a month of assuming office.
The Indian workers, mostly from Punjab, were employed with a construction company based in Baghdad, said Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesperson with ministry of external affairs, on Wednesday.
The government, sworn in on 26 May, despatched Suresh Reddy, a former ambassador to Iraq, to try and secure the release of the workers, although the government did not know who their abductors were or where they were being held.
The government, which includes the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the ruling party in Punjab, had not yet established direct contact with the captors on Wednesday night.
“Yes, 40 Indians, who were working with the Tariq Nur AlHuda company, have been kidnapped," Akbaruddin said. But the government has not received “any call of any nature from anyone indicating about ransom or about taking of Indians in custody in Iraq", he added. “We have decided to strengthen embassy by sending a seasoned Indian diplomat Mr Suresh Reddy who will travel today (Wednesday) to Baghdad to assist the embassy in its efforts," said the spokesperson.
A former employee of Tariq Nur Alhuda told Reuters the company had told him the Indians were now safe and being moved towards Kurdish controlled areas of Iraq. Reuters was not able to independently confirm this or contact the company directly. Mosul is located about 360km northwest of capital Baghdad.
The government was taking all steps to bring back the kidnapped workers, Akbaruddin said adding that external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had spoken to the families of some of the victims.
Rajiv Sikri, former secretary (east) in the ministry of external affairs, described the situation as a “challenge for the (Modi) government."
“It’s a difficult situation. We need to establish contact on the ground with Sunni leaders, which is why I think the government is sending back Suresh Reddy to Iraq, so that he can leverage his contacts on the ground," Sikri said.
A person familiar with the developments said that the Indian embassy in Baghdad had been in contact with the 40 workers till the weekend. This fuelled speculation that the group could’ve been snatched while trying to escape or in the process of evacuation.
Akbaruddin said India had no information about who the kidnappers were, having received scrapes of information through the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
“We don’t know where they are.... We are trying to get as much information possible from anyone trying to give us information from the ground. We’re getting information from aid agencies and the Iraqi government and other sources," Akbaruddin said.
The sister of one of the abducted men said he had been out of contact since last Sunday. “His phone has been switched off. We are tense and are wondering what happened to him," Gurpender Kaur told news channel CNN-IBN. “Until then, at least we were able to speak for a second or two, but now even that is not possible."
Sunni Arab militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched an offensive on 9 June, capturing Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul with a population of two million people.
According to media reports, the ISIL, who aim to establish a caliphate across the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, were advancing towards Baghdad.
It was not immediately clear why Indian workers had been targeted though Turkey’s Dogan news agency said 60 people, including workers from Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Turkmenistan have been taken from a hospital construction site near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Insurgents seized 80 Turkish nationals including diplomats, soldiers and children workers in Mosul last week.
The 40 workers are among the 100 Indians living in areas overrun by the ISIL, and India was in contact with many of them including 46 nurses who were in the town of Tikrit. In all, there are about 10,000 Indian nationals in Iraq.
Syed Akbaruddin did not say whether there were people of other nationalities who were also kidnapped or just Indians were targeted. “This is a difficult situation. We are working with the company. Also, we are trying to work with International Red Crescent which has confirmed to us (the kidnapping). But they have also indicated that at this stage they do not know the location of these 40 Indian workers who were kidnapped," Akbaruddin said.
He said that despite uncertainties, India had no plans to close down its embassy in Baghdad.Dan Riedlhuber / Reuters A director for the American Family Association says it has been sending men into women's restrooms at Target stores in response to the company's new transgender-friendly policy.
A director for the American Family Association (AFA) says it's sending men into the women's restrooms at Target stores to test its barriers after the retail giant announced that its facilities will be transgender friendly.
Sandy Rios, the director of government affairs for the AFA, revealed her group’s agenda in a radio interview Monday.
Speaking on "Breitbart News Daily," Rios said the group's concerned that women and children could be victimized by men who enter female restrooms while falsely claiming to be transgender.
“The chief concern, even more than just, I think, trauma, certainly for little girls of having men dressed like women coming in their bathrooms, the chief concern of the American Family Association is the predators who will take advantage,” she said.
Martin Diebel via Getty Images AFA believes that women and children could be victimized by men who falsely claim to be transgender.
Radio host Stephen Bannon added that it's "decent, hard-working people" who will end up victimized by Target's new policy.
"I think there's no question when you say that there are no barriers in the bathroom," Rios said of the Target stores. "The net effect will be that people will not be stopped. We've already had people testing this, going into Targets and men trying to go into bathrooms. There is absolutely no barrier."
On AFA’s website, it argues that Target should instead create unisex bathrooms for transgender individuals.
The group has placed its own bullseye on the retail chain in the form of a nationwide boycott. As of Monday, AFA claims to have more than one million signatures from people who have made a vow to no longer shop at Target stores.240GB M500 2.5" Internal SSD is rated 4.9 out of 5 by 38.
Rated 5 out of 5 by trs0722 from Great affordable upgrade I got this to upgrade a failing standard 500GB hard drive in a Mac Mini. I read that the Samsung was somewhat faster, had a little more storage, and had equally good/better reviews. However, it was $20-$30 more. Since I may be selling the computer in the next 6 months, the Crucial was the best option. So far, it's been great. Most noticeable speed increase has been when opening up programs/applications. The only thing that would have made this better if it were the standard 250GB instead of 240GB. This has forced me to be more diligent on storage...what to keep, what to move to external, and what to delete.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Francois604 from Awesome Solid State Hard Drive I have a 240GB M500 on my laptop Asus i5 and a Samsung 256GB 840 Pro Series 2.5 on my tower i7. too small difference to open Photos software to pay more money if your budget are for a lower price.Go for it at 100 % a good ssd!! the only thing could be the 5 years for Samsung 840 Pro!! I not worry to do the same time with my Crucial. example.. my Asus i5 laptop take around 10 sec to open maybe less whit full photo applications to load.So I cant tell you more than Go for it you wont regret. Very easy to install! crucial are a very serious company and Samsung too.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Senior Citizen Jim from Fast and Dependable Crucial's solid state drives are excellent, dependable products. I installed this 240mb SSD in a 5-year old 2009 Ma ini. I wanted to upgrade the factory-installed conventional 5400 rpm HD before it had any issues given its age. Along with a memory upgrade, this 5-year old Ma ini is now as good as new. The boot time and application launch is much faster. Everything is an improvement; an excellent investment to extend the life of the Ma ini. This is the second computer that I have upgraded with a Crucial SSD. No need for any trim software either, according to Crucial. Highly recommended.
Rated 4 out of 5 by Cajungirl from Works Great Installation was easy-I just plugged it in and my computer recognized the new hardware and installed it right away (it does not come with any cables, so be sure you already have SATA and power cables on hand). I used a free backup program to clone my old hard drive and set the Bios boot priority to the Crucial drive. Thus far, it has worked without a hitch and everything seems to load faster. I'm using the Crucial drive for Windows and programs, which leaves a lot of extra space on an old 500 GB hard drive for personal files and such. All in all, a good buy for the price.
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Rated 5 out of 5 by AndreyP from Love it! Upgrade from 120GB SSD to this one 240GB. So far I love it. Did you know that when your drive is near full, transfer speed is dramatically decreased. So when I upgraded from 120SSD to 240SSD my computer started to breath again :).
Rated 5 out of 5 by MIB from Simply good Fits well in a thinkpad X230. So far so good. It simply works. Upgraded from a Samsung 830 120G, the 830 sometimes becomes reluctant and the Samsung SSD software is kind of annoying.MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Minnesota Zoo is asking the legislature for help with a million dollar budget deficit.
Zoo officials said they may otherwise be facing some difficult decisions to make it up, including the possibility of closing some exhibits.
Only about 20 percent of Zoo funding comes from the state; 80 percent is from ticket sales and private fundraising. Attendance neared record levels in 2014: 1.2 million visitors.
But last year was a “perfect storm” of challenges, according to Zoo Director Lee Ehmke. This year’s record cold winter depressed attendance and spiked costs for utilities, worker pay and animal food.
The Zoo also cut $500,000 from its budget and laid off seven full time workers. Any further budget cuts, Ehmke said, “are going to have a very significantly negative impact on the guest experience at the Zoo. We will have to close exhibits if we have to continue to cut.”
The Zoo is asking the legislature for $1.2 million in emergency funding for operating expenses, and an additional $8.5 million for the next two years.
Zoo visitors said it’s worth it.
“We’re down here a couple of times a month, at least,” Zachary Schendel of Minneapolis said.
The cold doesn’t deter zoo patrons; it’s a year-round getaway.
“It’s a nice warm place in the winter. It gets us moving around a little bit. Makes for a better nap time,” Schendel said.
Despite its money woes, however, the Zoo says the deficit won’t affect plans now underway to re-open Discovery Bay, a new zip line, and a monk seal exhibit.
Zoo officials expect the new attractions to help boost revenues in 2015.Police are investigating after two people were struck and killed by a car in Fort Lauderdale early Thursday. Witnesses Byron Campbell and Michael Lacey and Fort Lauderdale Police spokeswoman Det. DeAnna Greenlaw comment. (Published Thursday, June 13, 2013)
Authorities are investigating after two people were struck and killed by a car in Fort Lauderdale early Thursday, police said.
The incident happened around 2:15 a.m. in the 500 block of W. Broward Boulevard when a four-door Porsche lost control and struck two pedestrians, Fort Lauderdale Police said.
One of the pedestrians was killed at the scene and the other was pronounced dead at the hospital.
2 Pedestrians Struck And Killed in Fort Lauderdale, Driver in Custody
Two people were killed after they were struck by a car in Fort Lauderdale early Thursday. Fort Lauderdale Police say 22-year-old Alyza Rachel Russell is in custody. (Published Thursday, June 13, 2013)
Investigators believe the driver, identified as 22-year-old Elyza Rachel Russell, was under the influence of an unknown substance, police said.
Two other people were inside the car at the time of the crash. No one inside the vehicle was injured, Fort Lauderdale Police spokeswoman Det. DeAnna Greenlaw said.
Russell was taken into custody and later released and is cooperating with detectives, police said. She hasn't been charged but police said they're waiting on the results of a blood test.
Police aren't releasing the identities of the pedestrians pending the notification of next of kin.
Michael Lacey said he witnessed the incident.
"It scared the hell out of me. I was sitting right there near it, I saw the car when it come through the parking lot and it went sideways. I thought it was gonna flip," Lacey said.
Lacey said he checked the pulse of one victim but it was too late.
"He was gone, I saw his head, he was gone," he said. "The other guy was still alive but he was under the car and he was kind of wrapped around the wheel and I'm looking at him going, 'this dude ain't gonna make it.'"
Check back with NBC 6 South Florida and NBC6.com for updates.
More Local Stories:Lots of things vie for your attention at Madame Jasmine. There’s the fuzzy zebra-print wallpaper, for starters, and the transgender Barbie dolls that mark the entrance to the unisex bathrooms, to say nothing of the cool, look-at-me clientele. But it was the miniature oak barrel at the end of the bar that caught my eye one night last spring. It had a little metal spigot on the back, and on the front was scrawled, in chalk: “Vermut 2€.”
The last time I’d heard of anyone drinking vermouth (“vermut” if you’re Catalan) was when my grandmother sloshed it into one of her sticky-sweet Manhattans. Yet here it was, in a Barcelona hipster bar, served by a generously pierced bartender, who wordlessly plunked a big green seltzer bottle on the table along with our round of drinks and walked away.
Turns out that Spain is in the midst of something of a vermouth renaissance. Though it never disappeared from the old-school spots, the tawny-colored liquor — which can be served up or on the rocks, with or without a squirt of soda, and garnished with a lemon twist, an orange slice, a green olive or nothing at all — has recently started turning up all over town. Even the Adria brothers (of El Bulli and every trendy restaurant in Barcelona fame) have gotten in on the act with their recently opened vermutería, Bodega 1900.
Details: Barcelona vermouth
Wooden barrels are used in the distillation of vermouth at Bodega Yzaguirre the rural area of Tarragona, Spain. After decades out of fashion, the vermouth tradition is back in Barcelona. (Maya Kroth)
Though vermouth’s modern origins are often pegged to Italy, wine fortified with herbs has been used medicinally in many cultures for thousands of years. And Spain’s Catalonia region is home to a generations-old vermouth industry of its own. A blend of white wine fortified with extra alcohol, sugar and each distillery’s secret mix of herbs, the local hooch is different from its commercially produced Italian cousins, such as Martini and Cinzano, and usually about half the price. Dozens of distilleries have been making vermouth in regions of Catalonia for more than a century, selling it both in labeled bottles and directly to bars, where it’s poured from a barrel.
In Barcelona, to “fer un vermut” (literally “to do a vermouth,” but broadly meaning “to go get a drink”) is a ritual with some specific do’s and don’ts — one of which I learned the embarrassing way when I ordered a round one Saturday night and caught the barkeep trading a glance with a guy at the end of the bar.
“What was that about?” I asked the guy, who introduced himself as Jorge.
“It’s a guiri thing,” he explained, using Spanish pejorative slang meaning “foreigner.” “Vermouth is a thing you do on Sundays, after Mass and before lunch.”
Originally, Jorge continued, herbaceous vermouth was designed to “open the appetite” before a big meal. Then people started switching to beer or wine a half-century ago, and vermouth fell out of fashion. Recently, though, it’s in vogue again, much like old-timey mustaches, suspenders and other grandpa-traditions. A recent promotion designed to revive the habit among the younger generation features a Web site plastered with photos of young guys with flippy hair and Warby Parker sunglasses.
But I understood from Jorge that drinking vermouth on a Saturday night in Spain was akin to ordering a mimosa at a nightclub in the States. It’s just not done, unless you’re from out of town — and I didn’t want to be outed so quickly.
1 of 25 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A tour of Paris, food first View Photos Patricia Wells, the longtime restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune and author of “Food Lover’s Guide to Paris,” still lives, teaches and writes in the City of Light. She is updating her classic guidebook and has released a phone app for travelers. Caption Patricia Wells, the longtime restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune and author of “Food Lover’s Guide to Paris,” still lives, teaches and writes in the City of Light. She is updating her classic guidebook and has released a phone app for travelers. Patricia Wells, cookbook and guidebook author, drinks coffee in KB Cafeshop in Paris. Laura Stevens/For The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Next time, I wanted to get it right. So one bright Sunday around noon, a friend and I jumped on bikes and pedaled the broad, leafy boulevards of the L’Eixample neighborhood to Morro Fi, a capacity-18 vermouth bar in a storefront just large enough to park a Smart Car in. The bar’s name translates loosely as “refined taste,” and the folks behind Morro Fi sure know the proper way to “fer un vermut.” The scene was very metropolitan-brunch chic, the sidewalk tables filled with stroller-pushing 30-somethings clinking glasses and noshing on seafood and various pickled things: smoked tuna, olives, anchovies, sardines — sharp, salty flavors that nicely complement the herby-sweet vermouth.
I started to see how the ritual is as much a part of the appeal as the drink itself. And at around 15 percent alcohol by volume, vermouth offers the best bang for your euro, which may partly explain its resurgence.
“I think in times of crisis, people are returning to drinks that are cheaper, and older values,” offered Cesar, a Morro Fi employee, when I quizzed him about vermouth’s newfound popularity.
The next day, I asked the same question of a staffer at wholesale wine shop Bodega Maestrazgo.
“Why does anything come into style?” he shrugged. All he knew is that the store was selling about twice as many liters of vermouth per week as it had a year earlier. The 61-year-old bodega recently decided to open up a vermouth tasting room in the back. For about $3.50, you get a simple, unadorned glass of vermouth plus a tapa of Cantabrian white anchovies. I shelled out a little extra for a whole bottle, poured straight from the big oak barrels that line the walls, to take home.
My curiosity piqued, I decided to make a trek to the source to see how my new favorite quaff is made. At Bodega Yzaguirre in rural Tarragona, the same basic recipe has been in use since 1884. The place is all stainless-steel vats and wooden barrels, and it smells amazing, redolent of the 200-odd herbs that are cooked down to give the vermouth its aromatic flavor. The blend includes florals such as verbena and star anise; citrus, including lemon balm and pomelo; spices such as cardamom and nutmeg; and bitter herbs like Roman chamomile and “ajenjo,” the Spanish word for wormwood (or, in German, “wermut”).
“The Germans are the fathers of today’s vermouth, following the process that Hippocrates invented,” explained Josep Pomerol, the bodega’s technical director. The herb extract ages in oak barrels for six months, then white wine is added, along with a burnt-sugar syrup, which lends the drink its caramel color and takes the edge off the bitterness.
Bodegas y Destilerías Lehmann, an urban distillery in the town of Tortosa, has been in the herbed-wine business even longer, since 1870. Fifth-generation distiller Emilio Lehmann showed me how the herbs are macerated and pressed in individual batches, by hand, the way his great-great-grandfather did it 144 years ago.
“Vermouth is a product that we’ve always had, but maybe even we didn’t give it enough credit,” he said. “Now we see that the demand has been awakened.”
But it’s not just vermouth itself that’s being revived; it’s the whole social context. “Here in Tortosa, we’ve always had a vermouth tradition, but just go anywhere else and the traditional Sunday vermouth was replaced by the culture of wine,” he said. “You can have a glass of wine anytime, but vermouth has a very definite time slot. When it’s vermouth time, you have a vermouth.”
In Barcelona, it seems, vermouth’s time has come. Again.
Kroth is a freelance writer.Two people were killed and 10 others were hurt in a shooting inside a tourist-area nightclub.Authorities from the Orlando Police Department said the shooting happened inside the Glitz Ultra Lounge on Universal Boulevard about 1 a.m. Sunday.Investigators said three people opened fire inside the club. One victim died at the scene of the attack, and a second died at Orlando Regional Medical Center.Nine victims were taken to ORMC for treatment. One of them was listed in critical condition, and the rest suffered injuries not considered life-threatening.Two other victims were treated at Dr. Phillips Hospital. One suffered a gunshot wound, and a second suffered other injuries during the incident, officials said.Authorities said about 300 people were in the club at the time of the attack. Surveillance video is being reviewed as part of the investigation.Officials said police were at the club when the gunfire erupted, but none of the officers fired their weapons at the time, and none of the officers were hurt. The club also had its own security staff.Police said there were security cameras inside the club and investigators are looking at the video, in what they are calling an extensive and complicated investigation.Callers told WESH 2 the entire surrounding area on Sand Lake Road and Universal Boulevard was blocked off into the morning.WESH 2 has previously reported on trouble at Glitz Ultra Lounge. On Oct. 24, 2015, two men were shot in the parking lot. In June, a man was hurt ducking for cover when a gun was fired outside the club.WESH 2 reached out to Glitz Ultra Lounge management, but has not heard back.Check back here for updates as this story develops.
Two people were killed and 10 others were hurt in a shooting inside a tourist-area nightclub.
Authorities from the Orlando Police Department said the shooting happened inside the Glitz Ultra Lounge on Universal Boulevard about 1 a.m. Sunday.
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Investigators said three people opened fire inside the club. One victim died at the scene of the attack, and a second died at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Nine victims were taken to ORMC for treatment. One of them was listed in critical condition, and the rest suffered injuries not considered life-threatening.
Two other victims were treated at Dr. Phillips Hospital. One suffered a gunshot wound, and a second suffered other injuries during the incident, officials said.
Authorities said about 300 people were in the club at the time of the attack. Surveillance video is being reviewed as part of the investigation.
Officials said police were at the club when the gunfire erupted, but none of the officers fired their weapons at the time, and none of the officers were hurt. The club also had its own security staff.
Police said there were security cameras inside the club and investigators are looking at the video, in what they are calling an extensive and complicated investigation.
Callers told WESH 2 the entire surrounding area on Sand Lake Road and Universal Boulevard was blocked off into the morning.
WESH 2 has previously reported on trouble at Glitz Ultra Lounge. On Oct. 24, 2015, two men were shot in the parking lot. In June, a man was hurt ducking for cover when a gun was fired outside the club.
WESH 2 reached out to Glitz Ultra Lounge management, but has not heard back.
Check back here for updates as this story develops.
AlertMeChristian Pulisic got the start for the USMNT in their crucial World Cup Qualfier against Mexico. An 18-year-old starting for their national team in such an important game is always a big deal, and the American fans made sure to welcome Christian appropriately before the game.
Check out this tifo of Pulisic. He didn’t play in any of the famous “Dos a cero” victories against Mexico, but that doesn’t stop him from dishing out the banter.
Pulisic is Mexico's new demon, apparently pic.twitter.com/DKCZOTJ8vU — Andrew King (@AndrewKingMLS) November 12, 2016
He looks creepy like that because he’s a demon. And he’s haunting Mexicans and giving them nightmares. So far in the match he’s terrorizing them on the pitch as well.
Starting in a big game like this signals just how far Pulisic has come. Jurgen Klinsmann and everyone know that he is the best young player on the USMNT and that the team should be built around him.
He’ll thrive for the USMNT, so maybe this won’t be the last time we see him featured on a tifo.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government charged an oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating oil prices in the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Optiver Holding, two of its subsidiaries and three employees with manipulation and attempted manipulation of crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Optiver traders amassed large trading positions, then conducted trades in such a way to bully and hammer the markets," CFTC Acting Chairman Walt Lukken said at a press conference. "These charges go to the heart of the CFTC's core mission of detecting and rooting out illegal manipulation of the markets."
In May, under the backdrop of record oil prices and calls from legislators to crack down on speculative oil trading and market manipulation, the CFTC announced a wide-ranging probe into oil price manipulation. The agency says it has dozens of investigations ongoing.
The complaint filed Thursday names Bastiaan van Kempen, chief executive; Christopher Dowson, a head trader; and Randal Meijer, head of trading at an Optiver subsidiary.
The CFTC said the firm attempted to "bang the close" by amassing large positions just before markets closed - forcing prices up - then selling them quickly to drive prices down and pocketing the difference.
The alleged manipulation was attempted 19 times on 11 days in March 2007, the agency said. In at least five of those 19 times, traders succeeded in driving prices higher twice and lower three times, according to the CFTC.
Optiver issued a written statement saying the firm had received the complaint.
"We take the Commission's action very seriously, and are treating it with utmost attention and care," said the statement. "Obviously, we cannot comment further until we have had the opportunity to review the complaint."
CFTC stressed that the price changes were small and the manipulation was isolated, and that the investigation has nothing to do with the recent heat the agency has taken on Capitol Hill over rising oil prices.
Traders in the spotlight
CFTC has repeatedly said that speculators are not to blame for rising oil prices, and any cases of price manipulation - such as the one brought Thursday - have only a small, if any, effect on oil prices.
The CFTC is the government's main regulator of commodity markets. Its officials have been hauled before Congress and asked repeatedly whether manipulation or excessive speculation is playing a role in record oil prices.
Repeatedly, CFTC experts have said they have found no evidence that speculators - investors who do not ultimately use crude oil - are to blame for the rising prices. They say trading information shows no correlation between investment activity and price swings.
Others, such as the International Energy Agency, have also said speculators are not to blame. They've pointed to other non-traded commodities that have risen in price even faster than oil, and to the fact that there is no evidence of a bubble, such as excess oil sitting around in storage.
Still, the correlation of a four-fold increase of investment money into oil futures and a four-fold increase in oil prices since 2004 has not gone unnoticed. Many lawmakers, consumer rights advocates and even some oil industry analysts say speculation is at least partly to blame.
Against that backdrop, the CFTC has been ordered to investigate the matter more thoroughly and dozens of investigations are underway. The agency may soon be given a bigger staff and wider powers under bills being debated in Congress.
Over the years, the CFTC has found isolated incidents of price manipulation - when an oil producer controls products to influence prices - or other cases of wrongdoing. Since 2002, the agency has charged 66 defendants with energy market violations.
In a recent case, BP settled a suit that alleged the company tried to corner the propane market to inflate prices in 2003 and 2004. BP agreed to pay a $303 million settlement.
But overall, most experts say the incidents are so scattered, and the energy market so large, that it's unlikely a single trader or group of traders can have substantial sway over prices.
Correction: An earlier version of the story said indictments have been brought against the company and some of its employees. The charges are civil, not criminal.The media blitzkrieg to glamorize all things transgender has had an effect Down Under:
Children think it’s cool to be transgender and they’re trying the self-identity out in droves, claims an Australian psychiatrist. Psychiatrist Stephen Stathis, who runs the gender clinic at Brisbane’s Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital and is responsible for diagnosing gender dysphoria, reports that “many” youth are “trying out being transgender” in order to stand out. Apparently, declaring oneself “transgender” is trendy. “One said to me, ‘Doctor Steve … I want to be transgender, it’s the new black,’” Stathis related.
This guy evidently favors the whole transgender phenomenon, which contributes to his livelihood, but at least he has some reservations.
Some are so convinced their life would be better if they were the opposite sex that they do something drastic or permanent. “I’ve seen genital mutilation, some who try to cut off their penis,’’ Stathis said.
Others are chemically disfigured by medical professionals who ought to lose their licenses if not face prison terms for their outrageous violation of the principle, first do no harm. Gender confusion is normally temporary; the damage inflicted by hormone blockers is not.
Many chemically deformed children go on to receive horrific sex-change surgery.
Unsurprisingly, the attempted suicide rate among transgenders is not far short of 50% — and no, this is not due to “discrimination,” liberal dogma notwithstanding.
Proud of yourselves, progressive social engineers?
Very trendy but not very healthy.
On a tip from Jester.= = = = = = = = = ='Forever Rivals''Forever Friends'- - - - - - - - - -1k Pageviews? Wuu! I barely missed it apparently so I didn't have a chance to screenshot it, oh well.Let's pretend this is a 1k pageview drawing 'kay?This drawing got included in EqD's Drawfriend (#496) Entry #18 - www.equestriadaily.com/2012/07… and in EqD's "Music: Trixie The Pony Troll // Like A Spinning Record (Blaze Remix) // Gypsy Jazz Bard //" |
governments controlled by capital would have their hands on the revenue, which would flow directly to the population. Implementing this in the kind of society that we have would of course be difficult. But once it was understood as having the effect of both protecting the earth (by making the price of carbon higher) and generally redistributing income toward those at the bottom of the society, it would gain strong popular support.
The truth is that as long as we are in a capitalist society a key means of controlling a pollutant -- and carbon dioxide has unfortunately become that -- is going to be increasing its price. More direct political forms of regulation should of course be used as well. For example, we need simply to ban the building of coal-fired plants as long as sequestration technology doesn't exist (and at present there are all sorts of obstacles), and existing coal-fired plants need to be rapidly phased out. To accomplish this on the necessary scale, however, requires a general ecological revolution affecting what we produce and consume and how our society is organised.
Is a collective solution to the ecological crisis possible within this system (renewable energies, improvement of public transport, cessation of big infrastructures, etc.)?
Again, there is no collective solution within the system. But we can promote collective solutions from within the system, which, going against its logic, will play a part in the transition to another, people-controlled system. The new society will emerge from the womb of the old.
Fred Magdoff and I have discussed the problem of capitalism and the environment in detail in an article that is appearing in the March 2010 issue of Monthly Review, entitled "What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism." The basic point, which needs elaboration of course, is the fact that the regime of capital is one of self-expanding value.
Capitalism requires for its very existence constant economic growth and, more explicitly, accumulation of capital. Such a system can clearly be very effective up to a certain point in promoting production and economic development. But it also is very exploitative and ultimately leads to the destruction of the environmental conditions of existence. The only real social and ecological solution is a society not focused on accumulation or economic growth per se, but on sustainable human development. No matter what measures you introduce to modernise capitalism ecologically, the system requires a constant growth of the treadmill of production. If we substitute public for private transportation, introduce renewable energies, and adopt other collective measures, it can help. But these themselves tend to be limited by the accumulation goal of the system. Reliance on renewable resources, for example, is important. But it requires a system that uses them only at the level at which they can be renewed. Capital pushes beyond all such boundaries.
What this means is not that we back off from promoting more social, collective, public solutions. But we need to recognise that going in that direction invariably means going against the logic of the system, so it requires radical organisation. What we are talking about is trying to create, in part from within capitalism, the infrastructure for a different kind of society. With constant pressure from below some things can be achieved, as long as they don't impinge substantially on the accumulation drive of the system.
But if accumulation itself is threatened capital fights back, and small victories are likely to be reversed. The only answer -- no longer to be seen simply as a question of justice but also one of survival -- is to push beyond what capital is willing to accept, i.e., to promote human and collective needs beyond the so-called "market system". In that case, you are talking, if you take it far enough to make a real difference, about an ecological and social revolution and the transition to another kind of society.
Some social movements believe it is possible to live apart from capitalism. Do you think this is possible, or does it just lead to the atomisation of the opposition?
The US socialist Scott Nearing, who wrote a regular column for many years in Monthly Review, was one of the leaders of the self-sufficiency and back-to-the-land movement. There is no doubt that this kind of separation of oneself from the main logic of the system and its effects (a kind of living apart from the system) constitutes a form of passive resistance (still a form of resistance).
Throughout history human beings, faced by repressive systems, have returned to the land, and cultivated their own gardens, so to speak. This can be a way of healing, regrouping, etc. Many of those who have gone in this general direction have pioneered in alternative forms of agriculture, including organic farming, community-supported agriculture.
We should not underestimate the degree to which such actions can sometimes create alternatives crucial to the development of a new society, within the various interstices of the system. But the real struggle to create a new society requires in addition an active resistance and political organisation: a direct revolt against the existing relations of production. So the new strengths that were gained during a period of retreat have to become a part of an active resistance. Complete withdrawal in a globalised capitalist system is largely an illusion. It is interesting how Nearing himself combined his life of self-sufficiency with continual, active resistance. He worked it from both ends. Today we need people who are active in their resistance. If they can combine this with various ways of freeing themselves from the rat race, so much the better.
The degrowth movement champions individual and collective initiatives in the search for alternatives to capitalism. What is your opinion about it? How can we decrease globally within the capitalist system?
Decrease globally within capitalism? We can't. Capitalism is all about accumulation. It is a grow-or-die system and on an increasingly global scale. When economic growth, particularly the growth of profits, is not taking place, the system goes into a crisis, as at present. This results in massive unemployment. There are a lot of good things to be said about the "degrowth movement," as articulated particularly in Paris in April 2008. But it is based on a voluntaristic approach to decrease consumption, and on the unreal assumption that you can have a stationary state (that is a no-growth economy), as envisioned by John Stuart Mill in the 19th century, somehow in the context of the present system. This is simply a misunderstanding as to the nature of capitalism. As Joseph Schumpeter wrote, a no-growth capitalism is a contradictio in adjecto.
It is certainly true that we need a new economic structure focused on enough and not more. An overall reduction in economic scale on the world level, particularly in the rich countries, could be accompanied by progress in sustainable human development, improving the real conditions of humanity by moving from possessive individualism to non-possessive humanism-collectivism. But this would require a socialist economy to make it possible (not inevitable).
If the alternative to capitalism is a democratically planned economy, how should this work so as to include environmental issues?
I think we need to remember Marx's warning in Capital about writing "recipes for the cook-shops of the future." It would be a mistake to try to write an actual blueprint for a socialist society, including one that incorporated environmental issues. Yet, I think that Paul Burkett has demonstrated in a brilliant article on "Marx's Vision of Sustainable Human Development" in the October 2005 issue of Monthly Review that Marx's notion of communism was one of sustainable human development, and that it is indeed only in those terms that we can understand what Marx's conception of a society of freely associated producers regulating their metabolism with nature was all about.
Hugo Chávez has defined the struggle for socialism in the 21st century in terms of "the elementary triangle of socialism". According to this view, derived from Marx, socialism consists of: (1) social ownership; (2) social production organised by workers; and (3) satisfaction of communal needs.
In my view, one can also speak of an "elementary triangle of ecology", derived directly from Marx, which takes the struggle to a deeper level. This can be defined as: (1) social use, not ownership, of nature; (2) rational regulation by the associated producers of the metabolism between human beings and nature; and (3) the satisfaction of communal needs -- not only of present but also future generations. All of this is spelled out in detail at the end of the introduction to my book The Ecological Revolution, as well as in the final chapters of that book.
Finally, why should we read your last book, The Ecological Revolution?
The opening words of the preface to The Ecological Revolution state: "My premise in this book is that we have reached a turning point in the human relation to the earth: all hope for the future of this relationship is now either revolutionary or it is false."
The reason to read the Ecological Revolution is to begin to approach this question, which is now obviously the most important question facing humanity as we go forward into the future.Galway FC have been invited to submit a licence application by the FAI for the forthcoming 2014 League of Ireland season.
Galway FC have been invited to submit a licence application by the FAI for the forthcoming 2014 League of Ireland season.
The Galway Football Association have given their support to the new venture and have confirmed that all home games will be played in Eamonn Deacy Park (Terryland Park).
Made up of of the Galway United Supporters Group (GUST), Mervue United, Salthill Devon and the Galway & District League, the brand new team is seeking to unite soccer in the county.
A statement released by Galway FC stated: “Supporters’ involvement is a key ingredient and critical to the success and integration of this new entity in the community and Galway United Supporters Trust (GUST) continue to work with the board and the co-op subcommittee on examining the development of a cooperative structure.
“Galway FC will continue to update supporters and all those with an interest in Galway football with further developments in the coming weeks.
“To support this new dawn in Galway soccer we are delighted to announce that the Comer Group have agreed to be primary sponsor of Galway FC for the next three seasons.
“The position of manager will be key element to the future success and sustainability of Galway FC and we now invite applicants for the position of First Team Manager of Galway FC.”
Online EditorsThe Women’s March.
After the huge turnouts of the international Women’s Marches in January, activists everywhere have been encouraging sustained action beyond a day of protest. Last week, eight prominent feminist scholars and activists announced they are organizing a women’s strike on March 8, and on Tuesday, the organizers of the national Women’s Marches signed on as well, making March 8 the official “Day Without a Woman.”
In an op-ed for the Guardian, Linda Martín Alcoff, Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, Nancy Fraser, Barbara Ransby, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Rasmea Yousef Odeh, and Angela Davis, wrote of the problems with “lean-in” feminism and how a strike on March 8 aims to push back on the “ongoing neoliberal attack on social provision and labor rights.” They write:
While Trump’s blatant misogyny was the immediate trigger for the huge response on 21 January, the attack on women (and all working people) long predates his administration. Women’s conditions of life, especially those of women of color and of working, unemployed and migrant women, have steadily deteriorated over the last 30 years, thanks to financialization and corporate globalization.
Lean-in feminism and other variants of corporate feminism have failed the overwhelming majority of us, who do not have access to individual self-promotion and advancement and whose conditions of life can be improved only through policies that defend social reproduction, secure reproductive justice and guarantee labor rights. As we see it, the new wave of women’s mobilization must address all these concerns in a frontal way. It must be a feminism for the 99%.
Their action calls for “a day of striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex work, boycotting, calling out misogynistic politicians and companies, striking in educational institutions.”According to the piece, it will be held in conjunction with 30 other feminist organizations around the world. One of the prime motivating principles of the strike will be to raise up “a grassroots, anti-capitalist feminism — a feminism in solidarity with working women, their families and their allies throughout the world.”
Yesterday, organizers of the Women’s March shared their call for a Day Without a Woman on Instagram, adding, “We saw what happened when millions of us stood together in January, and now we know that our army of love greatly outnumbers the army of fear, greed and hatred.”
There is also a general strike being called for on February 17, after Francine Prose wrote an op-ed in the same vein, also in the Guardian, and another called Not My Presidents’ Day on February 20, which is Presidents’ Day.On the side of the road, or above you on the overhead sign you’ll notice harmless looking devices appearing like a “Little White Box” with an antenna maybe with or without a solar panel. They are attached to signs and permanent fixtures like this highway traffic board pictured below. They are on tens of thousands of DPW highway trailers. It doesn’t look scary; it has no camera on some do, but we’ll discuss that later. Most of you don’t know what it is, or what it does, or have never even noticed them before.
When you drive to work today or your friend’s house or your family’s house for Easter, open your eyes a little bit wider as you pan the side of the road and your surroundings.
OR: How the USDOT (US Department of Transportation) and their partners know more about you than most other agencies combined.
This is another piece of the puzzle. Mass surveillance, tracking our every movement, cell phone kill switches, militarization of local police forces, military exercises in cities, and blatant disregard for the 4th Amendment are there for all to see. The sheep are being penned in and they don’t even realize it or care. They’ll care when they are herded towards the slaughterhouse. But, then it will be too late.
They are on overhead signs, overpasses and also just entirely stand alone setups with no traffic timing information. You’ll see them every few miles, before and after bridges and major interchanges. What that little white box is doing is collecting all the Bluetooth radio identifiers from your vehicle assigned to a time stamp. All of them. Anything within 330 feet of that “Little White Box” is being cataloged every time you pass.
They are part of the world’s largest violation of privacy network ever assembled and what it knows about you and its potential are beyond Orwellian comprehension.
In some cases, the boxes are deployed in conjunction with cameras, meaning that the state is collecting a picture of you, your car, it’s occupants and an association to all the electronics in your car including your car. All programmatically.
This means it can collect information from both sides of the highway provided that the two directions are within the listening radius.
An example communications framework diagram showing the interrelationship of the key communications standards that would be used in a deployment is shown below.
The small antenna is a cell phone antenna on the above examples used to relay the information back to the regional centers, and ultimately national centers as is illustrated here in this diagram on the DOT’s own website from section 5.1 shown below in the diagram. Don’t let the technological speak fool you, it’s really just a bunch of jargon outlining a language by which all of this information moves around, from collection to aggregation to hand off to governments and private partners:
In this photo above, it’s obvious what’s happening, as it’s part of a test that is already in progress to monitor the residency status of the citizens driving below. Experiment is one thing, but the entire network to do this nationally an internationally is already built and running today.
How about private companies? Let’s have a look at INRIX and their data publically available here.
In the US – Every state is mandated to deploy this system by 2016, and many have already, ironically all paid for by you the taxpayer. It’s long term aims are even more egregious, including leveraging “in-vehicle” systems to automatically ticket you when you do something wrong or take control of your vehicle and correct your driving. At first, and it’s even spelled out in their own internal documents, they will approach the concerned public with “safety fixtures” and things that serve “the public good”, something easy for the public to latch on to, “ticketing people who overtake school buses”.
This is a means of identifying who you are uniquely on a global scale. If you wondered why Osama Bin Laden only communicated by human messenger? this is a very good example of why. Any globally unique ID can be used to track your whereabouts as you pass these LWB’s (Little White Boxes).
Every device you have with Bluetooth, has a globally unique identifier that is being collected every time you pass one of these “Little White Boxes”.
Everything with a Bluetooth radio in your vehicle has been identified as you pass the “Little White Box”. You, your kids, your passengers, all of them. That identifier is unique, globally. Let me repeat that.
Your babies iPad 1.0 that doesn’t have a cell radio in it that is entertaining them in the back seat. Your new Fitbit which is monitoring your heartrate or step count. If you have a vehicle with built in Bluetooth cell phone, that too has an ID. Your old Apple iTouch, it too although not on the cellular network is also cataloged. Yes, all your phones are cataloged too, but since you already willingly give up that telemetry information to authorities in meta-data we’ll avoid that topic for now.
In simple terms, the collection devices sit at the very bottom, connected to the “plant” the “center-to-center” or “C2C” connections and information sharing with other government entities and private companies occurs at the top of the structure.
We’ll leave the grander capabilities of INRIX the ITS and RITA programs alone today and remain focused on the “Little White Boxes”, as this alone should be enough to scare you of what’s possible. INRIX’s role in life is to “catch people wasting time and negatively impacting the economy” as their own public website states. Nothing against INRIX it just happens to be one of the directly connected partners to the whole system that anyone can identify with some simple Googling.
How it works is that all of the Bluetooth ID’s are read at checkpoint #1 and then read again at checkpoint #2. The centralized database then compares the timestamps between the two checkpoints and calculates velocity of the ID’s, this is being done locally,
The governments stated purpose is that these signs are there to assemble a system of information meant to monitor the speeds of highway links as can be seen here in these puff pieces – which it does quite well. We have grossly traded our privacy in doing so based on how the system accomplishes this.
You might think that this database or central server is local only and who cares. It is not. There is an entire protocol developed around how these “Little White Boxes” all aggregate up regionally, then nationally called RTSMIP (Real Time System Management Program) and internationally as these systems are being deployed globally. You can read more about its origins here from 2009. Permitting government agencies to query the databases, and of course “private contractors” are also privy to this database as well.
How does the information move around the network and interconnect with agencies? Of course, this will be written about in the context of weather, accidents and public safety, and not the fact that its built entirely on your globally unique Bluetooth ID’s. Note that the data and systems are not just meant for public entities, but also “development contractors”:
Data Exchange Format Specification (DXFS)
In 2011, U.S. DOT began development of the Data Exchange Format Specification (DXFS) to facilitate the development of interoperable real-time traffic and travel information between public agencies, with other public agencies, and with private entities.
A primary objective of the DXFS is to establish a standards-based specification of key RTSMIP interfaces. To align with the objective the scope of the DXFS is the set of interfaces used to send traffic, transit, transportation-related weather, and traveler information from one agency to another. The provision of this data directly to travelers is not part of the scope of the specification. While the DXFS covers all the information defined in Rule 23 CFR 511, the scope of the DXFS has been expanded beyond the information defined in the rule to include transit information and additional traffic information that is relevant to the exchange of data between agencies (and other parties). The DXFS is a specification that can be used to define the information exchanges across a system-to-system interface, thus providing interoperability of systems that implement the DXFS. The DXFS does not specify communication protocols, but it does refer to existing standardized protocols that can be used for transferring the data.
Users of the DXFS
The DXFS has been developed to assist the following groups of users to specify and then develop an RTSMIP implementation:
Transportation Agencies. This group includes state DOTs and regional transportation related organizations (e.g., a municipal DOT or Public Works or a transit agency) that are developing systems that implement aspects of the RTSMIP.
Public Safety Agencies. This group includes state, county, or local public safety agencies that develop systems that support RTSMIP.
Traveler Information Organizations (Public or Private). This group includes providers of traveler information whether public or private that are involved in the development of systems that supportRTSMIP.
Development Contractors. This group includes contractors who have been hired by transportation or public safety agencies to develop procurement packages that would specify aspects of RTSMIP, or contractors who have been selected to perform the development of RTSMIP related projects.
Programming junkies can take the protocol apart here, those who are familiar with SNMP and XML will see many similarities and instantly understand how you could query against a specific Bluetooth ID, e.g. MAC address (read individual).
The whole system of managing highway intelligence is predicated on violating your own privacy by collecting all your device ID’s. The system in place already is massive, covering almost all major highways.
“I’m sure none of this will be used against us.”
It should be noted that the system also has an eloquent method of determining where you get on and where you get off the highway. Deploy one nowhere near the exit, but deploy it in-between the exits as has been done in existing installations. If your ID is there at one checkpoint, and gone the next, well, we know you left the highway at approximately this time, calculating the velocity of your vehicle from the former checkpoints and understanding the distance between the checkpoint and the sign. We’ll know you’re not in traffic either, because your neighbors will still be going “highway speed”. These systems are deployed now at most state boarders, cities and major interchanges.
Yes, the system knows when YOU get on and off the highway, who you are traveling with, how many times you run this route and even more interesting, when you’re operating outside your “normal behavior”.
The immediate argument that governments already have enough information from you from your cell phones to do this with. This argument is flawed, because the data around cell phone “meta-data” is predicated on who you call, and maybe when, but does not give the government the rest of the picture. This “LWB” system easily can build social networks of who you travel with, what devices you travel with and the rest of the five W’s about your daily habits, all without your cell phone.
Even if you want to believe that the government has totally usurped your phone, which perhaps it has, then you can just consider this system another vector in how it can triangulate and monitor everything you do. At the very least, As we know in business, and the management of crowds, “everything that can be measured, will be managed”. Anyone who works in public relations knows that you must have a solid assessment of who your customers are in order to spark behavior, the more intelligence you have about your customers, the more you can easily manipulate them.
In the management of large crowds of people, or citizenry, the more intelligence vectors you have on them, the easier it is for you to control and manipulate them.
DOT on the initial adaptation of these systems:
“When it was first unveiled, the Bluetooth detection system was referred to by some media outlets as a motorist tracking system. This description initially caused some public concern, but these issues were short-lived.“
Lets say you usually commute with person A. The system would see that you always commute with person A, every day, same time in, same time out. Now you add person B to the carpool. The system now knows you have a new friend in your social network, a physical friend, with their devices, and all the intel that they already have about both person A and B is now linkable.
“The five W’s: Checkmate”
Simple things that this “Little White Box” network with this data can determine every time you pass a government checkpoint:
· Who – easily associating Bluetooth ID to people from purchase databases, which companies maintain from point of sale data or manufacturers.
· What – the devices, including wearable tech, your kids portable tech, without cell radios and of course your newer Bluetooth enabled cars, which have unique identifiers as standard equipment, tied to your purchase of the vehicle. GM for example has a record of all of its Bluetooth ID’s associated to the purchaser of the vehicle, as does any other auto manufacturer.
· Where – what routes you take and with what devices.
· Why – Why are you driving somewhere, or not. The pattern creation by daily habits is easily used to verify you are doing something normal or abnormal. Example: Hmm, this is weird, Citizen A who travels with Citizen B on Thursdays at 8AM and 6PM aren’t doing that today, why are thy going towards another city? In two separate cars?
· When – What time you commute, or when you don’t, and when you deviate from your normal behavior pattern.
“Putting it to use”
In Boston, during the recent scare and last years bombing, when you were asked to “shelter in place,” lets say you decided to be a rebel and go out and drive around, this system knows that about you and can be used in the future to understand who was a “well behaved obedient citizen” and who needs to have “extra watching”.
Assume during the Occupy Wallstreet movements that “LWB’s” were watching, cataloging your assembly, your associations and your routines. All it takes to develop these intelligent databases of social behavior is a nefarious deployment of tiny boxes, their GPS coordinates and a cell phone antenna, the size of a shoebox. They can be powered by solar or regular commercial line power.
If you wanted a government enabled with the power to know where you are, who you are with and when, paid for by your taxes. You are already there, funneling your data points in real time into private corporations, and the Department of Transportation. This is not something coming, and this is something established, built and functioning.
“Pushing Back”
If governments and corporations want to demonstrate to the public that this system is not doing these things, they should start by immediately dismantling the collection of globally unique identifiers and leveraging alternative technologies right at the “LWB’s”. Bluetooth ID’s shouldn’t be listened for, they shouldn’t be collected or even transmitted to the nearest cell tower, certainly not without your permission at a very minimum. Even in the purest of intentions and implementations, you have to assume that any entity is going to be at least as sloppy as a big retailer or big bank who has already had it’s entire databases stolen by “bad guys”. If this system is truly meant to ensure “public safety”, then lets have it start by protecting your privacy at the constitution. This even in the tamest of interpretations is a violation of the 4th and likely 5th amendments in its implementation already today.
Or, how about we enable them only on vehicles we the public pay for? All of our public safety vehicles and government officials? Surely we the citizens should know where they are, how fast they are driving, who they are colluding with, how often, what devices they have with them. I’m sure they’d be all for that system of transparency. Right?
In the next segment, we’ll explore the likely use of this system to develop a militia network profile of those who decided to go to the Bundy Ranch. Because Utah, Arizona and Nevada? Yes, they too are equipped with “LWB’s”, “Little White Boxes”.
Submitted by: RideTwoHorses. How to remain sane leading up to and beyond the collapse of modern government.
4-18-2014Reviewing Beal’s telephone records, Whelan noticed “frequent and regular” calls between Dzurlic and Beal until the day she disappeared. A tape recovered from Beal’s answering machine contained messages and recorded conversations that pointed to a passionate, yet troubled, tryst. “In my house we [expletive],” Dzurlic said during one call. “Now we are going to [expletive] in your house.” On Sept. 13, Dzurlic left five messages, pleading for Beal to return his call. “It sounded like he was getting more and more drunk as the day was going on,” Whelan recalled.
“Smajo causes me so much sorrow,” Beal told Dzurlic’s sister, Muzafera Klicic, just days before she was killed. “Nobody in my life ever hurt me so bad.”
By late September, Whelan’s investigation had turned into a hunt for Dzurlic. A neighbor reported last seeing Dzurlic on Sept. 15, before he and his third wife, a younger woman named Sadija Agovic, “went to the store and never came back.” Around that time, Dzurlic contracted a Bronx-based construction foreman to sand and refinish the floors of his house. When the job was done and the balance owed, however, Dzurlic was gone; the contractor took Dzurlic’s living-room furniture as payment.
Dzurlic grew up in Plav, a Muslim-majority town in what was southern Yugoslavia, near the Albanian border. He immigrated to New York City in the spring of 1971 with his first wife and three children, working days as a taxi driver and nights as a doorman. There were run-ins with the law. In 1974, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder after firing a pistol at a suspected home intruder. Eight years later, he beat a pedestrian in Midtown with a nightstick because the man banged the roof of his cab in heavy traffic. Then Dzulric’s second wife, Zinka, accused him of throwing her out a five-story window. When they separated, Mary Beal translated the proceedings.
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Legal troubles notwithstanding, Dzurlic never let on that he was thinking about leaving the United States. He had recently drawn a loan for a pair of Ford taxis and their prized medallions, leasing one car and driving the other himself, and he made his monthly payments on time. In June 1990, he even bought a row house in the Bronx, where he lived with Agovic, his third wife. Beal brokered the sale.
Four months after the garbage bags appeared, Whelan got a warrant to search Dzurlic’s Bronx residence. There was a pile of mail near the entrance. Dishes crowded the kitchen sink. A knife rested on the breakfast table between two glass ashtrays. The crime-scene techs went to work. Having sprayed the house with luminol, they found traces of blood on the kitchen wall and on two black garbage bags. Lab results showed that the blood was “consistent” with Beal’s, though forensic technology at the time precluded them from being more precise. And without any witnesses to assist in building a case or the slightest notion of Dzurlic’s whereabouts, the D.A.’s office opted against pressing charges.
Years passed. Whelan left, and another detective, Thomas Hickey, took over the case. In 1994, Hickey interviewed Agovic, Dzurlic’s estranged third wife, over the phone. Agovic, who was living in Belgium at the time, denied any firsthand knowledge of Beal’s death. But she claimed that Dzurlic’s sister, Muzafera Klicic, had sent a letter revealing Dzurlic as the murderer. So Hickey knocked at Klicic’s door in the Bronx and threatened to arrest her unless she talked. Klicic subsequently appeared before a grand jury and recalled, under oath, that on the morning of Sept. 14, 1990, Dzurlic came to her house and announced, “There will be no more Mary.”
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Klicic asked what he meant. Dzurlic said Beal was “sleeping” in his house.
“How can she be sleeping in your house when she has her own place?”
“She is dead.”
“How did she die?”
Dzurlic confessed to his sister that he had hit Beal over the head with a hammer.
Finally, on Jan. 18, 1995, Kings County charged Dzurlic with murder. The problem was finding him. He had lived in Belgium for some time, though no one — not the New York Police Department, Interpol, the Belgian police, Europol or the F.B.I. — knew his whereabouts. Belgian officials insisted that Dzurlic had returned to the former Yugoslavia, but the civil war there left authorities far too preoccupied to assist with an American manhunt.
Almost 10 years went by. Whelan and Hickey had long since retired when, in 2004, James Osorio, a detective from the department’s Cold Case Squad, reopened the file hoping that fresh eyes might lead to something. Osorio contacted the F.B.I. for information about Dzurlic, but he didn’t get far. “There was no record of Smajo,” he told me. “He pretty much vanished.”
In early November 2006 an F.B.I. agent named Mike Clarke looked across a small lake 10 miles northwest of Tirana, Albania, while a pair of divers rummaged through the muddy water. Two weeks earlier, police responded to a report of something unusual bobbing on the surface. The object was a female body part. The police ultimately found everything but the woman’s hands. Following an unsuccessful search for a culprit, Albanian investigators requested help from Americans at the embassy, as they sometimes do on difficult cases. The Albanians had recently discovered another assemblage of body parts, and they didn’t want to find a third. “They believed this was a serial killer,” Clarke says.
Clarke, who was an athletic-looking 44, walked along the water’s edge. Earlier that year, he arrived in the Balkans as the F.B.I.’s first Sofia -based legal attaché, responsible for all of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. The majority of his work involved counterterrorism and organized-crime cases. But there was a macabre element to this crime scene that caught his attention.
Clarke visited the morgue next. He quickly realized that he wouldn’t glean any insights from the corpse: doctors had stitched the body back together and incorrectly attached the legs, so that the right limb was fixed to the left hip socket, and vice versa. And the morgue lacked refrigeration, so the unidentified corpse was beginning to decompose. Clarke called F.B.I. headquarters to ask for help. There was no apparent U.S. connection, he admitted, but helping the Albanians on the case would create good will inside their government that he could one day leverage to build organized-crime cases or pursue terrorism investigations. Three agents — a forensics specialist experienced with mass graves in Kosovo and two profilers from the F.B.I.’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, or B.A.U. — landed in Tirana five days later. (The B.A.U. and its sister organization, the Behavioral Sciences Unit, were created to analyze “unusual, bizarre and repetitive” criminal acts; Jodie Foster played one of these profilers in “The Silence of the Lambs.” )
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The four agents set out the next morning. Gary Reinecke, the forensics expert, despaired at finding the lake shore littered with cigarette butts and crisscrossed with tire tracks. “Any physical evidence that might have been here is lost,” he told Clarke. At the morgue, Craig Ackley and Dan Bermingham, from the B.A.U., pondered the corpse as if it were an abstract painting — “What does this say? What does this show me?” — to try to get inside the perpetrator’s head. They all eventually reached the same dire assessment. “You don’t know who the victim is, you don’t have a crime scene roped off, you don’t have an autopsy, you don’t know the area,” Ackley told me. “Developing a suspect out of that is virtually impossible.”
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At Tirana’s Sheraton hotel that evening, Clarke fielded suggestions. Reinecke recommended shipping the body back to the United States, where he could arrange for a proper autopsy and potentially learn something about the woman. Ackley and Bermingham backed the idea.
Clarke phoned headquarters again and got permission to take the unusual step of transporting the unidentified body back to Washington. The next day he purchased a lead-lined casket for $5,000, placed the corpse inside and paid a welder to seal the casket shut, per airline regulations. On Nov. 17, he watched the ground crew load the casket into the cargo bay of an Austrian Airlines flight, bound for Dulles Airport.
Four days after returning from Albania, Craig Ackley was back in his office waiting for a pair of cold-case detectives from the New York Police Department to arrive. (Besides supporting F.B.I. investigations, the B.A.U. also advises state and local authorities on their more vexing cases.) Ackley continued contemplating the Albanian murder. The autopsy results indicated that the woman died from blunt-force trauma to the back of the head and was dismembered post-mortem, but Ackley still didn’t know enough to begin sketching a profile of a suspect.
The homicide detectives arrived, accompanied by a couple of agents from the F.B.I.’s New York office, and Ackley led the group into the B.A.U. conference room. A few hours later, when the group broke for coffee and bagels, one detective, James Osorio, overheard Ackley discussing his trip to Albania and interrupted the conversation. “I wish I would have known,” Osorio said. “I have a fugitive on a case that I think is over in that area.”
Ackley asked what the fugitive was wanted for. “Murder,” Osorio said. He rehashed the details of the Mary Beal case — the dismemberment, the plastic bags, the surgical cuts — and offered his hunch that the key suspect |
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We noted this morning that the city seems to be playing a new level of hardball with Eureka slumlord Floyd Squires. But we were not quite anticipating this level of hardball.
This afternoon, the city issued a press release that vows to continue to fight Squires’ “egregious violations” of the law. In the middle of the call-to-arms, which is signed by city manager Greg Sparks, the city lets drop that last week’s arson fire at the Blue Heron Motel was “allegedly over lack of payment for sexual services by Mr. Squires.”
Greg Sparks.
This allegation appears to come third-hand from a witness to the Blue Heron arson, and not from either of the principals in the purported transaction — Squires and Kattie Yocum, who was arrested in the wake of the Blue Heron fire.
A police report, which the city attaches, quotes a witness who said Yocum had told her she had provided oral sex for Squires in exchange for an apartment, which never materialized. This, said the witness, prompted Yocum to set the Blue Heron on fire.
Read the police report here, if you like.
The Outpost reached out to Floyd Squires this morning and hasn’t heard back yet. We’ll update when we do.
Press release from the City of Eureka:by R. Gidon Rothstein
7 Cheshvan: R. Ovadya Yosef on Whether Medical Care Can Make an Animal a Terefah
Terefot as defined by the Gemara present a challenge Rambam already noticed. The Gemara seems to view a terefah as an animal that sustained a mortal wound (there is a Talmudic view that terefah chayah, a terefah can live, but that’s not important here), but the list of wounds the Gemara gives include those which Rambam in Laws of Shechitah 10;12-13 knew did not always kill the animal.
He therefore said that we follow the list, regardless of the original rhetoric about how those wounds were chosen. For us, if an animal has a wound mentioned in the Gemara, it’s a terefah, and any other wound, no matter how mortal it seems to us, does not render it a terefah.
That’s the background to Yabi’a Omer 8; Yoreh De’ah 2, dated 7 Cheshvan 5740 (1979; this seems to have been the day he was elected to the position of Chief Rabbi), where R. Ovadya Yosef struggles [lengthily; I have had to excerpt this responsum more ruthlessly than usual] with the kashrut of milk cows (the milk of a terefah cow is impermissible as well as its meat).
A common occurrence with cows makes that a problem. Cows that overeat can become dangerously bloated. The centuries-old remedy was to take a large needle or tube made for this purpose, insert it between the cows’ ribs into one of its stomachs (the rumen) in such a way that digested materials come out, which then heals the cow.
This happens frequently, and is of no concern to farmers, since these cows then live full lives. Yet the Gemara lists nekuvat ha-keres, a hole in the belly, as a sign of becoming a terefah, which would seem to mean their milk is not kosher either.
Which Stomach?
One way out would be to say that the nekuvat ha-keres refers to a different stomach than the rumen. The Mishnah in Chullin 42a refers to the keres he-penimit, the definition of which is debated in the Gemara (50b), and by the rishonim.
Too many authorities rule stringently for this to help us. Rashi noted that because the Gemara does not accept any particular position, we must follow the stringent view of R. Yose, that any of the cows’ stomachs qualify. Meiri says that most decisors accept the lenient view of R. Huna, that the keres in question is the one that faces the ground while the cow is alive and appears first to the person skinning it when it’s lying on its back. However, he rejects that in favor of Rashi’s view, adopted also by Tur and Shulchan Aruch.
So that’s no help to us.
Evidence That It’s Not a Mortal Wound Might Help
The Venetian printing of the Tur had a note that made specific reference to this issue, puncturing cows’ stomachs, as evidence that we accept the lenient ruling (since how could cows that live so well after such a procedure be terefot?). Ba”ch rejected this, pointing out a responsum of Rashba that said that how long a cow lives does not affect our categorization of it as a terefah.
Maharam Schick found Ba”ch difficult, since Sanhedrin 33a presents a debate between R. Tarfon and the Sages, and it’s the Sages who hold that if an animal can live a long time after a wound or procedure, it clearly does not render it terefah (the case was womb-removal; the Alexandrians did that to retain their monopoly on their much-sought cows and pigs).
R. Ovadya Yosef shows that this was continuingly debated. Among the more famous names, Chochmat Adam followed Rashba in rejecting longevity as a factor in categorizing an animal as a terefah, while others accepted that kind of evidence. On the other hand, Sha”ch held that waiting twelve months [the amount of time the Gemara seemed to assume made it impossible for a terefah to live] and/or the animal being able to give birth, are sufficient evidence the animal is kosher. Unfortunately, others (including Peri Chadash) held that that’s only where the issue was evenly debated; where there’s a majority (as there seems to have been regarding the punctured stomach being any stomach), we treat it as a doubt about a matter of Torah law, and prohibit it.
What a Majority of Rabbinic Voters Establishes
How a majority affects our right to rule the other way is also a hot-button issue, and R. Yosef [in his way] cites many authorities on each side.
One of those I found most interesting was R. Shlomo Kluger in Tuv Ta’am va-Da’at, who argued that if the animal lived twelve months, that creates a rov, a majority situation that lets us see the animal as kosher, since the majority of terefot do not survive twelve months. That’s a more normative majority, he held, since our view that a majority of decisors ruled a certain way is weakened by the fact that that might only be because we do not know the other decisors who ruled leniently.
R. Kluger assumes that the existence of views we do not know about still has some impact on our halachic reasoning, which I find fascinating and unfathomable in roughly equal measure [it seems to me to violate the principle of ein la-davar sof, we could always make that claim]. Shu”t Yehudah Ya’aleh disagreed with R. Kluger for another reason, that the verse says to “follow the majority,” which he took to mean that if a majority holds one way, that is the halachic fact.
R. Yosef rejects that based on Shu”t Torat Emet, who said that that idea applies only where all those ruling on the issue sat together to hash out the issues. Only when they’ve argued the topic in person does a majority establish halachic fact. Otherwise, a person can say kim li, I am certain halachah should follow the minority, certain that had they had a chance to present their case, they would have swayed the others.
She’erit Yehudah reports the view of his brother R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady, author of Tanya and founder of Chabad Hasidism, that the obligation to follow a majority of decisors applies only to the generation in which the discussion was held (even if not in person). Since a later court has the right to reconsider the question and rule differently, there cannot be a Biblical obligation to follow the original majority. So, in cases of pressing need, we could follow a minority or even a lone view.
Another Way Out
After again analyzing how twelve-month survival should affect our view of an animal (with no conclusive views either way, but R. Ovadya Yosef seems to have felt compelled to mention every well-thought opinion he encountered), he records the perspective of Sho’el U-Meshiv. In a similar scenario, R. Yosef Shaul Nathanson said that nekuvat ha-keres, a cow with a punctured stomach, means only where it happened accidentally.
When people do it intentionally, for medicinal reasons, they insert the tube more carefully, and we see that the animals recover [that’s a delicate point; he’s not saying medical evidence always trumps the Gemara, he’s saying the medical evidence gives reason to believe that whatever we do in creating the opening for release of the bloat must not be Talmudic nekivah, puncturing]. It’s then similar to bloodletting, a medical procedure done with care, such that the humans involved do not become terefot.
Milk During the First Year
The conversation until now has relied heavily on the cows’ surviving a year. During that year, however, milk has been pumped from this cow; may we use it, or is the cow a safek terefah, possibly a terefah, forcing us to forego that milk for a year?
Since most authorities in fact hold that this animal isn’t a terefah at all, we have at most a doubt about a rabbinic prohibition (a safek terefah de-rabbanan), and are therefore allowed to use the milk. Aruch HaShulchan also treated the stringent view as a chumra, a conscious choice to adopt a more stringent position as an expression of our fear of sin, not a decision or worry that that view was correct. We would not then add on to that stringency, and would allow ourselves to rule leniently about the milk.
However, Tosafot seems to have held that even doubtful terefah items are a matter of Torah law. Therefore, R. Yosef adopts the view of R. Tzvi Pesach Frank, that the milk can be deliberately mixed with other milk. While we generally oppose bittul issur le-chatchillah, finding a way to nullify prohibited items by mixing them with other materials, he allowed it here because it’s unclear it was ever prohibited, so that mixing it isn’t necessarily nullifying a prohibition. R. Frank recognized and conceded that Peri Megadim allowed proactive nullification only for Rabbinic prohibitions, but cited other authorities, including Chatam Sofer, who were comfortable with applying it to possible (but not certain) Biblical ones, like a possible terefah.
Mixing the milk is also relatively easier, halachically, since min be-mino, material mixed with like materials (milk with milk, in our example) is batel be-rov, rendered unnoticeable in a majority of other items. Mixing this milk gets rid of a Biblical prohibition in a Biblical way (even if ordinarily we look for greater levels of overwhelming, at a Rabbinic level).
He adds one last road to leniency, that Maharam and Mordechai held that the milk of a terefah is itself a Rabbinic prohibition (the animal cannot be eaten because of a Biblical prohibition, but the milk, they held, was prohibited only by Rabbinic law). That gives room to rely on R. Frank, and to mix the milk, although R. Yosef does prefer mixing it in a one to sixty ration (since, Rabbinically, that’s what we use even for min be-mino).
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One of the chief complaints emerging from the 99 percenters camped in New York City and around the world is the sense that the top 1 percent have gotten away with something—that no amount of malfeasance on their part could endanger their status. Ad Policy
The movement began, of course, on Wall Street, where this phenomenon is glaringly typified. By now, the chutzpah of the bankers, who are batting away even the gentlest attempts to regulate their behavior after they ruined the economy and got trillions in taxpayer bailouts, is well-known.
But financial professionals are only the third-biggest slice of the 1 percent. Executives of nonfinancial companies make up the largest share of 1 percenters. What maneuvers do they use to secure their advantage and protect themselves from any conceivable concession to the 99 percent?
Sometimes they find that manipulating the legal process meets their needs most efficiently. Take, for example, the recent eviscerations of class-action lawsuits. When Wal-Mart v. Dukes was before the Supreme Court earlier this year, big businesses rushed to the defense of the company. The megastore, run by the Walton family—one of the wealthiest in the world, with a collective fortune of $90 billion—was being sued by a class-action group of women charging gender discrimination at stores nationwide. The US Chamber of Commerce’s litigation center filed an amicus brief on the company’s behalf, as did a wide array of large corporations, from Altria to Bank of America to General Electric.
The Court decided against the women, saying they must sue individually and cannot act as a class in action against Walmart. The legal logic the justices applied limited many class-action suits going forward and means that “the bigger the company, the more varied and decentralized its job practices, the less likely it will have to face a class-action claim,” according to longtime Supreme Court reporter Lyle Denniston.
A similar but less noticed case two months earlier, AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, goes much further—it “entirely kills most class actions,” according to SCOTUSblog. AT&T, the fourteenth-largest company in the world, argued that cellphone customers suing for fraud must do so individually, rather than as a class, because an arbitration clause in the company’s contracts forbids class-action suits. Lower courts found this company-imposed ban on all class actions unconscionable, but the Court disagreed—and in the process eliminated most consumer and employment class-action suits. “Without minimizing Wal-Mart v. Dukes, getting upset about that case is like flipping out over a brief thundershower a few weeks after having slept through Hurricane Irene,” SCOTUSblog noted.
Although they have no particular interest in AT&T’s cellphone activities, several big business groups eagerly petitioned the Court in amicus briefs supporting the company. The American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable—a giant shill for Wall Street that spent almost $7.5 million on lobbying last year—and the US Chamber of Commerce all filed briefs.
The effect of these cases, which few Americans are aware of, is that megacorporations, and by extension the executives who staff them for lavish salaries, cannot be held accountable even if their products defraud or damage customers. Nor can they be held accountable for discriminating against their employees—their fortunes are protected regardless of their actions.
Medical professionals make up the second-biggest share of the 1 percent. They, too, know how to use the political process to limit their liability.
The American Medical Association is one of the largest lobbying forces in Washington. In 2009, as healthcare reform was being debated, the AMA spent more than $20 million to influence the outcome. One of the top items on its agenda was limiting the damage from malpractice suits. The industry claimed that such lawsuits were driving up medical costs. A study by the actuarial firm Towers Perrin, however, revealed that medical malpractice tort costs—for all cases, justified and otherwise—is an insignificant 1–1.5 percent of total medical costs.
But the name of the game was to protect medical professionals who may have made an error from having to pay out a lot of money. The AMA’s efforts to get malpractice limits in the healthcare reform bill were unsuccessful, as was President George W. Bush’s earlier attempt to limit all noneconomic damages to $250,000. But twenty-four states have enacted such laws as a result of similar lobbying—and some limit what patients can recoup for medical expenses and lost wages.
The enormous influence of the top 1 percent can also be seen in the two most recent major actions by Congress—patent reform and the approval of three free-trade deals.
More than 800 lobbyists were registered to work on the patent reform bill, which passed the Senate 89–9 and was signed into law by President Obama in September. The stated goal was to streamline the patent process to “make it easier for entrepreneurs to patent a new product or idea,” in the words of Obama. But as Zach Carter meticulously demonstrated in the Huffington Post, the real idea was to protect the patents of megacorporations. “The patent bill looks like a scorecard tallying points for powerful corporations,” he wrote.
The United States already has some of the strongest patent protection laws in the world, which means “we pay more, especially for drugs, and the rents generally go to the top 1 percent,” says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, which passed in October with bipartisan support, serve essentially the same protective purpose for the top 1 percent. Our trade policy “is designed to depress the wages of ordinary workers by subjecting them to direct competition with the lowest paid workers anywhere in the world. Our highest paid professionals, e.g. doctors and lawyers, many of whom are in the 1 percent, are largely protected from competition,” Baker notes.
The list goes on: lax antitrust enforcement of market-owning corporations; federal labor laws tilted toward the rich and against aggrieved workers; corporate governance rules that give undue power to executives and not enough to shareholders; a tax system that offers breaks for capital gains generally available only to the wealthy, and that allows huge fortunes to pass from generation to generation at low tax rates; and so on.
The common denominator, aside from maneuvering in unwieldy policy areas invisible to most Americans, is the money that the top 1 percent spends to influence the policy outcomes. The country’s campaign finance system, wherein billions are spent each year on lobbying and electing federal officials, gives the 1 percent their greatest advantage: in Washington, theirs is the loudest voice of all.
Also in This Forum
Sam Pizzigati: “OWS Revives the Struggle for Economic Equality”
Rinku Sen: “Race and Occupy Wall Street”
Tamara Draut: “Occupy College”
Sarah Anderson: “The Costs of Wall Street Greed”
Gordon Lafer: “Why Occupy Wall Street Has Left Washington Behind”Synaptive Medical Inc.’s office is bright, open and filled with trendy furniture. There are people at desks who look busy, and medical equipment that looks expensive. There’s also a squishy, pink brain.
The replica brain, explains president and co-founder Cameron Piron, is better than a real one if you’re practising brain surgery. It allows would-be neurosurgeons to try out Synaptive’s software, which helps them find the tumours they want to eliminate and avoid the tissue they want to keep intact.
Synaptive’s home is in the MaRS Discovery District’s new 20-storey tower in downtown Toronto. The tower has been, to put it mildly, controversial.
It took nine years and three government loans totalling about $380 million before the “innovation hub” overlooking Queen’s Park opened. The final loan was announced in December 2014, after an expert panel decided it was better to help MaRS finish the building than abandon it, despite initial difficulties attracting tenants.
But the tower is now finally fully leased and open for business, which gives MaRS, a charity devoted to innovation that gets about half its funding from the Ontario government, a chance to start boasting about it and its tenants.
Synaptive, for example, has grown to 300 employees from six over the past three years and counts major U.S. hospitals among its clients, although it has yet to land any Canadian customers because of this country’s stricter regulatory approval process.
“Where MaRS has been really helpful is in getting great exposure to different levels of federal political government and also getting a lot of exposure to different groups coming through — partner companies, visiting surgeons,” Piron said. “It would have been harder to scale as rapidly as we did.”
Helping startups in the life sciences make such connections is the idea behind MaRS’ new tower. The organization, whose acronym stands for Medical and Related Sciences, wants to help companies grow by providing them equipment and subsidized rent in a location right next to Toronto’s major hospitals and universities.
To proponents, its ties with government are an asset, connecting founders with the regulators and policy makers whose support they will need to succeed. They argue large companies such as Facebook Inc. and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce who are paying market rent can serve as great mentors and motivators.
“We continue to believe and champion that it’s important work to do,” said Salim Teja, executive vice-president of ventures at MaRS. “It’s important for the economy, it’s important for the country.”
Not everyone agrees. In addition to criticism from opposition politicians and the public, many people involved in Canada’s tech industry feel the money it took to finish the tower could have been better spent.
The vitriol has spread online. For instance, a lively debate broke out on the Facebook page for Canadian tech community organization StartupNorth after MaRS announced chief executive Ilse Treurnicht will step down next year.
Some suggested the controversy over the tower is overshadowing the great things MaRS has accomplished, while others called it “an abomination of startup culture,” “wasted time playing startup” and “well intentioned, but ill-conceived.”
Jonas Brandon, a Toronto-based entrepreneur and co-founder of StartupNorth, made the latter comment. By continuing to plow public money into the tower despite financial challenges and difficulties finding tenants, he said MaRS violated a well-known mantra of tech entrepreneurs: Fail fast and fail often.
“We should applaud all of them for having their heart in the right place, but I wish they had listened to some of the people who had other ideas along the way,” he said. “Probably doing nothing would have been better than doing this.”
MaRS started construction on the new tower in 2007, with the goal of doubling its existing footprint of office and high-tech laboratory space for life sciences companies. Then the financial crisis hit and potential tenants started putting the brakes on expansion plans.
Some tenants moved in, but the tower’s U.S.-based developer stopped construction in early 2009 and left the building unfinished when MaRS was unable to deliver the promised rent revenue. The Ontario government stepped in with a series of loans totalling up to $380 million to help finish the building.
With the tower now completed and full, MaRS expects to repay the loans ahead of schedule and should be able to give a major portion back in the fall following a private refinancing. Teja said the startups there are already making a significant and growing contribution to the economy.
MaRS startup revenue has doubled to $398 million in 2015 from $200 million in 2013, according to figures supplied by the organization. Over the same two years, they also more than doubled the $349 million in capital they raised in 2013 to $785 million in 2015.
“We feel that is private-market validation for the work we’re doing,” Teja said. “If you’re trying to scale innovation within very, very tough industries, you need the participation of policymakers, regulators and procurement specialists who are going to help these companies scale.”
The financial figures sound impressive, but a report earlier this year by a Waterloo-based economic think tank determined Canada could be doing better.
The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance found Canada’s top 20 accelerators, incubators and hubs — all of which receive public support — have helped attract $1.7 billion in additional investment and helped create more than 10,000 jobs.
But it also noted Canada’s major tech success stories, such as Shopify Inc. with its US$2.3-billion market capitalization, came from outside these organizations.
Sunil Sharma, a Toronto-based venture capitalist who runs the privately funded Founder Institute and Extreme Accelerator, said he encourages the entrepreneurs he works with to take full advantage of the funding and other perks available from organizations like MaRS.
As an example of private and public organizations working together successfully, bond-trading startup Overbond Ltd. started at the Founder Institute, joined the MaRS fintech program as a client and just closed a $7.5-million seed round, one of the largest in Canadian history.
But Sharma said he thinks taxpayer money could be more efficiently used by taking equity stakes in startups, rather than providing subsidized real estate and consulting. He said it does everyone a disservice when startups that can’t survive in the public market are able to limp along with well-intentioned help.
“We make it very easy in Canada to operate as an entrepreneur and run a mediocre startup that will eventually die on the vine,” Sharma said.
MaRS’ roster of startups in the new tower, however, is certainly not just a collection of players picked last for the baseball team.
They include League Inc., a digital health insurance startup headed by Kobo e-reader founder Michael Serbinis that recently raised a US$25-million Series A round, and Taplytics Inc., a graduate of the prestigious California-based accelerator Y Combinator.
Another tenant is Neutun Labs Inc., which makes a seizure-monitoring smartphone app and whose chief executive Eric Dolan made Inc. Magazine’s 30 under 30 list this year. Neutun will be hosted by JLABS, a startup incubator run as a partnership between the University of Toronto and health-care giant Johnson & Johnson Inc.
JLABS is also one of the more confusing entanglements of large corporations, startups and publicly funded organizations at MaRS.
JLABS’ 40,000-square-foot floor is leased by U of T; the lab equipment is paid for by the province; and Johnson & Johnson doesn’t own a stake in any of the 22 startups that will work there. A Johnson & Johnson representative said the company hopes to collaborate with them in the future, but there are no strings attached to their participation.
On June 16, however, the lab benches were empty, since the companies are still in the process of moving in. Inspirational words — “Collaboration,” “Innovation” — decorated an unoccupied room with a three-dimensional printer.
Much of the tower had a similar moving-day feel to it, with cardboard boxes on wood pallets and furniture that looked like it had never been sat in. The tower may be fully leased, but it still needs people to get going on all the collaboration and innovation that MaRS has promised to prove it was worth going through all the hassle and expense to get it built.
cbrownell@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/clabrowMads Stokkelien will return for the New York Cosmos in 2015. Hans Denissen, on the other hand, will not.
The Cosmos announced a contract extension with Stokkelien for the 2015 season.
“I’m excited to return to the Cosmos,” Stokkelien said in a statement. “The club has made some strong additions in the offseason and I’m looking forward to getting back to work and meeting some of the new players.”
The extension sees New York retain their top goalscorer of 2014. The 24-year-old Norwegian striker managed eight goals and four assists through 28 appearances and 24 starts. His greatest performance, however, came in the U.S. Open Cup where he scored a magnificent brace to oust crosstown rival New York Red Bulls from the tournament.
“Last season was Mads’ first season in the U.S. so he had to adapt to a new league,” said Cosmos head coach Giovanni Savarese. “However, he showed continued improvement throughout the season and was a key part of our attack, so we’re delighted to have him back.”
While Stokkelien earns a just reward for his standout season, Denissen leaves after a frustrating campaign. The Dutch striker, 30, shocked several NASL fans with his move to the Cosmos early last year. However, he joined the club injured and never managed to break the roster on a consistent basis once healthy.
Denissen managed all of 12 league appearances in 2014, tallying three assists; a sharp downturn from 2013, which saw the striker score 12 goals for the Scorpions.A former Saskatchewan Party MLA is returning to politics, but not to help his former party.
Jason Dearborn announced Thursday afternoon on the steps of the provincial Legislature that he will run as an independent to challenge the incumbent, Bill Boyd, in the constituency of Kindersley.
It's the constituency which Dearborn held for the Saskatchewan Party during Boyd's leave from politics, between 2002 and 2007.
Dearborn said he is running because angry constituents want an alternative to voting for Boyd in this election, after reports of Boyd's involvement in a controversial land sale west of Regina at the government's Global Transporation Hub.
Dearborn spent part of the morning at the RCMP's commercial crimes division making a statement about those dealings and asking the police force to investigate.
In that statement, Dearborn outlines his "serious concerns" with regard to the transactions first reported by the CBC iTeam.
Dearborn's statement notes that the dealings at the Global Transportation Hub are being investigated by the provincial auditor, but he asks police to consider a criminal investigation of fraud, as well as breach of trust among other offences.
Dearborn's own political career has not been without controversy. He was notoriously known for saying in 2005 that then-Premier Lorne Calvert should be a candidate to be shot over restructuring rural school divisions.Lots and LOTS of space for such a small form factor. I have it hooked up to my router which allows me to use it as a network storage. The fact that this drive does not require a power connector makes it really easy and convenient to use. It's very fast as well. I replaced my 1TB with this 2.5TB and copying files transferred at over 80MB/sec with no problems. No guarantee on the speed, as some computers may have USB 2.0 ports. I was using the USB 3.0 ports on my laptop to transfer. Another nice thing about this drive is it responds to sleep commands when not in use. The blue activity/on light goes off when it goes to sleep so I know it works. My old drive used to run and run, and as a result, it ran hot most of the time. This drive only spins up when in use so I can leave it plugged in all day long.
Read moreHere is proof that Congress is lying about the 700 Indian accounts in HSBC
What Arvind Kejriwal has revealed so far about the 700 Indian accounts in HSBC Switzerland is the tip of the iceberg. The I-T department and therefore the Congress know much more. Here is the proof from a Moneylife Foundation seminar. We suspect Kejriwal knows that the I-T has all the details and is daring the government to sue him, which will nail the Congress’ lie
At a Moneylife Foundation seminar on 13 December 2011, one of India’s best-known tax experts, Anil Harish, explained at length the consequences of the hacked list of 700 Indian bank accounts at HSBC Geneva, handed over to the French government.
What is remarkable about Mr Harish’s talk is that a lot more about the aftermath of that I-T investigation was already in the public domain, than has been revealed by India Against Corruption (IAC) on 9th November.
What comes out clearly from Mr Harish’s talk is this:
1) That the list of 700 persons waved by Arvind Kejriwal and shared with the media is genuine. And, as Mr Harish says in his talk, the account holders who were called in for the investigation would confirm that the details were only accurate and people were advised not to lie and deny the facts. Instead, many found a legal way around the problem.
2) Mr Harish says the money stashed abroad was in individual accounts, in corporate accounts and in trusts. Some were accounts of resident Indians and others were of non-resident Indians (NRIs). The Tax department chose to raid those who were residents with Geneva accounts in HSBC. Mr Kejriwal says only three were raided and all the residents he named in his list were apparently not touched. Those who were NRIs were only called for questioning.
3) Consider the accuracy of the list and how much the I-T department already knows. Mr Harish quotes the example of one NRI client who had been warned to give truthful answers. The officer asked if the person had accounts overseas. He said yes, as an NRI you need overseas accounts for business. He told the tax officer he had accounts in the US, UK and Geneva. When asked how much money he had in the Geneva account he said $2.5 million, at which time the officer politely corrected him and said it was in fact $2.4million—because he already had all the information from the HSBC list.
4) It is hard to believe that smaller accounts in the list were 100% accurate and details of the big fish were wrong!
5) In fact, Mr Harish, in the interactive session, advised people not to lie, because the tax authorities had all the exact details.
6) Clearly, contrary to Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s claims on television, the Income Tax department has full and complete information. It can act; it does not need a complaint to be filed. And since when has the I-T department waited to act only on a complaint?
7) Clearly, contrary to Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s claims on television, the Income Tax department has already started an investigation based on the list and decided to go slow with it.
Based on this proof here are some obvious conclusions:
1. Mr Kejriwal, is a former joint commissioner of Income Tax whose wife is still in the government. He will be able to pin-point exactly which units and officers were in charge of this investigation. But then, it is not Mr Kejriwal’s job to do the work of government. It is the government that needs to account to the people of India, what action has been taken on the 700 names and which few people were targeted for recovery. In fact, the tax returns of some of the big names may also yield some clues. As Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan correctly say, it is now for the government to explain to us and to the Parliament what action was taken in each of the 700 cases.
2. Arvind Kejriwal is correct when he says that only a few people were selectively raided. But Mr Harish’s talk explains how and why this was done. He says that those who were resident Indians were raided. Those were Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) were only called in for questioning and many of the accounts were in the names of corporates and trusts, which, as the video reveals, dealt with the issue differently.
3. Mr Harish’s illuminating talk clearly shows that all the 700 accounts need not have been dubious. He also indicates that many of them found clever and ingenious ways to set things right. Others had accounts reopened to pay up the tax and escape liability. The line of questioning adopted by the tax authorities was also explained in detail. He said the key was whether income had emanated form Indian transactions and operations or overseas businesses.
4. The final part of Mr Harish’s talk is also very interesting. He shows how tax evasion is not unknown in the developing world and the US. Mr Harish explains in detail the US amnesty scheme which allows people to avoid prosecution by paying up a stiff penalty on a one time basis. But then, the Indian system works for tax evaders and we have had so many amnesty schemes over the 65 years of independence, that the Congress government in its previous stint at power has assured the Supreme Court that there will be no more amnesty. This is a trap that corrupt policy makers had created for themselves, while making no attempt to check the proliferation of black money.
Clearly, there is a lot more that the I-T department knows which it is possibly trying to bury. There is a lot that Mr Kejriwal knows which he possibly trying to keep with himself as a matter of tactics. And the Congress is plainly lying when it acts ignorant about the details of these 700 accounts.
To read yesterday’s coverage about Arvind Kejriwal expose, click here.
You may also want to read: India's silence on US tax evasion cases says it allRequiring a High School Diploma May Violate the ADA
Barran Liebman
Oregon Law Firm
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) posted an informal discussion letter to its Web site addressing employment qualification standards, including high school diplomas, and concerns they may raise under the ADA. As the EEOC explained, qualification standards like the requirement that an applicant have a high school diploma screen out those with disabilities who are unable to attain the particular qualification because of a learning disability. Such standards are only permissible if they are job related and consistent with business necessity.
A qualification |
and Beitashour has provided six assists while Morrow has delivered one goal and two assists. Their contributions have helped the Earthquakes post the best record in the league, and the club looks like a real contender for the MLS Cup this season.
The duo, however, does not take all the credit for their successes this year.
"As a team, all of our players fit really well together," said Morrow. "We have a couple of new key additions but besides that, our core group, this is our third year that we've been together. Jason (Hernandez), (Jon Busch), (Chris Wondolowski), the veteran leadership on this team is incredible. The young guys like me and Steve have kind of grown into that, bought into the team mentality and it's shone through."
So much so that the inevitable talk of potential U.S. men's national team call-ups is beginning to be heard from both supporters and pundits around the league. While it is unlikely that the duo is called into any of the upcoming games for the United States, there is always the January camp that caters to MLS-based players on the verge of breaking through.
It's a topic of conversation that Beitashour and Morrow have had with one another, perhaps during one of their laps around the field. But they insist their focus remains on the task at hand.
"We talk about it a little bit but nothing crazy," said Beitashour, who is also eligible to represent Iran. "I think the main thing we try to focus on is just playing well every day (and) don't try to look too far into the future, because you can't tell what's going to go on. If you just play well, good things are going to come, so that's one thing we've been doing so far. Just got to keep it going."
Beitashour and Morrow's next chance to further build on their impressive campaigns will come on Wednesday, as the MLS All-Stars host UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea at PPL Park. The match could pit the Earthquakes defenders against the likes of Frank Lampard, Florent Malouda and new signing Eden Hazard, and keeping them at bay could go a long way in helping MLS come out on top.
"Maybe we can pick up their mentality how they played against Barcelona and pack it in," joked Morrow. "No, we're going to come out flying against these guys. These are the best players in our league, we really want to showcase our talent and it's going to be an exciting game to watch."
The two friends will share that experience of playing against an elite European club on Wednesday night, and that is surely to be something the two friends discuss when taking their next pre-game laps around the field.A new Gallup study reviewed each state in America to determine the best and worst places to live in the next five years. Unfortunately for West Virginia residents, the state singer John Denver sang about so lovingly about, wound up at the bottom of the 50 state list. Utah could become a bit more crowded due to winning the top spot on the best state to live in America list by Gallup, the Daily Mail reports.
The state survey was based upon 13 distinct factors including clean water, work environment, economy, obesity rates, job prospects, number of trips to the doctor/dentist, and safe places to exercise. The number of smokers in each state was also included in the Gallup poll factors used to determine the best place to live in America.
The top 10 states to live as noted by the Gallup poll include Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Virginia, Maryland, and Hawaii. The 10 worst states to live according to the recent study include West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Nevada, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Arkansas. The South ranked poorly on quality of life issues because more smokers and obese people reportedly reside in the region, according to the Gallup poll.
Salt Lake City is noted as the best place to live in the United States. The Gallup best and worst states in America poll was conducted from January 2011 through June 2012. Gallup pollsters interviewed approximately half a million Americans to determine the best and worst places to live in the United States. The clean living reputation of Utah is noted as one of the primary reasons the state made it to the top of the best places to live list; the vast Mormon population is credited with aiding in the state’s health rate and reputation, according to the Daily Mail.3/3 A "gentrification is death" sign was left at the crime scene. (Screenshot via NBC 10)
3/3 A "gentrification is death" sign was left at the crime scene. (Screenshot via NBC 10)
2/3 Black Bloc protesters, who always dress in black and have been identified as anarchists and Antifa, gather at May Day protests on May 1, 2017, in front of City Hall. (Hayden Mitman)
2/3 Black Bloc protesters, who always dress in black and have been identified as anarchists and Antifa, gather at May Day protests on May 1, 2017, in front of City Hall. (Hayden Mitman)
1/3 Geoffrey Suchocki, left, and Patricia Monahan were arrested for participating in widespread vandalism in Philly along with a group of so-called anarchists. (PPD)
1/3 Geoffrey Suchocki, left, and Patricia Monahan were arrested for participating in widespread vandalism in Philly along with a group of so-called anarchists. (PPD)
May Day was marked by peaceful protests in Center City and South Philly, but hours later, a group of 30 to 50 individuals claiming to be anarchists allegedly caused more than $100,000 worth of damage while vandalizing developing blocks near Northern Liberties, police said.
The group, made up of individuals wearing all black, is "believed to be associated with the anarchist protesters ‘Summer of Rage,’” a police report stated.
They left signs reading “Gentrification is death, revolt is life," and they smashed the windshields of luxury cars and splashed paint on the buildings, NBC reported.
Two suspects were arrested by highway patrol officers who spotted them running away a few blocks from the crime scene.
One of them, Geoffrey Suchocki, 45, of Doylestown, had a backpack that contained “a mission statement on how to disrupt capitalism,” according to police, as well as a black scarf, a mask and a device used for shattering windows.
Suchocki and Patricia Monahan, 28, of Rhawnhurst, who had a black scarf around her neck, were both arrested and charged with causing and risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, criminal conspiracy and related offenses, police said.
Police said the group descended around 9:15 p.m. on the 1500 block of North Second Street and the 1500 block of North Phillip Street, in an area just above Northern Liberties lately referred to as Old Kensington.
“Windows were shattered, and paint covered the side walls and sidewalks of several of the listed properties,” the police report stated. “Security cameras were ripped off buildings; windshields were shattered on several vehicles within a three-block radius.”
A property manager of the new buildings alerted police.
Earlier on May 1, a fire torched new apartments being constructed by developer Ori Feibush in Point Breeze, who has also been a target of numerous anti-gentrification protests.
The Philadelphia office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled that blaze to be caused by arson, Billy Penn reported. The fire remains under investigation.Andrea Janus, CTVNews.ca
Janay Rice says she woke up Tuesday morning “feeling like I had a horrible nightmare,” a day after a lengthier video showing her husband hitting her in a casino elevator went public.
“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend,” Rice wrote on her Instagram account Tuesday morning.
“But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare in itself.”
Rice says the media attention about the incident has caused her family pain.
“To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret everyday is a horrible thing.”
Rice’s statement followed the release Monday of an extended version of a video that first came out in February. The shorter version showed the football player attempting to drag his unconscious then-fiancee out of an elevator at an Atlantic City casino. The longer version, which entertainment website TMZ.com released on Monday, showed the two arguing before Rice hits her and she falls to the floor unconscious.
Around the time that Janay Rice posted her statement to Instagram, the Associated Press reported that it had viewed a longer version of the video, with audio, in which the couple shouts obscenities at each other. Janay Rice, then Janay Palmer, appears to spit in Rice’s face before he hits her and she falls to the ground, AP reported.
After Rice was arrested and the first video was released, the NFL suspended Rice for two games. After the lengthier video was released Monday, the Baltimore Ravens cut Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely.
In her Instagram statement, Janay Rice accused the media of being motivated by ratings in its reporting of the incident, and blamed the media frenzy for ending her husband’s career.
“To take something away from the man I love that he has worked his ass off for all his life just to gain ratings is horrific. THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don’t you all get,” she wrote.
She also defended her marriage, and said the love the two share will allow them to grow as a couple.
“If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels. Just know we will continue to grow & show the world what real love is.”
Ray Rice had been charged with felony aggravated assault in the case. However, he was accepted into a pretrial diversion program in May that allowed him to avoid jail time. The charge was purged from his record.
Over the summer, several teammates and the Ravens organization expressed support for Rice.
But after a public outcry over what many saw as a lenient punishment for Rice, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a letter to all 32 NFL team owners in August saying he “didn’t get it right.” He announced new penalties for players charged with domestic violence. First-time offenders will be suspended for six games.
The Ravens and the NFL said Monday that they had not seen the longer video before its release.Someone famous once said: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death, taxes, and a college terminating a coach before his contract expires means they’ll owe him a bunch of money.”
Universities across the country offer generous compensation and benefits to attract coaches who will bring glory to the team and warm the alumni’s hearts. Unfortunately, not all coaches can achieve a winning record or make the alumni happy, so there often comes a time when universities terminate a coach’s employment “without cause”. This means that the coach has not broken any rules or engaged in any misconduct, simply that the university simply wishes to say goodbye (i.e., for example, if the coach really sucks). Such a parting of the ways can be quite expensive, even more so than a typical divorce, as illustrated in these recent examples of coaches who got their walking papers and the contractually-required severance. If only all of us got these severance packages if we’re ever fired…
In any event, we’ve reviewed the contracts of recently fired coaches at public colleges or universities to tell you exactly how much it will cost the school.
Paul Rhoads, Iowa State University. In November of 2015 Iowa State University dismissed Paul Rhoads after seven seasons that were less than inspiring. This was an early dismissal when considering that Rhoads’ contract was to last through December of 2021. Because it was early, the severance was correspondingly large: $4.5 million ($750,000 for each year remaining on the contract).
Randy Edsall, University of Maryland. Coach Edsall was fired in the middle of October of 2015. As a result, Maryland owes Edsall $2,625,000. That being said, if Edsall coaches, or provides consulting to a football team, the compensation payout by Maryland will be reduced by the amount he is getting paid for his subsequent coaching/consulting duties.
Mike London, University of Virginia. The University of Virginia recently bid farewell to coach London, as the Cavaliers have suffered four straight losing seasons. As a result, the University of Virginia contractually owed him $2,568,979, with an offset for any amounts owed received by him from other football-related activities.
Dan McCarney, University of North Texas. The University of North Texas hired McCarney as its head football coach in December of 2010. As provided in a contract extension, he was scheduled to stay there through March of 2019. However, in October of 2015 it was reported that McCarney has been let go after posting a losing record during his tenure and five straight losses this season. McCarney is now entitled to receive his base salary of $600,000 for the remainder of the term, which comes to a little over $2 million. As with many other contracts, however, there is an offset for wages that McCarney earns from new employment.
Mark Richt, University of Georgia. In accordance with Richt’s contract, he is entitled to $66,666.687 per month for the remainder of his contract term. With 25 months to go, that means $1,666,666.75 in total. And yes, Richt gets to keep that in additional to his salary at the University of Miami, where he just accepted a position. The lesson: it’s good to be Mark Richt.
Kyle Flood, Rutgers University. Also in late November of 2015, Rutgers fired coach Flood. There is some uncertainty over whether there was “cause” for the firing, given Flood’s recent three-game suspension for improper communications concerning the academic status of a player. Assuming that the university is exercising its blanket right to dismiss Flood for any reason or no reason, the university will have to pay $1,400,000 to do so, with an offset for any wages Flood earns from new employment.
Ruffin McNeill, East Carolina University. Based on his contract, the school must pay him his base salary — $400,000 – until June of 2018. This comes to a little more than $1 million. That being said, if McNeill starts working somewhere else, this severance payment may be offset by any new salary he receives.
Norm Chow, University of Hawaii. After enduring far more losses than wins for its football team over the past four years, the University of Hawaii (Manoa) bid farewell to coach Chow even though he had a year remaining on his contract. This entitles Chow to a severance that consists of his base salary for the remainder of the term plus an additional $200,000 in consideration for the final year, coming to $750,000.
The lesson from all of this: it’s good to be a head football coach. Normal employees never received packages like this, and almost all employees can be fired without cause and with no severance.Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems has been quietly eliminated from NASA’s multibillion-dollar competition to ferry cargo to and from the International Space Station.
The decision, which wasn’t disclosed publicly, nixes the company’s bid for a piece of the $14 billion Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
Lockheed Martin submitted its CRS-2 bid design in March: a three-part system consisting of the Jupiter reusable spacecraft, Exoliner cargo container and a long robotic arm inspired by a similar appendage on the space shuttle.
The contract would have directly impacted Colorado. Engineering, production and testing would have been done in Littleton, company spokeswoman Allison Rakes said in March.
ORION: Launch date pushed back two years to 2023
About 5,500 people work at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, making it Jefferson County’s largest employer, according to data from the county’s Economic Development Corporation.
Engineers at the Waterton Canyon facility would also have led mission operations for the Jupiter spacecraft, Rakes said.
NASA made its decision on Lockheed Martin’s bid over the summer, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Since then, it has been a topic of discussion in industry circles. One of these people said NASA made the call largely on the basis of price.
Picking the contract winners, which NASA is expected to award in November, has been postponed three times since last fall while officials weighed price and reliability issues. NASA might issue multiple CRS-2 awards for a maximum of $14 billion.
WATER ON MARS: Discovery aided by Ball camera technology
The CRS-2 contracts, which run from 2018 to 2024, are the next phase of the cargo-delivery contracts totaling as much as $6 billion that NASA issued years ago to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Orbital Sciences, the predecessor company to Orbital ATK Inc.
Both Orbital ATK and SpaceX remain in the running for the latest commercial cargo awards. Both companies operate rockets and capsules designed to serve as bare-bones space-resupply systems.
Lockheed Martin’s bid proposal was more complex and technically challenging.
Also in the running are Boeing Co. and Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems, with its folding-wing reusable spaceship design called the Dream Chaser Cargo System.
The CRS-2 award would have given Lockheed Martin the technical steppingstones and financial boost to accelerate development of the Jupiter and Exoliner, with the eventual goal being a spacecraft and cargo container for enhanced use.
In other words, the company wants to create durable habitats for astronauts, in-orbit servicing vehicles and pre-positioned interstellar mini-marts that provide fuel, equipment, food and, ultimately, parts that could be assembled to build a spacecraft in zero gravity.
Rakes said Thursday that the company’s proposal was designed to be forward-thinking and advance humanity’s reach into space while also serving the space station’s needs.
“We feel that our proposal offers value today through affordable, high-capacity space station resupply, and a path forward for tomorrow through technologies that will power future human deep-space missions,” Rakes said. “Those missions will need crew habitats, servicing vehicles and autonomous in-space robotic operations. Our CRS-2 solution is designed to lay the groundwork for all of those important capabilities.”
Such technologies are expected to take decades to become operational. Of the capabilities under development, the one most likely to be adopted first is a space tug to keep aging satellites in their proper orbits after their fuel is depleted.
At a conference in Pasadena, Calif., in August, a high-ranking Lockheed Martin space official stressed the long-term implications of such ambitious technologies.
“We’re now on the threshold,” said David Markham, vice president of advanced programs for the company’s space systems unit.
Industry officials said Lockheed Martin is expected to continue pursuing many of its long-term goals, though probably at a slower pace, while it seeks other federal dollars or related commercial business.
NASA has said it might need contractors to eventually transport more than 20 tons of cargo annually. A NASA spokeswoman Thursday said the agency is in “procurement blackout” and could not comment on the bid or on Lockheed Martin’s elimination.
Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report.
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or @LauraKeeneyThe nursery song "twinkle twinkle, little star" might have a whole new meaning now that astronomers have found a planet they believe to be made almost entirely of diamonds.
Scientists say the planet exists about 4,000 light years away from Earth, and is probably the remnants of a once-large dead star, Reuters reports. (Scroll down for video.)
"The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon," Matthew Bailes of the University of Technology in Melbourne told Reuters. He calls it "a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun."
The Daily Mail reported that, even though the planet is small in size, it has slightly more mass than the planet Jupiter.
Scientists were able to find the planet by tracking its companion star, or a pulsar, using the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia.
As to what the diamond planet looks like, Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester told The Macadonean International News Agency (MINA) it's probably not what everyone pictures: "I don't know I could even speculate. I don't imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we're looking at here."
Astronomers detected a similar planet in December 2010, only 1,200 light years away.On the 25th of April, 2015, an earthquake measuring M7.9 occurred in Nepal, with over 4000* people killed and an unknown number injured or missing.
Handle With Care International has created a specific appeal running to specifically help raise money to be provisioned for care efforts in the region utilising our partner on the ground in Nepal, The Britain-Nepal Medical Trust
Your donation will go directly to the building of ‘gender-friendly’ toilet blocks in the affected areas – providing sanitation, protection from disease, and security where it is urgently needed. These toilet blocks cost approximately 2000 each.
CLICK HERE TO FIND MORE OUT ABOUT WHERE YOUR DONATION GOES
Please help us build these vital resources by donating now – visit our donations page and select Nepalese Earthquake Appeal as your donation preference.
Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible in Australia, and a receipt will be instantly issued if PayPal is used, or by contacting peter@hwci.org.au if you make a direct bank deposit.
* The estimated death toll is updating as more figures become availableWASHINGTON -- Already facing the loss of numerous advertisers over his derogatory remarks about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, Rush Limbaugh may soon see his show dropped from the radio stations of the U.S. military.
A group of female military veterans issued a statement on Monday calling for Limbaugh's show to be pulled from the airwaves of the American Forces Network. AFN is a government-run media service that provides television and radio programming to American service members overseas.
"When many of our female troops use birth control, for Limbaugh to say they are'sluts' and 'prostitutes' is beyond the pale," the women wrote. "It isn't just disrespectful to our women serving our country, but it's language that goes against everything that makes our military work."
The statement was issued through VoteVets, a progressive veterans organization. Miranda Norman, a veteran of the Oklahoma National Guard who now advises VoteVets, told The Huffington Post that the comments were "offensive" to women in the military and "downplays the role that we serve." She argued that birth control can be vital to women in uniform, saying "women in the military use [contraception] when they're deployed to make smart decisions for their family, to make smart decisions about being a soldier."
Norman, along with three other women, stressed that while she respected Limbaugh's right to free speech, she found his comments inappropriate for the government-run channel. "We swore to uphold our Constitution, including the freedom of speech, and would not take that away from anyone - even Limbaugh," the group wrote in the statement. "But that does not mean AFN should broadcast him. In fact, it shouldn't.
AFN did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but Pentagon spokesman George Little told the Associated Press that the station would continue to air Limbaugh's show and was unaware of any plans to review that decision.
Last week, Limbaugh referred to Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student at Georgetown, as a "slut" and "prostitute" after she was denied the right to testify in favor of birth control access at a congressional hearing. The remarks sparked outrage from many corners, including some prominent Republicans and President Barack Obama, who called Fluke on Friday to offer words of support.
On Saturday, Limbaugh issued an apology to Fluke, saying that he "chose the wrong words" and "did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke." On his Monday show, while admitting that the remarks were "uncalled for," he said that his attacks were liberal tactics and regretted that he "descended to their level."
But on "The View" Monday morning, Fluke questioned the sincerity of Limbaugh's apology.Next we should comment on the name 'Plato'. In [13] Rowe writes:-
It was claimed that Plato's real name was Aristocles, and that 'Plato' was a nickname (roughly 'the broad') derived either from the width of his shoulders, the results of training for wrestling, or from the breadth of his style, or from the size of his forehead.
Heracleitus
cosmology
Socrates
The Peloponnesian War was fought between Athens and Sparta between 431 BC and 404 BC. Plato was in military service from 409 BC to 404 BC but at this time he wanted a political career rather than a military one. At the end of the war he joined the oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens set up in 404 BC, one of whose leaders being his mother's brother Charmides, but their violent acts meant that Plato quickly left.
In 403 BC there was a restoration of democracy at Athens and Plato had great hopes that he would be able to enter politics again. However, the excesses of Athenian political life seem to have persuaded him to give up political ambitions. In particular, the execution of Socrates in 399 BC had a profound effect on him and he decided that he would have nothing further to do with politics in Athens.
Plato left Athens after Socrates had been executed and travelled in Egypt, Sicily and Italy. In Egypt he learnt of a water clock and later introduced it into Greece. In Italy he learned of the work of Pythagoras and came to appreciate the value of mathematics. This was an event of great importance since from the ideas Plato gained from the disciples of Pythagoras, he formed his idea [6]:-
... that the reality which scientific thought is seeking must be expressible in mathematical terms, mathematics being the most precise and definite kind of thinking of which we are capable. The significance of this idea for the development of science from the first beginnings to the present day has been immense.
Plato returned to Athens and founded his Academy in Athens, in about 387 BC. It was on land which had belonged to a man called Academos, and this is where the name "Academy" came from. The Academy was an institution devoted to research and instruction in philosophy and the sciences, and Plato presided over it from 387 BC until his death in 347 BC.
His reasons for setting up the Academy were connected with his earlier ventures into politics. He had been bitterly disappointed with the standards displayed by those in public office and he hoped to train young men who would become statesmen. However, having given them the values that Plato believed in, Plato thought that these men would be able to improve the political leadership of the cities of Greece.
Only two further episodes in Plato's life are recorded. He went to Syracuse in 367 BC following the death of Dionysius I who had ruled the city. Dion, the brother-in-law of Dionysius I, persuaded Plato to come to Syracuse to tutor Dionysius II, the new ruler. Plato did not expect the plan to succeed but because both Dion and Archytas of Tarentum believed in the plan then Plato agreed. Their plan was that if Dionysius II was trained in science and philosophy he would be able to prevent Carthage invading Sicily. However, Dionysius II was jealous of Dion who he forced out of Syracuse and the plan, as Plato had expected, fell apart.
Plato returned to Athens, but visited Syracuse again in 361 BC hoping to be able to bring the rivals together. He remained in Syracuse for part of 360 BC but did not achieve a political solution to the rivalry. Dion attacked Syracuse in a coup in 357, gained control, but was murdered in 354.
Field writes in [6] that Plato's life:-
... makes it clear that the popular conception of Plato as an aloof unworldly scholar, spinning theories in his study remote from practical life, is singularly wide of the mark. On the contrary, he was a man of the world, an experienced soldier, widely travelled, with close contacts with many of the leading men of affairs, both in his own city and elsewhere.
They show the mastery of language, the power of indicating character, the sense of a situation, and the keen eye for both its tragic and its comic aspects, which set Plato among the greatest writers of the world. He uses these gifts to the full in inculcating the lessons he wants to teach.
Through these dialogues, Plato contributed to the theory of art, in particular dance, music, poetry, architecture, and drama. He discussed a whole range of philosophical topics including ethics, metaphysics where topics such as immortality, man, mind, and Realism are discussed.
He discussed the philosophy of mathematics, political philosophy where topics such as censorship are discussed, and religious philosophy where topics such as atheism, dualism and pantheism are considered. In discussing epistemology he looked at ideas such as a priori knowledge and Rationalism. In his theory of Forms, Plato rejected the changeable, deceptive world that we are aware of through our senses proposing instead his world of ideas which were constant and true.
Let us illustrate Plato's theory of Forms with one of his mathematical examples. Plato considers mathematical objects as perfect forms. For example a line is an object having length but no breadth. No matter how thin we make a line in the world of our senses, it will not be this perfect mathematical form, for it will always have breadth. In the Phaedo Plato talks of objects in the real world trying to be like their perfect forms. By this he is thinking of thinner and thinner lines which are tending in the limit to the mathematical concept of a line but, of course, never reaching it. Another example from the Phaedo is given in [6]:-
The instance taken there is the mathemtical relation of equality, and the contrast is drawn between the absolute equality we think of in mathematics and the rough, approximate equality which is what we have to be content with in dealing with objects with our senses.
Plato's contributions to the theories of education are shown by the way that he ran the Academy and his idea of what constitutes an educated person. He also contributed to logic and legal philosophy, including rhetoric.
Although Plato made no important mathematical discoveries himself, his belief that mathematics provides the finest training for the mind was extremely important in the development of the subject. Over the door of the Academy was written:-
Let no one unversed in geometry enter here.
All of the most important mathematical work of the 4th century was done by friends or pupils of Plato. The first students of conic sections, and possibly Theaetetus, the creator of solid geometry, were members of the Academy. Eudoxus of Cnidus - author of the doctrine of proportion expounded in Euclid's "Elements", inventor of the method of finding the areas and volumes of curvilinear figures by exhaustion, and propounder of the astronomical scheme of concentric spheres adopted and altered by Aristotle - removed his school from Cyzicus to Athens for the purpose of cooperating with Plato; and during one of Plato's absences he seems to have acted as the head of the Academy. Archytas, the inventor of mechanical science, was a friend and correspondent of Plato.
octahedron
icosahedron
dodecahedron
Plato's beliefs as regards the universe were that the stars, planets, Sun and Moon move round the Earth in crystalline spheres. The sphere of the Moon was closest to the Earth, then the sphere of the Sun, then Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and furthest away was the sphere of the stars. He believed that the Moon shines by reflected sunlight.
Perhaps the best overview of Plato's views can be gained from examining what he thought that a proper course of education should consist. Here is his course of study [2]:-
... the exact sciences - arithmetic, plane and solid geometry, astronomy, and harmonics - would first be studied for ten years to familiarise the mind with relations that can only be apprehended by thought. Five years would then be given to the still severer study of'dialectic '. Dialectic is the art of conversation, of question and answer; and according to Plato, dialectical skill is the ability to pose and answer questions about the essences of things. The dialectician replaces hypotheses with secure knowledge, and his aim is to ground all science, all knowledge, on some 'unhypothetical first principle'.
Plato's AcademyIt takes a lot of lumber to build a house, and the price of that wood is going way up.
A new duty imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department on Canadian softwood lumber is designed to level the playing field between Canadian and U.S. lumber producers, and just the anticipation of it has pushed lumber prices higher by about 22 percent since the start of this year.
The Trump administration argues that government subsidies for Canadian lumber are unfair. It's great for U.S. lumber producers, not so great for U.S. homebuilders, who inevitably pay the price.
"NAHB is deeply disappointed in this short-sighted action by the U.S. Department of Commerce that will ultimately do nothing to resolve issues causing the U.S.-Canadian lumber trade dispute but will negatively harm American consumers and housing affordability," said NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald, a homebuilder and developer from Kerrville, Texas.
The cost of this new duty will increase Canadian lumber costs for U.S. customers by 6.4 percent, according to the National Association of Home Builders, and that will be passed on to homebuyers. The NAHB estimates it will increase the price of an average new single-family home by $1,236.MIDSEASON REPORT CARD
--PASSING OFFENSE: A-plus --Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has diversified the passing attack this season by completing passes to eight or nine receivers most games. All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones has been the main target with 43 receptions for 859 yards and four touchdowns. Mohamed Sanu has been a good pickup. He has caught 32 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns. Ryan has also used his tight ends and running backs. Combined, Atlanta's tight ends -- Jacob Tamme, Levine Toilolo and rookie Austin Hopper -- have made 39 catches for 500 yards and five touchdowns. None of them has dropped a pass in 2016. Running backs Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman have been nightmares for linebackers to cover out of the backfield.
--RUSHING OFFENSE: B-plus - Running backs Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman have rushed the ball effectively as the team averages 4.4 yards per carry. Freeman has 116 rushes for 543 yards and three touchdowns. Coleman, who has been slowed by a hamstring injury, had a strong seven games. He has rushed 59 times for 234 yards and five touchdowns. Terron Ward came out of the bullpen and has averaged 7.7 yards per carry in limited action. Freeman and Coleman are interchangeable in the team's outside-zone run system.
--PASS DEFENSE: C-minus -- While the defense is still giving up too many yards, Vic Beasley (7.5 sacks), Adrian Clayborn (3.5) and Dwight Freeney (3) have combined to lead the pass rush. The Falcons have 18 sacks, which is 11th in the league. Last season, they had just 19 sacks for the year, which was last in the league. The coverage must improve in the second half of the season as they are giving up 285.4 yards per game, which ranks 28th in the league. The Falcons wanted to be faster in the linebacking corps and rookies Deion Jones and De'Vondre Campbell have had their moments. The pass defense has been hurt at times by cornerback Robert Alford, who has 10 penalties and has committed a penalty in five of the eight games. Nickel back Brian Poole, an undrafted rookie, has been solid. Desmond Trufant has been strong as he has taken on the opposition's top receiver when the Falcons play man-to-man coverage. Rookie strong safety Keanu Neal has helped with the coverage of tight ends.
--RUSH DEFENSE: B -- The Falcons are giving up 93.9 yards rushing per game, which ranks 11th in the league. The defense has given up four runs of 20 yards or more, which is tied for 16th in the league. Rookie middle linebacker Deion Jones has 45 tackles. Also, Neal has been down in the box and has been strong against the run. Only three teams -- Oakland, New Orleans and Green Bay -- have rushed for more than 100 yards against the Falcons this season. The Falcons won all three of those games.
--SPECIAL TEAMS: B -- K Matt Bryant broke Morten Andersen's franchise record for points scored. Bryant broke the record on an extra point in the first quarter following Taylor Gabriel's 47-yard touchdown reception. He now has 812 points, and has connected on 17-of-18 field-goal attempts this season, ranking him fourth in the NFL in field-goal percentage. Punter Matt Bosher is averaging 46.5 yards gross and 41.3 yards net, which is ninth in the league. He has placed 13 punts down inside the 20, which is tied for ninth in the league.
--COACHING: B -- The Falcons have fixed their problems on offense. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan has tailored the attack to better suit Ryan. He is also running more no-huddle in order to keep defenses off balance. He has been able to get Jones the ball, but hasn't figured out how to break him free in the red zone. Shanahan has dazzled the opposition with an array of formations. He masterfully used 13 personnel units against the Raiders to help slow down their outside rush. The Falcons have made it a habit of going to an empty-backfield set with 21 personnel and then hitting the running backs deep down the field while in coverage against a linebacker. The defense is a work in progress. The Falcons knew it would be that way when they elected to start four rookies and three second-year players in their base nickel package. Defensive line coach Bryan Cox has done a masterful job creating a pass rush. They have resorted to blitzes and stunts to get the much-needed pressure. The hope is that the young unit will continue to improve in the second half of the season.
--OVERALL: B plus
Most Valuable Player: Quarterback Matt Ryan. He has completed 193 of 279 passes (62.9 percent) for 2,636 yards and 19 touchdowns and four interceptions. Ryan has shown that he can play just fine in Kyle |
,000 in 2012,… 54 percent of which came from Pact Inc., a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Nearly 36 percent came from Omidyar Network, a foundation established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife. Other donors include the International Renaissance Foundation, whose key funder is billionaire George Soros, and the National Endowment for Democracy, funded largely by the U.S. Congress.”[4]
Why did Omidyar prove willing to come on board with such known regime-change sponsors as USAID and NED – to say nothing of Soros? Where else is he [co]operating? It should never be forgotten that this is the kind of company he keeps. Why?
While Omidyar was born in Paris and his parents moved to Maryland when he was young, he appears to be of Iranian descent. His mother was a Farsi linguist and as of 2016, was president of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. As bizarre as it may seem, little information is publicly available about his father, including his name. He apparently was a urologist or surgeon at John Hopkins, and if that was the case, his name should be available. The secrecy suggests some sort of intelligence connection, perhaps to the type of upper class émigré circles the CIA cultivates in America. It is a fact that the CIA station in Iran served as one of the Agency’s main bases for agent operations against the Soviets. The CIA and MOSSAD created SAVAK, the Shah’s notorious internal political security service, and the Shah in turn gave the CIA a free hand to run operations against the Soviets.
Maybe Pierre Omidyar is accessible to US foreign policy agencies due to some prior family connections. Maybe that accounts for why he spent a few hundred thousand dollars (a paltry sum for a billionaire) to help put the Centre UA in place in the Ukraine: so the CIA could run operations against the Russians, like it did out of Iran. I’ve never heard any explanation from inquisitive Glenn Greenwald. When it comes to his sugar daddy’s monkey business, Greenwald’s policy is “see no, hear no, speak no evil.” Why? Is that the quid pro quo for the handout?
What I do know is that billionaires like Omidyar and Soros and the Rockefellers – to say nothing of USAID and NED – aren’t funding political action out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re doing it to advance their interests. That’s why an organization like Centre UA is created: to advance the interests of its financial backers. To me it looks like a CIA-facilitated mechanism to create a crisis in Ukraine and exploit it. The 40 NGOs it coordinates are perfectly placed to provide cover for covert CIA political action.
The Centre UA must have a tech team. Let’s say, hypothetically, this tech team is a CIA proprietary which, for purposes of plausible deniability, the CIA staffed with consultants (as opposed to on-the-books employees) from a third country. Maybe the consultants are professional underworld Guccifer-style hackers, and the CIA has provided them with fully back-stopped fake identities. Maybe the hackers subvert governments for hire. Given its cutting-edge technology, the CIA’s new Digital Directorate could easily run such a mercenary tech team without ever being discovered. Maybe the team organizes color revolutions and resistance movements in nations like Ukraine, using CIA-supplied intelligence to expose official corruption, infiltrate and subvert security forces, and even deploy and direct private militias in a national emergency in places like Donetsk. Maybe it’s the CIA’s equivalent of Mr. Robot’s Dark Army.
Given the CIA’s history of placing its officers under commercial cover, one might plausibly wonder if this applies to members of Omidyar’s private tech security team as well. His enterprise reportedly invested in InnoCentive, a company that markets crowd sourcing technology. The CIA’s venture capital firm, IN-Q-TEL, also invested in InnoCentive. So a business connection may already be there too.
All that is speculation, of course, but the Centre UA does, in fact, coordinate politicians and journalists with experts on international affairs and public relations. It says so on its website. All these people are involved in managing information; maybe they’re linked on a private server like Hillary Clinton used while secretary of state. It will have occurred to the political and psywar experts in the CIA’s digital Dark Army that they could easily garner public support for their color revolutions by creating websites that unite and direct people; that they could manipulate potential rebels using the same, albeit updated “motivational indoctrination” methods people like (US Information Service officer) Frank Scotton pioneered in Vietnam.[5]
The Centre UA’s public relations experts certainly guide pro-American candidates in Kiev the same way American PR people manipulated Boris Yeltsin in Moscow. As is well known, Yeltsin gave away the store after he became President of the Russian Federation. In the same way the CIA promoted Yeltsin, Centre UA journalists certainly make sure that pro-American politicians get favorable press. They spin the facts in such a way that Omidyar, who has made their operation possible, will be happy.
The Centre UA’s stated purpose was to pull Ukraine out of the Russian orbit and deliver it to Western corporations. And that’s what happened, along with the obligatory political payoffs. Indeed, a few short years after Centre UA was established, Vice President Joe Biden’s son joined the board of directors of the largest Ukraine gas producer Burisma Holdings. Hunter Biden heads Burisma’s legal department and liaises with international organizations.
The book Flashpoint in Ukraine[6] provides ample evidence that the Obama regime and its privateering corporate partners overthrew the pro-Russian Ukraine government and installed a government packed with neo-Nazis and American elites. They did this for their own enrichment, and yet the US media never made it an issue. It’s business as usual. The average Ukrainian citizen doesn’t benefit; just the “super-predator” American elite who organized the coup. It’s amazing to behold.
Biden’s smash and grab operation occurred in 2014. In 2016, another super-predator, Natalie Jaresko, took control of Datagroup, the company that controls Ukraine’s telecom market. Jaresko at one time held a top job at the State Department coordinating trade and commerce agencies that dealt with the former Soviet Union, including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Check her out on Wikipedia. She’s a part of the global elite: the IMF/World Bank /European Bank for Reconstruction and Development network. In the Clinton Administration she served as Chief of the Economics Section of the US Embassy in Ukraine, and helped paved the way for the coup d’état that occurred there 20 years later. These coups take years to organize. Many more are planned.
Jaresko acquired Ukrainian citizenship on the same day as her appointment as Minister of Finance of Ukraine in 2014, at which point she squeezed her competitor, the owner of Datagroup, out of business using the kind of foreign currency loan debt scam favored by Mafia hoods and economic hitmen. That’s how freewheeling capitalists work: they overload targeted nations and business people with debt and then clean them out. Again, not a word of protest from the mainstream media: it’s non-political “free trade” in action.
The CIA plays a central but secret role in these schemes, doing the illegal but plausibly deniable things that require high tech espionage and underworld assets – reaching into a nation’s secret police files or using private investigators to get dirt on people, then setting them up and blackmailing them. These kinds of subversion operations can’t be done publicly by the likes of Biden or Jaresko or their PR people. Foreign shakedowns have to be done secretly through the criminal underworld, and that’s where the CIA comes into play.
Other times the media plays the central role. In the US, for example, people win elections through negative campaigning. The Democratic Party hires investigators to get dirt on Republican candidates. Republicans do the same thing. The truth doesn’t matter because events are happening instantaneously. Hyperbole becomes fact before anyone can respond. Senator Elizabeth Warren reportedly claimed to be part Native American in her application to Harvard, and once she started campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump called her “Pocahontas” every chance he got. There are all sorts of ways, within the eternal present of spectacular domination, of influencing events through manufactured scandals and misrepresentations without it being illegal or secret. It just requires celebrity status, a Twitter account, and the attention of the networks of information control.
As Guy Debord said long before the internet in his book Comments on The Society of the Spectacle, “One aspect of the disappearance of all objective historical knowledge can be seen in the way that individual reputations have become malleable and alterable at will by those who control all information: information which is gathered and also – an entirely different matter – information which is broadcast. Their ability to falsify is thus unlimited.”
Anyone can be smeared, and apart from the unknown Protected Few in the CIA and National Security Establishment, there’s no defense. Overseas, the CIA is perpetually collecting information on adversaries like Vladimir Putin and passing it along to the Western media, which rejoices in spinning it a million different ways.
What is less well known is the CIA is engaged in tipping the balance in the domestic as well as international contests. That’s why it’s secret, and why all the corporate privateers protect it. They share the same business ideology. CIA officers, PR people, journalists, politicians, and academics who get paid to give “expert” testimony on Fox or MSNBC, are knowingly manipulating social and political movements here in the US, just like they do for the Ukrainian opposition or the Venezuelan opposition.
The CIA sets up Twitter accounts and Facebook pages and social websites to move people into mass organizations to achieve its secret ends. In May 2016 Twitter “cut off U.S. intelligence agencies from a service that sifts through the entire output of Twitter’s social media postings.”[7] The guilty party was the CIA’s Open Source Enterprise, which contracted with a private contractor, Dataminr, through the CIA’s ubiquitous venture capital fund In-Q-Tel, to spy on American citizens. Such super-secret “intelligence” operations are frequently used as cover for highly illegal “offensive counterintelligence” operations.
DAWSON: We saw the National Endowment for Democracy, which is totally CIA, at the forefront in the Ukraine. But why does the CIA need so many NGOs as middlemen? What is their purpose for having 40 different non-governmental organizations?
VALENTINE: I’ll give you an example. When the CIA moved into Vietnam, which had a culture the US hadn’t dealt with before, the first thing it did was buy a lot of property. This was during the First Indochina War and they did this clandestinely, through cut-outs, so they’d have safe houses to set up organizations later on. It’s always best for them to buy real estate during times of crisis when prices are down. Like Trump always says, “Buy low.” And when are prices lowest? As Baron Rothschild famously said, “When there’s blood in the streets.”
The CIA bought huge tracts of property in Saigon in between 1952 and 1955, during the First Indochina War, when there was blood on the streets. The CIA bought prime property at ten percent of its value. That’s the first step – get your nose in the tent. These buildings served as places where CIA officers could meet their agents and plot dirty deeds. They passed some to NGOs and civil organizations to operate.
William Colby introduced me to one of his cohorts, Clyde Bauer, the CIA officer who ran Air America in Vietnam in the early days. Bauer told me he set up South Vietnam’s Foreign Relations Council, Chamber of Commerce and Lions Club, “to create a strong civil base.” That’s what the CIA is doing in Ukraine through the Centre UA. It’s creating a pro-American civil base, from which political candidates emerge.
The CIA influences politics in foreign nations in many ways. CIA officers are constantly funneling money to all political parties, right and left, and establishing long-range agents to monitor and manipulate political developments. That’s standard operating procedure.
The next thing the CIA does is seize control of a nation’s secret services. That’s what they did in Vietnam, and in Ukraine. As I’ve explained elsewhere, they offer training and high tech gadgetry to people in the secret services; they corrupt them and use them for their own purposes, like they used SAVAK in Iran. It’s highly illegal to suborn officials in foreign nations. We don’t like it when it’s done to us, and it’s not something even an influential billionaire like Omidyar is trained to do (although his private security force is probably staffed by former CIA officers or FBI agents who do know how to do it).
The CIA infiltrates all the political parties and as soon as a politician they own is in place, right or left, they can elevate him or her to Defense Minister or Interior Minister. These ministers are on the CIA payroll and appoint military, security and police officials who do the CIA’s bidding. The CIA tries to place its people throughout the captive nation’s government and civil society. In South America they recruit junior military officers via the School of the Americas (now innocuously renamed) and when the time is right, have them stage a coup with the support of all the other people they’re been cultivating for years, sometimes decades.[8]6
US corporations need the CIA to help put these parallel governments in place. The CIA penetrates the military and security services, and simultaneously creates a civil base through deniable organizations like Centre for UA. This is how societies are ruled when there’s no overwhelming popular support: through the ownership of property and by having the proper people in government and civic institutions. The CIA recruits people in place, someone like union leader Lech Walesa in Poland.
Often the people running the unions are on the CIA payroll; people running the education system too, someone like preacher Fethullah Gülen in Turkey. The CIA can recruit these people because it has so much money. The Russians can’t compete, when billionaires like Soros are sprinkling a million here and five million there – money that goes into building civic institutions that are ideologically attuned. Whether people do it for love or money, or belief of a brighter future, the CIA is manipulating the social and political processes. Its officers and their agents are recruiting people and putting them in place, having them sign contracts that effectively say, “In exchange for working for us in advancing our interests here in Kiev you will get $100,000 in a Swiss bank account and your life will be rosy.”
It’s illegal. It’s treasonous. You can’t take money from a foreign intelligence agency and work against your own country, but that is what the CIA is doing in the Ukraine right now and around the world on a massive scale.
[1] http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
[2] Retrieved February 10, 2016, from <http://centreua.org/en/team/445/>, as cited in Chris dePloeg, Ukraine in the Crossfire, Clarity Press, Inc., 2017.
[3] R. Olearchyk, (2013, December 14). Ukraine: Inside the pro-EU protest camp. Retrieved from http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/12/14/ ukraine-inside-the-pro-eu-protest-camp/?Authorised=false>, cited in dePloeg, Ukraine in the Crossfire.
[4] Cited in dePloeg, Ukraine in the Crossfire.
[5] Scotton’s psychological operations are described in detail elsewhere in the book.
[6] Stephen Lendman, ed., Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War IIIS, Atlanta, Clarity Press, 2014.
[7] Eamon Javers, “Why Twitter chose to do battle with the CIA”, CNBC, 13 May 2016.
[8] See Chapter 4: The Systematic Gathering of Intelligence.Bacon is a favorite food for many. It seems to have a cult like following. You can buy bacon themed: Pajama pants, tee-shirts, lip balm, air fresheners, and just about anything you can think of. I find frying it to be a quite messy and a pain. It always takes me multiple rounds of frying, including some splatter burns on my hands and arms. Even though this never deterred me from making bacon, I was excited to see there was another way.
I was over at a friends how for breakfast, and she had the most genius way of making bacon. She baked it!!!
Here’s how you do it:
Place your bacon on a cookie sheet. For ease of cleaning you may want to lay some parchment paper down. I didn’t have any, so I didn’t use any:
My first instinct is to keep it a single layer, my second instinct is to experiment. I’ve found that adding a few extra strips of bacon on top, so as to use the whole package is fine.
Insert into a cold oven and then turn the oven to 400 degrees F.
It should take about 15- 25 minutes depending on the thickness of the bacon. Keep an eye on it. You do NOT have to flip it over at any point. Just let it bake.
Remove from the oven when it is the crispness you desire, place on paper towels or a rack to drain the grease off.
Consume.
Once I was exposed to this way of making bacon there was NO going back. This is so basic and so easy. There have been so many times grease popped in the pan and scalded my arm while I was frying bacon. Granted this just hurt for a moment, but now I am not hurting at all!
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Payday lenders are awful, horrible scum who prey on the desperation of the working class. Payday loans are awful, horrible deals wherein a borrower gets a small amount of cash at an exceedingly high interest rate and agrees to pay it back in a short amount of time, typically two weeks. If a borrower can’t pay it back then they’re hit with an avalanche of fees and end up having to borrow more and then its a vicious cycle all the way down. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, the average borrower ends up paying $1,105 to borrow just $305.
On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver made these points and more in a way that will make you eventually run your head into a brick wall because you have no more tears left to shed.
Watch:EXCHANGE & RETURN POLICIES
EXCHANGE
** Fragrance Returns
Fragrances are flammable goods and are subject to laws and regulations that regulate their transportation. Please contact our Client Services Team on 1300 582 827 before returning any fragrance to help you with return or exchange of your Louis Vuitton fragrance. All returns and exchanges of fragrances for change of mind must be in their original packaging (white box wrapped in cellophane), unopened and in sealed condition. If you do not return your fragrance purchases in accordance with our instructions you risk your purchases being confiscated by the state, federal and international authorities that govern the safe and legal transportation of fragrances.
Louis Vuitton products purchased online or by phone can be exchanged within 30 days of the original purchase date.
- Hot stamped and Mon Monogram items are final sale and not exchangeable.
- Watches and Fine Jewellery may be exchanged for another product in the same category. When returning Watches or Fine Jewellery please include the product in its original packaging, instructional leaflet, warranty and product certificates such as COSC and GIA (when applicable), along with the invoice or gift receipt.
- All returns and exchanges of fragrances for change of mind must be in their original packaging (white box wrapped in cellophane), unopened and in sealed condition within 30 days of original purchase date. Fragrances are flammable goods and are subject to laws and regulations that regulate their transportation. Please contact our Client Services Team on 1300 582 827 to assist you before returning any fragrance.
To exchange a Louis Vuitton product, please follow the instructions below:
- Contact Client Services on 1300 582 827.
- Place your product in its original packaging and condition along with the original receipt and returns & exchanges voucher below into a parcel and seal accordingly.
- Your Client Services Advisor will offer you the following shipping options:
- Receive via email, mail or fax a packing voucher from our logistics carrier, as well as providing you with appropriate contact details that will allow you to arrange pickup with them for shipment back to us. This service is complimentary to you.
- You may ship your return or exchange via another method of your choice to the below address. However, should you choose not to use our voucher and ship independently, we cannot be held responsible for packages lost in transit, and shipping costs will not be reimbursed.
- Upon receipt of your return, and subject to inspection by Quality Services, we will proceed to exchange per your request.
All exchanges must be in their original packaging and in perfect saleable condition (unused and complete with all labels, leaflets, accessories etc.) and have the original receipt attached.
Louis Vuitton will do its best to process your exchange as quickly as possible, which should not normally exceed 30 days.
RETURN
Louis Vuitton products purchased online or by phone can be returned for a full refund within 30 days of the original purchase date when accompanied by the original sales receipt.
- Hot stamped and ‘Mon Monogram’ items are final sale and not returnable.
- Watches and Fine Jewellery are not refundable but may be exchanged for another product in the same category.
All items must be in perfect saleable condition.
To return a Louis Vuitton product, please follow the instructions below:
- Contact Client Services on 1300 582 827.
- Place your product in its original packaging and condition along with the original receipt and returns & exchanges voucher below into a parcel and seal accordingly. - Your Client Services Advisor will offer you the following shipping options:
- Receive via email, mail or fax a packing voucher from our logistics carrier, as well as providing you with appropriate contact details that will allow you to arrange pickup with them for shipment back to us. This service is complimentary to you.
- You may ship your return or exchange via another method of your choice to the below address. However, should you choose not to use our voucher and ship independently, we cannot be held responsible for packages lost in transit, and shipping costs will not be reimbursed.
- Upon receipt of your return, and subject to inspection by Quality Services, we will proceed to process the return per your request.
All returns must be in their original packaging and in perfect saleable condition (unused and complete with all labels, leaflets, accessories etc.) and have the original receipt attached.
Louis Vuitton will do its best to process your return as quickly as possible, which should not normally exceed 30 days.
Louis Vuitton acknowledge that its exchange and return policies do not in any way override Louis Vuitton’s obligations in relation to any statutory warranties and conditions which are implied into the supply of any Louis Vuitton product such as in relation to the goods being of merchantable quality or fit for the purpose for which they have been provided. For more information please contact Client Services on 1300 582 827.Liverpool hero John Arne Riise believes Alberto Moreno is enjoying some of the best form of his Reds career.
Moreno has been recognised for his impact with a call up to the Spain squad.
Riise, who won the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League during his seven-year Anfield career, tweeted a message of congratulations to Moreno on Friday - and said the call-up was just rewards for the Spaniard's hard work.
The Norwegian said: "Congrats to @lfc18alberto for making the Spain squad!
"What a brilliant way to turn things around mate! People should look at you and learn".
After seeing the tweet, Moreno expressed his happiness at his first call up for over three years.
"Thank you very much John I'm so happy for it" responded Moreno.Nine-time FIA World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb will join Team Peugeot-Hansen to compete in all 12 rounds of 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship. Loeb will partner last year’s runner-up Timmy Hansen in a two-car squad with both drivers piloting a Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar.
The opening round of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship kicks off in Montalegre, Portugal, from 15-17 April.
New adventure for the best rally driver ever
Before the start of the season, Loeb and Hansen were put to the test in Hansen’s home country, over a challenging ice track on a frozen lake in Are, Sweden. It wasn’t Loeb’s first experience in a rallycross car, because he competed at his home round at Loheac back in 2013 and also won a rallycross gold medal at the 2012 X Games in California.
“I’m very excited by this opportunity to participate in the full FIA World Rallycross Championship for the first time. Over the years I have been fortunate to participate in some truly amazing racing, but rallycross – with the sheer power and the competiveness of the Peugeot 208 WRX plus the intense nature of the competition – will be something very special. The car and the strategy for this type of racing is completely new to me, so I have a lot to learn, but I hope I can be competitive pretty soon,” explained 42-year-old Loeb.
Four-car Peugeot squad at some events
Team Principal Kenneth Hansen said: “Last season we proved that we had the potential to perform in the series with Timmy Hansen and Davy Jeanney. By adding Sebastien Loeb to the equation, we will be even stronger. Rallycross is one of the hardest disciplines to dominate, with no room for mistakes. Loeb has incredible capacity to adapt and I have no doubt that he will be a strong challenger.”
Timmy Hansen added: “I’ve looked up to Sebastien Loeb my entire life: I even met him once to get his autograph. So to work with him now is like a dream come true for me. I have a lot to learn still, so to get advice from him will be amazing. And I’m sure he’ll also have a lot of specific things to learn from me in rallycross. That’s how I hope we can bring the team forward together: pushing new limits and helping each other grow.”
As well as the main squad, Peugeot Sport and Hansen Motorsport have started a new team venture with Peugeot Hansen Academy this year, with Davy Jeanney and Kevin Hansen. Frenchman Jeanney, who won two rounds of last year’s World RX (Canada and Germany) will be the new team’s mentor driving a Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar in ten rounds of this year’s World Championship. Kevin Hansen, who won last year’s RX Lites Championship and finished second in the Swedish Championship in 2015, will compete in the FIA European Rallycross Championship this year as well as selected world outings.
Video: Sebastien Loeb and Timmy Hansen are testing Peugeot 208 WRX Supercars
Photos: Red BullPosted August 4, 2015 at 1:01 am
Fun fact for the day: Cheerleadra wears shorts. Short shorts, but shorts nonetheless. I'm going to try to find a good spot to establish this (with dialogue), but it's a little awkward to bring up in canonical dialogue, so here it is in the commentary for now.
Not that I'm judging anyone who made certain jokes between the previous update and this one. I'm just, y'know, saying. For the record. That must now be had for clearly evident reasons.
*cough*
ALSO for the record, Cheerleadra is much more durable and strong than regular Elliot, as was implied during the dragon fight. As tough as Elliot is, he would NOT have recovered that quickly from (or possibly even survived) such an attack.
I bring this up now because YEE-OUCH! Panel three's GOTTA hurt! >_<
- EGS:NPVisitors to the Capitol had the opportunity to inspect the Tesla Motors Model S electric sedan on display in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday June 18, 2013. Built in Fremont, the Model S has a seating capacity for five adults and can travel up to 300 miles per charge, depending on which battery package purchased. The starting price for the base Model S is $69,900. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
The risk of Tesla’s Model S sedan catching fire has been reduced to “virtually zero,” wrote Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a blog post Friday.
Thanks to a titanium shield sandwiched between a "rounded, hollow" aluminum bar and a "shallow angle, solid" aluminum extrusion, Model S sedans built after March 6 are supposedly safer than ever, a fine feat considering the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration named it the safest car it ever tested.
Tesla focused on strengthening the car's underside after it found two Model S fires -- one in Seattle, Wash. and the other in Smyrna, Tenn. -- had arisen from underbody damage from impacts with road debris. The company claims the new shield virtually eliminates road debris from touching the car's battery module.
Tesla even went so far as to design the shield to protect the car from catching fire in the event of a high-speed impact that rips the wheels off the car, like the impact that caused a Model S to catch fire in Mexico last year.
“We have tried every worst case debris impact we can think of," Musk wrote of the new shielding, "including hardened steel structures set in the ideal position for a piking event, essentially equivalent to driving a car at highway speed into a steel spear braced on the tarmac.” Now that's thorough.
And the company released GIFs to show the shield in action. As can be seen, the shield absolutely obliterates a tow hitch, alternator and concrete block.
Images courtesy of Tesla
Despite preventative moves to limit the risk of vehicle fires, Musk has remained adamant that the Model S is the safest car available to consumers, going so far as to use the fires as an example of the Model S sedan's superior safety. He notes that no Tesla owner has ever been injured due to a fire and claims that even if the passengers of Tesla's that caught on fire had remained in the vehicle during the incident, the car's "steel and ceramic firewall between the battery pack and the passenger compartment" would have protected them from significant injury.Being in the minority instead seems to summon up a blunt instrument.
From Representative Nancy Pelosi, the party leader, on down, Democrats have heaped criticism on the new majority with some success. Republicans have been forced to answer questions about why they are not allowing amendments to the health care repeal legislation, how much it will cause the deficit to rise and what happened to their promise to pare spending by $100 billion.
Democrats are also accusing Republican proponents of repeal who accept federal health care insurance of benefiting from the same type of coverage they are denying their constituents.
Republicans are not surprised at the onslaught. They say it is less Democrats taking a page from the G.O.P. playbook than returning to the tactics that helped them wrest the majority from Republicans in 2006.
“They perfected the model of ‘gotcha’ on the House floor,” said Representative Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican and the new majority leader. “I think it is a return to that. I don’t think it will necessarily work this time.”
Mr. Cantor said he thought the political environment was much different today, with people more closely focused on the economy, their own financial situation and the nation’s deteriorating fiscal condition.
“When you have the unemployment scene like it is now, I just don’t think these antics are going to penetrate,” he said.
It is not just House Democrats who are taking a more assertive posture. Though Democrats retained Senate control, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, a veteran practitioner of confrontational politics, is assuming more responsibility over his party’s message to counter Senate Republicans. His influence is already being seen in the party’s emphasis on issues that affect the middle class and consumers.
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Democrats do not view their protests as antics but as a way to convey to the public what they see as Republican hypocrisy and a catering to special interests.
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“My message to Republicans,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, “is welcome to defense.”
The political back-and-forth is markedly different from the Democratic response in 1995, the last time the party handed over the House gavel to Republicans.
Shocked by their defeat in November 1994 — when even Speaker Thomas S. Foley of Washington was unseated — Democrats were slow to regain their footing, giving the new majority and Speaker Newt Gingrich plenty of early running room. News coverage at the time described Democrats as almost paralyzed and uncertain of how to respond.
But since those days, both parties have learned plenty about rapid response, working the cable news shows, sending e-mail blasts to the media and turning arcane aspects of Congressional operations into talking points.
Democrats say they have been preparing for the Republican ascendancy since immediately after the midterm elections. What they said they did not expect was how much help Republicans would provide in the first few days.
“We were prepared with a unified message, but their mistakes certainly helped,” said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Ms. Pelosi.
Republicans would dispute the notion of mistakes, but they did provide some openings.
After repeated promises by the incoming speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, to run a more open House, the first big showdown over a repeal of the health care law is coming without committee hearings or the chance for Democratic amendments. Mr. Boehner and other Republicans also casually dismissed findings from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan fiscal scorekeeper, that the repeal would add $230 billion to the deficit over 10 years, the same deficit that incoming Republicans promised to cut.
“Just like transparency is at the discretion of Speaker Boehner, now we learn that math is as well,” the office of Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, noted Friday in a widely distributed statement.
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Democrats also had considerable fun with the fact that two House Republicans, Representatives Pete Sessions of Texas and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, missed the swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, forcing the House to expunge some votes they cast before they were officially inducted into the House on Thursday.
Republicans say that such attacks and others initiated by Democrats are distortions and that any heavy focus on legislative process typically reflects a weak case. But Republicans themselves showed during the health care debate that in the days of an engaged electorate, process fights can bring political gain. Remember demands to “read the bill” and outrage over the self-executing rule?
Democrats say the early fights underlie much broader policy disagreements, and they promise to keep it up if Republicans continue on the path they have started down.
“I don’t care whose playbook it is, we are updating it with a very aggressive tone,” Mr. Israel said. “Their first-week experience is what the next 660 days will be like.”MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court ruled on Wednesday against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in a defamation lawsuit brought by one of Russia’s richest businessmen, ordering a popular online video detailing the offending allegations to be redacted.
Russian leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny reacts during a break in a hearing in the slander lawsuit filed against him by Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov, in a court in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Navalny, who says he plans to run in next year’s presidential election, has emerged as a major irritant for the Kremlin after thousands of people across Russia attended anti-graft protests he organized in March.
A former lawyer, he has revived some Russians’ interest in politics by publicizing what he says are outrageous cases of top government officials and Kremlin-connected businessmen abusing the system to amass huge wealth.
Most of his targets merely deny such allegations, but businessman Alisher Usmanov, part-owner of British soccer club Arsenal, filed a lawsuit against Navalny alleging he had been defamed in a video about Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev and Usmanov said corruption and other allegations leveled against them in the video were utterly false.
On Wednesday, a Moscow court agreed with Usmanov, saying the allegations had wrongly impugned his “honor and dignity.” The presiding judge ordered Navalny to delete all references to the allegations within 10 days and to publish a retraction within three months.
Usmanov’s lawyer, Genrikh Padva, was cited by the TASS news agency as saying his client’s good name had been upheld.
“Our position — which is that there was no basis for the publication of these slanderous statements — was confirmed in court,” Padva said.
Usmanov’s legal team clarified later on Wednesday it wanted the offending video redacted to delete the allegations, but was not asking for the entire video to be deleted from the Internet.
Navalny, who plans to appeal the ruling, said earlier on Wednesday he would not delete the video and stood by the allegations.
“The reality that we see around us somewhat contradicts the court’s decision,” said Navalny. “The investigation was based on facts.”
Opinion polls show Navalny would lose next year’s presidential election to the Kremlin candidate — widely expected to be incumbent Vladimir Putin — by a large margin.
The offending video has helped boost his campaign, garnering over 21 million online views, and Navalny successfully used it to get people to take to the streets in March to protest against official corruption.
On Wednesday, after his supporters began recirculating the contested video online, he said his court defeat underlined the need to step up the fight against corruption. He also predicted it would boost turnout at the next anti-government protest.Apple today will be rolling out a couple of significant changes to its AppleCare support offerings. As we detailed in a report last month regarding Apple’s future plans for AppleCare, Apple will making a significant push for its premium AppleCare+ service. AppleCare+ is the iPhone and iPad protection plan offering that provides support for an additional two years (on top of the free 90 days |
declared herself as a family friend, and not as a reporter which media are supposed to do. This way, Corrections was absolved of blame for letting the reporter in. Because they’d been duped!
So Cam got the form? So what? Well, a normal OIA request would take 20 working days to receive, process, and respond to – this works out to be about a month. Cam was able to have his response up less than one week after the story aired on television. That’s some effective OIA processing Corrections! Why thank you. I did it myself.
On the afternoon that the request came in (the normal way), I also received a phone call from the Minister’s office asking that this be done as “quickly as possible”. When I asked how quickly that would be, it was suggested that a timeframe of 30 minutes to an hour would be acceptable. This is not the normal process, so I asked my manager what to do. He said to do as I was asked but make a file note. Whether that filenote still exists or not, I do not know.
In fact I don’t actually have any evidence of this. I spoke to the person who made the 30 minute request and they said that they “didn’t recall” asking for it. They also said that what went on in Collins’ office was no different to what went on in Labour’s offices. It’s just Labour used unions rather than bloggers.
There were rumours floating around that someone in Collins’ office was a part-owner in Gotcha Publishing which was run by Cam Slater (Keith Ng did a story here but couldn’t find more detail). I don’t know if that was true or not but it was suggested as one of the links between the National Party and Cam Slater.
Anyway, that’s my story. It’s interesting to note that the actual Ministerial response which sets out Alison Horwood’s duplicitous request form is no longer on Cam’s site. Probably coincidence though. When I interviewed Minister Collins, I raised this very story. She said that she couldn’t possibly know what her staff were doing at all times so she wouldn’t have had anything to do with this request. Plausible deniability right there.
Cool story bro.ADVERTISEMENT
You know what's bad? Brain damage.
Flint, Michigan, is finding this out after it accidentally gave its entire population at least a little bit of lead poisoning when it switched up their water supply. In an attempt to save money for a cash-strapped city, Flint started drinking water from the Flint River — but ended up contaminating children with a poisonous heavy metal. Governor Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency, and the federal government is investigating.
Why on Earth did they do this? Austerity. Aside from the obvious humanitarian disaster, this is a stark demonstration of austerity's false economy. Trying to be cheap on Flint's water supply will end up costing the state of Michigan (and probably the country as a whole) a ton more money than it would have to fix it properly in the first place.
Flint, as you may have heard, has been an economic disaster zone for decades now. What was once a key part of the great Midwest industrial powerhouse — General Motors was founded there over a century ago — has been troubled since the 1970s, beset by deindustrialization, population loss, a collapsing tax base, and the inevitable concomitant spike in crime and poverty.
Of course such a situation is going to require some painful downsizing of local services, which has been partially accomplished under a succession of emergency managers imposed by the Michigan state government with a tremendous amount of legal scuffling. While some cuts or tax increases are surely necessary, in such a situation it's critical to lay out a trajectory to future fiscal sustainability to avoid a death spiral.
Ideally, this is where the state or federal government would step in, making sure that pain is spread around equitably — particularly to bondholders, who probably knew exactly who they were lending to — and the city doesn't get stuck in legal limbo for years on end.
But emergency managers, particularly the ones appointed by Governor Snyder (a Republican) have been far more focused on cuts for their own sake, particularly crushing unionized public sector workers. The idea to temporarily use Flint River water while another pipeline was being constructed was one of those cost-saving measures.
It was immediately obvious that the water was filthy, and residents loudly protested that it was cloudy, smelled bad, and tasted worse. General Motors stopped using the water because it was literally corroding their machinery. But Snyder and his handpicked head environmental official Dan Wyant studiously ignored the problem — despite internal warnings of lead poisoning as early as July of last year — until an outside scientific study demonstrated extreme levels of lead in Flint children. In late December — over a year after the water switch — Snyder finally apologized and Wyant quietly resigned.
Lead poisoning is one of the lesser-known great evils of the 20th century. Most notably it may have even caused a great crime wave, as basically the entire population was subjected to minor aerosol lead poisoning from leaded gasoline, resulting in lower IQs and poorer impulse control across the population — and therefore higher crime.
Things have improved since lead was removed from gasoline, but it's still a gigantic problem for many impoverished communities, who can't afford to replace their lead pipes or properly remove flaking lead paint. The threat is greatest for small children, who are most vulnerable to lead poisoning and most likely to eat lead paint (which often has a sweet taste). Freddie Gray, the Baltimore resident whose death in police custody sparked major unrest last year — was just so brain damaged.
Now Snyder has already been forced to pony up over $10 million to switch the Flint water system back to the way it was before (hooked up to Detroit, basically), and the city is asking for some $50 million more to replace lead pipes. But that's very likely only the beginning. Flint's population is roughly 100,000, and several families have already sued state and local officials over the lead issue. It's unclear so far how badly the city's children have been poisoned, but it's a pretty safe bet the state will end up spending tens or perhaps even hundreds of millions on settlements.
And that's where a moral atrocity becomes an economic self-kneecapping. Aside from the cost of settlements, children are the major portion of the future's economic capacity, which depends critically on their ability to function normally. Destroying their brains with heavy metals will rather impede their ability to get the jobs and pay the taxes that will get Flint on a sound fiscal footing.
Being a cheapskate can be expensive indeed.But in recent weeks, law enforcement officers, some of them federal, have raided dispensaries in California and Washington State, and in the absence of any actual change in the federal law, many still fear prosecution.
Among New Mexican patients, demand has been great. In the two months since the Santa Fe Institute for Natural Medicine began dispensing marijuana, it has signed up about 400 clients, said Robert Pack, a patient on its board of directors who uses the drug to curb the side effects of epilepsy medication.
Eager patients depleted the initial supply, and the organization had to hurry to produce more marijuana this month, because weeks of rain hampered the drying and curing phase.
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Twenty other nonprofit groups are seeking New Mexico’s approval to grow and sell medical marijuana, but the state’s Health Department will not identify them, citing privacy and safety concerns. Because the groups remain anonymous unless they identify themselves, other regulatory agencies — the Department of Agriculture, for example, which would inspect their growing techniques — will have no oversight.
Such secrecy seems out of keeping with the law’s intent: to help medical marijuana patients emerge from the shadows and gain open access to the drug.
“I think what’s appropriate is for this to be completely out in the open,” said Len Goodman, a patient who started NewMexicann, a nonprofit group seeking state approval to distribute marijuana. “As long as you follow the rules, you should be able to come out of the closet and function with no fear or shame.”
For the Santa Fe Institute, the production process has been nerve-racking. The marijuana plants — no more than 95 at a time, under state regulations — are grown in a windowless rural building with steel doors, a motion detector and, to keep the plants’ pungent odor indoors, carbon filters. Despite a high-tech alarm system and the hidden location, the institute’s grower, who insisted on anonymity, said he constantly feared being robbed.
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“If I worked for Brink’s driving an armored car, I’d probably feel about the same way,” said the grower, a longtime organic farmer who said he had studied with marijuana breeders in Amsterdam.
Delivering the marijuana can also be fraught with anxiety. The Department of Homeland Security informed the group that the former Marine who serves as courier could be prosecuted if stopped at any of several Border Protection checkpoints in southern New Mexico, where many clients live.
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“Homeland Security made it clear, clear, clear,” the institute’s chief said. “Their directive is, ‘You got it, we confiscate it.’ ”
The institute’s grower started out producing equal amounts of two cannabis strains — one energizing, the other sedating. But the energizing strain quickly proved more popular with patients, many of whom take morphine and other narcotics for pain that leave them hazy.
“They want something that makes them really clearheaded,” the grower said, adding that the energizing strain made users feel “almost like your I.Q. went up about 20 points.”
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While 13 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use since 1996, most give patients no help in obtaining it. In Colorado, an alternative newspaper is stepping in: it is hiring a pot critic to review the state’s many unregulated dispensaries.
In Rhode Island, which legalized medical marijuana in 2007 but changed its law this year to allow nonprofit producers, it remains unclear whether towns will be able to block dispensaries from opening within their borders, or whether growers will be able to deliver to patients.
One state-approved user, Rob Mooney, said the state’s licensed caregivers — who are allowed to grow and sell marijuana to two patients each at a given time — and street dealers “ended up selling me garbage that messed me up.”
Ellen Smith, who mixes marijuana-infused oil into applesauce to ease pain from a degenerative tissue disorder, grows her own plants but finds doing so too stressful. Her plants have been stolen, she said, and caring for them requires constant vigilance.
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“It’s nerve-racking to have this around,” Ms. Smith said of her crop, whose skunky odor scented her kitchen. “It will be great to just go to the compassion center, pick up the product and go on with our lives.”
But the Rhode Island state police have raised numerous concerns about the state’s model, pointing out that the required criminal check for employees of compassion centers will search only for in-state convictions.
At a recent hearing, Capt. David S. Neill of the state police asked officials from the Rhode Island Health Department who would monitor the centers to make sure they are not growing more marijuana than the law allows (12 mature plants per patient at a given time), or selling the drug to people who are not approved users.
The answer: nobody.
Dr. Alfredo Vigil, New Mexico’s secretary of health, said tight regulation of medical marijuana programs was crucial.
“As you can probably imagine, we’ve had all manner of interesting people come forward and say, ‘We want to be your producers,’ ” Dr. Vigil said. “If we do this in some uncontrolled fashion and some big bad thing happens, the whole program comes crashing down.”
But with the federal prohibition in place, he said his state’s program was a risk. “It’s a tricky situation in many, many ways,” he said. “As long as there’s a disconnect with the federal law, it’s guaranteed there will be problems along the way.”Image copyright Rex Features
The Magazine's recent piece on uptalk - the habit of making statements sound like questions - prompted lots of you to email theories of where it started. Here are 10 of the most popular.
From Japan to Bristol, the Valley girls to Neighbours, theories on uptalk are far-ranging. Here are some readers' ideas, with comments from four linguists who look at its usage.
1. It started in Scandinavia
Johann, Reykjavik, Iceland: "Norwegian is the mother of all uplifting inflection languages. Whether a question or a statement, Norwegians always end on a higher note."
John Kouhia, Kirkkonummi, Finland: "I have always been puzzled by the prevalence of uptalk in Norwegian. Everybody uses it a lot. It seems to be used in most sentences especially in the last sentence that finishes presenting an idea or concept. I often wonder if they are asking for agreement on what was just said."
Aardman, Minnesota: "I live in Minnesota and people have been uptalking here well before California made it famous. It's from all those Scandinavians who settled here. Go watch Fargo. The intonation is exaggerated but more or less accurate."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Did it come over with the Vikings?
Professor David Crystal, an honorary fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, says: "This is a very credible theory. Uptalk dates back to the Danish in Anglo Saxon times. No one knows exactly where it started but all you can do is listen to how Danish and Scandinavian people speak. They certainly have that inflection."
2. It's a lack of confidence
Vernon Pilgrim, Tokyo, Japan: "I think it's insecurity, constantly reaching for confirmation."
Andreas Stradis, London, UK: "A considered statement, it seems, cannot now be made without due consideration of its liability to be questioned, as if to say, 'I anticipate your boredom and your misgivings, but if you suspend your disbelief for just a moment and let me get to my point, may I leave you to corroborate my story on your iPhone after it has been made?'"
Brian Turner, Spain: "Our two-year-old granddaughter chatters away, but finishes each sentence on a high rise. I believe she is asking "did I say it right?" That may also be a source of it in adults."
Rob Drummond, a lecturer in linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University: "A lot of people think it's a sign of insecurity and being unsure, but I think it's misunderstood. It's used in such a variety of ways, yes it can be that, but it can also be used quite aggressively and in a dominating way."
3. It's Japanese
Image copyright Thinkstock
Mac McMurran, San Juan Capistrano, USA: "I first ran into it in Japan and Korea in 1952/3, where we were influenced by the Japanese -ne? used often at the end of declarative sentences. I always thought it was used as a polite softening of an assertion, and looking for at least tacit agreement."
Vernon Pilgrim, Tokyo, Japan: "The Japanese have a similar habit, except that it involves lots of quick nodding of the head as if to reassure him - or herself - that the listener is agreeing. Japanese being a harmonious people, this nodding for agreement and reassurance is necessary, the nodding goes on even after the sentence has ended."
Vivian Cook, a professor of applied linguistics at Newcastle University, says: "The Japanese have a different kind of intonation system to English, tone is used in a different way. People may have heard uptalk used but I think it would have a different meaning or reason."
4. It's from Neighbours
RJS, Winchester, UK: "For a couple of years in the late 80s Neighbours was watched by in excess of 15 million viewers five evenings per week, with Home & Away not too far behind. It might explain how uptalking spread throughout the UK."
Anthony Bretherton, Epsom, UK: "The upward inflection was, I feel sure, first used by young people when Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan were popular young stars in Neighbours in the 80s."
Craig Hammans: "Aussies are pioneers in this field. Stephen Fry describes it as Australian Questionitis."
Crystal: "It is important to know that there isn't anything particularly 21st Century about uptalk. It goes back to the start of language."
5. It's from New Zealand
Mark Webster, Auckland New Zealand: "The rising inflection, as it's called here, has been a much talked about feature of New Zealand speech for as long as I can remember (that's back to 1965). But lots of Scots settled here, and cities like Dunedin still have loads of people with Scottish surnames."
Mark Annand, Kathmandu, Nepal: "The high rising terminal has long featured in speech in New Zealand. In my own experience it was common among semi-fluent Maori speakers in the 1950s often used in the form of a statement ending with...eh?"
Image copyright Getty Images
Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says: "All varieties of English can use final rises as 'queclarative' - to ask a question in statement form - as requests for confirmation or response. What happens in some varieties is that final rises are used by default. The uptalkers in Australia, New Zealand, and the US seem to have reached this same state."
6. It's Celtic
Bobby Downey: "In Northern Ireland we go high to low and back to high, so we do."
Elizabeth Isaac, Panama City, USA: "I first came across this peculiarity of speech 33 years ago, when my boyfriend, now husband, took me to meet his family in South Wales. The family is from Barry, but my mother-in-law was born in the Welsh mining village, Abertillery. I thought it a bit strange at the time, but just accepted it was part of the sing song lilt of the southern Welsh."
Image copyright Getty Images
Cook: "It's certainly common in the Belfast accent. It's very Celtic, I think this is quite a common theory." Lieberman adds: "About 20 years ago, a Canadian student of mine recorded a few hour of sports talk radio from Toronto - in it the older men commonly used final rises. From what little I know of Canadian immigration patterns, Scots-Irish influence seems plausible."
7. It's a sales voice
Richard Ely, Alfreton, UK: "I was introduced to uptalk as a sales technique - finish your sentence on a rising inflection and add a 'yes' at the end and people will be more likely to agree with you."
Image copyright Getty Images
Crystal: "Uptalk can encourage rapport and it saves time. People will usually answer with a nod or a question. I can see why sales people would use it, but it's not where it started, uptalk has been in language ever since language started."
8. It's French
Martha: "I'd suggest that uptalk began as a shortened form of asking for agreement, similar to the French ending a sentence with 'non?', a Canadian with 'eh?', or an American with 'OK?'"
Jeanne, US: "I have always heard an upward lilt to speech and assumed it was from my Quebec, French-speaking relatives when they switched to English. I spent many years there as a child and picked up the cadence in their speech."
Liberman: "There are many language varieties around the world that use... final rising intonations. This is true of French, for example... and in Malayalam, a Dravidian language of South India. Final rises on non-paragraph-final phrases are normal in French. But it seems unlikely that this has anything to do with the final rises in urban northern British or Scots or Belfast English, any more than the rising accents in Malayalam are connected to either of them."
Image copyright Thinkstock
9. It really is from the American Valley Girls
Elizabeth Parker: "Most of the kids I taught for the past year (in a landlocked rural West Midlands county with a perfectly acceptable accent of its own) tried to talk like this. It irritated the proverbial out of me. Not to mention the likes of 'Miss, where's the aluminUm?' and 'X, Y, Zee...' Grrrr! Even the some of the boys tried to sound like (San Fernando) Valley Girls at times."
Martha: "I've always thought of it as a Valley girl mannerism, but, then, I live in Oregon. Interaction between young girls often is very collaborative in nature. I've noticed that young people here order in restaurants with the question structure: 'Can I have a hamburger?' (upward inflection), rather than a statement: 'I'll have a hamburger.' I suppose it is an effort to seem polite without adding 'please'."
Cook: "I remember in the 1940s and 50s hearing it a lot in American films, it was used a lot in Hollywood at the time I think. It was linked to the American'southern drawl', as it was called."
10. It's Bristolian
KLS Dennis: "In the 1950s and 60s, I spent a lot of time with cousins from Bristol whose dialectic intonation was so strong, it took relentless concentration on my part to understand them. My 'home counties' speech amused them too. While their dialect was strong, their grammar was sound and they were sufficiently aware of their intonation to refer to it as the 'risin' Brizzol intonation'. They explained that it was commonly assumed to have begun with the late 18th Century Bristolian sailors, who, aware of the strength and complexity of their dialect when talking to folk abroad, or even in other parts of Britain, turned every statement into a question to ensure the listener was keeping up - a very important tactic for successful bartering."
Drummond: "This is a really nice theory, and it makes sense - it could certainly explain why it is part of the Bristol accent. I don't think Bristol is where the upward inflection started, that's something no one knows, but it's a nice reason for it being in that part of the country."
Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.American Flag Decal *We have now added thisas a product for anyone who missed out on the July promotion. 9/30/11 - [UPDATE]
Hello Fans! As many of you are curious as to the status of your requested American Flag Decal, we would like to let you in on what's been going on in the Studio... A few months ago, we found ourselves with surplus materials and decided to set them aside for a special project. We anticipated about 1500-2000 flag decals could be made with our supply. Well, as it turns out, we received over 18,000 requests for the decal! Yikes!! So as you might imagine, supplies didn't last long. As the flag supply ran low, we authorized even more material to be allocated to this promotion to satisfy as many requests as possible. Unfortunately, after sending out several thousand (well over our original supply), we've decided we must discontinue the promotion. For now... We're sorry if you did not receive the Flag decal at this time. If/When we have more surplus and can run another promo for these, (maybe next year?) those who have already submitted requests will be at the top of the mailing list to receive one. Thanks for your understanding. We are proud of all our men and women in uniform! Sincerely, ~Accent Studios
_________________________________________________
A HUGE "Thank You" to everyone who has liked us and signed up to receive a free decal. While we expect to have surpassed our supply, we could not deny our fans the opportunity to receive this great deal.
So, for now, we must discontinue the freebie giveaway.
We will be working hard over the next several weeks to get these shipped out to you until our supply is exhausted. But who's to say there won't be another one someday? Feel free to check out our other wall decals or visit our Facebook page for more info. We are working hard to make sure that everyone who 'liked' us on Facebook receives a decal. Many of you have already gotten your decal and some have not. If you haven't received one yet, most likely, it is on the way. If after the 5-10 week time frame you still have not received your decal, it is due to one or more of the following reasons: 1. We could not verify your address or it was submitted incorrectly.
(ex. it was missing the zip code and/or city) 2. You submitted your info but your "like" could not be verified.
(ex. your submitted name was different than your Facebook name) 3. Well, we all know how well USPS works sometimes... ;-P Unfortunately, because of the thousands of requests we received for this deal, if you happen to fall into one of these categories we will not be able to resend you a Free Flag Decal. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely, ~Accent Studios~Russian military forces has transported nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles into the Kaliningrad region bordering Lithuania and Poland, both of whom NATO members, it was confirmed on Saturday.
The spokesman for Russia's Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said: "These missile units have been deployed more than once (in the Kaliningrad region)... and will be deployed as part of military training of the Russian armed forces."
The United States and Lithuania said that moving the missiles could be a political gesture and expression of Moscow's displeasure with NATO. The Lithuanian foreign ministry also warned that Moscow was using the move to "seek concessions from the West" over its role the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.
"Russia is holding military exercises in Kaliningrad, and its scenario includes deployment of Iskander missile systems and the possibile use of them. We are aware of it," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said.
Linkevicius said that modified Iskander missiles can achieve a range of up to 700 kilometers (440 miles), far enough to reach the German capital, Berlin.
Poland's Defense Minister, Antoni Macierewicz, described Moscow's actions as "very alarming."
Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in its westernmost region in 2015 as part of a series of military drills amid heightened tensions over Ukraine.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius
Konashenkov reiterated on Saturday that the Kaliningrad enclave is "not an exception" to drills conducted across the country.
In the years since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and launched its military campaign in Syria, tensions with the West have escalated to their worst level since the Cold War.
On Friday, the United States called for Russia and Syria to be investigated for war crimes for the bombing of hospitals in Aleppo. It also accused Moscow of interfering in the US presidential election.
Russia has also increased its military presence along its border with the NATO Baltic states, conducting a series of war games and training exercises, sometimes involving tens of thousands of troops.
NATO, meanwhile, has agreed to bolster its own military presence along its eastern flank. It will deploy four additional battalions in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as of next year.
dm/rc (Reuters, AFP)T-Mobile has made a habit of needling AT&T ever since John Legere took over as CEO but the company may have pushed things to a whole new level this week. AllThingsD reports that T-Mobile is suing prepaid AT&T subsidiary Aio Wireless because it’s allegedly using T-Mobile’s “trademark” magenta color in its logo. In its complaint, T-Mobile accuses AT&T of setting up Aio earlier this year as a way to counter its “UNCarrier” initiative and of trying to confuse consumers by giving Aio a magenta logo that it says is strikingly similar to the hue of T-Mobile’s logo.
“In early 2013, T-Mobile publicly disclosed plans to compete against the incumbent telecommunications providers in a new way: by offering telecommunications services without the need for consumers to enter into a two-year or annual service contract,” T-Mobile said in its complaint. “The dominant telecommunications provider, AT&T, responded by setting up a wholly owned subsidiary, Aio, which — out of all of the colors in the universe — chose magenta to begin promoting no-contract wireless communications services in direct competition with T-Mobile.”
If all this seems laughable to you, recall that Legere has in the past talked to a bunch of dolls during one of his press events to ridicule AT&T. Or put another way, nothing is too ridiculous for T-Mobile if the result annoys AT&T.A recent security study shows VPN use on the rise in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Wombat Security surveyed roughly 1,000 adults in the United States and 1,000 adults in the United Kingdom on their internet security habits – showing a clear leader in common VPN use. The author of the study, James Nathan Miller, summarized the findings concisely in the conclusion:
“There is still much work to be done on the security awareness training front.”
The majority of US respondents regularly use a VPN – so should those in the UK
66% of surveyed Americans said that they use a VPN “frequently: (e.g. while at home or traveling).” In contrast, only 43% of respondents from the UK said the same. This is despite the fact that UK internet users have the Investigatory Powers Act and Digital Economy Act to contend with when they are at home and at work. A whopping 38% of respondents in the UK said that they never use a VPN. Compare that with only 21% of US respondents. In the US, the public is becoming more aware of Congress-approved internet privacy concerns and that VPN use is necessary to keep one’s internet use history from being sold to third parties.
Security remains a valid concern in both countries
Other findings include that Americans are more likely to use a password manager and more likely to have been a victim of identity theft in the past. Some things that UK internet users lead Americans on, though, is awareness about ransomware and physical security. When going to a public place, instead of leaving their laptop in their car, more English would rather lock it in their trunk (or boot). The most important privacy and security tidbit, though, using a VPN – seems to have been adopted much more widely in the states than across the pond. The survey also revealed some persisting security misconceptions that some internet users hold. For instance, 33% of surveyed Americans still thought that malware was something that “boosts” WiFi signal.
Like this article? Get notified by email when there is a new article or signup to receive the latest news in the fight for Privacy via the Online Privacy News RSS Feed.The well known team over at OOTP developments have arrived on a release date and what will be in store. At the moment it is looking like late-May 2015.
OOTP will be attempting to make up for the first release of Franchise Hockey Manager through new features and code stability. Franchise Hockey Manager is best described as full of potential with a knowledgeable group of programmers to tap into.
GM Games as always will continue to follow it’s progress. Through our User Reviews, you will get the last say on what you think.
The content below is courtesy of OOTP Developments latest update:
Franchise Hockey Manager 2 in many ways will be a complete overhaul on the original, with many avenues of the game improved and tweaked.
Here are some of the highlights for the upcoming game:
1. 2014/15 and 2015/16 season data: The game will feature over 23 playable leagues, as well as a great deal of non-playable leagues. The game will ship with 2014/15 data and then be updated before the 2015/16 season starts with a new roster set to help gamers get the most up-to-date experience.
2. Completely overhauled graphic user interface and navigation: FHM 2 will have a completely new interface, which suits the complex world of hockey much better. Our two goals for this year’s game were to make the game look nicer and make navigating in the game as easy as possible. In our opinion, we have made big steps in both areas.
3. FaceGen: For the first time, FHM will ship with FaceGen support. This brings much more life to the game. We have models in place for skaters, goalies and staff, including changing colors of helmets based on the team the player is on.
4. Completely re-designed Game Engine: We ripped out the old engine and built this very important part of the game brand new, from the ground up. With the new engine, every second of a game is simulated and the engine keeps track of exactly which zones the puck and all players are, at all times. This allows us to simulate the flow of a hockey game much better than before, with each event playing out through the engine. From player passing or moving the puck up the ice, to faceoffs that matter in what zone they occur, dump-in’s, clear attempts, puck battles on the board, breakaways, and many events – it will all be an intricate part of the new simulation engine.
Note: Big parts of the new match engine will be available for FHM 2014 before the FHM 2 release. FHM 2 will feature a tweaked and refined version of the initial release of the match engine.
5. Game Rating: FHM 2 features a new way for you to evaluate the performance of your players – the Game Rating (GR). During a game, each event (good or bad) will change the GR, so you always know how well a player performs on the ice. Since the calculation includes the role of the player and the situation on the ice, you can get a pretty good picture of the performance. Not all players are goal scorers and will have their names show in the score sheet – now you can accurately track how everyone is contributing to your team’s success or failure – from your stay-at-home defensemen to your grinding 4th line forwards.
6. Redesigned Fictional Mode: We have removed the fictional mode from FHM 2014 and replaced it with a new version that is much more streamlined and stable. Now you can play with just one league (or add major junior and/or a farm team level if you like) and form it to your likings by changing selected rules and options (which stay in a sensible range – so no Hobbit league on Mars).
7. League Expansion: Before a season you are now able to expand any league you want by two teams. Want to bring the NHL to Las Vegas? Or bring a team back to Quebec? Go for it!
8. Basic Online League Support: Use FHM 2 to play an online league with your friends. GM’s can upload team files (or draft lists, for example) to the commissioner, who then simulates the game forward, before uploading a new league file. In addition the game produces CSV outputs you can use to generate a web page for your league if you wish. Prove your mettle as a GM against some of the other sharp minds who are fans of FHM!
9. Pre-season games: Need to make some tough roster decisions to get your team ready for the start of the season? Before the regular season starts, use these games to prepare your team for the regular season and find out who will make the squad.
10. Head coaches: It is now possible to hire a head coach for your team and play as GM only.
11. Historical changes: We’ve added new historical seasons to the game, so you can start even further in the past. In addition, you can now continue your game when reaching the last historical year and turn your game into a fictional league. We’ve added historical dollar values and a season preview, so you always know the situation for every season you are just about to start.
12. Greatly expanded news section: We added many additional news types and expanded the text of all news to give you more immersion and help bring your league to life.
13. There are many more changes and additions to the game (listed are just a small number):
– New tactics system
– New player development system
– New training system
– New player roles
– New job safety system
– New player happiness system
– Retiring players can now become staff – is your former star forward your next head coach?
– Revised staff contracts
– New player fatigue system
– New player consistency system
– Line chemistry
– GM and Coach scores
– All-Star game added
– Completely revised league/team/player history
– Redesigned screens (such as lines, tactics, manager-home and playoff screens)
– Extended draft logs
– New logo templates
To join the discussion with the lead developer, the story can be found here: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/fhm-2-general-discussions/251167-franchise-hockey-manager-2-release-info-feature-list.htmlFormer Arkansas governor and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited the Lifehouse Community Church in Iowa on Tuesday to take questions from an audience mostly made up of homeschooling parents. In a video of the session captured by the Iowa conservative blog Caffeinated Thoughts, Huckabee fielded a question about the presence of International Baccalaureate programs, in which students earn an internationally recognized degree, in public schools in Iowa.
The audience member asked Huckabee if he was familiar with IB programs, to which he responded that he was not. The questioner explained to Huckabee that IB programs “[take] away American history and [put] in world history.” Huckabee responded by asserting that parents in Iowa need to “rise up and scream bloody murder” in opposition to these programs and that he “can’t imagine” a program like that, which the questioner emphasized is subsidized by the state.
While Huckabee’s comments may fit with his rhetoric, they do not fit with his record. As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee signed a law sanctioning International Baccalaureate programs in Arkansas high schools, placing them on the same level as Advanced Placement courses and providing subsidies for schools that offer IB courses.This is a remix put together by DJ Steve Porter for ESPN of all the famous Randy Moss soundbites. It's pretty cool, but at the end, DJ Steve shows up in what looks like an afro, a Moss Vikings jersey, and blackface.
Let |
that when you're lying down, your abdominal organs literally sit on top of it, which is why the psoas can have a profound effect on the appearance of your abdomen. Thanks to the way the psoas contracts to flex your legs toward your spine, it's almost impossible to avoid tightening the psoas in any abdominal exercise. And this can be a problem unless you actively incorporate poses and techniques that release and lengthen your psoas.
See also YOGA SHRED: Go With the Flow + Power Up Your Psoas
Rethink Your Core
Surrounding the psoas you'll find what is most commonly referred to as the core—three layers of muscle that provide much-needed control and support for the movements of your spine.
First, the outermost layer consists of the abdominals, which, in addition to moving the torso into forward bends, are also involved in twists. The rectus abdominis is the most visible member. It gives you that six-pack look and is emphasized in many popular abdominal routines. The rectus abdominis does make your belly look trimmer by providing support for your abdominal organs, and its active function is to bend the spine forward. It's worked strongly in poses such as Ardha Navasana (Half Boat Pose) and arm balances such as Bakasana (Crane Pose).
The other members of the outermost layer are the internal and external obliques. These start at the side and front body at the ribs and sternum and wrap around the front torso to your pelvis. Their primary function is to twist your torso as well as to bend it sideways. They join with the rectus abdominis to add power to your forward bending. The obliques have a protective function in twisting: They ensure that the spine twists evenly, so that the vertebrae do not turn too strongly in any one place and injure an intervertebral disk. You will find them at work in poses such as Marichyasana III and Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose). The obliques also get a workout and a stretch in lateral sidebending poses such as Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose).
The second, or middle, layer plays quite a different role. It supports your spine by bracing it, especially when you're picking up something heavy. This layer is really a system of muscles whose prime member is the transverse abdominis. These muscles wrap around your torso—from back near your lumbar spine around to the front—covering your entire abdomen from sternum to pubic bone. They're often described as a muscular corset.
The transverse abdominis works in combination with the diaphragm and pelvic-floor muscles to pressurize your torso, protecting your spine from stressful loads. To feel this system at work, take a small breath in and then hold it; tense the abdominals as though you were going to lift something heavy, and firm your pelvic floor (as though you were trying to "hold it" on the way to the bathroom).
These actions firm the entire torso, supporting your lumbar spine in particular. They're at work whether you're a weightlifter who grunts during a heavy lift, or a yogi who uses the Ujjayi Breath and the bandhas to steady your core for a challenging pose. Your transverse abdominis works strongly in poses such as Plank Pose and Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose).
Finally, though you might not think of them as core muscles, the tiny muscles that fine-tune the movements of your vertebrae make up the deepest layer. The powerful river of the psoas flows right alongside these muscles.
The Power of the Psoas
If the psoas is like a river flowing through the core, the transverse abdominis forms the sturdy riverbanks. The support of the transverse abdominis strengthens the action of your psoas. When the torso is held steady by this corset of muscle, the pull of the psoas acts powerfully on the leg and hip. But if the transverse abdominis is weak (if the torso is not pressurized and held steady by the transverse abdominis), the psoas will pull your lumbar spine out of alignment and into an exaggerated concave curve—when you're walking, doing your abdominal exercises, or even just standing or sitting—as it drags the front of your vertebrae toward your hip.
Therein lies the danger of many core workouts: If your transverse abdominis is weak, your psoas will pull too strongly on your spine. A prime example of the danger comes from doing exercises such as leg lifts. The transverse abdominis should do the job of holding your spine steady while your psoas and thigh muscles lift and lower your legs. Your effort to maintain a neutral curve in your spine throughout the exercise is what gives your abdominals a workout. Your transverse abdominis tightens to prevent your psoas from pulling your back into an exaggerated arch as you lift and lower your legs.
But the exercise essentially pits your core muscles and psoas against each other. The problem is that your core is most often no match for the combined power of your psoas and gravity. The end result is that tremendous pressure is placed on your lumbar spine, which causes your low back to overarch and can lead to low-back pain or even to injury.
The physiotherapist Leon Chaitow, an osteopath and senior lecturer at the University of Westminster in London, points out that when you practice a sit-up (lifting your entire torso all the way up and off the floor), the pull of the psoas compresses the disk between the vertebrae known as L5 and S1 (the place where your lumbar spine meets your sacrum) with the force of about 100 kilograms—or 220 pounds! That's quite a squeeze to put on your low back for the sake of a flat belly. The pressure can wreak havoc on the health of your low back, bringing stiffness, muscle spasms, and even the risk of damage to the lumbar disks.
The effect of overworking your psoas is also postural. A tight psoas will tilt the bowl of your pelvis forward, spilling the contents of your belly over your waistline. The result? A potbelly!
The good news is that it is possible to work your core without stressing your psoas. And it doesn't necessarily take more abdominal work, but rather smarter work. You can learn to tame a tight psoas and support a posture that is supple and tension free while developing core strength. It starts with learning two key techniques that you can use in your daily yoga practice or in any abdominal routine.
See also Yoga For Beginners: Build a Strong Core with Plank Pose
The Drawstring and the Zip-Up
By locating the action of the transverse abdominis in the following exercise, you can experience the support it gives to your spine and the release it provides your psoas, and apply that understanding to any core work you do.
Lie on your back with your legs straight, about hip-width apart, your knees and toes pointing toward the ceiling. Place your fingertips on your hip points, the bony protrusions at the front of your hipbones closest to the surface.
With your legs straight and firm, activate both legs at once as though you're trying to lift them off the floor. But don't actually lift your feet off the floor, since that risks hurting your back.
The first thing you're likely to feel, apart from the effort in your thighs, is a firming of your abdomen in the space between your hip points. That firming is the result of your transverse abdominis engaging to provide support as your psoas works to lift your legs. Engaging the transverse abdominis in this way is like tightening the drawstring on a pair of sweatpants: It narrows your waist, pulling your hip points slightly toward each other. You'll also notice that your sitting bones move back and apart, the arch in your lower back increases slightly, and your thighs effortlessly spiral inward.
To give your transverse abdominis the support it needs, you'll now learn to engage the rectus abdominis and control the tilt of your pelvis. The rectus abdominis regulates the tilt of the pelvis through its attachment at the pubic bone. To engage it, simply draw your belly below your navel slightly back toward your spine and up toward your heart, as though you were zipping up a tight pair of pants. You'll feel your tailbone lengthen away from your waistline at the back.
See also A Safe, Core-Supported Backbending Sequence
Conscious Core
These two basic actions—the drawstring and the zip-up—allow you to work crosswise (via the transverse abdominis) and lengthwise (via the rectus abdominis). Their combined power brings full integration to the layers of the abdominals while allowing the power of the psoas to be focused on moving your legs instead of pulling on your lumbar spine.
True core strength is developed through a conscious awareness of these two actions during your exercise or yoga routine. Once you find this balance in your yoga practice, you won't even think about adding sit-ups to your practice to get your belly ready for the beach!
A Core-Toning Sequence for Summer
1. Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose) Supta Padangusthasana will tone your abdominal muscles and lengthen your psoas. Lie on your back with your left leg extended. Use a strap to hold your right foot and then lift your right leg. Before moving your right leg closer to your torso, tilt your pelvis forward slightly to establish the natural inward curve to your low back, using the drawstring action to help: Work your left leg as though you were trying to lift it, firming your transverse abdominis and narrowing the space between your hip points. Feel your left leg spiral inward and the arch in your low back increase slightly, signaling a release in your left psoas. Now use the zipper effect by drawing the pit of your abdomen in and up to engage your rectus abdominis, and press out through the mound of your big toe. If your left leg turns outward and your low back touches the floor here, your psoas is gripping and shortening. Maintain these lengthening actions as you take your right leg closer to your torso. Hold for 10 breaths or longer, remaining firm but not tense in the pose. Release your right leg and repeat on the second side. See also YOGA SHRED: A Sequence to Cool Down and Release Your Psoas 1 / 8
Doug Keller, who studied at the Siddha Yoga ashram in Ganeshpuri, India, for nearly a decade, teaches workshops and trainings worldwide.200K Jan 17, 2018 /r/witcher hits 200K subscribers
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500 Oct 30, 2012 /r/witcher had 500 subscribers when we started trackingThe travel ban is a test of President Trump’s performance, especially now that the Supreme Court has unfettered him.
The U.S. Supreme Court may have allowed President Donald Trump’s travel ban to proceed but it’s not letting him off the hook.
Neither should Americans.
With the ban partly restored at least until an October court hearing, the Trump administration can now finish the review of visa and refugee policies that it started in January.
Remember, the ban was supposed to be a temporary pause, to give the administration a few months to review and improve the vetting of visitors and refugees.
Five months have passed and this policy work is still unfinished.
That’s not all Trump’s fault. An overly broad restraining order hindered progress through spring.
Trump also moved deadlines as he reworked and amended his initial order, in response to lawsuits filed by states, including Washington.
But now the clock is ticking on a basic test of executive performance that transcends the travel ban. If there’s a flawed policy that urgently needs to be fixed, can the Trump administration get it done promptly?
This will be a telling moment for an administration heavy on proclamations and light on concrete policy achievements.
The Supreme Court is watching the clock. Since a lower court clarified on June 12 that policy work can continue, that “may proceed promptly, if it is not already underway,” its Monday ruling said.
“Given the government’s representations in this litigation … we fully expect that the relief we grant today will permit the Executive to conclude its internal work and provide adequate notice to foreign governments within the 90-day life” of the ban.
Or will Trump seek to extend the ban?
This is a performance question. It doesn’t diminish serious and ongoing concerns that the ban may be discriminatory and unconstitutional. Lower courts said it appears so; the Supreme Court will fully consider that in October.
Then there is harm caused to America’s global stature and moral authority by turning away refugees and smearing entire populations as potential terrorists. That will take many years to repair.
In the meantime, there’s a parallel question about whether Trump can execute a fairly basic governing maneuver: to declare a moratorium while making policy adjustments.
Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order suspended entry of visitors from seven countries deemed terrorism risks for 90 days.
A 120-day moratorium was placed on refugee admittance, so the State Department could review and potentially strengthen its vetting process.
Progress on these reviews is unclear.
Had that been done on Trump’s original schedule, the ban would have ended earlier this month and the lawsuits would be moot. Instead, it lumbers toward October.
The bottom line is that Americans were told by their president five months ago that their lives were in danger because terrorists might slip through a flawed vetting system.
That threat was used to justify an abrupt travel ban. It was also an excuse for the ban’s terrible implementation. Federal agencies were unprepared, airports were overwhelmed, travelers were stranded and companies, universities and others were put in limbo.
Trump can’t have it both ways.
If vetting procedures are truly lax and endangering Americans, this should be a top priority and fixed yesterday.
Such a crisis would leave Trump no time for golf, TV or campaign events. It would demand his full attention until safety is restored.
If it turns out the ban wasn’t warranted — and its extreme measures were based on misinformation, prejudice or politics — the country won’t be any safer. But it will be ashamed.Leading into UFC 196 in March 2016, Conor McGregor was slated to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title and he boldly declared that “2015 was my year, 2016 is also my [expletive] year. Every year is my [expletive] year.”
McGregor’s 2015 was a dream year. He defeated Chad Mendes to win the interim title at UFC 189. In December he knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to unify the belt, the only featherweight champion in the promotion’s history.
Entering 2016, McGregor was established as the brightest star in the sport, and by the end of the year he was the sport as he transcended into the mainstream and earned S.comI's MMA fighter of the year award. His pursuit of two titles was a storyline that played out over nearly the whole calendar year and transfixed fans. He headlined the biggest event in the sport’s history with one of its most iconic moments. Even though he was temporarily sidetracked from his ultimate goal by Nate Diaz, he smashed pay-per-view records in every one of his fights.
McGregor’s three pay-per-view fights reportedly all crossed the fabled 1.6 million buys record set by UFC 100 back in 2009, making McGregor the king of pay-per-views in UFC history. To put into perspective how significant that is, McGregor’s three pay-per-views in 2016 pulled in more buys than all UFC pay-per-views in 2014 combined (reportedly 3.0 million-3.2 million). As noted by Bloody Elbow, during a 12-month stretch dating to UFC 194 in December 2015, McGregor drew nearly six million buys, which would double that 2014 calendar year. McGregor has established himself as the biggest draw in UFC history, averaging more buys per event than legends like Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and even Ronda Rousey.
The UFC’s best year for pay-per-view buys was 2010, and as Iain Kidd notes, McGregor’s 2016 was better than Brock Lesnar's and Georges St-Pierre’s 2010 numbers combined, which was the height of their popularities to boot.
McGregor’s year began with the pursuit of history as he was slated to fight dos Anjos for the lightweight title. With a win McGregor, would become the first fighter to hold two belts in the UFC simultaneously and just the third fighter to win belts in different weight classes in a career. An injury forced dos Anjos off the card and Nate Diaz waltzed in on 11 days notice for a fight at 170 pounds, two weight classes above McGregor’s division. Diaz derailed McGregor’s hype train when he submitted McGregor to a rear-naked choke in the second round.
Pundits immediately speculated over whether McGregor’s star had burnt out just as it began to shine. Would fans still appreciate the brash and outspoken Irishman now that he was no longer undefeated in the UFC?
If anything, the flaw in his record helped catapult McGregor to transcendent star. He took his loss on the chin and rode out the bumps in the wake, sitting at a press conference and answering questions as best he could. Behind closed doors, McGregor was refocused and reportedly obsessed with getting another shot at Diaz, temporarily moving the dream of holding two belts to the back burner.
McGregor’s rematch was slated to headline the historic UFC 200 anniversary card during July, a typical tent pole event for the UFC capping off International Fight Week. The fight was ultimately postponed because McGregor squabbled with the UFC over media and promotional obligations as he tried to refocus and rededicate himself to what made him successful in the first place—martial arts training. At UFC 202, McGregor was able to defeat Diaz in a back-and-forth five-round war to avenge the loss and get his career back on track.
McGregor was granted a shot at the lightweight title he coveted at UFC 205 in Madison Square Garden in New York City, an iconic venue in combat sports history. The universe provided an even bigger stage for McGregor's historic moment.
McGregor dominated lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, dropping him multiple times en route to a TKO win in the first round. He celebrated while perched atop the UFC cage, holding two belts up triumphantly, reveling in a feat no other fighter in UFC history had accomplished.
McGregor’s historic moment at UFC 205 alone had all the makings for Fighter of the Year as he achieved something no other person has come close to doing. Along the way, fighters in just about every weight class were asked about McGregor. Fighters eagerly call him out. In a single event alone in December 2015, McGregor was challenged to a fight three times in the same night.
McGregor has also transcended the sport as undefeated and retired boxer Floyd Mayweather is routinely subjected to questions about a potential super fight. McGregor insulted the WWE and what seemed like the entire roster of WWE Superstars responded.
In pop culture, McGregor made appearances on late night television shows like Conan and garnered a role in the forthcoming season of Game of Thrones. He played a character in the latest Call of Duty game. He was tapped for a role in the new xXx movie before pulling out to focus on the Diaz rematch. His trademark strut has become iconic in sports with world-class athletes around the globe mimicking the champion. Cristiano Ronaldo went and trained with McGregor in Las Vegas and McGregor went to Jennifer Lopez’s birthday party.
Over the course of 2016, McGregor entrenched himself as the face of mixed martial arts. He has brought new fans to the sport in droves. MMA and McGregor are becoming synonymous.
2. Cody Garbrandt
Cody Garbrandt has a legitimate stake to the title of Fighter of the Year after his remarkable journey. At UFC Fight Night: Pittsburgh in February 2016, Garbrandt made the trek to the cage as an unranked, yet undefeated, fighter making just his third appearance in the Octagon. Garbrandt was from a nearby town in Ohio and fought several bouts in the Pittsburgh area before his UFC career began, making him a solid local draw on the main card. He knocked out Augusto Mendes just before the end of the first-round, kicking off a historic run. Garbrandt’s next fight was a bigger test in the 21-0 Thomas Almeida, a test Garbrandt dispatched with another first-round knockout.
His place in UFC history was set into motion at UFC 202. Walking into the arena, Garbrandt had a run-in with bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. Later that night, Garbrandt knocked out Takeya Mizugaki in 48 seconds, proceeding to note that he dismissed Mizugaki quicker than the champion as Cruz watched.
At UFC 207, 10-0 Garbrandt was given a title shot in a co-main event with Cruz, a man who had never lost at 135 pounds and was considered by some pundits to be the true pound-for-pound best on the planet. Garbrandt dismantled Cruz with precision over five rounds, taunting the champion throughout, knocking him down four times in a single round en route to winning the strap.
Not many fighters entered that cage four times in a single year, fewer won all their fights, and none went from unranked to world champion over that span.
3. Amanda Nunes
The stars aligned for Nunes in 2016 as she ascended to the throne of the women’s bantamweight division, re-establishing order along the way. Nunes opened the year with a decision win over Valentina Shevchenko. That earned her a title shot at UFC 200 against Miesha Tate, an icon of women’s MMA and the women who famously lost the belt to Ronda Rousey before her historic run. The situation surrounding Jon Jones’ positive drug test thrust this bout into the spotlight of UFC 200, expected to be one of the biggest events in the promotion’s history.
Nunes didn’t falter in the spotlight, standing across the cage from an icon. She submitted the prolific grappler in the first round to win the belt while becoming the first openly gay UFC champion and the first Brazilian women to win a UFC belt.
Nunes capped her year with a stunning and dominant victory over Ronda Rousey at UFC 207, defeating another titan of the sport. She did so decisively en route to becoming the only woman aside from Ronda Rousey to successfully defend the women’s bantamweight title and only the third woman in the UFC to successfully defend a title.
4. Stipe Miocic
The reigning and defending heavyweight champion dominated the division in 2016. Miocic began the year with a bout against a legend and contender in Andrei Arlovski, knocking him out in under a minute. Next, he fought then-champion Fabricio Werdum at UFC 198, which took place in Werdum’s home country of Brazil. Miocic knocked out Werdum in the first round to win the belt. Although it hasn’t gotten much attention, the Cleveland-born Miocic was the one who broke Cleveland, Ohio’s title drought as the Cleveland Cavaliers were still in the midst of their playoff run at this point. At UFC 203, Miocic successfully defended the belt against another MMA legend in Alistair Overeem, not only escaping a choke but also knocking out a prolific striker in the first-round.Attention: This site requires cookies to be enabled. Cookies are necessary for full functionality and allow for the best user experience. Cookie control is handled through your individual browser. Please refer to your browser or device help material to adjust cookie usage.
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Item #: SCP-2159
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2159 is to be kept in a secure locker at Site-44. Once per month, at least two Level 2 personnel are to inspect SCP-2159 and compare SCP-2159's description with Iteration 0 (Description of Iteration 0 can be found in Document 2159-Ki). If any discrepancies from Iteration 0 or among the personnel are noted, Site-44 Director is to be notified immediately. Personnel are to wear protective gloves prior to direct contact with SCP-2159.
+ View Previous Special Containment Procedures - Hide Previous Special Containment Procedures Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2159 is to be kept in a secure locker at Site-44. Whenever there are tests involving SCP-2159, there must be at least two personnel present. Personnel are to wear protective gloves prior to direct contact with SCP-2159. All unique descriptions of SCP-2159's appearances are to be documented and archived in Document 2159-Ki. Update (28/07/2004): Handling of SCP-2159 is to be conducted by two teams consisting of two research personnel each (dubbed Team Alpha and Team Bravo). Team Alpha and Team Bravo personnel are not to be informed of SCP-2159's SCP designation. They are to avoid using numeric designations or unique nicknames to refer to SCP-2159. Instead, they are to use broad generalised designations; specifically, the term "item" for Team Alpha and the term "object" for Team Bravo. Team Alpha and Team Bravo personnel are denied access to all SCP-2159 files on RAISA. They are to submit findings regarding SCP-2159 to a designated Level 1 clerical staff (currently Ms. Aya Sotoda), who will then catalogue them. If Team Alpha or Team Bravo personnel intend to request data regarding SCP-2159, approval is to be sought from the Project Head (currently Dr. Carlos Fujimori). Personnel aware of SCP-2159's SCP designation are not allowed access to SCP-2159, unless permission is granted by Site-44 Director.
Description: SCP-2159 is an object with an indeterminate appearance. Its appearance is dependent on individual perception; no two individuals perceive SCP-2159 as the same object. Each iteration of SCP-2159 tends to relate to the observer in some way. Depictions of SCP-2159 on photographs and video footage also display this anomalous property. Below is an abridged list of known iterations SCP-2159 is perceived as.
+ View List - For a complete list of iterations, see Document 2159-Ki Iteration Description Corresponding Subject Correlation 1 A bust of Guan Yin. █████ ████, eyewitness Practitioner of Tendai Buddhism and often prays at Senso-ji. 14 A figurine depicting Hunter x Hunter character Isaac Netero. ████████ █████████, eyewitness Self-proclaimed anime "otaku", although he claimed that Hunter x Hunter is "so-so" for an anime. 26 A 1:20 scale model of a 155 mm Long Tom Cannon; muzzle is customised to resemble an Oriental dragon's head. Agent Kensuke Shirokawa Previously served in the Japan Self-Defence Forces as an artillery officer. 27 A cannon bone. Agent Baatar Oiratya Raised horses in his family's ranch when young and is familiar with horse anatomy. 29 A framed photograph of actress Mimi Kung Chi Yan in her role as Guan Yin from the Hong Kong TV series Journey to the West (1996 version). Photograph appears to be autographed by Kung, although it is written in katakana. Researcher Shiki Ichinose Claimed to have watched Journey to the West during its original run. 31 A photo album of the Grand Canyon, titled "Fotos del Gran Cañón". Album consists of pictures of various parts of the Grand Canyon. Dr. Carlos Fujimori Previously worked at Site-██, which is based in the Grand Canyon. 35 A qanun. When played, only the subject reported to have heard the sounds produced. D-8367 Claims to be proficient with the qanun. 36 A music box. When opened, the song Graduation (Friends Forever) by American pop singer Vitamin C is supposedly played and only heard by the subject. D-1263 Records indicated that D-1263 worked as a disc jockey previously and claims to have played Graduation (Friends Forever) during prom night parties. 57 A piece of paper labelled "SCP-1132-J" and "SCP-damej-J" on opposite sides, corresponding to the respective articles of the same names under the "-J" files. Dr. █████ Anonymous contributor to the "-J" files.
SCP-2159 has a consistent mass and volume of approximately 800.3 g and 228.0 cm3 respectively, and its density is determined to be 3.51 g/cm3 (2 d.p.). Material composition of SCP-2159 is unknown; attempts to extract samples of SCP-2159 for analysis have failed to date. In addition, a buildup of positive electrical charges is detected on the surface of SCP-2159.
SCP-2159 was recovered from the Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan on 03/06/2004. Urban legends regarding a "shape-shifting object" in Yoyogi Park brought SCP-2159 to the Foundation's attention. Agents were subsequently dispatched and claimed SCP-2159 on suspicions of it being a chemical weapon. Passers-by present were also brought in for questioning, followed by amnestic treatment. Subsequently, rumours referring to SCP-2159 were debunked via a cover story of hallucinogens found in the area.
Addendum 2159-1: The following are additional details regarding the recovery of SCP-2159, collated by Agents Shirokawa and Oiratya.
Grass surrounding SCP-2159 was charred.
When SCP-2159 was removed from original position, a rectangular indentation 10 cm deep was noted.
Soil sample from SCP-2159's original position indicates traces of fulgurite.
Addendum 2159-2: Since 21/07/2004, personnel have noted that a number of SCP-2159's iterations allude to its SCP designation. Below are 2 examples of such iterations.
Subject Description Researcher Shiki Ichinose A framed photograph of actress Mimi Kung Chi Yan in her role as Guan Yin from the Hong Kong TV series Journey to the West (1996 version). Autograph is replaced by "2159". Dr. Carlos Fujimori A photo album titled "2159 Pictures of 2159". Album consists of the number "2159" rendered in various fonts and numeral systems. The number "2159" and its variants appear 2159 times in the album.
Regarding the phenomenon, Dr. Fujimori has offered the following statement.
Please consider the following analogy. Before we had contained SCP-2159, multiple individuals – let's call them Agents A and B – would view it as Iterations A´ and B´ respectively. To the two agents, respective iterations were mutually exclusive. Each Iteration was connected to SCP-2159 individually, but not to each other. Post-containment, we have given SCP-2159 its designation. The same Agents A and B will still view SCP-2159 as Iterations A´ and B´ respectively. However, both Agents A and B now recognise that their respective Iterations (A´ and B´) are but subsets of SCP-2159. A state of interconnectedness now exists and the designation of SCP-2159 is at the centre of it. In our quest to discern SCP-2159, our standard practice to designate it has become an obstacle in itself. As such, I believe that we may need a slight alteration to our operations.
Following Dr. Fujimori's statement, personnel studying on SCP-2159 were reassigned, except for Dr. Fujimori. SCP-2159's Special Containment Procedures have been updated accordingly; see Update (28/07/2004).
Addendum 2159-3: Below is an excerpt from Dr. Fujimori's research notes regarding SCP-2159.
24/09/2004 – Self references on SCP-2159 were noted by both Alpha and Bravo. However, whereas Alpha report instances of the word "item", Bravo report instances of the word "object". SCP-2159's self-references appear to be inevitable. However, our current methodology did stall the process. Have individual persons to report findings separately?
Addendum 2159-4: On 17/10/2004, both reports from Team Alpha and Team Bravo indicate that SCP-2159 has taken on a common appearance. It is believed to be SCP-2159's default form, dubbed Iteration 0. This is later verified independently by Dr. Fujimori and two D-class personnel, with the three said personnel claiming to perceive SCP-2159 as Iteration 0.
This effect extends to photographs and video footage of SCP-2159. However, the buildup of positive electrical charges on SCP-2159 is still present.
Below is a description of Iteration 0.Belgium, one of the few countries where euthanasia is legal, is expected to abolish age restrictions this week on who can ask to be put to death – extending the right to children for the first time.
The legislation appears to have wide support in the largely liberal country. But it has also aroused intense opposition – including from paediatricians – and people have staged noisy |
the United States. Mothers and young children were ripped from their homes and taken to detention centers. Some were put on planes and sent to countries where their lives are now at risk.
Rather than protect these families who face torture or death if they are deported, the federal government is embracing Donald Trump's awful anti-refugee, anti-immigrant rhetoric. This has to stop.
Bernie Sanders gave a very strong, powerful statement in support of immigrant and refugee families and explaining why these raids are awful and unacceptable. In an important letter (click here to read it), Sanders urges President Obama and the heads of the Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to stop the raids.
This is an important moral moment, and the White House needs to hear from you right now. Stand with Bernie Sanders and sign the petition urging the federal government to stop these raids -- and protect these refugee families.The US online retail behemoth confirmed in April that it will open a warehouse in Australia, in a move sure to disrupt the local market.
Amazon's New Zealand delivery charges and shipment times are expected to fall after the United States retail giant confirmed plans to set up shop in Australia.
The company founded by Jeff Bezos confirmed its intention to pursue the retail dollar in Australia in a big way, on Thursday, with significant implications for New Zealand.
Amazon is looking for its first warehouse in either Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne to become a fulfillment centre. It will be the first of many in Australia, each with floor space of up to 93,000 square metres – the equivalent of 13 rugby fields.
Although Amazon has not discussed any plans to set up in New Zealand and there is no speculation that is imminent, Kiwi retailers are concerned by its move into Australia and what they say is an uneven playing-field.
READ MORE:
* GST worries and Amazon's imminent arrival in Australia hit home
* GST change could encourage Amazon into NZ
* eBay threatens Aussie boycott
Amazon can sell items costing less than $400 to New Zealanders free of GST, and fulfilling orders from warehouses in Australia would shorten its supply lines to Kiwi consumers.
PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS A decision hasn't been made on Amazon's location but it's likely in either Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne.
Retail consultant Chris Wilkinson said Amazon's move into Australia had been well sign-posted, and he believed New Zealand would be within Amazon Australia's distribution sphere.
While Amazon Australia might not immediately stock everything it sold in the US, it would certainly mean lower delivery charges and shorter waiting times for many items for Kiwi customers, he said.
"They will move rapidly and decisively on this market."
Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford said Amazon's arrival in Australia would be a big issue for New Zealand firms and "put Amazon in a much stronger position especially because they won't pay tax".
"This is a further reason the Government needs to be looking at the tax issue as soon as possible."
Harford said Kiwi retailers would need to focus on top-class service and low prices to combat the threat posed by Amazon.
"New Zealand is a small market. Even the biggest firms in New Zealand lack scale and that makes price something that needs to be kept down."
Amazon emphasised the investment and job opportunities that would flow from its move into Australia.
"We are excited to bring thousands of new jobs to Australia, millions of dollars in additional investment, and to empower small Australian businesses through Amazon Marketplace," the company said in a statement.
But the impact on existing retailers such as Myer, JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman is expected to be large. Credit Suisse forecasts Amazon will achieve a market share of more than 5 per cent in many parts of the Australian retail sector within five years of opening.
Amazon, dubbed the "country killer" by analysts at Morgan Stanley, reportedly told Watermark Funds Investment chief investment officer Justin Braitling: "We are going to destroy the retail environment in Australia."
But Amazon said the person who made that comment was a former employer who left the company in February, and it did not reflect Amazon's views.
The Australian government plans to require foreign sellers to levy GST on items they ship to consumers from overseas from July – a move which removes an incentive for Amazon to instead ship products to Australians from overseas.
Retail NZ has been calling for the New Zealand government to urgently follow suit, to prevent Amazon shipping goods to New Zealanders from its Australian warehouses tax-free.
However, Harford has acknowledged the removal of the GST advantage could encourage Amazon to build a fulfillment centre in New Zealand.A Jewish comedian by the name of Ari Shaffir has filmed a series of racially charged skits for a movie called “Inappropriate Comedy.” A few of the clips, such as the one below, can be found on YouTube.
In this first skit, with the aid of a hidden camera, Shaffir poses as a Catholic priest who goes into a Jewish grocery store and asks the shoppers to sign a petition apologizing for killing Jesus Christ.
Shaffir is just going for some cheap laughs, but this can actually serve as a good case study.
It’s historical fact that Jews of the time of Christ were responsible for His crucifixion, but the Jewish individuals in that store certainly had nothing to do with that particular incident and their reactions are predictable. Today’s Jews take no responsibility for an act that occurred centuries ago and refuse to apologize. Even though many Jews are still intolerant of Christianity, what they say here makes some sense, right?
Now, ask yourself how some white people react when blamed for all the evils in the world, including slavery. The picture below will illustrate the typical response.
Father and son apologize for their role in the slave trade
White folks could learn a lot from so-called minorities when it comes to healthy thinking with regard to guilt.Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday called on residents who are licensed to carry weapons to do so on a daily basis.
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Against the background of a deteriorating security situation which has in recent days spread from Jerusalem and the West Bank to other parts of the country, more and more voices are being heard calling on citizens to carry guns every day to deal with attacks that might take place near them.
Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat at crime scene (Photo: Tazpit)
"One advantage that Israel has is that there are quite a few ex-members of military units with operational combat experience," Barkat
This week Israel's Channel 1 broadcast images of Barkat touring the East Jerusalem neighborood of Issawiya with a weapon, saying he wanted to set an example during tense periods. "I don't carry it every day and everywhere I go, only in conflict areas," he said.
On Wednesday, the Commander of the Ashdod police station, Chief Superintendent Noam Shekel, also called on residents who have a weapons permit to carry them.Posted by ©Sindication on June 24, 2012
UPDATE 6/27/12 THAT’S A WRAP: The first half, of the two part production of fifth and final season of Breaking Bad has wrapped in Albuquerque tonight. The stage goes dim until this fall when cast & crew head back in for the grande finale.
The first half of the Fifth&Final season premieres July 15, and the last eight episodes will air in the summer of 2013.
While burgeoning NM hit series, Longmire aired tonight on A&E, AMC global phenom, Breaking Bad held its Season Five premiere event in Albuquerque.
Renowned for their epic wrap parties, the Breaking Bad cast turned out in force for this premiere, while Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul showed in costume, this year as cucarachas?
Do with that what you will…and tune in JULY 15
Images courtesy of @antoinetteA and Cherise Quezada0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
In the press release announcing her deal with Fox News, Sarah Palin wasted no time in parroting the company line. Palin said, “It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.” Interestingly, the Palin deal is not exclusive, and would free her up for a presidential run in 2012.
Fox News Executive VP of Programming Bill Shine said, “Governor Palin has captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum and we are excited to add her dynamic voice to the FOX News lineup.” As a contributor, Palin will provide political commentary and analysis for FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOXNews.com, and FOX News-produced special event political programming for FOX Broadcasting.”
Palin demonstrated her ability to regurgitate FNC propaganda likely before the ink was dry on the contract, “I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at FOX News. It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.”
The fact that Palin does not have her own show on at very least the struggling Fox Business screams out that she is looking to keep her options open for 2012. Sarah Palin’s deal doesn’t commit her to Fox News as anything other than a contributor. It is the same kind of deal as Pat Buchanan had with CNN. These types of deals usually contain an out clause which would let the contributor leave in order to run for office.
This deal is perfect for Palin. She gets a presence on television. She can speak directly to her audience. She gets pain, and leaves the door open for a potential presidential run in 2012. Her deal is effective immediately, so no one should be surprised if she pops up on The O’Reilly Factor tonight or tomorrow.
As far as her political future goes, I don’t see how going on Fox News is going to help her shake her reputation as an intellectual light weight. In fact, going into the media business could kill any existing perception of her as a serious politician, assuming that any non Palinite stills views her as such.
Her deal with Fox News makes it obvious that she is likely to run in 2012, and if she fails, she now has her fallback position, which is her gig at Fox News. Sarah has made her millions and now she still has a bit of the spotlight, but it has yet to be seen if she is serious about politics.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Mild-mannered timid businessman Dave Buznik works for a pet clothing company out of New York City. He's got an abrasive boss named Mr. Frank Head who frequently takes credit for his work and steps on him in return. He's got a loving girlfriend, Linda, whose best friend is her condescending college ex, Andrew. But when a misunderstanding aboard an airplane goes haywire, Dave is ordered by the court to undergo anger management therapy at the hands of specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell, who is an unpredictable, psychopathic character. As the relationship between Dave and Buddy becomes more tense, when the unorthodox treatment wreaks havoc Dave's life, and Buddy might be the only one who can save him from a problem he recognizes right away in his patient, that could only get worse. Written by Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}Here is the quick history on Jimmy Page’s famous “Dragon” Fender Telecaster that he used with Led Zeppelin and the actual guitar used to play the solo on “Stairway To Heaven.”
The 1958 Blond Fender Telecaster was given to Page by Jeff Beck when they were both members of The Yardbirds. Here’s Beck playing what would become the “Dragon” guitar with a homemade black pick guard.
And here is Page playing the future “Dragon” Tele on stage with The Yardbirds.
In late 1967, Page stripped the paint off of this 1958 Blond Fender Telecaster and hand painted a green, red and orange psychadelic dragon on the front of the body. He also replaced the pickguard with a pickguard made of clear acrylic.
About the pickguard Page said,
“Yes. There was work done on it but only afterwards. I painted it; everyone painted their guitars in those days. And I had reflective plastic sheeting underneath the pick guard that gives rainbow colors.”
In a 1998 Guitar World interview, Jimmy Page said the following about the fate of the “Dragon” Telecaster.
“I still have it (referring to the Dragon Tele), but it’s a tragic story. I went on tour with the ’59 Les Paul that I bought from Joe Walsh, and when I got back, a friend of mine had kindly painted over my paint job. He said, ‘Ive got a present for you.’ He thought he had done me a real favor. As you can guess, I wasn’t real happy about that. His paint job totally screwed up the sound and the wiring, so only the neck pickup worked. I salvaged the neck and put it on my brown Tele string bender that I used in the Firm. As for the body… it will never be seen again! (laughs)”
Here is a photo Page playing the “Dragon” Tele neck with The Firm.
Page also had a white Fender Stratocaster that was recently returned to him from John Paul Jones…Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Night Tube will start running by the end of the year
Tube drivers on the London Underground (LU) are to be balloted for strikes in a row over pay for new all-night services, the Aslef union has said.
The Night Tube will provide services on several lines from September.
Aslef said it had been told that unless drivers agreed to rosters they would automatically be imposed and no pay offer would be made this year.
The union said LU had "closed down" negotiations, however LU said these claims were "completely untrue".
'Work/life balance'
The new rosters would include covering all-night services on Friday and Saturday nights when they begin.
Finn Brennan, Aslef's district organiser, said: "London Underground has closed down the negotiations.
"Our members are entitled to a family life and to some sort of work/life balance.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Around 80% of all London Underground drivers are members of the Aslef union
"We aren't opposed to all-night services but we want them introduced in a fair and sensible way which rewards staff for their hard work."
About 80% of all London Underground drivers are members of Aslef.
Mr Brennan said drivers would have to work an unlimited number of weekend and night shifts for no extra pay.
The Night Tube services will initially run on the Piccadilly, Victoria, Central, Jubilee and Northern lines.
They will be extended to the Metropolitan, Circle, District, and Hammersmith & City lines by 2021, the London Overground in 2017 and the Docklands Light Railway by 2021.
The plans are part of a six-point long term economic plan that Chancellor George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson said would add £6.4bn to the London economy by 2030 and create 500,000 new jobs.
Image copyright PA Image caption George Osborne and Boris Johnson said the Night Tube would add £6.4bn to the London economy by 2030
Labour's London Assembly transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross said the Night Tube would be a great thing for London but "it's important it's done properly".
She said: "That means recognising the impact it will have on staff who will make the night Tube possible and listening to their concerns.
"Instead, last year the mayor announced a start date for the night Tube without any proper consultation with the staff and unions."
Nick Brown, chief operating officer for LU, said: "To suggest that we've closed down negotiations is completely untrue and it is extremely disappointing the co-ordinated response by the unions has been to announce their intention to ballot members.
"Talks have not broken down and we are committed to reaching an agreement that rewards our hard-working staff that is affordable, sustainable and fair."The Democratic Party’s current festival of re-examination is both necessary and justified. They have just lost to the most unpopular presidential candidate in recent memory. Lockstep media support and a much larger war chest were not enough to save them from losing not only the presidency, but also in state races across the country.
Since President Obama’s first election, Democrats have lost control of the House and Senate, as well as a dozen governors’ houses and roughly 900 state legislative seats. Republicans have control of all levels of government in 24 states, while Democrats have total control over six. Overall, the party seems incapable of reaching out to the middle part of the country, white and middle-class voters.
This contrasts with the 1990s, when a group of party activists consciously rebuilt the party to appeal to middle-class Americans. Groups like the Democratic Leadership Council — for whose think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, I worked for several years — pushed notions of personal responsibility, welfare reform, tough crime policies and economic growth that, embraced by Bill Clinton, expanded the party’s base in the Midwest, the Appalachians and even the Southeast.
Leftward Ho!
Such a shift to the middle is unlikely today. Progressives generally see Hillary Clinton’s loss as largely a rejection of her husband’s neoliberal policies and want to push the party further to the left.
This parallels developments in the United Kingdom, where, following their defeat in 2015, the Labour Party promoted a far-left figure, Jeremy Corbyn, as its leader. This was driven by grassroots progressives — deeply green, multiculturalist and openly socialist. Many, including several high up in Labour’s parliamentary party, believe the party has little chance to win under such leadership.
Democrats face a similar dilemma. Driven by their dominant academic and media “thought police,” any shift to the middle on issues like crime, climate change or regulation now seems unimaginable. Self-described progressives who now dominate the party generally adhere to a series of policies — from open borders to draconian climate change policies — that are unlikely to play well outside the coastal enclaves.
Some of the criticism of Clintonian neoliberalism is somewhat justified. As the emergence of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump suggests, support for globalization and free trade has weakened in both parties. This reflects the fact that economic gains have become increasingly concentrated since Clinton left office, and even under the progressive hero, Barack Obama. It’s hard to argue, as the DLC did 25 years ago, for a more market-based system when the vast majority fail to benefit while the upper echelons do much better.
So it is no surprise, then, that the hyperregulatory and redistributionist agendas epitomized by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are now ascendant. This pattern is exacerbated by the party’s increasing indifference to economic growth, in large part, due to their embrace of draconian climate change policies. Climate change policies, as now constituted, tend to suppress higher-wage, blue-collar employment. If you give up on growth to save the planet, the only real solution remaining is massive redistribution, including a web of subsidies to make up for the lack of income growth, affordable housing and economic opportunity.
The multiculti trap
The Corbynization of the Democratic Party also turns on militant multiculturalism. This agenda is shaped, as in Britain, by a disjointed concert of grievance groups, ranging from gender activists to those who claim to represent Latinos, African Americans, Asians, Muslims and others, whose alienation has been exacerbated by Trump’s triumph. Trump’s nationalist rhetoric is particularly disliked by progressives who, as author and New America fellow Michael Lind notes in a recent National Review column, find the very idea of borders and national interests reactionary and inherently racist.
This identity politics, some liberals note, has driven many whites into a defensive crouch and pushed them toward the Republicans. Yet, there is little sign that the party will move in their direction. After all, Hillary labeled them “deplorables” — not much of a sales pitch. After the election, progressive journalists have portrayed Trump voters as irredeemably racist, misogynist, stupid and even too “fat.” Summing up, suggests Slate’s Jamelle Bouie, there’s no such thing as a “good Trump voter.”
Inside the progressive echo chamber, many still believe that an alliance of minorities, gender activists and millennials will make their victory inevitable. This can be seen in the tendency of Democrats, just as there is a palpable rise in crime, to invite the militant Black Lives Matter movement into their tent.
Perhaps nothing more illustrates the Corbynite trend than the proposal to make Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Ellison does check off the diversity boxes, but also would place in party leadership someone who has embraced the Nation of Islam, supports the boycott of Israeli products and has compared 9-11 to the Reichstag fire that facilitated the Nazi dictatorship.
Going left may be emotionally satisfying to Democrats who feel abandoned by their less progressive fellow citizens. But abandoning the middle of the spectrum does not seem an effective way to get back into power.
Joel Kotkin is the R.C. Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange and executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism (www.opportunityurbanism.org).Will Ferrell cycles around the Dutch city with the French duo as the 'Anchorman' character ahead of MTV EMAs
Anchorman‘s Ron Burgundy, AKA Will Ferrell, has been cycling around Amsterdam today with Daft Punk.
A snap of the unlikely trio riding down a street in the Dutch city was uploaded to Instagram earlier today. The stunt was orchestrated as part of tonight’s (November 10) MTV European Music Awards, which are taking place at the Ziggo Dome.
Here is the hilarious picture:
http://instagram.com/p/giLB91lz59/embed/
Earlier today, it was announced that Eminem is to be given the Global Icon Award at tonight’s MTV EMAs. The ‘Berzerk’ rapper will join a list of previous winners, which includes Queen, Whitney Houston and Bon Jovi. Eminem will be in attendance at the ceremony in Amsterdam and is also rumoured to be performing.
Speaking about the decision to award Slim Shady the award, Bruce Glimer, executive vice president of talent, music programming and events for VIMN (MTV), said: “A lot of thought goes into who could possibly be appropriate. This man has sold over 80 million records. I think everyone agrees, Eminem is one of the most creative and unique artists of our time.”Every April since 1986, about 40 brave souls have gathered in Tennessee’s Frozen Head State Park to attempt the near-impossible Barkley Marathons. In 2012, two filmmakers joined them for a task that felt nearly as daunting: creating the first documentary about the infamously difficult and unorthodox trail race. Annika Iltis and Timothy Kane, previously camera assistants for the TV series Mad Men, aren't runners, but they dive deep into the sport’s most surreal event in their new documentary, The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young. The film, which has already generated some festival buzz in cities like Austin and Nashville, will be released December 8th.
For the uninitiated, the Barkley Marathons consists of five roughly 20-mile loops on an unmarked course. Most who enter don’t finish—or even come close. (In the Barkley community, a successful three-loop finish is dubbed a “fun run.”) Rather than trail markers, books are scattered along the course for the runners to find. The entry process is somewhat secret, and the accepted runners receive a letter of condolences. The race begins with the lighting of a cigarette. In the nearly 30 years since the Barkley’s inception, only 14 people have finished the race.
Iltis and Kane were looking for a new creative outlet after finishing an intense Mad Men season in 2012. “We’ve worked for so many years helping other people bring their stories to life,” Iltis told me. “We were ready to make something of our own.” They came across the Barkley by chance, after Kane read Leslie Jamison’s essay, “The Immortal Horizon,” that was published in The Believer magazine and focused on the year Jamison’s brother ran the race. Iltis and Kane were mainly drawn to the story because it was so dramatically different from their own lives. They were fascinated by the characters in the Barkley community, and how they seem to “create their own world” for a weekend in Frozen Head, Iltis said.
By that time, that year’s event was rapidly approaching—it was only seven weeks out—and so out of necessity, they committed to the project very quickly. In the end, they were grateful to have jumped in without hesitation, because that year’s event turned out to be a particularly exciting one, with more finishers than expected and a new speed record. “If I’d thought about it more, I probably would have prepared for a year to shoot it,” Iltis told me. “But if we had done that, we would have ended up with a completely different film.”
The film follows the 2012 Barkley Marathons, integrating interviews with participants, alumni, and the race’s cofounders, Gary Cantrell and Karl Henn. The field of (mostly male) runners spans a range of both age and experience. Some of the race’s most emotionally trying moments are captured on screen: One runner, all alone in a dark, wet tunnel, takes a moment to lie down on his back and rest. Another runner, as he sets out on a new loop and resists the temptation to quit, proclaims: “My legs hurt so much, I feel stupid for starting another loop—but it's what I came here for!" And, of course, there are the repeated renditions of “Taps,” Barkley’s way of announcing that someone has dropped out.
Cantrell, who goes by the pseudonym Lazarus Lake or “Laz,” is a hilarious and eccentric character who emerges as a highlight of the film. Laz’s passion for running and unyielding sense of humor represent the very essence of the Barkley—an event defined by both its intensity and its self-mockery. Every year, Laz throws in a “human sacrifice,” a person who has “no business” running the Barkley, but whose certain failure will provide comic relief. In one scene, Laz explains that keeping the race inexpensive is crucial, so that cost isn’t a barrier for any would-be Barkley participant. The entry fee is $1.60, but he also asks participants to bring a license plate from their home state or country, and another random item, according to his fancy that year. In 2012, he “charged” a flannel button-down. Laz says that people tell him he could charge a fortune for the event, “but for $1.60 and a license plate, if people have complaints, I can just laugh!”
Throughout every step of the filmmaking process, Iltis and Kane wanted to be certain that Laz was on board—it was very important to them that their presence didn’t affect the runners’ race. “We wanted to be there, but we wanted to be as invisible as possible,” Iltis said. The pair went out to Tennessee a month before the race to scout filming locations with Laz. They got his permission to place their seven camera operators at designated spots along the course, so their crew members would never give anything away as the runners searched for the correct route through the woods. (Because of this, much of the course does not appear in the film.)
At its core, the film explores the subjectivity of success and failure. “People make it to all different stages of the race—some of them are upset, and some are happy that they’ve gone farther than they’ve ever gone,” Iltis said. “You see people do amazing things that they never thought possible.” All the runners attempt the Barkley for different reasons (for one runner, his father’s death sparked the realization that he shouldn’t put off life-changing experiences until his retirement), and each has a different expectation of what he can accomplish in the allotted 60-hour limit. As Laz puts it: "People have their own concepts of success and failure, and a lot of them, after they’ve been through the ordeal [of the Barkley], really are not concerned how other people evaluate their performance."
For Iltis and Kane, who live in Los Angeles and both hail from big cities—Chicago and Philadelphia, respectively—making a film in rural Tennessee required a big leap out of their comfort zones. “I think what we were really searching for wasn’t the film, but to challenge ourselves,” Kane said. (They joke that everything went wrong during filming that could have. Most notably, Kane got lost for a whole day on the course.) “Our process was almost like our own version of the Barkley.”Some of you probably know about Scrivener, the writer's tool from Literature and Latte. (If you don't, the short explanation is that it isn't a word processor, it's an integrated development environment for books. It's cross-platform (although initially developed for Mac OS X —versions for Windows and Linux are available, and it's being ported to iOS and Android), modestly priced, and has more features than you can wave a bundle of sticks at, mostly oriented around managing, tagging, editing, and reorganizing collections of information including rich text files.) I've used it before on several novels, notably ones where the plot got so gnarly and tangled up that I badly needed a tool for refactoring plot strands, but the novel I've finished, "Neptune's Brood", is the first one that was written from start to finish in Scrivener, because I have a long-standing prejudice against entrusting all my data to a proprietary application, however good it might be. That Scrivener was good enough to drag me reluctantly in is probably newsworthy in and of itself.
First of all, I should note what Scrivener can't do for an author.
Many publishers these days have moved to electronic document workflow during production. Manuscripts are submitted in a standard format (they've settled on the hideous, proprietary, obsolete binary format of the Microsoft Word 97-2003.doc file, simply because that's what most people use). Copy edits are applied to the.doc file using Word's change tracking feature with annotations in place of post-it notes. If you want to process copy edits in this brave new world, you need a word processor, because Scrivener's view of a book is so radically different from Microsoft Word's single monolithic file that there's no way to reconcile the two and add Word-style change tracking to Scrivener. Luckily LibreOffice, a free fork of OpenOffice, is (a) free, (b) under active development again, and (c) can chow down on basic Word documents with change tracking and notes without throwing up most of the time. (The copy-edited manuscript of a novel does not contain Word BASIC macros, complex tables, or illustrations: it's just a stream of text with paragraph styles.)
So Scrivener stops supporting publisher workflow once you have submitted the manuscript. And arguably it stops an hour before then, because figuring out how to modify the output format generated by the Scrivener "Compile" menu option is a black art... I found it easier to slurp the resulting Word document into LibreOffice for final tidying up and reformatting before I submitted it. Scrivener doesn't support Word's paragraph style mechanism as far as I can tell; it simply emits styled text. So it's output isn't a direct product you can feed into an unattended turnkey pre-press package: you'll still have to pay someone to drive InDesign for you.
Other weaknesses: Scrivener 2.3 on OSX is a big program. There's an introductory tutorial project, and a video. And then there's a 300+ page manual in PDF. Why PDF, when Scrivener emits some of the cleanest epub files I've ever seen? And why doesn't it work with the OSX built-in help system? Who knows. Let's just say that learning Scrivener's ins and outs is an ongoing task. (For example, I was most of the way through this novel, the (counts) sixth that I've used Scrivener for to some extent, when I discovered that the Edit->Writing Tools submenu now contains a character name generator, as well as the obvious stuff like the spelling and grammar checker controls.)
General usage:
In Scrivener, if you're writing a book you start by creating a new project, just as you would if you were starting to write a program using an IDE like XCode. The project is a hierarchical outline-based container for your research notes (including PDFs and images and web pages, which you can slurp in as files or direct from the web by entering URLs) and the small files, or "scrivenings", that constitute the work in progress. Scrivenings are basically RTF files (more accurately, Apple's RTFD—a derivative format that allows the inclusion of additional sub-elements like images), or folders containing scrivenings. A chapter is basically a folder, and the scenes in the chapter are scrivenings, and you get a collapsible, hierarchical view. You also get the ability to edit scrivenings, either individually, or by multi-selecting a bunch of them and seeing them as a continuous scroll of text: most convenient if you want to edit scenes 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 in a chapter but not 3, 5, and 7, for example.
That's treating it as a scene-based word processor. Scrivener provides other tools for looking at your data. There's a cork-board, in which you see each scrivening as an index card, and in which metadata (notes, defined keywords, all sorts of stuff) is transparently visible. Or you can display it as an outline in a classical outline processor mode. The general effect is to make it easy to search, organize, and see views of your data, and trivially easy to restructure a hierarchical document as long as you've broken it down properly into chapters containing sub-documents.
Other tools: in some ways the most useful feature it provides for a jobbing author is the Project->Show Project Targets option. You get a floating window with progress bars (updated in real time) containing (a) your progress towards the target word count for the entire document, and (b) your progress towards your target word count for the day. As motivational goads go, this one is invaluable when you're slogging through the difficult middle of a book, and the ending seems as far away as the beginning. (Seriously, measuring your progress is one of the under-stated but vital tasks associated with any job: good luck getting Microsoft Word to help you with that.) Again: Scrivener projects can get quite large, and are structured internally as a folder hierarchy. Scrivener has an option to package them up as a zip archive (which can be emailed around, or re-imported later), and also to back them up to a private folder. Mine is linked to my (private) Dropbox account, for obvious reasons: it gives me version-controlled offsite backups. It's not quite git or subversion, but if you want those, there's a "sync with external folder" option which looks like, yes, you could use it to sync with a heavyweight configuration management system. (Note: in my opinion, novels don't need heavyweight version control—they virtually never fork and you seldom have as many as two authors. Straight linear versioning is fine for 95% of cases.)
Stuff I don't use: there's a full-screen mode for folks who like to write without distractions. They are not me, and I just don't use it. The keyword tagging... I can see types of work it would be useful for, but it's less obviously useful for fiction. Being able to define the status of a scrivening as planned, first-draft, or final is obviously useful to some people: but that's not how I work.
Finally, there's the question of how you get your data out of the application. You can do it piecemeal: Scrivener is happy to export individual scrivenings or files. Or you can do it wholesale, via the File->Compile menu. Which takes the assembled scrivenings, filters them in accordance with whatever crazy criteria you set ("exclude odd-numbered scrivenings in even-numbered chapters" looks like it ought to be possible), applies transformations to them (Scrivener understands MultiMarkDown, so if the idea of proprietary RTF brings you out in cooties you can write in MMD text files), and generates a finished document in one of the target output formats—Word.doc is one, but it can also produce RTF, PDF, ODT, Final Draft, and ebook formats—epub or Mobi for Kindle. What's more, if you used MultiMarkDown it can emit LaTeX; given its footnote and endnote support, it may be a very useful tool for preparing academic papers that need a final production pass in LaTeX (a horrible format to work with by hand, in my opinion).
This isn't a formal review: it's just a comment to the effect that Scrivener works pretty much from the moment of conception to the hour before final submission of a finished manuscript. It doesn't completely replace the word processor in my workflow, but it relegates it to a markup and proofing tool rather than being a central element of the process of creating a book. And that's about as major a change as the author's job has undergone since WYSIWYG word processing came along in the late 80s (actually the late 70s if you were a researcher at Xerox PARC, but the rest of us had to wait). My suspicion is that if this sort of tool spreads, the long-term result may be better structured novels with fewer dangling plot threads and internal inconsistencies. But time will tell.
PS: Comments are still switched off due to spammers. If you want to discuss it, the Google Groups Antipope storm refuge is open for new members and I'll start a topic thread there.WORCESTER - Three mosquito samples collected in Worcester have tested positive for West Nile virus, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The mosquitoes were collected on July 1 in the city and are the first case of West Nile detected in the state this year.
There is no elevated risk level or risk level change associated with this finding, authorities said.
"This is an expected finding at this time of year and given the heat and dry conditions we have been experiencing, we are expecting to see more and more WNV activity," said DPH State Epidemiologist Dr. Al DeMaria. "Tools for prevention include using a mosquito repellent with an EPA-registered ingredient according to the directions on the label, wearing clothing to reduce exposed skin when weather permits, draining standing water to prevent mosquito breeding and repairing window screens to keep mosquitoes out of your home."
West Nile is usually transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. In 2015, there were 10 human cases of West Nile infection identified in Massachusetts. While the virus can infect people of all ages, people over the age of 50 are at higher risk for severe |
in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft and allocation money. Parkhurst agreed to terms with the Crew and will be added to the club’s roster immediately pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate (ITC)
Professional Experience: Augsburg (2013-2014), FC. Nordsjælland (2008-2013), New England Revolution (2005-2008)In mid-July, a young mountain lion was captured by a surveilliance camera at Stater Bros. in Tustin.
Alisen Dupre and her son Chase, 6, lounge recently with cat Shadow, who the family believes was killed by a mountain lion outside their Tustin home on Monday, July 17. (Photo courtesy of Alisen Dupre)
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Chase Dupre, 6, holds the collar worn by his cat Shadow, who died July 17 in an animal attack. His parents say the cat was killed by the same mountain lion seen nearby at Stater Bros. in Tustin. (Photo courtesy of Alisen Dupre)
Chase Dupre, 6, plays with his cat Shadow, killed in an animal attack in a Tustin neigborhood. (Photo courtesy of Alisen Dupre)
A Tustin family believes their 10-year-old cat Shadow was killed by mountain lion. (Photo courtesy of Alisen Dupre)
At dawn two weeks back, Adam Dupre walked outside his Tustin home to find a devastating sight.
Family cat Shadow lay mortally injured, the victim of an animal attack.
“My husband was crying when he told me, and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen him cry,” said Alisen Dupre.
At first, the couple, who live in a town home complex off Red Hill Avenue, assumed a coyote was to blame — even though coyotes have become a rarity in the area, she said. Still, the deep puncture wounds on Shadow’s body seemed odd.
Later that same day, July 16, Dupre came across alarming chatter on the Facebook page, Tustin Buzz. Captured by a surveillance camera at the nearby Stater Bros., also on Red Hill, the blurry picture showed a mountain lion skulking by the grocer’s entrance.
Dupre started to suspect that the timing of her 10-year-old cat’s death squarely placed the mountain lion at the scene of the crime.
As word got out about the cougar in Tustin, the photo of the big cat made the rounds on television news.
“It looks to be a juvenile mountain lion with a weight of about 50 pounds,” Andrew Hughan, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said of the image.
Mountain lions typically grow to about 75 pounds, he said. Male and female cougars cannot be differentiated by appearance, so he could not identify the visitor’s sex.
The story of what happened to the smaller, domesticated cat received scant attention except in back-and-forth on social media.
“Shadow was mostly an outdoor cat because my husband is highly allergic,” Dupre said. “We adopted her as a stray, and my son grew up with her.”
Some Facebook commentators scolded the Dupres for allowing their cat to roam. Alisen Dupre retorted that Shadow was cared for and loved — especially by 6-year-old son Chase.
“My husband even built Shadow a heated cat condo in our back yard,” she said.
A cougar’s visit to an urban area is “unusual but not all that surprising,” said Hughan, who wouldn’t speculate whether the cougar killed the cat.
“The mountain lion could have come from Whiting Ranch (Wilderness Park) along the 241 corridor and to the (Tustin Ranch) golf club and end up in somebody’s yard,” he said. “There’s a lot of open space near Tustin and Irvine neighborhoods.”
Hughan surmised that the mountain lion was tracking a deer, its normal prey.
“Mountain lions are pretty patient,” he said. “Adult lions have a range of about 250 square miles, and juveniles 150. They bed down during the day and then come out again at night. Problem is, they can get lost.”
Mountain lions, which are not endangered, number about 6,000 throughout California. Hughan said they have plenty of deer to feast on in Orange County — so the mountain lion that showed up in Tustin was not in desperate straits.
When possible, Fish and Wildlife employees tranquilize displaced cougars and transport them back to their habitat, Hughan said. Apparently, this mountain lion found its way home or was hit by a car since no more sightings have been reported, he said.
California counts 15 mountain lion attacks on people since 1986. Only one was fatal, and all occurred in rural settings.
Hughan advises pet owners to keep cats and dogs indoors when not on leashes during walks.
Alisen Dupre said she is well aware of that familiar admonition.
“I have never not had a cat, and they’ve all been indoor-outdoor cats,” she said. “Cats love the outdoors.”
But for Shadow, that freedom came with a high price.
“My son is still trying to process our loss,” she said. “He told me, ‘Now Shadow is in heaven with Grandma and Grandma is petting her.”
Despite her family’s grief, Dupre said, she harbors no animosity toward Shadow’s likely hunter.
“Am I upset? Absolutely. Am I angry with the mountain lion? No. We are the ones living in its natural environment.”Manchester United have the option to buy Radamel Falcao at the end of his loan deal
Son of a defender, named after a midfielder, Radamel Falcao Garcia turned out to be a striker.
This is not a player with the virtues of versatility that Louis van Gaal prizes so highly.
The 28-year-old Colombian is an out-and-out centre forward, one of the best penalty area predators in the business.
Attacking the ball, front to goal, he is a force of nature. Like so many of the best Colombian players, his game developed with a move south to Argentina - he came up through the youth ranks with River Plate, where his compatriot Juan Pablo Angel also played before joining Aston Villa at the start of the century.
Radamel Falcao made his mark at Argentinian side River Plate during 2005-09
Argentine football often toughens up the Colombians mentally and develops them technically. In the case of Falcao, River Plate was a good finishing school for a natural finisher.
Right from the start his speciality was cutting in towards goal on the diagonal from the edge of the area.
In his time in Europe he has become more confident, powerful and effective: 'El Tigre' the tiger, who can tear defences apart with cool efficiency and frightening power off either foot or in the air.
Outside the box, though, he does not offer anything like as much.
The Colombian national team, for example, found it very hard to play him up front on his own.
Teofilo Gutierrez has usually been used alongside him for his capacity to drift out to the wings and link the play with his back to goal, aspects of Falcao's game which are not particularly impressive.
How United's strikers compare League data since 2011-12 Radamel Falcao * Wayne Rooney Robin van Persie Games played 88 93 99 Minutes played 7366 7576 8177 Goals 63 57 68 Shot conversion rate (%) 25.2 20.8 22.1 Mins/goal 116.9 132.9 120.3
Indeed, Falcao's international record was very disappointing until the emergence of James Rodriguez, whose attacking midfield quality could split the opposing defence and give Falcao a supply line.
But other than working out how best to give him good service, Falcao should provide few problems for Van Gaal. Deeply religious and well educated (he studied journalism while at River Plate), Falcao is unlikely to throw temper tantrums at Old Trafford.
Media playback is not supported on this device Radamel Falcao to join Manchester United on loan
He even sat alongside Colombia coach Jose Pekerman as the announcement was made that he would not be included in the World Cup squad, despite training round the clock to recover from a knee ligament injury.
Indeed, Falcao has a powerful incentive to make this move work. He is the king of the Europa League, winning the trophy in consecutive seasons with Porto and Atletico Madrid in 2011 and 12, and top scoring in both years.
But he has had few chances in the Champions League, and now, after a year with Monaco, he faces another season out of the premier club competition.
At the age of 28, time is running out for 'El Tigre' to prey on Champions League defences. Maybe he can score the goals to ensure that those big European nights return to Old Trafford.Rand Paul the diplomat
Some Republicans were clearly itching to mix it up with Secretary of State John Kerry at Thursday’s big Senate hearing on the Iran deal, accusing him of getting “bamboozled” and vowing to scuttle the agreement if they get the chance.
Then there was Rand Paul.
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The Kentucky senator and 2016 presidential contender adopted a more dispassionate, even diplomatic stance as he pecked away at the agreement during the Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Thursday. In doing so he contrasted himself not just with his more bombastic GOP colleagues but also with more hawkish rivals in the GOP presidential race, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are making their plans to undo the agreement a central plank of their foreign policy platforms.
Instead of launching into a monologue, Paul asked measured questions about why sanctions will be lifted so quickly under the agreement and whether Iran has any plans to create a nuclear bomb.
Though Paul is distinctly to the left of most 2016 GOP hopefuls on foreign policy, the Kentucky Republican was one of the first Republicans to publicly announce opposition to the deal last week, despite keeping what he called an “open mind” as the agreement came together. He dislikes the sanctions language in the pact and fears Iran can still develop a nuclear bomb.
But the libertarian-leaning senator made clear that he prefers a diplomatic settlement with Iran. The only other committee Republican who sounded that conciliatory was Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
Paul came in and out of the hearing room as he calculated when his turn would come up. Nearly four hours after the hearing began he finally got his chance. He didn’t raise his voice, allowed Kerry to finish his thoughts and avoided the explosive rhetoric of his colleagues. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the committee chairman, told Kerry he was “fleeced” by Iran; Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) used the term “bamboozled.”
“I continue to support a negotiated solution and think it preferable to war. I think a military solution in all likelihood would accelerate the possibility of them having nuclear weapons,” Paul said. “However it does have to be a good deal and I think that’s the debate we have.”
Combined with his support for negotiations, Paul’s stance against the deal is an attempt to thread the needle of criticisms he’s received from both ends of the party for either being too dovish or straying too far from the libertarian roots of his father, Ron Paul. And he didn’t exactly go easy on Kerry, challenging the secretary on whether phased sanctions relief was ever a part of the negotiations.
“My problem is that there’s a great deal of credence we’re hearing on snapback sanctions as this lever to get them to comply. Secretary Lew talked about there being a phased reduction in sanctions, that’s not exactly the way we read this agreement,” Paul said. “My preference would have been that there may be more of truly a phased reduction over a many-year period.”
Talking over Paul at times, Kerry said instead of a sanction time schedule based on calendar days, the administration extracted concessions that require Iran to end far-reaching components of its nuclear infrastructure. Lawmakers estimate that will occur in March or April, which means sanctions relief that comes too fast for Paul and most other Republicans.
“When that is done, we lift the fundamental components of international banking sanctions that are the heart of what brought them to the table,” Kerry said.
Paul probed whether Kerry trusted the Iranian negotiators, agreeing with the assertion that the agreement is not based on trust. But he questioned Kerry’s assertion in the hearing that if Tehran leaders follow the deal then it will deny Iran the tools to build a nuclear weapon. Reading quotes by Ayatollah Khamenei, Paul alleged that the Iranians did not actually agreed to refrain from developing such a bomb.
The administration, Paul said, claims “this would prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon and the Ayatollah is saying the opposite.”
Kerry said the Ayatollah is merely trying to show it can’t be bullied by the United States, not that he wants a nuclear bomb.
“The Supreme Leader’s quote is in this [nuclear deal] document that Iran will never go after a nuclear weapon and the Iranians happily put that in. And the intel community will tell you they have made zero decision,” Kerry told Paul.
While Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) had badgered Kerry over his long answers that ate up senators’ limited questioning time of seven minutes apiece, Paul seemed satisfied to let Kerry do most of the talking. And after he got his answer on the nuclear question, Paul said he was done, leaving about 30 seconds left on the clock. He then walked out of the hearing room and declined to elaborate to the media.On Thursday, Michelin released its 2017 Bib Gourmand list — awards given to restaurants that offer “excellent food at reasonable prices” — and 67 Bay Area restaurants made the grade, including four newcomers.
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Locanda Positano moving from San Carlos to Lafayette The first-time honorees are:
— Brown Sugar Kitchen, the West Oakland soul food restaurant owned by Food Network star Tanya Holland, a chef who is now expanding to San Francisco and Uptown Oakland. (2534 Mandela Parkway)
— Pausa, a year-old San Mateo restaurant where owner Steve Ugur and chef Andrea Giuliani focus on rustic Italian pastas, brick-oven pizzas and house-cured salumi (223 E. Fourth Ave.)
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— Royal Feast, a Millbrae restaurant where chef Zongyi Liu’s cooking goes beyond Szechuan specialties to include an abalone-rich menu of “aristocrat cuisine.” (148 El Camino Real)
— Playa in Mill Valley, a trendy Mexican spot by longtime restaurateur Bill Higgins and chef Omar Huerta that puts a contemporary, seasonal spin on classics. (41 Throckmorton Ave.)
Many Bay Area restaurants retained their Bib Gourmands, including The Bywater (Los Gatos); Orchard City Kitchen (Campbell); China Village (Albany); Comal, Corso, Great China, Ippuku and Tacos Sinaloa (all of Berkeley); Thai House (Danville); Vesta (Redwood City); Wonderful (Millbrae); and Michel Bistro, Millennium and Wood Tavern (all of Oakland). The remaining honorees are located in San Francisco or Wine Country.
Dropping off the list were a dozen restaurants, including one San Francisco eatery that closed, Bar Tartine. There could be many reasons for lack of inclusion, a Michelin representative said: The restaurant may have lost the distinction, for example, or had a change in chef — or been moved to the coveted Michelin star list.
Those awards will be announced the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 12.A bake-sale ban in Massachusetts schools, designed to combat youth obesity, has spawned a sort of nationwide food fight.
The crackdown on cookies is being met with a widespread criticism from bloggers, parents, and students who see it as a case of government gone too far. Turning brownies into contraband, they say, is the latest sign of a burgeoning "nanny state" that doesn't know its proper limits.
To blogger Bryan Preston, the move in Massachusetts is nothing less than a maker of national decline.
"It’s over. The whole American experiment. Over. Done," he wrote Monday on the PJ Media website. "The place where a stamp tax started a full blown revolution has now banned local school groups from selling tasty cakes to make a quick buck. Parents are angry, but no one has assembled the tar and feathers appropriate to the occasion. They probably banned tar for having too many calories."
Although it's a Massachusetts policy that has drawn the sudden attention, the issue of school food guidelines is national. It's under review by everyone from local school boards to the US Agriculture Department. As public officials consider ways to improve nutrition and reduce childhood obesity, rules and norms are changing in sometimes controversial ways.
In Massachusetts, a state law that becomes effective in August will limit access to junk food (including bake sale treats) at schools from a half-hour before the school day until a half-hour after it ends, according to local news reports this week. New guidelines from the state Department of Public Health go further, encouraging schools to apply the nutrition standards at all times.
“We’re at a place in Massachusetts where one-third of our kids in schools are either overweight or obese,” the department's medical director, Lauren Smith, said, according to The Patriot Ledger newspaper. The goal is to "create an environment in schools where kids have an opportunity to make choices among healthy options."
Many Americans, in the Bay State and elswhere, sympathize with the aim of improving nutrition. At the same time, many see bake sales as a tried-and-true fundraising vehicle that plays little role in the obesity problem.
Among Boston-area users of Twitter, the buzz on the policy is largely negative. "Banning bake sales to curb obesity? Such an obvious fail," wrote @SoniaSu_.
Many critics of the law argue that obesity has more to do with lack of exercise than with food choices. Some bloggers, moreover, see the restrictions as part of a broader trend toward micromanaging children's lives.
"Our kids don’t play outside as much as we did, they can’t go trick-or-treating without us dressing up and tagging along, and we’ve orchestrated their every waking moment so that they’re never alone or off-task," Katherine Ozment wrote on Boston Magazine's Boston Daily site. "Couldn’t we let them have the simple pleasure of selecting a sweet, homemade morsel at a school bake sale a couple times a year, then savoring each bite – as they may one day wish we’d let them savor childhood?"
Schools in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and Texas have crafted regulations designed to require bake sale items to be wholesome, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek report earlier this month.
"To end the confusion," Stephanie Armour wrote in the article, "the federal government is expected to weigh in this year with its own national school nutrition standards for food sold outside cafeterias. Yet that’s only led to more questions. The Agriculture Department says the new rules will allow infrequent bake sales during school hours but hasn’t said what infrequent means."
The to-and-fro over nutrition isn't a new feature in America's public policy arena.
Back in 2005, the Texas legislature passed a so-called "Safe Cupcake amendment" to ensure that tighter school standards wouldn't bar parents from occasionally sharing treats such as cupcakes at school.
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Some good news is that recent studies suggest that childhood obesity rates may be leveling off or even starting to decline.
But with the problem still viewed as a major health concern for the nation, it's safe to guess that debates over food policy – and "food police" – won't end any time soon.Singer recently unveiled his debut single 'Wall Of Glass'
Liam Gallagher has admitted that he would prefer to still be in Oasis than perform as a solo artist.
The singer played his first solo gig in Manchester earlier this week and unveiled his new single ‘Wall Of Glass’.
But he admitted that he would rather be back with his old bandmates.
“Yeah I prefer that. I mean, listen, I mean I prefer to be in Oasis. Let’s get that … We know that. I prefer to be in a band,” he told Radio X.
“But that’s not happening, so you can’t sit at home twiddling your thumbs, do you know what I mean?
”I’m not going to get a job. I guess, I mean I was always going to get back into it but I’ve got a band, man, the band are good but I guess my name is on top of it which suits me fine, man.”
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Meanwhile, Liam Gallagher has addressed ongoing speculation about a possible Oasis reunion, responding to rumours that the band could reform for the Ariana Grande Manchester benefit concert this weekend. The band have “unfinished business,” he admitted in an interview where he was quizzed about the rumoured reunion.
He added: “If Oasis ever got back together… if they do, they do. If they don’t, they don’t. A lot of people go, ‘Oh, leave it in the past, you were great then’. Mate, if we ever got back together, it would be happening. There’d be no dodgy gigs, it’d be bang on. So there is unfinished business there, but we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, we’re two little solo boys doing our little things innit.”
He also recently said that he “wouldn’t dare” anger the notoriously fanatical fanbase of dormant boy band One Direction.
On his debut solo single ‘Wall Of Glass’, Liam sings: “You were sold the one direction, I believe the resurrection is on”. Speaking to Pitchfork, Gallagher denied that the lyric was a reference to the pop group, saying: “I may look stupid but wouldn’t dare get on the wrong side of One Direction fans.”
The former Oasis frontman also recently spoke favourably of singer Harry Styles’ solo music in an interview with NME. Liam said: “I don’t mind it, man. There’s some interesting bits in it. I mean, I don’t know how it fucking goes, but fair play to him. I’m sure, like, it’s a bigger fucking cost. I’ve got the weight of Oasis still hanging over me and I’m sure I’ll always be that guy from Oasis, so I’m sure he’s carrying an equal weight. If he wants to get out of that pop world and into something with a bit more substance I think that’s a good thing.”
Liam Gallagher is expected to release his debut solo album ‘As You Were’ in October.As the Alberta government moves to strengthen rules surrounding the creation of Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs in publicly funded schools and the protect the privacy of the students who join them, there’s a question as to whether the public truly understands what happens when students meet.
“I think there is a big misunderstanding of what GSAs are like and how they work,” said Ace Peace, a transgender 12th grader who came out while he attended Valley Creek Middle School in Calgary. “The GSAs I have been a part of, it’s just a place you can go where you can be yourself, where you can not be afraid, to share things you couldn’t share in other places.
“It’s just a space that is provided if you need it.”
READ MORE: Calgary mom transforms tattoo in support of transgender son
In its fourth year of operation, Valley Creek’s GSA gives as many as 20 students a place where they spend one lunch hour a week feeling safe regardless of how they identify.
“We have no sense and nor do we care,” said teacher advisor Christee Rattee when asked about the split between students who identify as LGBTQ and those who are allies.
“It’s just about safety for whoever’s there for whatever reason they’ve chosen to be there.”
The group is student-directed. There is no official membership list, there is no roll call and members can come and go as they please throughout the year.
“It’s for anyone, just to create that environment that [has] that dynamic of ‘hey, I’m here, I’m welcomed, and that’s great,'” said Ryan Garon, another of the teacher advisors at Valley Creek.
READ MORE: Eggen introduces legislation to ensure Alberta students who join GSAs aren’t outed
Garon said while GSAs do provide students with the opportunity to discuss topics that might sometimes be difficult to talk about, it’s not the sole purpose of the group.
“What people think is ‘oh, it’s a GSA, all we’re talking about is gay and lesbian rights,'” said Garon. “Most often conversations are ‘hey, what did you eat for dinner, what was that cool movie you saw?'”
“It’s just completely [normal] conversation that occurs in any cafeteria, on any playground. It just happens to be a place for these kids to be more comfortable to be themselves if anything perhaps does come up, but that’s not in any way, shape or form the focus.”
Students also identify that a message of inclusivity and support is the reason for the group’s existence.
“It’s a safe environment where everyone can come together as a community,” said Cleo Smith, a ninth grader who attends the GSA as an ally.
“I just like being there for others and supporting them.”
The group provides those students on the verge of their high school years an opportunity to build confidence in an environment where they can feel comfortable.
“There’s a lot of changes that happen in high school,” said teacher Sarah Milliard. “They have [this] experience to take forward with them into high school that maybe just gives them that little more confidence push going forward.”
READ MORE: Edmonton-area schools ordered to allow gay-straight alliances for LGBTQ students
For Rattee, the affirmation from former students of the club’s impact underscores the need for the group.
“I had a note from a student a couple of years ago at the end of the year — a thank you note for being this child’s teacher. They wrapped it up by thanking me for ensuring the GSA kept going, and it was the one place every week where they felt they could just be themselves and where they felt really safe.
“They know they have a place in the building where they have allies, both students and teachers, and that’s exceptionally important for them.”News Release 13-073
Earth Day: Big Ecosystem Changes Viewed Through the Lens of Tiny Carnivorous Plants
Researchers use pitcher plants to identify signs of trouble dead ahead
In scientists' eyes, each leaf of the northern pitcher plant is a small ecosystem.
April 22, 2013
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In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.
---Kahlil Gibran
What do a pond or a lake and a carnivorous pitcher plant have in common?
The water-filled pool within a pitcher plant, it turns out, is a tiny ecosystem whose inner workings are similar to those of a full-scale water body.
Whether small carnivorous plant or huge lake, both are subject to the same ecological "tipping points," of concern on Earth Day--and every day, say scientists.
The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the paper, ecologists affiliated with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site in Massachusetts offer new insights about how such tipping points happen.
"Human societies, financial markets and ecosystems all may shift abruptly and unpredictably from one, often favored, state to another less desirable one," says Saran Twombly, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
"These researchers have looked at the minute ecosystems that thrive in pitcher plant leaves to determine early warning signals and to find ways of predicting and possibly forestalling such 'tipping points.'"
Life in lakes and ponds of all sizes can be disrupted when too many nutrients--such as in fertilizers and pollution--overload the system.
When that happens, these aquatic ecosystems can cross "tipping points" and change drastically. Excess nutrients cause algae to bloom. Bacteria eating the algae use up oxygen in the water. The result is a murky green lake.
"The first step to preventing tipping points is understanding what causes them," says Aaron Ellison, an ecologist at Harvard Forest and co-author of the paper. "For that, you need an experiment where you can demonstrate cause-and-effect."
Ellison and other scientists demonstrated how to reliably trigger a tipping point.
They continually added a set amount of organic matter--comparable to decomposing algae in a lake--to a small aquatic ecosystem: the tiny confines of a pitcher plant, a carnivorous plant native to eastern North America.
Each pitcher-shaped leaf holds about a quarter of an ounce of rainwater. Inside is a complex, multi-level food web of fly larvae and bacteria.
"The pitcher plant is its own little ecosystem," says Jennie Sirota, a researcher at North Dakota State University and lead author of the paper.
Similar to lake ecosystems, oxygen levels inside the water of a pitcher plant are controlled by photosynthesis and the behavior of resident organisms--in this case, mostly bacteria.
Ellison says that conducting an experiment with bacteria is like fast-forwarding through a video.
"A bacterial generation is 20 minutes, maybe an hour," he says. "In contrast, fish in a lake have generation times of a year or more.
"We would need to study a lake for 100 years to get the same information we can get from a pitcher plant in less than a week."
The same mathematical models, Ellison and colleagues discovered, can be used to describe a pitcher plant or a lake ecosystem.
To approximate an overload of nutrients in pitcher-plant water, the team fed set amounts of ground-up wasps to the plants.
"That's equivalent to a 200-pound person eating one or two McDonald's quarter-pounders every day for four days," says Ellison.
In pitcher plants with enough added wasps, an ecosystem tipping point reliably occurred about 45 hours after the start of feeding.
The scientists now have a way of creating tipping points. Their next step will be to identify the early warning signs.
"Tipping points may be easy to prevent," says Ellison, "if we know what to look for."
Other authors of the paper are Benjamin Baiser of Harvard Forest and Nicholas Gotelli of the University of Vermont.
-NSF-
The northern pitcher plant is known to biologists as Sarracenia purpurea for its purple color.
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Water-filled pools in pitcher plants have ecological dynamics similar to ponds and lakes.
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Oxygen sensors inside a northern pitcher plant reveal when a tipping point is reached.
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As part of experiments, ecologist Jennie Sirota feeds a wasp to a pitcher plant.
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Jennie Sirota conducts research deep within the confines of a dark bog.
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Trump warns it's 'possible' the US will drop out of Nafta
The North American Free Trade Agreement could be on the verge of disintegration after coming under sustained attack from Donald Trump, a longtime critic of the three-nation deal.
In comments made at the White House with Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, ahead of the start of fourth round of talks, Trump warned it was “possible” that the US would drop out of the 1994 deal.
Mexico warns that abandoning Nafta could end broader cooperation with US Read more
“I think Justin understands this, if we can’t make a deal, it’ll be terminated and that will be fine,” Trump said. “We have to protect our workers. So we’ll see what happens with Nafta, but I’ve been opposed to Nafta for a long time, in terms of the fairness of Nafta.”
Trudeau later said he was optimistic that an agreement would be reached. “Nafta has benefited millions of people and can benefit millions more,” Trudeau said, although he added that Nafta could use a “much-needed upgrade”.
Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico’s president, has also called for the modernization of the 23-year-old deal. But Mexican leaders have also warned that talks must conclude early next year before their presidential election campaign gets under way.
If the deal falls apart, the United States, Canada and Mexico would go back to a system of low tariffs on imports. But some agricultural products would be slapped with with far higher duties, including a 25% hike on shipments of beef, 45% on turkey, 75% on chicken, potatoes and high fructose corn syrup sent to Mexico from the US.
“Let me be forceful and direct,” Tom Donohue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce, said earlier this week. “There are several poison pill proposals still on the table that could doom the entire deal.”
The Chamber estimates that about 14m US jobs depend on trade with Canada and Mexico, and more than $1bn in commerce is conducted daily across the southern and northern borders.
But US business groups have expressed grave concern over Trump’s threat to pull out. More than 310 state and local chambers of commerce sent a letter to the administration urging the United States to improve but not end the trilateral agreement that, they said, has contributed to $1.2tn annually in trade.
“We recognize that this agreement is a quarter-century old. It makes sense to modernize it,” said Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. “But for the love of God don’t do any harm to something that has been so economically beneficial to states all across America.”
US proposals include limiting the number of federal government contracts that Mexican and Canadian companies can win, a provision that would cause the deal to automatically expire in five years unless all three countries vote to renew, and changes in how much of a product needs to be made in North America to come under Nafta protections.
Under current rules, at least 62% of the parts in a car sold in North America must come from the region to avoid being hit with taxes at the border. Under the US proposal, America would require more to be made in the country and less sourced from other members of the bloc.
But US union leaders, including representatives at the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers, have expressed support for the deal’s demise, a position shared by some Democrats.
Justin Trudeau to meet with Trump in fight for Nafta's future Read more
On Friday, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio offered his support, saying it was “about time” US trade negotiators “took the pen away from corporate lobbyists and started writing trade policy that puts American workers first. Any trade proposal that makes multinational corporations nervous is a good sign that it’s moving in the right direction for workers.”
But there is still some uncertainty whether Trump is deploying tough negotiating bluster or is seriously considering scuppering the agreement. After Donohue made his comments supporting the Nafta, Emily Davis, spokeswoman for the Office of the US Trade Representative, reiterated the administration’s position.
“The president has been clear that Nafta has been a disaster for many
Americans,” she said, and acknowledged that changes to the deal would “of course be opposed by entrenched Washington lobbyists and trade associations. We have always understood that draining the swamp would be controversial in Washington.”The Quebec branch of the online hacker collective Anonymous is taking credit for infiltrating the websites of the Montreal police and the union representing its officers.
Around 10:30 p.m. ET on Friday, the Montreal police website went offline, followed minutes later by that of the Montreal police brotherhood. As of 10 a.m. on Saturday, the former was still not working.
Anonymous said via Twitter the police were targeted because of the accusations of brutality during the recent student demonstrations, which have seen thousands take to the streets nightly in protest of recent austerity measures.
The group also indicated it will "ruin the life" of a police officer shown pepper spraying protesters in Montreal.
This cyberattack comes on the heels of similar attacks on the websites of Toronto police and the City of Ottawa.
Situation'sad,' says police
Montreal police tell CBC News it's working on getting its website back online.
Spokesman Manuel Couture described the situation as "sad" and said information on missing people, police contacts, and news releases are not accessible to the public when the website is down.
"There's a lot of information for the citizens, so it's pretty sad that right now, they don't have access to the site," he said.
However, Anonymous said it will continue to target Montreal police, even after the website is back online.
There are some frightfully fun surprises coming your way, so let me “treat” you to something special. Some would say we have put the ‘gore’ in our gourmet apples and I would have to agree.
First up is the Skull Apple, in honor of the Unleash the Villains events taking place at the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts! Are your taste buds ready? You better prepare them, because Disney fans heading to the Walt Disney World Resort will find a red cherry flavored candy apple covered in green chocolate at Sweet Spells in Beverly Sunset in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Look for a similar version at the Disneyland Resort. This gooey caramel apple delight has been layered with white chocolate to create the skull effect and can be found starting today at Candy Palace in Disneyland park; Trolley Treats in Disney California Adventure park; and Marceline’s Confectionery in the Downtown Disney District.
Other gourmet apples to consider include the Halloween Minnie apple, the Pumpkin Mickey apple and of course a Jack Skellington apple. Next month, |
NZ and Australia have urged both activists and whalers to calm down Australia has set a deadline for Japan to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean by November this year, or face international legal action. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was still hopeful that talks with Japan would lead to a voluntary halt. Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada is to visit Australia this weekend. Despite a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan kills hundreds of whales each year, ostensibly for scientific research. Blunt talk Mr Rudd told the Channel 7 TV station that Australia would "work with the Japanese to reduce, through negotiation, their current catch to zero". If we don't get that as a diplomatic agreement, let me tell you, we'll be going to the International Court of Justice
Australian PM Kevin Rudd "If that fails - and I'm saying this very bluntly... - if that fails, then we will initiate that court action before the commencement of the whaling season in November 2010." Australia has made such threats before but correspondents say the timing and assertive tone of this statement - coming just one day before Mr Okada is due to visit - gives the words added weight. The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says Mr Rudd has been criticised for backing away from an election promise to take international legal action against Japan for its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean. Mr Rudd is currently slipping in popularity polls and faces an election this year. "Now, that is a direct honouring of the commitment I gave to the Australian people. And that is the right [way] to handle it with a friend and partner, Japan, which is also a very significant, long-standing economic partner as well," he said. "That's the bottom line and we're very clear to the Japanese that's what we intend to do." High risk "Specifically, what we're putting to the Japanese is to take where they are now, which is the slaughter of some hundreds of whales each year and reduce that to zero," Mr Rudd said. THE LEGALITIES OF WHALING Objection - A country formally objects to the IWC moratorium, declaring itself exempt. Example: Norway Scientific - A nation issues unilateral'scientific permits'; any IWC member can do this. Example: Japan Aboriginal - IWC grants permits to indigenous groups for subsistence food. Example: Alaskan Inupiat "If we don't get that as a diplomatic agreement, let me tell you, we'll be going to the International Court of Justice." Our correspondent notes that international legal action also carries risks. If the prosecution fails, legal experts say it might embolden the Japanese to expand its activities. Australia and New Zealand have consistently opposed Japan's killing of hundreds of whales each year via a loophole in an international moratorium which allows "lethal research". Japan's new government has maintained its support for whaling, which has deep cultural significance for the Japanese people, since coming to power in September. Mr Okada will meet Mr Rudd and Defence Minister John Faulkner after arriving on Saturday before holding talks with Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith on Sunday. Japan is Australia's top export market with sales worth A$55 bn ($49 bn, £31.7 bn) in the year to last June. Anti-whaling groups have made a habit of joining the Japanese ships and trying to prevent them from catching whales. This has led to several violent confrontations, including the ramming of the Sea Shepherd activist group's boat. The group's leader, Peter Bethune, has been taken to Japan for questioning after he boarded a Japanese whaling ship earlier this week.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionBarely had the Sony Xperia Z Ultra saw the light of day and the Japan-based company is getting ready to add more smartphones to its current line-up. Sony has already sent in the invitations for a September 4th event, which will be held at IFA Berlin 2013 and it is rumored that it will be about the launch of the Sony Xperia Honami, a camera phone that is supposed to revive the CyberShot brand.
Also known as Sony i1, the new smartphone manufactured by the Japanese phone maker will reportedly pack a 20 megapixel camera, and, to be honest, to me it seems quite bizarre that Sony is sending the invitations two months ahead of the event.
As I was mentioning above, the Sony press event will take place on September 4, in Berlin, and the invitation is not mentioning the smartphone’s name, nor clues about it. Besides the highly-anticipated Sony Xperia Honami, the press event might also be about other new Sony products, like a new Xperia tablet, maybe some more mid-range smartphones, and about the Sony Xperia Z Ultra debut on the European market.
The rumor mill speculates that the Sony Xperia Honami camera phone will sport a full HD display sized 5 inches diagonally, while being powered by the mighty Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and Adreno 320 GPU. Of course, the major selling point of the Sony Xperia Honami will be its 20 megapixel camera, and since we will be dealing with a member of the CyberShot tribe we might also seem some innovative features for the camera app.
Once it will hit the market, the Sony Xperia Honami will have some heavy competition from Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Zoom and Nokia’s freshly launched Lumia 1020. While the first one has mid-range specs but a 16 megapixel camera with 10x optical zoom, the Nokia camera phone boasts a 41 megapixel PureView camera with some amazing options in the camera app.
Moreover, the rumor mill speculates that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 release date is also on September 4th, so Samsung’s next-gen phablet might get most of the public’s attention, while Sony’s Xperia Honami will not enjoy the buzz it deserves.
Do you believe that the Sony Xperia Honami will be capable to fight against the likes of Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom and Nokia Lumia 1020? Please let us know in the comments section below.The pharmacy technician resume sample will guide you in drafting your resume while apply for this job position. The pharmacy technician is responsible to work alongside the pharmacist and provide customers with the prescribed medications. Usually, he or she receives written prescription from the doctors and it’s their duty to provide the patients with the prescribed medications.
Pharmacy Technician Job Description
Apart from working alongside the pharmacist, the pharmacy technician is also responsible to perform many other duties. Following are some of the major job duties performed by people in this job:
Take the prescription from the customers provided by the health professional and dispense the appropriate medicines
Provide the exact amount of medications as prescribed
Package and label the medications
Accept the payments made by the customers and also process the insurance claims
Answer phone calls from doctors, customers and dealers
Maintain patient/customer information along with the prescription taken in the system
Organize the inventory and keep track of medication and supplies
Alert the pharmacist or the dealers about the supplies needed
Create compounds or mix medications as prescribed by the doctors
Pharmacy Technician Skills and Proficiencies
Understanding about different medications
Knowledge about pharmacological terminologies
Expert organizational and management skills
Ability to perform tasks in a detail oriented manner
Expert in performing quick mathematical calculations
Strong customer service orientation
Experienced in using syringes and managing other compounding activities
Proficient in using computer applications like MS Word, MS Excel, etc.
Pharmacy Technician Education
Most of the times the pharmacy technician learns things on the on-the-job training and do not require any specific educational background. However, candidates applying for this job position must at least possess a high school diploma or the equivalent. These days, many states have started regulating the pharmacy technicians that includes a process of passing an exam or completing a formal education or training program.
Pharmacy Technician Resume Writing Tips and Guidelines
Since this only criteria required for applying for this job position is high school diploma, a lot of candidates apply for this job. This increases the competition and raises the requirement of a good resume that will appeal the employer. Below are some of the basic tips and guidelines for writing a good pharmacy technician resume."The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media's hands yesterday -- both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.
William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.
Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death."You know from experience (and morning coffee consumption) whether you’re a night owl or an early bird, but what do you know about your body’s more subtle rhythms? According to chronobiologists (that is, scientists who study the effects of time on life processes), most of us are mentally sharpest some three hours after waking, when concentration and problem-solving abilities may be up to 30 percent better than at other times of day. This makes late morning the best time to puzzle through a complex decision or absorb new information. The best time to brave the dentist’s chair, by contrast, is in the afternoon, when the pain threshold in teeth is highest. To set a personal speed record, try scheduling your run or swim for early evening, when your perception of exertion is low and your muscles are at their most powerful. And the next time you’re winding down at happy hour, be thankful that the liver best detoxifies booze between 5 and 6 p.m.
In “Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream,” Jennifer Ackerman gives us an enthusiastic tour through 24 hours in the life of a typical human body. She demystifies our internal “clocks” and the genes that wind them, but also goes far beyond — revealing what science has to say about everything from whether you can catch a cold from being cold to the hows and whys of the orgasm. Such wide-ranging material has the potential to get out of hand, but here it is nicely tamed by the book’s lucid structure — with section headings that take us from “Morning” through “Afternoon” and into “Night.” An imaginary drive to work provides an opportunity to talk about multitasking behind the wheel (and why we are so very bad at it). An after-work party raises the topic of how our brains recognize faces, and how wafting pheromones may help to inflame sexual attraction.
Neophytes, and even science-phobes, will find Ackerman’s approach to biology welcoming. Her language is accessible, and she focuses heavily on “news you can use.” Studies show, for instance, that giving cancer drugs at carefully determined times of day can maximize their benefits and minimize their side effects, profoundly influencing a patient’s chances of survival. Even testing for asthma or hypertension too early in the day can yield false results.
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There are definite hazards, though, to writing about the biological basics, for the simple reason that each and every one of us owns and operates a body. It’s no surprise that “if you consume alcohol before the onset of a stressful event, the drink may reduce its impact,” as one expert reveals. Nor do we need a sleep researcher to confirm that the 10 extra minutes of sleep you get after hitting the snooze button “are not restorative or restful.” Ackerman even pays earnest attention to the mechanics of chewing (“mechanoreceptors on your tongue sort the pieces of your mouthful by size”).
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But just when your eyes have glazed over and you are ready to toss the book aside, Ackerman delivers another delightful tidbit. We learn, for example, that just thinking about an exercise — bending an elbow, say, or flexing an arm muscle — can actually boost strength in the muscles involved. (Couch potatoes, rejoice!) We learn, too, that yawns are contagious in only about half the population, and that it’s probably the half with the most self-awareness and empathy. (“Here’s a new gauge of character,” Ackerman writes: “Yawn and see who yawns back.”) Much to our chagrin, we learn that microscopic residents of our intestines may determine how fat we become: “Depending on your gut bacteria, that doughnut might have more calories for you — possibly as much as 30 percent more — than for your neighbor.” And we learn one reason that laughter is the best medicine: “The benefit of laughter to blood vessel health is nearly equal to that of aerobic activity.”
The weakest parts of the book are Ackerman’s many autobiographical asides. Her signature mix of science writing, personal memoir and literary references succeeded in her first two books, “Notes From the Shore” and “Chance in the House of Fate,” but primarily because Ackerman’s own search for emotional refuge, through connection with the natural world, was a prominent theme. In “Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream,” references to her family history — her sister’s profound mental retardation, the toll this took on her mother — are painfully out of place. Likewise, the section on color vision is not enhanced by the fact that Ackerman once sat face to face with a chimpanzee who liked to eat grapes. The neuroscience of multitasking is not clearer after we’ve heard the sad story of the “at risk” first grader she tutors in reading. Unfortunately, the frequent quotations from literature can also come across as self-indulgent and a bit formulaic.Q. I'm Trying To Lose Some Fat, But Everywhere I Go To Look For Helpful Information, I Get Conflicting Views On The Proper Macronutrient Ratio. Is There A Right Answer?
Great question! In reality, when you're trying to lose weight, there's no ironclad macronutrient law for mapping out your diet plan. No macro mix can save you if you eat way too many calories or way too few.
Yet your macro mix is an important consideration. Your body type, metabolism and weekly physical activity level all have some bearing on your ideal percentages for that moment in time. But that doesn't mean it will be the macronutrient ratio you'll use forever. It may change if and when your body weight or body fat fluctuates, or if you run into any plateaus.
Then there's the fact that you have to continuously manipulate your ratios throughout any fat-loss plan. The macronutrient ratio I typically play with for maintenance purposes is 50% protein, 35% carbs and 15% fats. But that's for me. I need to stay lean all year round. That ratio won't necessarily work for you because you have a different body type, fitness goal and activity level.
My body type is an ecto-mesomorph, which means it has a higher tolerance for carbs than most people. Even if I increase my carbs to 40-to-50 percent, I won't suffer. Not everybody is like that. Individuals who are carb-sensitive have to monitor their carbs closely and make adjustments in their ratios.
Macro-Morphing
Each body type or combination of body types will have a different reaction to various macronutrient ratios. If you're not sure which type you are—or how to even begin thinking about your macros—here are the ISSA recommendations:
Ectomorph: If you're an ectomorph, you're naturally thin with skinny limbs and a high tolerance for carbohydrates. Usually, your metabolic rate is fast. A good starting macronutrient ratio for you would be something like 25% protein, 55% carbs and 20% fat.
Mesomorph: Mesomorphs are naturally muscular and athletic. They have a moderate carbohydrate tolerance and a moderate metabolic rate. Mesomorphs can usually start at a 30% protein, 40% carb, 30% fat macronutrient ratio.
Endomorph: If you're naturally broad and thick, you're probably an endomorph. Endomorphs have a low carbohydrate tolerance and a slow metabolic rate. If you're an endomorph, try a ratio of 35% protein, 25% carbs and 40% fat.
Don't let your body type be an excuse for not reaching your goals. If you're an endomorph and have a difficult time leaning out, or are an ectomorph and can't seem to gain weight, don't give up. You can beat your biology; you just need to put some serious work into doing it. You need to want it bad enough.
Bottom Line: These ratios are a starting range for most body-types, but don't be afraid to experiment for better results. Sometimes, decreasing your carbs and increasing your good fats can show remarkable fat-loss results. Get to know your body!The man who spoiled Albert Pagara's unbeaten record knocks Filipino boxer Eugene Lagos unconscious in 3 rounds
Published 2:53 PM, April 02, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – Mexican tough man Cesar Juarez scored his third straight victory over a Filipino boxer, knocking out Eugene Lagos in 3 rounds on Saturday, April 1 (Sunday, April 2 in Manila) at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana, Mexico.
The 21-year-old "Rambo" Lagos (11-4-2, 7 knockouts) had stunned Juarez (20-5, 15 KOs) briefly in the first round before getting dropped in the third by a left hook as Juarez switched stances while moving into position. The referee continued to count to 10 even though Lagos was unconscious before he hit the canvas.
It was the first knockout loss for Lagos of Valencia City, Bukidnon, Philippines, who had previously fought in Thailand and Russia.
Juarez had made his name in 2015 with his brave stand against Nonito Donaire Jr, and cemented his reputation as a dangerous spoiler when he knocked out Filipino prospect Albert Pagara in 8 rounds last July to spoil his unbeaten record. He then followed that with a hard-fought unanimous decision over Richard Pumicpic in October.
An email sent out by event organizer Zanfer Promotions said there was some concern over Lagos' well-being after he didn't move for several moments, but he was able to answer questions and walked out on his own power.
Gesta returns after 18-month layoff
Filipino boxer Mercito Gesta had a successful return to the ring after 18 months off, winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Gilberto Gonzalez at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
Gesta (30-1-2, 16 KOs) had to get off the canvas in the third round of the lightweight fight after being dropped by an uppercut but still managed to earn the win by scores of 99-91, 98-92, and 96-93.
The 29-year-old Gesta of Mandaue City was trained by Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym for this fight. – Rappler.comYesterday, Shaquille O’Neal was at Rucker Park to promote the re-release of the Reebok Shaq Attaq IV and to act as a celebrity coach for the 2014 EBC Rucker Park All-Stars. In a wide-ranging interview, Shaq discussed his role as minority owner of the Sacramento Kings, DeMarcus Cousins, how he thinks the Knicks will do with the triangle offense and more.
Dime: Tell us about your involvement with the Kings and whether you get consulted on moves made by the team.
Shaq: I’m really involved. I talk to them all the time. I’m like a loud silent investor. Every now and then, they’ll consult me on moves. I’m not the main man, but I’m part of the team. Vivek [Ranadive] is the ultimate team player. Pete [D’Alessandro] is a team player. I’m not a loud owner that goes around and says I did this and I did that. But I’m there.
I was there when they designed the new arena. They called me the other day about a new practice facility, and asked me for my thoughts on whether they should build a new one or upgrade the old one. I told them the new one would cost us $30 million whereas the old one would cost $3 million. Most teams have practice facilities in the arena. I told them we don’t need to spend all that money, we could find a space to do that.
Dime: What have you been telling DeMarcus Cousins about improving his game?
Shaq: I tell him, ‘be yourself and dominate.’ First of all, if you don’t put numbers up, nobody’s going to look at you. Now that people are looking at you, you have to make them respect you. Sometimes when you do crazy stuff, nobody’s going to like it. But you can’t tame that passion. I want my big man to be mean. I don’t want my big man smiling all the time, so I don’t mind. All the greatest players were angry, and they talked all the time. Charles Barkley, myself, so many others. But we also put up numbers, we were positive and did the right things in the community.
Cousins will get technicals, he’s going to argue with the referees. That’s called passion and you never want to take a guy’s passion away. And not every guy has passion. I know, because I can give you five big guys right now who don’t have passion. I won’t tell you, but you know who they are.
Dime: What are your thoughts on Isaiah Thomas‘s departure to Phoenix?
Shaq: Isaiah and I are close. As players, we have to do what’s best for us. There was differences in the role and amount of money he wanted and things didn’t match up. He wanted to do something else. You can only wish him well.
Dime: How do you think Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher will do in New York with the triangle offense?
Shaq: They have to implement the triangle, embrace the triangle, love the triangle and master the triangle before they achieve any type of success. If any of those things are off, they might win some games and make the playoffs, but they won’t get to the level that everyone expects them to get to eventually.
The triangle is difficult, but it’s also easy. As players, sometimes you have to give up what you’ve got for the better of the team. See, I’m a master of slight manipulation. With the triangle in Los Angeles, it helped us because guys got open. It was easy. The offense ran through me and if I was tired I always looked to pass and get someone else involved. If I wasn’t tired and guys weren’t open, I went to work. My thing was always getting seven points a quarter. Once I got that, I’d look for Fisher, for Rick Fox, and then Kobe would do his thing. And suddenly, we were up 10 to 15 points in the second quarter.
If you look at the Bulls, they didn’t have a dominant big man and ran the triangle just fine. The Knicks have shooters. They’ve got guys who can play, but what they need now is consistency. They’re going to need a lot more from Carmelo, and consistency from J.R. Smith and all those guys. If they love the triangle and master it, they should be okay.
Dime: We noticed you’re wearing your championship ring from Miami today. How did this one compare to the other three titles you won in Los Angeles?
Shaq: I actually never wear my rings, but I was in my closet — where I keep all my rings — and I said let me wear this just one time. I went to the Football Hall of Fame induction event last month and everyone had their rings on, and I didn’t know you were supposed to wear your rings.
This title was pretty good compared to the others. I’m one of those players where if I win one, I want two. When I get two, I want three. Then I get three in a row, and I get greedy, I want four. I got traded, they said I was getting old, but I got my fourth. I’m always one of those guys who always wants more.
Dime: Carlos Boozer, Shawn Marion and several other players have a hip-hop compilation album coming out. Is there any current basketball rapper that can take the crown from you?
Shaq: Of course not. Of course not. But Stephen Jackson is pretty good.
Dime: The director of Sharknado has publicly said he’d like to have you for the third instalment. Have you seen the first two and are you interested?
Shaq: I was watching the first and second one last weekend and I said to myself, I’d love to be in Sharknado 3. I’d kill the sharks, eat them for dinner. I actually had my people call them so we’ll see what happens.
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Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HEREEverything You Need to Know About Homonormativity
We know what you're thinking: What is homonormativity? To put it in simplest terms, homonormativity is saying you’re not like most gay men. Homonormativity is dismissing black men in the club because, while you respect black people, you’re "just not attracted" to them. Homonormativity is thinking differently about someone you love on Twitter when you see they use a wheelchair IRL. Homonormativity is gay white men dominating queer TV representation and white cis men playing trans women. Homonormativity is the nation organizing for gay marriage, but not for trans lives. Homonormativity is a privileging set of hierarchies, social norms, and expectations that cause the oppressed to oppress one another.
Homonormativity is everywhere. It permeates into every fiber of queer life, ruining the community from inside out and top to bottom (no pun intended).
In the simplest terms, homonormativity is a set of rules used to decide which people in the queer community are the best. Homonormativity dictates that men should be muscular and masculine, while women should be slender and feminine. It encourages heterosexual mimicking wherein queer people get married, adopt children, attend church every weekend, and live in a suburban neighborhood with a white picket fence (think Modern Family). None of these things are inherently negative, but they can be when these desires of both lifestyle and trait determine who we interact with, who we help, and who we support.
Homonormativity made same-sex marriage priority number one, when trans people still can’t use bathrooms safely, can still be fired for being who they are, and can still be viciously abused by the prison system. Homonormativity tries, in essence to control how we feel about ourselves and others and it attempts to morph the queer community into the heterosexual community, having us act and live just like them.
Unfortunately, the topic of homonormativity still has yet to be commonly found outside of elite, intellectual texts that take way too long to get through and are often difficult for most people to access or comprehend. This is a big deal!
When information like this is inaccessible to the masses, you’re left with generations of queer people who can’t find the words to express the oppression that they’re facing. As a high school student, I didn’t know what I was being given from other people was wrong. I didn’t know people disliking and shaming me for being feminine was wrong. I thought I should hate myself too, and so I did. Luckily, I was blessed with a gay uncle who had spent a great deal of his life exploring cultural academia. He was able to talk me through this trauma and oppression, arming me with words like homonormativity and microaggression, which helped me not only live my reality, but to make it better. What I learned, at the simplest level, was how to advocate for myself.
If I hadn’t had the uncle that I do, I may still have been enforcing homonormative values on myself (butching it up) and on others (saying I wouldn’t date feminine gay men). As a community, we have to make knowledge about homonormativity available to everyone, so that people can speak up. The thing about societal trends like homonormativity is that they’re made to be insidious. We accept trends and norms as natural, when they are anything but natural. There is no correct way to be gay, or bi, or trans, or queer. Once you name homonormativity and point it out, it loses power.
We need homonormativity to lose power because it wrecks lives, tears communities apart, and even kills. Homonormativity can explain why masculine gay men are often left alone, tolerated at worst and accepted at best, by society, while feminine gay men (particularly POC) are still frequently attacked by aggressive mobs on the daily. Homonormativity is why there is actual legislation against the trans community, based on gross accusations and stereotypes about them, that will force them to use the bathroom of the gender they were assigned at birth (as if this legislation won’t cause unspeakable harm to these individuals). This is not liberal, culture-policing. This is real life.
The change needs to start from the bottom up. We need to be conscious about how we talk and how we conduct ourselves in public, both physically and online. We need to listen when people different from us talk, and recognize our own privileges and adjust accordingly (because no one is totally oppressed, we all have privileges somewhere). We need to organize for issues that are not gay marriage and fight for the rights of people who do not share our identities. We need to let queer people be queer people and stop enforcing molds created by a heterosexual world that wants us to be less like us and more like them.
Homonormativity is all of us this and more, but what it needs to be is history, not the present and future.As if Daylight Savings Time wasn't already confusing enough, it turns out that the latest version of Apple iOS operating system doesn't eliminate an existing bug that further confuses the matter.
Daylight Savings Time bugs have been around in iOS for years now. But somehow this one didn't get fixed despite Apple's complete revamp of the mobile operating system with iOS 7 and user complaints about the issue last year.
See also: Rob Ford Messes Up Daylight Saving Time
Right now if you open the Calendar app on your iPhone or iPad running the latest version of iOS, you'll notice that the red time indication bar displays the correct time, but is actually positioned an hour earlier than it should be.
Thankfully, the bug isn't incredibly damaging (you can still see the correct time numerically), but during the Daylight Savings Time switch day, any little bit of wrong information just adds to the temporal anxiety.
Years have passed and Apple's Daylight Savings Time bugs have persisted, so the fact that this one still shows up in the company's shiny new version of iOS indicates that someone may be deliberately asleep at the wheel on this one.A Sanders support in Iowa on Caucus Night negotiates the complex process that eventually led to a narrow but crucial Clinton win. That could all change by 2020.
For those longing for a continuation of the supposed Struggle for the Soul of the Democratic Party between 2016 supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the final meeting of the Democratic Unity Reform Commission may have been a disappointment. Members of the commission, appointed at last year’s Democratic convention for the purpose of addressing complaints by Sanders supporters that the nomination process was “rigged,” agreed unanimously on a set of changes that were not revolutionary, but will (if implemented) change the familiar landscape of the recent past.
One set of recommendations involved a part of the process that was originally intended to prevent the emergence of a disastrous nominee from the primaries: “superdelegates” (elected officials and DNC members) with convention votes not tied to any popular results. The commission agreed to reduce the number of “unbound” superdelegates by about 60 percent (others will still get a ticket to the convention, but will be bound by their state’s primary or caucus results like any other delegates). This result didn’t accomplish the Sandernista goal of abolishing superdelegates altogether, but was considered a sound compromise by those Sanders supporters who were interested in one.
Another recommendation dealt with Sanders’ complaints about “closed primaries” that kept independents — who went heavily for him in the 2016 contests — from participating. On this point the commission made another sensible compromise by recommending (the party has no real power to set rules for primaries, which are typically governed by state laws) same-day registration and re-registration opportunities so that indies can become instant Democrats. This reform was aimed at states — preeminently New York — that limit changes in party registration to a window that expires months before primaries.
Another set of recommendations involves transparency in the party’s own internal processes, especially those involving finances and arrangements with campaigns and consultants. This issue, of course, has arisen in conjunction with complaints — validated most recently by temporary DNC chair Donna Brazile — that the national party was in the tank for Hillary Clinton in 2016. After some wrangling, the commission reached an accommodation of both sides in the argument over the DNC’s behavior:
In the final recommendations, the commission proposed a 7-member Ombudsmen Council that included the elected chairs of the DNC’s 4 regional caucuses.
The Budget and Finance Committee would also include elected DNC members, and all of its members would have to disclose their potential conflicts of interest. Any expenditure of over $100,000 a year to outside vendors or consultants would require committee approval. Its meetings would be open to any member of the DNC, as would the DNC’s budget materials.
But perhaps the recommendation that will be most resented (and perhaps resisted) involves rules for party-run caucuses, and would require significant changes in the way Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Caucus would operate. Here’s an anxious description of the proposed reforms from the Des Moines Register:
Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Democratic presidential caucuses would break with decades of tradition in 2020 by allowing voters to cast absentee ballots and then releasing the raw total of votes won by each candidate….
Currently the Iowa caucuses (on the Democratic side of the aisle, at least) are complex and highly deliberative events where participants line up in “affinity groups” for candidates in an initial vote and then redivide after small groups are deemed “non-viable.” It’s not the sort of thing that lends itself to absentee voting. And it also makes “raw votes” relatively unimportant since the whole point is to create coalitions supporting delegates to a later state convention. In 2016, though, the refusal to report raw votes was thought to have perhaps denied Bernie Sanders a symbolic victory.
Taken together the two reforms would push Iowa Democrats toward the simpler process used by Iowa Republicans, who meet, sample some potluck offerings, hear a few speeches, vote on a presidential candidate, and then disband into the (usually) snowy night, with the results reported just like in a primary.
It’s important to understand that all these recommendations are just that:
The commission’s report now heads to the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which will have a 6-month period to amend party rules to enact the reforms, and could theoretically try to dilute the commission’s recommendations (though they would have to run any changes by the commission). The roster of over 400 voting DNC members will also get to vote on the proposals at the full DNC meeting in the fall of 2018.
So there’s plenty of time for backsliding — and backbiting, particularly among a minority of Sanders supporters who are still dissatisfied with the unity commission’s recommendations. But there’s a decent chance that by the time the 2020 presidential nominating contest rolls around, some of the stranger aspects of the process — especially in Iowa — will be changed for good.Josh Dehaas, CTV News
Canadian expatriate A.J. Specht was biking in Seoul last week when she saw a neon sign with a coffee mug logo and ‘Tim House’ written in a familiar red font.
For a moment, she thought Tim Hortons had arrived in South Korea, and was just using a slightly different name.
“I remembered seeing Tim Hortons in Maine back in 2008, but the name and logo had been changed to Tim's Bake Shop or something,” says the English teacher, who is originally from Bracebridge, Ont.
Indeed, Tim Hortons brands some locations ‘Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake Shop.’
“I thought, is this another one of those legitimate incarnations?” says Specht. “Then I realized it was just a rip-off.”
Specht posted a photo of the restaurant, which is near Daerim subway station, to her Facebook page. Her fellow Canadians found it amusing.
Tim Hortons is less amused.
“We’re thrilled that the Tim Hortons brand is loved and recognized around the world, but we’re always vigilant when it comes to protecting our intellectual property, especially as we expand internationally,” says Michelle Robichaud, director of public affairs.
“Although we are not currently operating in South Korea, we will continue to take the necessary steps to protect our trademarks,” she adds.
Specht says knockoffs of foreign brands, including Canada Goose parkas, are common in South Korea. “If I had a dollar for every Canada Goose knock-off I saw, I would be a very rich woman,” she adds.
But Specht is not disappointed about “Tim House.”
“I can't stand Tim's coffee,” she says.
Tim Hortons, which recently merged with Burger King in a takeover by Restaurant Brands International Inc., has approximately 4,500 restaurants. Most are in Canada and the U.S., but there are also some stores overseas, including in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.FBI Director James Comey will soon personally interview former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of the bureau’s investigation into whether classified information was mishandled on her server, according to a report from the website Mediaite, which has since made its way to the influential Drudge Report.
But is it true? Will Comey, who took office in September 2013, personally interview the Democratic presidential front-runner?
The report on which Mediaite bases its headline comes from Al Jazeera America. In a segment that aired Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s David Shuster reported that FBI investigators have finished examining Clinton’s emails and her private server and will soon begin interviewing her aides.
A Clinton interview will soon follow, Shuster reported, corroborating other recent reports.
But nowhere in the segment did Shuster state that Comey |
Oakbay Investments CEO Nazeem Howa said the Gupta family had decided to step down from all executive and non-executive positions in the company following a period of "sustained political attack" on them and their businesses.
He said it was possible that salaries may not be paid, following the closing of bank accounts.
"The closure of our bank accounts has made it virtually impossible to continue to do business in South Africa," Howa said in the letter.
"We are doing everything in our power to ensure this does not happen. We find it totally unacceptable that you, our employees, and your families, could potentially have to suffer as a result of the political campaign against us."
The letter was sent to News24 by an ANN7 staff member. It is believed the letter was sent to all staff working for companies under the Oakbay umbrella.
The letter followed an announcement by the Guptas and President Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane Zuma, that they were resigning from Oakbay Investments and Oakbay Resources and Energy.
Another staffer told News24 that whoever was running around and spreading rumours that ANN7 was going to close had no evidence of that.
He said the Gupta brothers had only been friendly towards employees.
"Whenever I met Atul Gupta, he has only been nice to me. He calls me... [by] my first name, and that says a lot," the staffer said.
On Sunday, City Press reported that Ajay and Atul Gupta, together with their wives and five of their assistants, had left South Africa for Dubai on Thursday evening. They were seen at Lanseria Airport "with a mountain of luggage".
The family have recently been accused of influencing the appointment of ministers.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by President Jacob Zuma, who is said to have close ties to the Gupta family.
Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor claimed that the Guptas had offered her the position of public enterprises minister in 2010 while Zuma was in the other room at the family’s Saxonwold home.
Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas has also claimed that the family offered him then-finance minister Nhlanhla Nene's job.Our latest exclusive mix comes from an artist we’ve been keeping an eye on for a while, so we’re hyped to welcome Samurai Breaks to the Dojo Mix Series! Hailing from Leeds but now based in Prague, the last month has seen Sam launch his Tsunami Bass Weight imprint with a big VA compilation and release a sick new single via Halogen Music. With releases coming soon on Ground Mass and support on Noisia Radio, we’re tipping Samurai Breaks for a big 2017.
Sam’s mix for DNB Dojo takes in the full range of 170BPM music with deep, halftime head nodders sitting alongside techstep rollers from the likes of Icicle and Mikal. There’s plenty of space in the bumper 106 minute selection for music from Terabyte, Subtitles Music, Critical, Free Love Digi and plenty more alongside a host of tasty dubs from the man himself and his cohorts at Tsunami Bass Weight. Sick selections; get to know!
As usual you can check out the mix via Soundcloud below or head to Youtube, Mixcloud, Hearthis.at or iTunes to stream. You can also grab a download from Google Drive.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/296057315″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Poztman – Magenta [Self Release]
Interline – Formula [Proximity]
Jaydrop – Return [Demand]
Dub Phizix – Hooligan Plague [Free Self Release]
Kimyan Law – Umbra [Blu Mar Ten]
Ptrcl & Sweetpea – Afterthought [Terabyte]
J.Robinson & Mental Forces – Corruption Dub VIP [Free Self Release]
Danny Scrilla – Tell Dem [Library Music]
Enei & Kasra – Inside The Box [Critical]
EAN – Aulderkincher [Cosmic Bridge]
Scartip – Lime [Audio Addict Records]
Subduktion – Rewind [Free Love Digi]
Raz – No Gimmicks [Free Self Release]
Shield – Horrormovie [Free Self Release]
HØST – BBZ [Sublow Audio]
Samurai Breaks – Garbage Fm [Tsunami Bass Weight]
Dub Phizix – Bugs [Free Self Release]
Brain Crisis – Hands Up [Subtitles Music]
Crypticz – Karnataka [Dub]
Mtwn – Particles [Break-fast Audio]
Hybris – Cleaner VIP [Critical]
Signal – Intercept [Free Self Release]
Icicle – Problem (feat. Skittles) [Shogun Audio]
Fracture – Gangbusters [Metalheadz]
Naiive – Let Go (feat. Xochi) [Terabyte]
Dubhead – Hullabaloo [Free Self Release]
Redraft & HP.Ritch – Tell Them [Terabyte]
Lecoughski – K Groove [Dub]
Dayle – I/D [Forthcoming Flexout Audio]
Kabuki – Pyrex [Free Self Release]
Grey Code – Earth Movement [Free Self Release]
Nausika & Brain Crisis – War Machine [Subtitles Music]
Mikal & Xtrah – At the Controls [Metalheadz]
Samurai Breaks – Malicious Intent [Forthcoming Groundmass]
Cirrus – Original [Terabyte]
Subduktion – Beware [Free Love Digi]
Fearful – Premonition (Vyking & Samurai Breaks Remix) [Free Self Release]
Richie Brains – B Boy 9000 [Exit Records]
Rockwell – Noir [Critical]
Creatures – Cerberus [Infidelity Records]
Mark Kloud – Myclonic [Tsunami Bass Weight]
Simulah – Ossicle [Tsunami Bass Weight]
Lecoughski – Deadline [Tsunami Bass Weight]
Subduktion – Create To Destroy [Tsunami Bass Weight]
Samurai Breaks & Vyking – Solar Power [Dubplate]
Simulah – Maega Morphin [Forthcoming Tsunami Bass Weight]Buy Photo Students walk past the Halle Library on the Eastern Michigan University campus in Ypsilanti on Thursday, April 16, 2015. (Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
It's a simple fact — $12 million is much bigger than $1.2 million.
That's why Oakland University President George Hynd and the Board of Trustees didn't have to really think about the rationale for increasing tuition by 8.48% last week and exceeding a state tuition cap. The Rochester school declined $1.2 million from the state in incentive money in exchange for getting $12 million in tuition revenue.
Eastern Michigan University made the same calculation in June — $1 million is much smaller than $10 million.
The simple math is a why university presidents across Michigan are coming to a similar conclusion: The incentive money attached to a state tuition cap and other performance measures put in place by Gov. Rick Snyder isn't a big enough carrot to keep tuition down.
Buy Photo Oakland University President George Hynd (Photo: Detroit Free Press)
If OU would have forfeited more money — like $6 million — for going over the cap, a different decision might have been made, Hynd admits.
University presidents said they think more schools will go with bigger increases in coming years unless a new funding system is put in place.
A completely new funding system isn't likely, but lawmakers say there will be talks this fall about tweaks, including increasing the penalty for exceeding the tuition cap.
"I think we've got to come back with some response to a tuition hike that is five times inflation," said state Rep. Al Pscholka, R-Stevensville, the chairman of the House appropriations committee and former chairman of the House higher education subcommittee. "I don't want us to overreact, but we need some response. We do need to put some teeth into it. I think we need to look at base funding and if they are going to increase tuition by X percent over cap, then we need to reduce the base funding. That's an option."
Snyder is taking a wait-and-see approach.
"The governor's office is always analyzing the impact of its initiatives and we will continue to monitor the role performance funding has played in holding down the cost of a college education for both new and returning students," spokesman Dave Murray said.
Hynd — and other university presidents — said they would like to see the funding formula looked at as well. They say they need more funding and blame state cuts — including a 15% cut in 2011 — for making these hikes necessary.
State Rep. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, agrees more state funding is needed.
"I'm always disappointed by these increases, because you know they will impact students," said Singh, who serves on the state House's higher education subcommittee. "I'm not surprised though. There isn't enough resources dedicated by the state to higher education.
"I hope my colleagues won't overreact and hurt those institutions because it just hurts students."
OU's decision
Last Monday and Tuesday, Hynd and other OU officials spent the day on the phone, talking with lawmakers, trying to make the case for why they were about to exceed the state-imposed tuition cap.
The argument boiled down to numbers. The amount of money needed to do the things Oakland wanted to do — add faculty, increase staff, upgrade technology, improve facilities — was much greater than the $1.2 million being offered by the state under performance funding. An 8.48% tuition hike would raise $12 million, enough to get a good start on what a new strategic plan told them they needed to be doing.
Related: Oakland University hikes tuition 8.48%
"From a pure dollar point, it makes all the sense to go over the cap," Hynd said. "We're getting squeezed from both ends. The state, over a number of years, has disinvested in higher education, and even though they have added money back recently, still are underfunding us. Parents and students want us to keep costs low.
"I think there needs to be a much larger conversation about how the public wants to fund higher education."
Michigan has two ways of dividing up its pot of money headed to the 15 public universities.
The bulk of the money comes through what is known as the "base," which is money coming to the universities the same way it has been coming for decades. There's no formula for how the money is divided. The amounts were set decades ago in political deals and the differences between the universities have stayed mostly the same.
The amounts range from the $295 million headed to the University of Michigan to the $12 million earmarked for Lake Superior State University.
Then, additional money slated for the universities is divided up based on a formula that looks at performance measures like graduation rates, percentage of students getting Pell Grants and percent of budget spent on instruction, along with several other items. In order to qualify for that pot of money, universities have to stay under a tuition cap, set this year at 3.2%.
This year, $20 million — or a 1.5% increase in total higher education funding — was divided up using the performance funding
Under the formula, Grand Valley State University gets the biggest percentage hike — 3%; while Wayne State University gets the smallest — 0.4%. Two years ago, Wayne State gave up its performance funding in favor of an 8.9% tuition increase and received an additional $7 million in tuition revenue. This year, Wayne State settled for a 3.2% hike.
Snyder introduced the cap and the performance funding in 2012.
"The tuition cap was included because the governor wants to keep a college education in reach for all students," Snyder spokesman Murray said. "We know that many students are leaving college with significant debt. Michigan needs to attract more students to post-secondary education, and cost is unquestionably an obstacle for many families."
Eastern's decision
Like Oakland, Eastern's decision to go over the cap was also a simple numbers game.
The university could stay under the cap and get about $1 million in performance funding. Or it could raise tuition 7.8% and get $10 million.
President Susan Martin, who stepped down earlier this month, said the extra money is needed after years of keeping tuition increases down, including no increase five years ago.
Related: EMU hikes tuition, forfeits $1M in state aid
Susan Martin (Photo: Handout)
"We have a very tight balance sheet," Martin said. "Our balance sheet is too thin. We need to improve our reserves and use the money to help with needed capital improvements. We never have enough money for what we need to do. We've tried to manage as best as we can, but this step was needed."
Eastern is a rare state public university to see a dip in its unrestricted net assets in the past couple of years, financial statements show. Unrestricted net assets are money that the university can spend however it wishes to spend. In many cases, university administrators and boards have targeted the money toward specific projects, but can change where that money is being spent if they wish.
At Eastern, unrestricted net assets dropped from $24.7 million at the end of the 2012-13 school year to $20.9 million at the end of the 2013-14 school year, the latest data available.
Oakland, on the other hand, saw its unrestricted net assets increase during the same time period, from $147 million to $154 million.
"Unspent investment income in the endowment fund was the primary funding source which increased OU's unrestricted net assets in FY2014," Vice President for Finance and Administration John Beaghan told the Free Press in a June e-mail. "Investment income can not be counted on annually to fund base expenditures, therefore, it is not a source of funding that can offset tuition increases."
Change the system?
No Michigan public university president will admit right now that they will raise tuition over whatever the cap is next year. Several, however, said they won't be surprised if there are a couple more universities that go over the cap for the same reasons as OU.
"The university board has the right to react to (the cap)," said Grand Valley President Thomas Haas. "They have the fiduciary responsibility to set the tuition rate and have to determine what is best for their university."
Haas likes the performance funding — "it brings accountability," he said. Grand Valley has done well under the funding formula, ranking first this year, with a 3% increase under performance funding.
But, he pointed out, the bulk of the money is still tied up in the base. And, Haas adds, that base has been cut over the last decade, making tuition the largest revenue source for universities, not state aid.
That's echoed by Daniel Hurley, the CEO of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan.
"If states begin reinvesting, tuition caps are unnecessary," Hurley said.
So how should Michigan fund its universities?
That depends on who you ask.
Central Michigan President George Ross has been the leading advocate to switching to a system much like K-12 funding in Michigan that assigns a dollar figure to each student. Universities then get state aid in a simple formula — number of students enrolled times dollar amount attached to each student equals funding.
"Our funding levels were set decades ago by political decisions," he said. "Dollars should follow students."
Central last year got $3,787 per student in state aid, according to figures from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency. That's below the state average of $4,775.
If Central got the average, it would have $31 million more in state aid.
The five lowest per-student schools – U-M-Dearborn, U-M-Flint, Saginaw Valley State University, Grand Valley and OU are the five newest universities in the state. OU has the lowest per-pupil state funding at $2,870. Wayne State has the highest, at $8,414.
Lake Superior State University President Thomas Pleger said the state funding should make sure to fund universities according to missions, including those who keep tuition low.
"Long-term, Michigan needs to have a series of access universities," Pelger said. "The state should invest so they can keep tuition low."
Convincing state lawmakers to change the system will be hard.
"The formula, for the most part, is working," said state Rep. Mike McCready, R-Bloomfield Hills, who is the chairman of the House higher education appropriations subcommittee. "When you create a formula, you need to stick with it.
"At the end of the day, each student will make their choice on where to go to school."
Tuition in Michigan
Michigan's public universities have set tuition for next year. Here's the increase and the average sticker cost for an in-state freshmen for a full year.
School % increase Average tuition cost Oakland University 8.48 $12,491 Eastern Michigan University 7.8 $10,417 University of Michigan - Flint 3.2 $11,562 University of Michigan - Dearborn 3.2 $11,458 Wayne State University 3.2 $10,416 Northern Michigan University 3.2 $9,680 Western Michigan University 3.2 $11,029 Saginaw Valley State University 3.2 $8,691 Michigan Technological University 3.1 $14,165 Grand Valley State University 3 $11,078 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor 2.7 $13,486 Michigan State University 2.7 $13,560 Lake Superior State University 2.67 $10,522 Ferris State University 2.65 $10,696 Central Michigan University 2.6 $11,800
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1IUqQkMHome and Professional Oven Differences
Pizza Ovens and wood-fired ovens
These types of ovens can naturally be used for making pizzas, but they are also very suitable for baking breads with a robust wet dough. They can generally reach a temperature of between 300°C and 600°C (570°F and 1110°F).
Professional pizza ovens in a pizzeria can typicall reach about 300 degrees, and are covered on the inside with stones.
Firewood and charcoal-fired ovens are usually made entirely of stone, and typically reaches 500°C - 600°C (930°F - 1110°F).
There is a lot of mass in the stones, which can store a lot of heat. The heat is also transferred relatively quickly from the stones through the air.
This means that, for example, a pizza can be baked in about 2-5 minutes.
Home Oven
Most home ovens can reach 250°C (480°F). A few can reach 300°C (570°F). I have read that one can tinker with pyrolysis settings so that they can reach 600°C (1110°F) and make pizza at that temperature. But I seriously doubt that it is good for the oven in the long run.
So a home oven cannot reach the same temperature as a pro-oven. Which is one of the reasons that it can be difficult to make good bread at home.
Oven capacity
Professional ovens run at 400 volts and use three phases. They are generally able to produce 27kW of power.
Home ovens running at 230 volts in Europe, can typically provide 2-3 kW of power.
Pizza and pro ovens can therefore pump 10 times as much power, and thus heat, into their heating chambers. So even if you open the door and some cold air rush into it, it does not matter much. The combination of the heavy stone in the oven and the abundant power do that they hold their temperature very well.
Bakery ovens does typically not use stones. They just have lots of power, which keeps the temperature stable.
Steam
Another difference between pro- and home- ovens is that the pro ones can run steam into the oven. The steam typically transfers heat ten times as efficiently as hot air. So the bread is more quickly heated up.
The steam also prevents the drying up of the surface of the dough. Which does that the bread can raise even more. The steam also adheres to the surface of the dough and give it the shiny, smooth and crunchy surface, known from the bakers bread. Therefore, it is hard to make as crisp a bread in a home oven.
Pizza and stone ovens typically do not use steam. Therefore, the loaves from such ovens have a deeper, rougher and tougher crust. And are not glossy.
Convection / hot air
Bakery Ovens circulates the air in the oven so that the temperature is uniform throughout the oven. Virtually every home oven has convection these days.Guinness World Records 2011
Comments Added on Sep 20, 2010 / Category : Misc
Guinness World Records 2011 continues to build on the intriguing, informative, inspiring and instructional records and superlatives that have made Guinness World Records one of the most famous brands and an annual best-seller around the world. New book promises to show off mother nature in all her incredible glory, with the world's smallest cow and the dog with the longest tongue and all their weird and wonderful friends.
With a tongue measuring 4.5 inches (11.43 cm) long, a Pekingese called Puggy is revealed to have the longest tongue on a dog in the new Guinness World Records 2011, which launches today.
Beer Barrel Saloon - Longest Bar The world's longest permanent continuous bar is the counter in the Beer Barrel Saloon which is 123.7 m 405 ft 10 in long and opened at Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, Ohio, USA, in 1989. The bar is fitted with 56 beer taps and surrounded by 160 bar stools. Longer temporary bars have been erected, notably for beer festivals.
Mexicans Victor "Larry" Gomez, Gabriel "Danny" Ramos Gomez, Luisa Lilia De Lira Aceves and Jesus Manuel Fajardo Aceves (pictured above) are four of a family of 19 that span five generations all suffering from the rare condition called Congenital Generalized Hypertrichosis, characterised by excessive facial and torso hair. The women are covered with a light to medium coat of hair while the men of the family have thick hair on approximately 98% of their body apart from their hands and feet.
The tallest man living is Sultan K�sen (Turkey, b.10 December 1982) who measured 246.5 cm (8 ft 1 in) in Ankara, Turkey, on 11 February 2009.
Dr David R. Adamovich (The Great Throwdini, USA) threw 102 14'' throwing knives around his partner, Target Girl Tina Nagy (USA) in 1 minute, in Freeport, New York, USA, on 26 December 2007.
A 24-ft (7.3-m) reticulated python called Fluffy is recognised for being the longest living snake in captivity in the new Guinness World Records 2011.
44-year-old Stephen Parkes from Nottingham poses with part of his record-breaking collection of Smurf memorabilia of 1,061 items.
In just 44.49 seconds, a Jack Russell called Anastasia sets the record for the fastest time to pop 100 balloons by a dog in the new Guinness World Records 2011.
11 year old Swallow from Yorkshire has been named the world s smallest cow, measuring just 33 inches. The tiny cow poses alongside Freddie the Bull for the launch of Guinness World Records 2011.
The most balloons inflated by the nose in 3 minutes are 23 and were achieved by Andrew Dahl (USA) on the set of Lo Show dei Record in Rome, Italy, on 18 March 2010.EDMONTON
The Countdown Clock in Edmonton hit 79 days, 3 hours and 17 minutes when Peter Montopoli returned to his Ottawa office from holidays Thursday.
The general secretary of the Canadian Soccer Association returned from a trip to Spain, his final break before the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and immediately checked out the numbers.
“We’re at 625,000,” he declared of ticket sales to date.
The snow is melting away. The Abby Wambach-led legal action to prevent the World Cup from being played on artificial turf has gone away. The draw has been held. The national mint commemorative coin program has been launched. The mascots have been revealed. And the trophy is on tour around the nation.
Four years ago in Germany the tournament drew 845,751 with 16 teams playing 32 games. That was an average of 26,430 per match.
The record is from USA 1999 that drew 1,194,215 (37,319 per match), a number Montopoli hopes Canada can hit prior to kickoff for the opening game June 6 in Edmonton.
“Our goal remains at 1.5 million for all 52 matches. It’s not that we have to sell 1.5 by June 6. We still have 30 days within the tournament and we know what it’s like when the tournament gets going.
“With over 625,000 and the snow starting to melt and people starting to think about what’s ahead this summer, we think we’re where we want to be in terms of reaching our end goal. At the end of the day it’s about filling the stadiums and I think we have a pretty good start.”
Montopoli, in the exclusive interview with your correspondent offered by far the first detailed breakdown of the numbers provided to date.
For starters he reported two sellouts, with another not far away.
The final in Vancouver has sold all 48,000 tickets available.
“I think that speaks volumes to the people across the country,” said Montopoli.
The second U.S.A. game in Winnipeg (versus Sweden, with the Americans going against their former World Cup and Olympic coach Pia Sundhage on a Friday night) has sold all of the 26,000 tickets available.
The other U.S.A. game in Winnipeg, versus Australia, is at 23,000 and will likely be the next sellout declared.
Hotels are already in short supply in Winnipeg.
“We’re finding a pattern. The U.S.A. matches are selling very, very fast.
“I have to say that United States consumers have bought a lot of tickets for the final in Vancouver. A lot of Americans are going to Winnipeg. A lot of Americans are going to Vancouver because they are playing their third match there. All those American games look like they’re going to be very early sellouts.
“If the United States ends up first in their group they would come and play in Edmonton in their Round of 16 game. And if Canada plays in our Round of 16 game in Vancouver and wins, our next game is in Edmonton. So these other games, until the opponent is determined, aren’t going to have their strongest ticket sales.”
The Americans may be buying tickets early but the ones from the rest of the world are just starting to kick in.
“We are starting to get our orders in now from the FIFA participating nations. We don’t have most of those numbers in. The FIFA hospitality package tickets are just starting to come in now as well.
“Initially, Montreal was slow but that’s starting to come on, with Brazil there, and Ottawa is coming on a bit with Germany involved,” said Montopoli.
Montreal at this stage is still selling lower-bowl tickets only in Olympic Stadium and tickets are available in virtually every section.
“Sales have been slower in Moncton. I have to say that,” said Montopoli of a stadium with temporary seats that may be configured as small as 15,000 with the disappointing start.
The focus for the next month, as it was planned from the beginning to tie in with the arrival of spring, will be ‘The Big Push’ in Edmonton.
You wouldn’t want to hold a FIFA World Cup in Canada and not get a sellout for the opener, especially in Edmonton where a sellout of the FIFA U-19 Women’s World Cup final in 2002 inspired this hosting in the first place.
Four years ago, Canada lost 2-1 to host Germany before 73,680 in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the same stadium where the final of the 2006 World Cup was held. In 1999 the USA-Denmark open drew 78,972 to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.
“It’ll be full,” said Montopoli of the June 6 opener in the next 54,000-seat configuration of Commonwealth Stadium.
“I promise you, it will be a full stadium,” said Montopoli.
“We’ve passed the 20,000 barrier and it’s now just over 22,000 for that first game.”
The numbers may sound low but the dollars are high.
Lower bowl centre stadium sections D, E, F, G, H, I, J K, U, T, R — all featuring $100-plus tickets for the more pricey opening ceremonies and Canada-China, New Zealand-Netherlands doubleheader — are already completely sold out.
And only a handful of seats remain in sections C, L, S, V and W.
Two end-zone ($35) sections are sold and two others are down to fewer than 100 seats remaining.
It’s the lower bowl corners and upper deck $50 seats where there’s plenty of choice.
It’s already about a $2 million gate. Tickets for the following games are much more reasonable.
“For the Canada matches we’re at about 40% sold,” he said of the pair of group-play games in Edmonton and one in Montreal, where virtually no sections have been sold out.
“That’s not a disappointment on our end. I want to stress that. It’s a reflection of a number of things. It’s been a harsh winter for many and up until now it hasn’t been reflective that they are looking to buy soccer tickets for June. But we are completely confident they will when we start ramping up the promotions in April.”
The Big Push in Edmonton starts today.
“We’re in Edmonton Friday announcing our new kit for the tournament. The mayor is about to announce a special initiative. We have plans to bring players and coaches in to Edmonton over the next six weeks. The Coca-Cola Trophy tour is coming into town. We have a lot of activities planned in Edmonton intentionally timed for this stage of the countdown.
“In the case of Edmonton, there’s the size of your stadium. It’s a little different than Winnipeg. The Winnipeg Stadium is going to be about 20,000 less than what we have in Edmonton.
“People in Edmonton may have a feeling they can wait until the day of the game. But my message is don’t wait, because we don’t think that will be the case.”
Eleven of the 52 games, including the June 6 opener in Edmonton, the June 11 Canada-versus-New Zealand game and a semifinal featuring Canada should the Olympic bronze medal winners get that far, are scheduled for Commonwealth Stadium. That’s the most of any of the six host cities for the first 32-team FIFA Women’s World Cup in history.
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terry.jones@sunmedia.caSick of advertisements in your video games? Well, once upon a time, the video games were the ads. A number of titles were produced from the ground-up to be nothing but a sales pitch--one you had to pay to see. Luckily for mankind, this corporate cabal shot itself in the foot. Most of the games were so jaw-droppingly shitty that few have attempted it since (we're looking at you, Burger King). How shitty were they? Behold: Advertisement
10 The California Raisins: The Grape Escape (Nintendo, 1991) For those readers too young/senile to remember, these desiccated purple turds were the claymation spokesfruits for the California raisin industry. Like a carnival freak show, folks were intrigued by the Raisins overall grossness, and raisin sales initially shot up as people bought the product out of morbid curiosity. However, the Raisins popularity waned as consumers soon could not look at them without dry heaving. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Legendary game designer Capcom (Mega Man, Final Fight) produced The Grape Escape in the dying days of the Raisins' fame. Luckily for Capcom's reputation and the human condition, the game was never released. If you have a taste for sadomasochism and dried fruit, know that this monstrosity occasionally pops up on eBay. Surprisingly enough, your raisin's primary weapon was not his own horrible shriveled face. No, it was a "Raisin Rifle" or a "Goop Gun" or a "Puree Peashooter" or whatever. Anyway, when you shot foes with raisin gunk, in actuality you were slinging your own bodily fluids around. That's a Freudian quagmire we have zero interest marching into.Clallam Transit has approved a daily bus service from downtown Port Angeles to the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal.
Transit board members voted 8-0 March 20 to approve the No. 123 “Strait Shot” route after a public hearing in Forks.
The 75-mile, transfer-free service will begin June 18.
It will cost $10 for adults to ride the Strait Shot one way. The cost will be $5 for youths, Clallam Transit pass holders, Peninsula College students and anyone with a Regional Reduced Fare Permit.
“We are all excited,” Clallam Transit General Manager Wendy Clark-Getzin said after the meeting.
“There was overwhelming support and optimism that we are going to be very successful.”
The 39-seat commuter bus will make two trips to Bainbridge Island and back on weekdays and Saturdays and one trip on Sundays.
The wheelchair-accessible bus will leave the Port Angeles Gateway Transit Center at 7:25 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. weekdays, 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. Saturdays and 3:15 p.m. Sundays.
Return trips will leave the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal at 10:20 a.m. and 8:10 p.m. weekdays, 10:20 a.m. and 7:10 p.m. Saturdays and 6:15 p.m. Sundays.
The bus will make quick stops in Sequim, Blyn, Discovery Bay, Poulsbo and Agate Pass. The cost will be the same — $10 or $5 — at each stop.
Clallam Transit operations manager Steve Hopkins designed the Strait Shot schedule to avoid rush-hour traffic on state Highway 305 through Poulsbo and Bainbridge Island and peak congestion from Seattle commuters unloading at the state ferry terminal.
The scheduled drive time will be two hours or less, depending on the specific run.
Clallam Transit received 146 comments about the proposal though its general email and eight verbal comments at the hearing.
“Consistently the responses are in favor of it,” said Bill Peach, Clallam Transit board member and county commissioner.
Peach and other voting members of the Clallam Transit board cleared the way the new service in separate resolutions approving the service change, amending the fare structure and adopting a policy for out-of-boundary fare setting.
“We had a wonderful group of public testifiers,” Clark-Getzin said.
“There was a couple that came all the way out from Port Angeles to be seen and heard. They were speaking in terms of commuters.”
One of the speakers said he would use the Strait Shot to commute from Clallam County to the Bellevue area, Peach said.
The No. 123 bus will have reclining seats, reading lights and overhead storage space, transit officials said.
An optimistic concern expressed at the hearing was that the Sunday bus would be overcrowded, Peach said.
“If they’re seeing that kind of use, then the game plan is to have a second bus (on Sundays),” Peach said.
Transit officials will monitor ridership on the Strait Shot for the next nine months to a year and adjust fares and schedules if necessary.
Clallam Transit designed the Strait Shot fares to recover 100 percent of the operating cost, Clark-Getzin said.
To get from Port Angeles to Bainbridge Island on public transportation now, a traveler must transfer to a different bus in Sequim, Port Townsend and Poulsbo.
Olympic Bus Lines provides twice-daily trips from The Gateway to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport via the Edmonds-Kingston ferry, with stops at Seattle hospitals and the Greyhound and Amtrak stations. The trip to the airport on the Dungeness Line is $49 for adults and $25 for youths.
Rocket Transportation provides door-to-door shuttle service to the Seattle area.
The Strait Shot will be the first out-of-boundary service that Clallam Transit has offered since the public transportation agency was formed in 1979, Clark-Getzin said.
“It’s a really good project and it stands out,” Peach said.
Rob Ollikainen is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.SPEYER, Germany (Reuters) - Leaders from the United States, Russia and across Europe paid tribute on Saturday to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl as the architect of German reunification and a driving force for European integration.
German soldiers carry the coffin of late former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl during of a memorial ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Kohl, who died on June 16 at 87, was lauded at a ceremony at the European Parliament as a dedicated European who abhorred war by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other figures.
A funeral service was held later on Saturday with 900 invited guests at Speyer Cathedral, where as a teenager Kohl found shelter from World War Two aerial bombings.
His casket was flown by helicopter from Strasbourg to his hometown Ludwigshafen before being carried by boat up the Rhine to Speyer, one of Germany’s oldest towns where Kohl took former world leaders including Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Mikail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Margaret Thatcher for private meetings.
“Helmut Kohl gave us the chance to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our terms in office and bigger than our fleeting careers,” Clinton said in Strasbourg of the man who was German chancellor from 1982 to 1998 and oversaw German reunification in 1990.
The two-hour memorial in Strasbourg, a city that has often changed hands and now lies in France, symbolized the role Kohl played in reconciling the two erstwhile |
realizing that convergence of video, live events and the game itself are providing consumers the cross-screen entertainment they desire from their favorite franchises. The role that mobile screens play in this is crucial. We believe the uptake of mobile games as esports will accelerate in 2016, particularly in Asia, as many start-ups intensify their efforts and global mobile players get involved. Supercell’s most recent title, Clash Royale, is the ultimate example.
A selection of key facts from the 2016 Global Esports Market Report:
There were 112 major esports events in 2015 and they generated an estimated $20.6 million in ticket revenues. The total prize money of all esports events held in 2015 reached $61.0 million, a 70% year-on-year increase.
The global Esports Audience was 226 million gamers and the number of Esports Enthusiasts reached 115 million in 2015, a YoY growth of 27.7%.
Global revenues in 2015 reached $325 million, a growth rate of than 67.4%. North America accounted for $121 million of this.
Online advertising is the fastest growing revenue segment, up 99.6% on a global scale compared to 2014.
The average annual revenue per Esports Enthusiast was $2.83 in 2015 and is expected to grow to $3.53 this year, still a factor four lower than a mature traditional sport such as basketball, which generates revenues of $15 per fan per year.
The Esports Audience boasts a very valuable demographic, skewing towards consumers with a full-time job and relatively high income. The report shows that they are also big spenders on digital media subscriptions, hardware and mobile content including games.
Methodology: Newzoo’s Global Esports Audience and Revenue Model
The methodology for Newzoo’s esports data consists of three levels: 1) Data Input, 2) Predictive Modeling and 3) Result Validation. For Data Input, extensive primary consumer research across the globe sizes and profiles esports awareness and engagement. Newzoo also continuously tracks and analyses company revenues, live event audience figures, prize money, and video content viewer data. Predictive Modeling uses parts of Newzoo’s Global Games Market predictive model, which consists of several complex databases combining numerous data streams, financial analysis, primary research, as well as population and economic census data. Result Validation is done in two ways: through additional research and by discussing findings with companies including game publishers, esports teams, global streaming companies and local media companies.
Relevant Links:Earlier this year, Valve sent the mod community into crisis mode with paid mods for Skyrim. It Earlier this year, Valve sent the mod community into crisis mode with paid mods forSkyrim. It did not end well
And yet, Valve never said they were done -done with giving modders the option to charge for their creations. Rather, they concluded that they had some thinking to do about how they presented paid mods, and that they believed there was “a useful feature somewhere here.”
During a recent trip to Valve’s offices in Seattle, I asked Valve business authority Erik Johnson and man of many hats (including TF2’s) Robin Walker about what they’ve learned while staring into the deep, dark mirror that is hindsight.
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“We’re willing to take risks,” said Johnson, “but sometimes we’re just wrong. We definitely screwed up things in the details.”
I asked if they felt like perhaps they Pulled A Valve and I asked if they felt like perhaps they Pulled A Valve and relied on numbers too much, rather than talking to human people with flesh and blood and the ability to slough out tiny genetic copies of themselves. Johnson and Walker fully agreed that Valve’s communication of the idea was poor, but not in that way.
“We talked to that community a bunch ahead of time,” said Walker. “That was entirely from customers and mod-makers. What number could we have looked at there?”
“Robin made Team Fortress when he was seven years-old or two or something,” said Johnson, “in the bush in Australia with no electricity. On paper. If you ask Robin in passing, ‘What do you think about people being able to pay for mods,’ his reaction is gonna be like, ‘That’s awesome! I wish I had that option before I was a professional working at Valve. I wanted to pay bills and have a customer base.’”
For sure, Skyrim, specifically. For sure, some people wanted paid mods to stick around. They felt like the community uproar was just a single, densely packed growing pain—more an angry howl than a seething rage. In the end, though, Valve felt like they poisoned the well withSkyrim, specifically.
“We screwed things up in the details,” Johnson noted. When I suggested that perhaps they could’ve tested the waters with some survey-type forum threads on Steam or Reddit—slowly warmed people up to the idea instead of springing it on them cold—Johnson added, “I agree that we could’ve done it a lot better.”
For Skyrim in particular—with its vast, established modding community, rife with room for drama over attribution, combo mods, etc—Johnson feels like Valve also miscommunicated why they chose to do what they did. “If you look back specifically at the Skyrim situation,” he said, “while it wasn’t our intent, it was really easy to read that as, ‘Remember that thing you love? You pay money for that now.’ That’s an awful plan. That’s a terrible plan.”
“I think the magnitude of the reaction was also like, ‘Did Valve just turn evil on us?’” Johnson continued. “We don’t think we did, but we can see how it got miscommunicated that way. I know Robin will say this too, but it was one of the most awful weekends I’ve had working at Valve. It felt really, really terrible reading through all of that.”
Despite the dumpster explosion disaster that Skyrim ’s paid mods turned into, Johnson explained that Valve is committed to compensating people for their work, even if that work is play.
“In our own games— DOTA, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike —we have a huge number of people who are making content (which isn’t much different from a mod) who can then sell that and make a living. That’s really important,” he said.
“People who make stickers in Counter-Strike, or item sets in DOTA, or who play professional Counter-Strike or DOTA, or who make mods—we think of all those as part of the same group of people, who are creating value for our online communities,” he added. “It’s all user-generated stuff. Even people just playing games are adding value. And we feel like people should be compensated for that value, whether it’s through dollars or item drops. We need to be the people who are making sure that value is being compensated for appropriately. We think people getting paid is really important.”
Then we moved on to the elephant in the room: thanks to an unsuccessful first attempt, people who would’ve otherwise been on the fence or slightly opposed to the concept of paid mods are now super opposed. Can Valve make this work in the future with all that baggage trailing behind them? Johnson thinks so.
“You need something that’s like, ‘Here’s the new thing. Somebody spent a couple years on it, and it’s amazing. It’s for sale,’” Johnson explained. “We didn’t really have anything like that [last time], so it came across poorly.”
“I think it’s about being really transparent and offering something that’s cool,” he said. “I think customers are pretty smart. I think they get it.”
The other big thing? No more stomping into colossal, legacied communities like Skyrim ’s. That, Johnson and Walker agreed, was definitely a bad call. If they try again, they’ll likely start on the ground floor of something, though it won’t necessarily be a Valve game.
“I don’t think it matters whether it’s a game of ours or not,” said Johnson, “but I do agree that walking into a pre-existing, very mature community is probably not the best place to start.”
“Especially if they don’t know us,” added Walker. “That’s one of the main advantages to picking our own games. Our customers are more familar with us and the way we work. I think they understand our thinking.”
“They have a fair reason to trust that we haven’t completely lost the plot,” Johnson chuckled.
Here’s hoping.
You’re reading
You’re reading Steamed, Kotaku’s page dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s stupidly popular PC gaming service. Games, culture, community creations, criticism, guides, videos—everything. If you’ve found anything cool/awful on Steam, send us an email to let us know.Donald Trump is attending a fundraiser in Colorado on Thursday but will not make a speech on immigration, his campaign now says, despite national media reports announcing the event.
Lydia Blaha, a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign in Colorado, said he will not hold an event in coordination with the fundraising trip, as first reported by Univision and other media outlets. The campaign was exploring a Denver-area location for the event, but later reversed course. The campaign told supporters in an email “the speech (Trump) was planning on giving is still being modified.”
Still, the Republican presidential nominee will attend a big-dollar fundraiser in Aspen that includes the option for a VIP meeting with Trump for donors who contribute $25,000 or more.
Two days earlier, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is scheduled to campaign in Colorado. The Virginia senator will talk with small business leaders in Lakewood in a private meeting, as part of a trip that likely includes other nonpublic events.
Trump’s comments about immigration generated significant attention in recent days and is a major issue in Colorado, where Latinos represent about 20 percent of the population and roughly 15 percent of the voters.
Trump’s hard-line stances on immigration — particularly his proposal to deport as many as 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally and linking immigrants to crime — is being credited for hurting his numbers in Colorado, where he trails Democrat Hillary Clinton by double-digits in multiple polls.
But he appears willing to revisit his position, according to multiple national media reports, after meeting with Hispanic leaders Saturday. Trump told Fox News on Monday that he is “not flip-flopping” but is exploring how to find a “really fair, but firm” plan to address illegal immigration.
Clinton’s campaign launched a Latino voter initiative in Colorado on Saturday to mobilize voters that included U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas.
The high-profile visits come as Democrats appear increasingly confident in Colorado with the Clinton campaign and a super PAC supporting her bid canceling television advertising in the state to divert the money to other states. Still, Clinton’s campaign vows it’s not pulling out of Colorado.
Meanwhile, Trump is just getting his campaign started in the state. A week ago, Trump announced a team of paid staff and organizers — months after Clinton put hers in place. Most of the names represent a “B List” team as more prominent Republican officials and operatives remain on the sidelines amid Trump’s candidacy.
Trump’s most prominent supporter in Colorado is businessman Larry Mizel, who is a finance co-chairman and a host for the campaign’s Aspen fundraiser.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story, relying on multiple national media reports, gave incorrect information about Trump’s trip to Colorado.It’s nothing new to report that aspartame is an artificial sweetener everyone should aim to avoid. In the past, it has been proven to contribute to a list of ailments, including Diabetes, neurological concerns, weight gain, brain fog, and more.
But in a study (published in 2014) which took place over 10 years and involved 60,000 women, it was determined that women who drink two or more diet drinks a day have much higher cardiovascular disease rates and are more likely to die from the disease.
In the largest study of its kind, The University of Iowa concluded the following:
[C]ompared to women who never or only rarely consume diet drinks, those who consume two or more a day are 30 percent more likely to have a cardiovascular event [heart attack or stroke] and 50 percent more likely to die from related disease. This is one of the largest studies on this topic, and our findings are consistent with some previous data, especially those linking diet drinks to the metabolic syndrome, says Dr. Ankur Vyas the lead investigator of the study. The association persisted even after researchers adjusted the data to account for demographic characteristics and other cardiovascular risk factors, including body mass index, smoking, hormone therapy use, physical activity, energy intake, salt intake, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and sugar-sweetened beverage intake. On average, women who consumed two or more diet drinks a day were younger, more likely to be smokers, and had a higher prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and higher body mass index.
But this finding comes with good news as well. Time Magazine has reported in recent years a huge decline in diet soda beverages:
One reason for the decline could be a growing awareness of the obesity epidemic in the US and growing health concerns surrounding sugar-sweetened beverages. According to Reuters, industry experts say the beverage industry is shrinking under the scrutiny. Even diet-branded drinks have suffered a loss of sales with concerns over artificial sweeteners.
It seems consumers are becoming aware of the importance their diet and lifestyle play in warding off modern-day diseases of affluence, and in effect are making more conscious choices.
Life can still be sweet…
There are plenty of natural, healthy sweeteners one can indulge in from time to time. Some low-glycemic options (don’t raise blood sugar) are stevia, coconut nectar, yacon syrup, and xylitol. And other unrefined, wholesome sweeteners are whole, dried fruits (dates, raisins, apricots), raw honey, agave syrup, brown rice syrup, and cane sugar (unprocessed), among others.
Overall, however, a switch to a predominantly plant-based, whole foods, low-glycemic, and unprocessed diet will lend great favor in one’s quest to get healthier and ward off diseases related to their diet, lifestyle, and thoughts.Nevada has a new chief medical officer after its top doctor suddenly resigned last week, but that hasn’t quelled concerns about how the state plans to carry out an execution this month or questions about why the previous chief resigned in the first place.
Officials with the attorney general’s office revealed during a court hearing Monday that Dr. Leon Ravin has been named acting chief medical officer, while Dr. John Scott is set to be the “attending physician” at the execution. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Chrystal Main confirmed that Ravin, who most recently served as the state psychiatric medical director, was appointed on Oct. 31, the day after Dr. John DiMuro resigned.
But the state still hasn’t released a copy of the resignation letter DiMuro would have submitted to state officials, with Main saying the letter is confidential. An away message that users receive when they email DiMuro’s old state account indicates the letter was filed with the governor, but Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office still hasn’t provided the document, citing Nevada Administrative Code, even though it typically does so.
Letters were provided to the media upon request when Paul Thomsen resigned from the Public Utilities Commission, when Mary Beth Scow resigned from the Clark County Commission and when Mark Manendo resigned from the state Senate, for example.
“NV deserves to know why its Chief Medical Officer suddenly resigned so close to an execution that he designed!” the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada said in a tweet after former Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Bethany Barnes described her unsuccessful efforts to obtain the letter.
The Nevada Independent’s attempts to reach DiMuro this week and last have not been successful. An affidavit filed with the court, dated Oct. 31 and signed by DiMuro, says “my resignation was completely unrelated to the execution of Scott Dozier.”
But the resignation came at a critical moment for the state, which is set to execute the 46-year-old Dozier on Nov. 14. It will mark the first time Nevada has put someone to death in 11 years and comes amid a national shortage of lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies have taken a stand against supplying medications for executions.
In consultation with DiMuro, Nevada Department of Corrections chief James Dzurenda approved an alternate drug combination that includes the opioid fentanyl, the drug known by the brand name Valium and the paralytic cisatracurium. The final drug has come under scrutiny by the defense’s expert witness, pediatric anesthesiologist David Waisel, who testified Friday that using it would not have any added benefit to the cocktail but could have the downside of hiding signs that the other two drugs were not administered properly.
The consequence could be that the inmate is aware and feeling himself suffocating to death, which would be a horrifying experience, Waisel said. The defense is asking for the third drug to be removed from the combination; Judge Jennifer Togliatti said she expects to rule on the matter Wednesday.
In the meantime, Dozier’s lawyers raised concerns that they don’t know “who’s in charge” now that DiMuro is gone and whether he’s advised his successors on how to properly carry out the protocol he designed. While DiMuro is an anesthesiologist and a pain doctor, Ravin is a psychiatrist and Scott, who works at a state psychiatric facility, is a family doctor, according to the prosecution.
Federal Public Defender David Anthony said he wasn’t sure whether either of those doctors would be able to tell whether the inmate is thoroughly anesthetized by the first two drugs before a third is administered. Waisel testified that detecting “anesthetic depth” through subtle body cues is a skill developed from years of specialized training and experience.
Jordan Smith of the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, who’s defending DiMuro’s original three-drug prescription, insisted that the state is well-prepared to carry out the execution and fought back allegations from Anthony that “things are falling apart” on the state’s end. Smith said the defense is just trying to delay.
In spite of his concerns about the third drug and few details about DiMuro’s replacements, Anthony did not directly ask Monday for a stay of the execution although he stressed that there would be no shame in “pushing the pause button” on it. He told the judge that he had committed to Dozier, who has voluntarily given up further appeals but could stop the impending execution if he wants, that he wouldn’t seek a stay without Dozier’s prior authorization.
“As a defense attorney, I try to help people and save people,” Anthony told reporters after the hearing. “And so it creates a moral dilemma. That’s the best I can say.”
Updated at 5:10 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2017 to add information about confidentiality rules and DiMuro’s affidavit.
Riley Snyder contributed to this report.Looking for great places to eat around USF? I have plenty of recommendations of where to expand your taste buds around the University of South Florida.
California Tacos To-Go - If you love fish tacos, you must try California Tacos. The horchata is also fantastic and honestly one of the best places in town for authentic SoCal grub. The restaurant is more of a small surf shack. Make sure to call ahead because the lines can get long with hungry customers. They close early so make sure to head out while the sun is still out.
Cilantro - My favorite Indian restaurant in town. Cilantro has a great lunch buffet and also has some excellent dinner options. My favorite dish on the menu is their Chicken Tikka Dosa, a dish with a mix of great flavors that is big enough to share with a friend. Save room for dessert because the gulab jamun, soaked Indian donuts, are amazing.
Koizi Endless Hibachi & Sushi - Koizi is one of the best deals in Tampa Bay. Lunch is under $10 for full service sushi and hibachi treatment. All the food is made-to-order and dining in is recommended. Dinner is under $20 for the same treatment, making Koizi a much better choice than competitor chains such as Kobe. Try the Japanese "ramune" soda.
Mel's Hot Dogs - My favorite place to grab some classic American cuisine in town. Mel's is a bit hidden from campus hiding behind Busch Boulevard off McKinley Road. Mel's is great for the classic diner experience and for some amazing Chicago-style hot dogs.
Pizza Squared - If you're looking for an affordable and quality pizza, Pizza Squared has you covered. Located off North 30th St. near the Yuengling Factory (another favorite spot of mine), the Detroit Style Pizza is like nothing I have tried in Tampa before and should not be missed. A pizza can feed 2-3 and costs less than $10. Delivery is a plus!
PJ Dolan's Irish Pub - Offering daily specials that are downright incredible. My personal favorite is their Monday $5 burger special. The Jameson Burger is their signature dish and could seriously be competitor for the next Burger Showdown in 2013. The best part is they are open late and usually serve food well into the night, a problem that the USF area oddly suffers from.
Sawatdee Thai Cuisine - Sawatdee has consistently served delicious Thai cuisine for years. Many of its customers back its authenticity to the roots of its cuisine. The lunch special there is a steal and an appetizing adventure whether you like it sweet or spicy.
Soul of Korea - Soul of Korea has that home feel to it that is actually similar to what one would experience in South Korea. The kimbap, a Korean take on sushi, is fantastic and comes with bulgogi beef inside. The lunch and dinner boxes (either bulgogi beef or galbi ribs) are a good deal and the Korean chicken is excellent. Make sure you tell your waitress how spicy you want your food because Korean chicken can make you cry if you can't handle spicy food. I am somewhat adverse to spicy food, but can handle the lowest spice level.
Taco Bus USF - Tampa's taco legend has set up shop near USF on Fletcher Avenue. Offering a 15% student discount (with your id) and late-night hours from Thursday to Saturday, there is much to love about Taco Bus joining the neighborhood.
Wood Fired Pizza Wine Bar - Serving some of the best slices of pizza in the bay area, Wood Fired has an amazing selection of dishes that will tantalize your taste buds. The prices are a little steep for a college student so it may not make for a regular stop, but still recommended when you are looking for a quality pizza like no other.
Do you have any favorites that I missed? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Follow Carlos Hernandez on Twitter @CarlosEats. Like Carlos Eats on Facebook.A new study published in Integrative Zoology examines the impacts of cold temperatures on Burmese pythons. The study, ‘Environmental, physiology and behavior limit the range expansion of invasive Burmese pythons in southeastern USA’ (Jacobson et al. 2012), was prompted by a USGS climate prediction (Reed Rodda 2008) claiming feral Burmese pythons in the Everglades could expand as far north as the southern third of the US. Since the USGS report was published, there have been three cold weather python studies published in scientific journals that contradict USGS claims of the python’s ability to tolerate temperate climates outside of southernmost Florida (Avery et al. 2010; Dorcas et al. 2011; Mazzotti et al. 2011). Now the new study, a collaborative work between University of Florida, USDA Wildlife Services and python experts, identifies the fundamental flaw in the USGS study and details why it is unlikely feral pythons can survive north of the Everglades.
The USGS study sought to create a climate match comparing the python’s native range to a potential range here in the US. The methodology was to use median temperatures from the native range of the python, and overlay that data to create a climate matching map across the southern third of the US. The flaw in the USGS work revealed by Jacobson et al revolves around the erroneous idea that median temperatures are an accurate way to determine range. They are not. Temperature extremes, especially the low temperatures reached in a given climate are much more important. As tropical species, pythons are morphologically, physiologically and behaviorally ill-equipped to tolerate low temperatures commonly reached north of the Everglades during the winter. In other words, pythons can barely tolerate cold temperatures in south Florida let alone central and north Florida, or outside of the state.
The National Geographic Society’s Resident Herpetologist, Dr. Brady Barr, has stated, “Climate data reveal that temperatures found in southern Florida simply are not conducive to the long term survival of large tropical snakes. When it gets cold, these snakes die”. Dr. Barr goes on to say, “Feral Hogs are a bigger problem for the Everglades than pythons. The press has sensationalized this story to the point that people think the sky is falling. Hopefully comprehensive research such as Jacobson et al. will put an end to the hysteria."
The US House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs will hold a hearing on H.R. 511 on Thursday November 29th. The bill known as the ‘Python Ban’ seeks to add nine constricting snakes to the Injurious Wildlife list of the Lacey Act. The Subcommittee Chair is Representative John Flemming (R-LA). The hearing will be held in the Longworth House Office Building at 10:00 AM. The United States Association of Reptile Keepers opposes the addition of any constricting snakes to the Injurious Wildlife list.For most stores, opening up is a big deal -- but Denny's restaurants get in a dither when they have to close.
That's because Denny's stores never close. Ever. Each location has an "Always Open" sign.
But this Christmas, for the first time in 35 years, Denny's will close nearly all 1,221 of its restaurants nationwide, including all but one of the nine restaurants in Erie and Niagara counties.
Problem: Since Denny's never ever closes, most stores don't have adequate locks. Some of the restaurants have no locks at all.
So to make it possible to close for Christmas, all Denny's restaurants are getting spanking new dead-bolts in their stockings.
"We've already had a locksmith in," said Sue Brake, one of the managers of the Denny's at 2215 Delaware Ave. "We've never closed for Christmas before."
"We needed a bolt type of lock," said Gary Lawson, a manager of the Denny's at 2343 Union Road in West Seneca.
Some Denny's already had makeshift security systems, in case the stores had to close for power failures or other emergencies, Lawson said. But those locks had to be supplemented by dead-bolts for the first mass closing in Denny's history.
Mark Finkley, general manager of the Angola Denny's, remembers working at another local Denny's that had a lock. When a water main broke and the store had to shut, Finkley had to man the store for hours anyway, because the lock was used so infrequently that he didn't know where the key was.
The management of the La Mirada, Calif.-based Denny's chain says the closing plan is a Christmas gift to employees, who until this year have worked on Christmas, while top executives got the day off.
The outlets will close at 7 p.m. Christmas Eve and stay shut until 6 a.m. Dec. 26.
"This is all new to us," said Jerry Richardson, president of TW Services, Denny's parent company.
Employees like it. In past years, volunteers were asked to work for time-and-a-half holiday pay. If there weren't enough volunteers, then some of the newer employees were ordered to work while those with more seniority could go home, Ms. Brake said.
Many customers rely on Denny's for Christmas Eve dinner, or Christmas dinner, or snacks in between, Ms. Brake said. But most of them are glad the employees will be getting the day off, Ms. Brake said.
Anyone who can't do without Denny's on Christmas need not worry. The Denny's in Angola is one of the few outlets nationwide that will stay open, because it is located on the New York State Thruway, which forbids closing, said General Manager Mark Finkley. Denny's junkies will find the restaurant on the Thruway heading toward Erie about 1.5 miles past the Eden-Angola exit.
"We do have a gate, but we won't have to use it," Finkley said.The Independent ran this quite disturbing article which pretended to be about trans activism. It was actually a deeply disturbing article which anyone with any experience of working with abusive relationships will recognise.
Psychological abuse occurs when a person in the relationship tries to control information available to another person with intent to manipulate that person’s sense of reality or their view of what is acceptable and unacceptable. Psychological abuse often contains strong emotionally manipulative content and threats designed to force the victim to comply with the abuser’s wishes.It very often comes with physical abuse, sexual abuse and follows fairly set patterns. THis particular trait is common in narcissists who cannot have relationships with other adults because they can only see those adults as objects in their own identity.
Sophie appears to believe that matters between parties in relationships are private. Not private to both of them, but private for one. Apparently it is not relationships with two whole human beings she is interested in. She feels that a fear of rejection or shame is sufficient that rape laws, consent laws and other laws which I assume include the domestic abuse laws around coercion should not apply. THis is common in abusive people. They cannot see another person as anything but an object in their identity and cannot perceive why consent from someone who is not a whole person, but an object for them matters. It does matter. We have to have rape laws and consent laws because it matters.
She cites the case of Gayle Newland whose repeated penetration without consent, also came with deep psychological abuse as she created a false reality for her victim. Anyone who has worked with this kind of abuser knows how devastating this is. Sophie cites section 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 it is an offence if a defendant intentionally penetrates the vagina or anus of a person, where the other person does not consent and where the defendant does not reasonably believe the other person consents. She cites Section 74 of the act gives the definition of consent: “A person consents for the purposes of this Act if he agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice.
Let be clear, if these two sections of legislation are a problem in your relationship you need to get some help and to not have relationships with adults until you can learn to see that adult as a human being equal to you.
Sophie then marches into textbook abusive and coercive behaviour patterns, stating that following these very clear laws puts her at risk. Now don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware of the risk of violence faced by trans women but actually when you tell someone you have the right to rape, deceive, emotionally abuse them, control their reality, because otherwise they are abusing you., that is textbook abusive behaviour. From any gender. It is also a sign that you are in a relationship with someone who has a more serious problem than not being very nice.
Apparently all this is necessary because if we retain rape laws, if people are protected in their right to consent, if she is not allowed to control the reality of another person so that their sexual autonomy is subsumed by her identity needs, then that is also reinforcing the bigoted idea that trans people are in some way abhorrent.
So we get to the core of the issue here. Sexual consent. When someone thinks you are abhorrent and does not want to sleep with you, that may not be nice for you. It isnt nice when someone doesn’t fancy you, doesn’t want to sleep with you. It stings. However, when you respond to that with coercion, emotional abuse, and the requirement of rape and consent laws being rolled back, you are asking for your right to be a sex offender and that’s quite a lot worse.
The right to rape, the right to coerce, the right to psychologically abuse does not become yourse because your identity is fragile as you transition. That is the kind of statement that should lead someone to ask you to talk to someone and refuse to be alone with you, not the type of statement that leads to an article in the Independent. Manipulative coercion and psychological abuse and rape are abusive behaviour in ANY relationship and the fragility of your identity doesn’t make that ok, nor does your gender, your sex, your sexuality or anything else..
Sophie, sex is only private when you are on your own. That’s masturbation. Otherwise its a relationship with two whole people. No you don’t get to lie, coerce or abuse someone so they will sleep with you because you don’t see them as a person. Your identity is not THAT important.It’s 11 p.m. Do you know where your lube is?
My boyfriend and I are making out and it’s starting to get hot and heavy. I mean we’re like really going at it. He reaches for a condom but then...uh-oh.
“We’re out of lube,” he announces reluctantly.
Because I’m super horny and want avoid an ass of fire, I go: “That’s okay. Let’s just go to Walgreen’s and pick some up.” That’s right. Walgreen’s. There are no sex shops in New Haven because, obviously, nobody has sex at Yale. So there we are, smack in the middle of foreplay, putting clothes back on and going to Walgreen’s for a bottle of lube.
I don’t know if you know this, but the “I’m About to Have Hot Sex” section at Walgreen’s is actually more evangelically called “Family Planning.” Awkward. This, I believe, is their strategy straight out of the Sarah Palin playbook to discourage premarital sex. I’m not sure if I should be picking out lube or a boarding school for what is apparently my planned but still unborn child.
KY? Wet? Astroglide? Hmm. We make a selection and head towards the cashier to pay. Except that there are 100 billion people waiting on line versus a single cashier who seems to enjoy taking her time rolling people’s purchases across that scanner. Because I am unbelievably impatient, I brilliantly opt for the Cosmetics cashier, which always has fewer people waiting.
Uh-oh number two. The line is shorter, as I expected, but the cashier is my favorite old black lady with super big hair and even bigger glasses. She’s like my BFF every time I go to Walgreen’s. I always go to her line to buy, like, chapstick or whatever and she gives me discounts. But if I buy lube from her it’s going be like I’m saying: “Hi old black lady! Not only am I about to have gay sex immediately, but here this is the boy that’s going to do it.”
Awkward.
But I tell you the worst part of the whole debacle is that the old black lady reminds me of my grandmother. So now I really can’t buy the ass gel from her. “Oh my God we cannot buy the lube from her.” I say to Daniel’s laughter. Me: “I mean...maybe we can even it out if we throw in something domestic like, um, fabric softener.”
Am I completely alone here when I say that buying lube/condoms/vaginal creme/adult diapers/anti-fungal spray/foot odor power, etc. can be embarrassing? Like what if you’re a hot guy who’s super duper endowed and need to buy, I don’t know, Ultra Magnum condoms AND jock itch creme? Do you really want folks to know that?
It’s like: “Hi, I have a huge cock, and right now it really itches.”
I mean, it’s not like I’ve never had to buy lube before. You gotta keep your goodie drawer stocked like you do your refrigerator. Imagine going for that much desired bowl of Apple Jacks and—uh-oh—no milk!
But what sucks ultra hard is that I don’t think there are any goodie marts within walking distance of Yale. So I typically rely on those little shops that dot 8th Ave. or Christopher St. in New York. Much more anonymity. Besides, at least there they know what you want before you walk through the door. No shame in yo’ game.
What was so embarrassing to me about Walgreensgate was not just the grandma presence, but that I felt a Sarah Palin judgment placed on my sex life via the title “Family Planning.” This is obvi not the place for gay men and dykons. Clearly, it’s where Biff and Buffy go when—and only when—they realize they’re ready to start a family.
I wish I wasn’t so embarrassed about buying lube. Sex is sex, right? Many of you may in fact be having sex any minute now. I think the embarrassment I attach to it, though, was built into me during my teenage years. One time I came home to my grandmother who had found—and watched—this 70s gay porn tape I borrowed from a friend. Of course, she angrily asked me if I was a gay. I swore up and down that I wasn’t, and masterfully lied that I needed the tape for a “class project.” If only that “class project” were the boys’ locker room. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that if it weren’t for her anger at my watching gay porn or my being on the precipice of permanent gaydom, I probably wouldn’t be so nervous about buying lube at Walgreen’s from a lady who reminds me of her.
Parents should talk to their teens openly about sex. Talk to them about gay sex and straight sex since you might not know—and they might not either—if they are a homo or heterosexualist. No more of this “Family Planning/Abstinence/Forced Babies” malarkey. No matter what Sarah Palin says, people are going to have sex, and there is no sense in making them feel guilty about it. You know, by forcing a young girl keep an unscheduled baby. Educating folks about sex is way better than punishing them for being curious.
I would love to see the day when I could confidently buy lube from the old black ladies or whomever, and instead of being chastised or judged, they simply looked me in the eye and said, in a deep, raspy voice...
“Enjoy!”
Or at least the day when Walgreen’s invests in a self-check out.Photo Credit: iStock
By Amanda Chatel
I don’t want kids. When I |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now from domestic surveillance to secret trade deals. The Obama administration is facing increasing scrutiny for the extreme secrecy surrounding negotiations around a sweeping new trade deal that could rewrite the nation’s laws on everything from healthcare and Internet freedom to food safety and the financial markets. The latest negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, were recently held behind closed doors in Lima, Peru, but the Obama administration has rejected calls to release the current text. Even members of Congress have complained about being shut out of the negotiation process.
Last year, a leaked chapter from the draft agreement outlined how the TPP would allow foreign corporations operating in the United States to appeal key regulations to an international tribunal. The body would have the power to override U.S. law and issue penalties for failure to comply with its rulings. Earlier leaks from the draft agreement exposed how it included rules that could increase the cost of medication and make participating countries adopt restrictive copyright measures.
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the TPP, we’re joined by two guests. Here in New York, Jim Shultz is with us, executive director of the Democracy Center. The organization just released a report called “Unfair, Unsustainable, and Under the Radar: How Corporations Use Global Investment Rules to Undermine a Sustainable Future.” In Washington, we’re joined by Celeste Drake. She’s trade policy specialist with the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, testifying today at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on labor issues in Bangladesh.
Jim, let’s begin with you. You’re just about to head off to the United Nations. You’re usually in Bolivia.
JIM SHULTZ: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about—I mean, most people have not even heard of what—what does TPP mean?
JIM SHULTZ: Right. Well, it’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And this is part of this global web of trade agreements that are being negotiated, that have been negotiated over the last 30 years, that, you know, from the outsider, it could seem like it’s a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, but really what’s at stake is democracy. The report that we just put out looked at a very troubling part of what these agreements involve, which are these special trade tribunals that are used by corporations to directly undermine the ability of citizen movements to influence their government.
You know, the famous case, of course, is the one from Bolivia, where Bechtel from San Francisco came in, privatized—took over the privatized water system, raised people’s rates up by more than 50 percent, was kicked out by a popular rebellion, and turned around on a $1 million investment and sued Bolivia for $50 million. These cases—there’s almost 500 a year now of these cases being filed all over the world. Philip Morris, the tobacco giant, is suing Uruguay for the sin of putting health warnings on their cigarettes. In El Salvador—
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean?
JIM SHULTZ: So, Uruguay decided to put stiffer health warnings on cigarette packages. And Philip Morris doesn’t like that, so Philip Morris uses a bilateral investment treaty between Uruguay and Switzerland—so, Philip Morris somehow puts on a Swiss hat and pretends it’s a Swiss company—and is suing Uruguay for hundreds of millions of dollars. This is—this is everywhere.
I mean, one of the most egregious of the current cases is in El Salvador, where here’s the community of Las Cabañas that discovers that this Canadian mining firm is going to dump poisonous chemicals into their drinking water to suck gold out of the ground. And they do what citizens are supposed to do: They hammer on their government until they get the government to agree not to let the mining go forward. So what does the company do? The company turns around, under one of these trade agreements, and sues for $315 million. So what you have—it’s a win-win for the companies, because they either win huge amounts of money—I mean, this is 1 percent of GDP in El Salvador, the amounts of money are enormous—or, just as important, they have a chilling effect on the ability and the willingness of governments to protect their people.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you’re saying there are as many as 500 lawsuits a year related to these kinds of trade infringements?
JIM SHULTZ: Yeah, it’s grown like this. And it’s a new—it’s a new derivatives market. These companies that are bringing these cases will actually go to investors and say, “We will sell you, for a price, 30 percent of the cut if we win the case.” I mean, it’s a marketplace. But the bottom line is, what it means is, if you are looking for the protection of your environment, watch out to be sued. And this is not just poor countries. Germany is getting sued, because after Fukushima, the citizen movements there were able to win a moratorium on nuclear power. And so, the Swedish company involved in their nuclear power industry is suing them for 700 million euro. And the TPP is just going to bring more of this.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But the other side of this—
JIM SHULTZ: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —is that obviously these corporations are reacting to an upsurge of citizen movements insisting on protecting their environments and protecting their resources. So, is your sense is that there’s been a huge spurt over the past decade or two, in terms of the citizen movements forcing their governments to try to protect their resources?
JIM SHULTZ: Well, I think that’s certainly true if you look across Latin America, where citizen movements and more progressive governments have been able to take these kinds of actions. And, look, if you talk to a lawyer who makes $1,000 an hour representing these corporations, they’ll say, “Look, we need legal security. Companies need foreign investment. We need legal security. We’re just trying to protect against the possibility that someone comes in with soldiers and takes away our mine.” But this is not just about them getting the $5 million they put in back. Under these bilateral investment treaties, and certainly it’s going to be the same under the TPP, these corporations can sue for the profits that they expected to earn and didn’t. That’s where you get these sums that are just off the charts.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama has nominated Michael Froman as Kirk’s replacement for U.S. trade representative. Last year he defended the Trans-Pacific Partnership during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
MICHAEL FROMAN: I don’t think I have to tell this audience how important the Asia-Pacific market is to the United States, its manufactured goods, agricultural products or services. It represents 40 percent of global trade. In 2010, U.S. goods exports totaled $775 billion, comprising almost 60 percent of all of our goods exports. And goods exports to the region are up 25 percent over the last two years. For our farmers and ranchers, nearly three-quarters of our total exports go to Asia-Pacific customers. And for our service providers, nearly 40 percent of their total services exports go to the region. And these benefits are not just for the big multinational companies, but for Americans—America’s small- and medium-size enterprises, too, who export over $170 billion to the Asia-Pacific region.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Michael Froman, the—nominated as the replacement for Ron Kirk as U.S. trade representative. Celeste Drake, if you can talk about the significance of what he said and the TPP, where you’re coming from, from the AFL-CIO?
CELESTE DRAKE: Absolutely. Thank you very much. I mean, we question the wisdom of pursuing the TPP in the first place. We do have, for better or for worse, the World Trade Organization, which has lowered tariffs around the world and has allowed us to increase our exports, as Mr. Froman was explaining in the speech. So what the TPP is about is all of these other things around the tariffs. So it is about these investor state dispute tribunals, it’s about harmonizing rules for food safety, it’s about harmonizing rules for intellectual property—a lot of rules that if citizens aren’t really participating in the formation of those rules, they’re not necessarily going to work out and inure to the benefit of working people and America’s citizens. So we’re very active in following the negotiations, in advocating for better rules that will help workers, real farmers, small businesses, because our past trade agreements, starting with NAFTA and on down the line, have basically been big packages that benefit the 1 percent. And if anybody else benefits, it’s really only by accident and not really by design.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Celeste Drake, you’re scheduled to testify on Bangladesh and the situation with workers there. How would these trade agreements impact on this whole issue of the race to the bottom in manufacturing by many international corporations to places like Bangladesh, which result in these tragedies like the Tazreen fire and then the recent building collapse with more than a thousand workers killed?
CELESTE DRAKE: Well, in trade agreements, and beginning with NAFTA, which was a really poor example, the United States has tried to put in so-called labor obligations. In NAFTA, it was a side agreement, largely unenforceable. They’ve gotten better through the years. But they’re really kind of a Band-Aid that tries to fix some of the really destructive patterns that have been caused by globalization. Globalization on a corporate model has led to this race to the bottom, where the world’s biggest corporations really play a game of arbitrage, and they’re pitting especially developing countries one against the other, who can provide the lowest wages, the weakest worker rights regime, the fewest unions. And, you know, the winner is really the loser, because they’ve got workers who are working really hard, putting in a hard day’s work, and very possibly putting their lives at risk, and definitely not raising their standards of living. And when workers in any one country are allowed to be abused like that and have their rights repressed, it actually lowers the wages and the rights for workers all around the world. So, when we can try to improve it slightly through these trade agreements, that’s never going to be the silver bullet to really, really fix the problem. We’ve got to address it globally, because it’s a global problem.
AMY GOODMAN: I also just wanted to point out Michael Froman has been in the news, the U.S. trade representative, longtime White House economic aide, nominated to be Obama’s trade representative, for having nearly half-a-million dollars in a fund based in the Cayman Islands, according to financial documents provided to the Senate Finance Committee. The New York Times says, according to a 2011 document, that Froman had $490,000 in a fund managed by Citigroup based in Grand Caymans Ugland House, a modest whitewashed building that’s been widely cited as a symbol of tax avoidance, since it’s home to nearly 19,000 business entities seeking favorable tax treatment. Jim Shultz, what’s the significance of that and the whole U.S. position on trade, who it is lobbying for?
JIM SHULTZ: You know, I don’t think there’s any question. It’s all about U.S. corporations and large corporations, because if you think about it, what is the biggest threat to the ability of corporations to go into a country, whether it’s El Salvador, Bolivia, anywhere, and suck out the natural resources without any regard for the environment or labor standards? The threat is democracy, right? The threat is that citizens will be annoying, get in the way, and demand that their governments take action. So, what corporations need is they need to become more powerful than sovereign states. And the way they become more powerful by sovereign states is by tangling sovereign states in a web of these trade agreements that allow them to go to tribunal systems like the one at the World Bank and force governments to take these kinds of actions. You know, I was at the U.N. yesterday, and there was a—I was talking about this, and there was a man from Kenya who was explaining, look, these bilateral investment treaties, these investor dispute resolutions, the corporate trade panels, they were imposed on his country, as they were in many countries, by the World Bank as conditions of lending. So, it’s a straightjacket that the U.S. supports, because it is pursuing the interests of U.S. corporations. This has nothing to do with protecting public interest. And it’s a violation of public interest and a blockade against democracy.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Jim, I’d like to ask you something not directly related to the TPP, but last month Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered the expulsion of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID—
JIM SHULTZ: Yeah, I heard about that.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —from his country. You’re very familiar with the situation in Bolivia. In a speech, Morales cited the recent comments of Secretary of State John Kerry, referring to Latin America as the U.S. backyard. He also accused USAID of using international assistance for political destabilization. Your assess—
AMY GOODMAN: We have a comment of him saying this.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And we have a—yeah, we have a comment of Kerry saying that.
PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] Some institutions from the U.S. embassy continue to conspire against this process, against the people, and especially against the national government. And that is why, using this gathering and the 1st of May, we’ve decided to expel USAID from Bolivia. USAID is leaving Bolivia. I ask our brother foreign minister to immediately speak with the U.S. embassy. No more USAID, which manipulates, uses our brothers with charity.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And for our radio listeners, that was obviously not John Kerry, because his Spanish is not that good. That was Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. Your comments?
JIM SHULTZ: Well, you know, it’s a double-edged sword. There certainly are projects in public health, these kinds of areas, where USAID has provided funding, and it’s not political, and those programs are going to lose their funding. But it’s on the U.S.'s doorstep. The fact is that the United States government has historically used USAID to have a political agenda to strengthen the opponents of the government. And, you know, Bolivians don't feel any more happy about that than people in the United States would, if we found out that the Chinese government was funding Democracy Now! And so, I think that this is really what’s behind it.
But the reality—and this, I think, is important to know—Bolivia and the United States really don’t have any strategic interests with one another anymore. That’s really the heart of it. Bolivia doesn’t really matter to the United States. It’s not a strategic player. And the United States really doesn’t matter very much to Bolivia. They haven’t had an ambassador since 2007. So, I think that what you’re seeing is—it’s just a bad relationship that is not getting any better. And, you know, there’s always a lot of support in Bolivia when the president says something against the United States, and this is a good time politically for him to do that. You know, USAID’s money has been cut radically over the last few years. There’s just really not much left of the relationship altogether.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you both for being with us, Jim Shultz of the Democracy Center, usually in Bolivia, here going to the United Nations today, and Celeste Drake of the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO and Celeste Drake are going to be testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today on labor issues in Bangladesh.
When we come back, we’ll be speaking with the mayor-elect of Jackson, Mississippi. Stay with us.Rosy prospects have attracted a crowded field for Tuesday’s primary. The front-runner is Tom Wolf, a businessman from southern Pennsylvania’s York County who gained early advantage by flooding key media markets with ads before his opponents got their footing. Wolf’s main challenger is Rep. Allyson Schwartz, whose district covers part of Philadelphia and its northern suburbs. As recently as last year, political observers said her unstinting support for abortion rights, including her time as a director of the Elizabeth Blackwell Women’s Health Center, a reproductive health clinic, meant she was too liberal to win a statewide political race.
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Corbett swept into office in 2010 on a platform of balancing the budget without raising taxes. Four years later, frustrations with his policies and style have emboldened a field of Democratic challengers eager to prove their liberal bona fides. Many are predicting this year will be tough for Democrats, but in politically mixed Pennsylvania, the party is expecting big things come November.
In a March primary forum in Philadelphia, candidates said they would reinstate the general assistance program, a state cash welfare system that Corbett eliminated. Wolf was not present, but his spokesman Mark Nicastre assured Al Jazeera that if elected, Wolf “would work to re-establish General assistance.”
The Democratic challengers back a funding formula to ensure state aid for education goes where it is most needed. They have all promoted greater transparency for charter schools and want to return the Philadelphia School District to local control.
Despite a recent poll showing that only 39 percent of Pennsylvanians hold a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act, all the Democratic candidates have repeatedly expressed their support for the law. All promise to accept federal money for the expansion of Medicaid, a policy Corbett rejected in favor of his own proposal to insure eligible Pennsylvanians through private companies.
The candidates, who also include former State Treasurer Rob McCord and former state Secretary of Environmental Protection Kathleen McGinty, have all expressed support for taxing natural-gas companies, decriminalizing marijuana, restoring education spending, raising the minimum wage and strengthening the state’s safety net.
But in this primary, progressive activists have attacked her record on aspects of the Affordable Care Act and support for cuts in Social Security. As the primary heated up, Schwartz severed her ties to Third Way, a centrist think tank for which she had served as an honorary co-chair.
Rep. Allyson Schwartz was just a few years ago seen by Democratic insiders as too liberal to win a statewide race. AP
He’s in the worst shape of any governor seeking re-election in the modern history in this state.
The leftward tilt of the Democratic field has been tied, in part, to the deep unpopularity of the incumbent governor. Corbett’s approval ratings have crept above 50 percent only once since 2011, and a late February poll showed him losing to Wolf 52 to 36 percent. No Pennsylvania governor has lost a re-election campaign since the state constitution was changed in 1968 to allow two consecutive terms, but that could soon change.
“He’s in the worst shape of any governor seeking re-election in the modern history in this state,” says Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll.
Corbett’s unpopularity is due, in part, to an inability to energize the conservative movement while governing too far to the right for many Pennsylvanians. “I don’t know if he was bold enough for his supporters, but he was still perceived by many other voters as being too conservative,” says John J. Kennedy, a political science professor at West Chester University and the author of “Pennsylvania Elections: Statewide Contests From 1950–2004.” “You would probably have to go back to Ed Martin in 1942 to find a more conservative Republican governor.”
Corbett focused on balancing the budget without raising taxes — making massive cuts in education and social services during his first two years in office. The state’s share of public-school funding fell from 44 to 34 percent, forcing local voters to choose higher property taxes, a decrease in school services or both.
“Education is the single most important issue in this campaign, and that’s the first time that’s been the case in Pennsylvania,” says Madonna, whose team released an analysis last year showing that Pennsylvanians were more concerned about education than unemployment for the first time since 2010. A May 1 poll from Muhlenberg College also found that education is the No. 1 issue.
“The big mistake the governor made early in his administration was underfunding public education across the board,” says the Rev. Mark Tyler of the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia. “In the same budget he provided funding for new prison construction. That really sent a clear message about where the priorities for that administration were going to be.”
Corbett’s policies also included tuition increases for state universities and colleges, cuts in the number of Medicaid recipients and reductions in county human-services and mental-health programs.
Corbett has lost support among conservatives too. His biggest policy accomplishment last year was a transportation bill aimed at helping repair the state’s roads and rails by increasing the gasoline tax and other fees — hardly the kind of thing to gin up the conservative base. In a January poll, only a third of Republicans thought Corbett was doing a good job.
“I’ve never heard a good word about him from either side of the aisle,” says Bryan Driesbach, who works for the United Steelworkers in the region around Reading, Pa. “I have a bunch of Republicans in my family, and they all want him gone too. That 10 cent tax he just added to the gasoline, and then he’s handing out tax breaks to Shell and the fracking companies? That’s rubbing a lot of people the wrong way.”
Corbett’s frequent missteps have also hurt his standing among voters. Last year he compared same-sex marriage to marriage between siblings during an apology for a subordinate’s comparison to marriage between children — this at a time when a Franklin and Marshall poll showed a majority of Pennsylvanians are in favor of gay marriage for the first time. In January he abandoned his only visit to a Philadelphia public school at the last minute in favor of a press conference in the city’s Chamber of Commerce.
But it is Corbett’s policy priorities that seem to have put him noticeably out of step with a changing state.
“In the western part of Pennsylvania, past the Susquehanna River, a lot of old mining and mill towns tend to be culturally conservative. But they have lost population,” says Madonna. “The real growth of our state is in the [increasingly liberal Democratic] Philadelphia suburbs and in the Lehigh Valley. There’s a big transition underway.”
On Tuesday, Corbett’s Democratic challengers hope to capitalize on that transition.As Police Body Cameras Increase, What About All That Video?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
You know what a pain it can be storing and organizing the millions of videos you've shot on your smartphone. Now imagine you're a police officer, and you wear a body camera every day.
Police cams have suddenly become a big business. In the months since Ferguson, share prices for the camera manufacturer Taser International have doubled. But in the long run, the real money is in selling police a way to store all that video.
And Taser says it has a solution: At the end of the day, an officer unclips the body camera from his uniform and plugs it into a dock. From there, those videos are uploaded straight to Taser's cloud service, called Evidence.com.
Traditionally, police departments have saved their videos to CDs, which get locked in an evidence room. But there's so much police video now — body cams, dash cams, cameras in interview rooms. Marcus Womack, the Taser division's general manager, says police departments shouldn't have to handle that by themselves.
"It's sort of like in the email world, where people are saying it's not really cost-efficient to run our email on premise because we have to pay for the servers, we have to pay for the people to operate those servers," Womack says.
Just as some cities now pay Google to handle their email, Womack says police departments can pay Taser to handle their video.
Glenn Mattson follows Taser as an equity analyst for Ladenburg Thalmann. He says the company doesn't make a big profit on the cameras themselves. "But the video service should be something where they can generate pretty good margin over time," Mattson says.
Mattson figures police departments are paying Taser an average of about $25 to $30 per officer per month right now. But that price may rise.
"I think it will look more like your cable bill," he adds. "A lot of times you get a pretty nice deal to get a cable subscription, you know, and then that introductory rate gets raised over time."
He thinks Taser's game plan is to keep adding features, so that the video upload system becomes a police department's default management system for all kinds of digital evidence — like photos, police reports and forensics.
And Taser isn't alone. The other big body camera maker, Vievu, has just launched its own cloud service.
"We've been working with Microsoft on it for several months now, and we already have some larger agencies migrating to it," CEO Steve Ward says. "One of the most notable is the Oakland Police Department, who is the largest body cam user in America."
But many police departments still hesitate. They wonder if the encrypted cloud is really as secure as a locked evidence room. They worry about committing themselves to a proprietary system.
And recently, there's been criticism of Taser's marketing practices.
The Associated Press reported in March that the company paid consulting fees to recently retired police chiefs of departments that had bought Taser's services. The company now says it will observe a one-year "cooling-off period" before hiring police executives.
Ward says Vievu won't hire them at all.
"We don't want to get into that gray area where we hire police executives, where you know they were a decision-maker on a Vievu deal," he says. "That's not the way that we like to do business."
But even in cities where there have been questions about marketing practices, officials are still coming to the conclusion that this is money they're going to have to spend. Once they opt for body cameras, they face a tidal wave of video.
And as Charlie Luke, a councilman in Salt Lake City, put it, "There's no way around paying for the storage."Hey all,
For the online tournament coming up on January 4th and 5th, Riot organizers (Tiza, Janook, Rara, Phreak, and more) will provide directed camera streams of as many of these matches as we can. These online qualifying matches will not be casted by Riot, but any casters who would like to rebroadcast the matches should feel free to do so.
Well be streaming the January 11th North American Qualifiers and January 25th EU Qualifiers in full force.
Stay tuned for details. Best of luck to the teams competing in the online tournament.
Edit:
This Friday and Saturday, the highest-ranked teams in NA and EU will compete online for the chance to earn a spot as a League of Legends Championship Series professional team.
In each region, the top 32 teams from the ranked team 5v5 ladder will play in online tournaments. The top eight teams from the online tournaments in each region will then advance to the qualifiers. The North American qualifier will be held in Los Angeles from January 11-13 and the European qualifier in Warsaw, Poland from January 25-27. The top five from each of qualifier will become professional teams in the League of Legends Championship Series.
To see which European teams will make it to Warsaw and which North American teams will earn their slot in Los Angeles, check out the matches on the following Rioters live-streams:
For North American Matches:
Friday, January 4 (Round of 32)
eLobLade vs ClanlessKnights
Bajona Robimy w 15 vs CatXXX and the gang
CHILLOUT6GGMIX vs DifferentDimension
Mysie Pysie2 vs IorNMostToxicEUW1488
heyijustmetyouuu vs eEriness
Test Your Limits vs LowLandLions
ROTE WURST GESCHWADER vs Storm Games Clan
Team WinRar vs BipbipBOOP
Agaist All Autho vs Robot TheFive
Mad Gods vs SNOGARD Dragons
DragonBornsEUW vs GooGooMooMoo
GamingGear EU vs Caffiene
Team roll1ng vs Gruzowe Chrabonszcze
CounterCounter Clockwise vs Enemy eSports
Kdmialeteam vs Revenge Served Cold
Smutaha Premadeaha vs NieOrgarniamyPatcha
Young Based God vs Sleeping Robot Gaming
Small Dads GO to heaven vs Chiefs rowing club
The Salad Bar vs endless variety
Falafel Gaming vs The Cheater Chans
FXOpen vs Team Undergeared
EPIK Gamer vs The Bunny Squad
1 Trick Ponies vs Team Goat Zoo
Game too hard vs Rachel Starr
Team TowerdiveTV vs Team ThreeSports
Motion Gaming 32 vs Extra Chrispy
Abnormalize vs Hypebeast City Pt 4
Necessary Evil vs MarnCatz
United Serenus Gaming vs top 16 na team inc
DVS Spark vs Team Try Again
Objective eSports 2 vs Heating up
Dednakai Gaming vs we fly high no lie
Saturday, January 5 (Round of 16 followed by Quarterfinal Seeding, Four matches per bullet)
Winner of 1/32 vs Winner of 16/17
Winner of 2/31 vs Winner of 15/18
Winner of 3/30 vs Winner of 14/19
Winner of 4/29 vs Winner of 13/20
Winner of 5/28 vs Winner of 12/21
Winner of 6/27 vs Winner of 11/22
Winner of 7/26 vs Winner of 10/23
Winner of 8/25 vs Winner of 9/24
Winner of 1/32 vs Winner of 16/17
Winner of 2/31 vs Winner of 15/18
Winner of 3/30 vs Winner of 14/19
Winner of 4/29 vs Winner of 13/20
Winner of 5/28 vs Winner of 12/21
Winner of 6/27 vs Winner of 11/22
Winner of 7/26 vs Winner of 10/23
Winner of 8/25 vs Winner of 9/24
See below for the tournament brackets and featured-game schedule:EU Heat 1EU Heat 2EU Heat 3NA Heat 1NA Heat 2NA Heat 3EU Heat 1EU Heat 2EU Seeding MatchesNA Heat 1NA Heat 2NA Seeding MatchesThe longstanding criticism for giving poor people money is that they will waste it on alcohol and tobacco. A new review of 30 studies from Latin America, Africa and Asia disproves that notion. In fact, people spend less on “temptation goods” after receiving a cash transfer.
“There is a sideshow on this belief that people are poor because they are spending their money on alcohol and cigarettes,” David Evans, a senior economist at the World Bank and co-author of the study, told Humanosphere. “This study tries to close the door on the sideshow. ”
Evans and his co-author Anna Popova looked at studies that either surveyed cash transfer recipients about spending habits or directly tracked spending. In all cases, from India to Kenya to Peru, the average recipient spent as much or slightly less on alcohol and tobacco after getting the money. The major exception is Nicaragua where two studies observed significant decreases in spending on those goods.
“This absolutely puts the questions to bed. We find that almost without exception that there is no significant impact and even in some cases a significant negative impact of cash transfers on alcohol and tobacco. And that is striking,” said Evans.
The spending impact is significant regardless of the type of program. In some studies, money was given with conditions. Recipients had to spend the money in a certain way or do specific things in order to get it. Others had no conditions, the money could be spent as people felt necessary. In both cases, people spent less on tobacco or alcohol. The same went for programs that gave a lot or a little bit of money and studies that tracked over the short term and long term.
Some studies tracked other types of personal spending. Researchers in the Congo looked at how much people spend on doughnuts and in Peru spending on chocolate was tracked. By comparing results across various dimensions, Evans feels confident in his conclusions.
“We do have estimates from Peru that beneficiaries are more likely to purchase a roasted chicken at a restaurant or some chocolates soon after receiving their transfer, but hopefully even the most puritanical policymaker would not begrudge the poor a piece of chocolate,” Evans and Popova wrote.
Another recent study on cash transfers found that they do not decrease the incentive to work. The two new studies effectively disprove the two leading criticisms for giving the poor money: they will stop working and they will spend it on beer and cigarettes. For Evans, the conversation can now shift to when cash transfer programs are appropriate and effective.
“When we think about cash transfers, the right question is, ‘do we make people better off?’ We see in the short run people are happier and in the long run they are using the money to improve their livelihoods,” he said. “Hopefully what these studies do is create an accurate depiction of the poor. The poor are hard-working people trying to make better lives for their families, like everyone else.”
Decreased spending on alcohol and tobacco may be due to what economists call the “flypaper effect,” he said. People or institutions are more likely to spend money as it’s intended when it comes with a clear label for use. In the case of transfers, telling people that the money they are getting is meant to help pay for the family may influence people to do that, rather than go out and buy a bottle of beer.
Many of the evaluated campaigns were accompanied by specific messaging around how to spend the money. Ecuador’s program also featured a public campaign encouraging families to invest in their children. Recipients in Zimbabwe were encouraged not to waste their new money.
It may also help that most programs give the money to women, instead of men. The idea that women are more likely to spend money on family needs than men is the backbone for microfinance programs. Evidence supporting that notion is mixed. Research on cash transfers in Burkina Faso and Morocco found that giving money to the mother or father did not affect outcomes on health clinic visits and school participation, respectively.
“We can’t rule out which of these effects are driving the reduction, but if I were to place a bet, it would be on the flypaper effect,” said Evans.
Understanding factors that prevent people from spending more on alcohol and tobacco is important. It is the kind of question Evans thinks should be discussed and tested. Research is currently under way to examine how complementary programs, such as training and mentorship, can amplify the benefits of cash transfers.
Whether people spend the money on alcohol and tobacco is no longer up for debate, he said.
“The fear that the poor will spend the money on alcohol or tobacco is not a reason not to do a cash transfer program,” said Evans.In a Friday afternoon press conference at the doors of the Utah Senate Chamber, Utah Senator Steve Urquhart (Republican – St. George) has begun an avalanche of blue paper.
Now, Senator Urquhart has asked Utahns to come to the Capitol and write the words “HEAR SB 100” onto the meeting request forms, to ask their legislators to move his non-discrimination bill through the process where it can receive an up-or-down vote once again. Noting that his bill currently is in the rules committee, Urquhart said, “I don’t believe that it is bottlenecked there, or in any way is being held up.”
During the 45 day legislative session, members of the public are given 5″x7″ slips of blue paper by ushers on which they can write notes to lawmakers, either voicing opinions or requesting a meeting.
SB 100, Urquhart’s bill that would make it illegal for certain employers and landlords to fire or evict an individual from their job or home simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, is stuck in legislative limbo, with Republican leadership refusing to allow it to be heard in committee or the floor.
The move came one day after a public outcry on twitter forced the conservative lobbyist group Sutherland Institute to pull their ad advocating against the non-discrimination bill off of multiple Utah television stations, admitting the ad was not truthful when it implied that BYU housing would be subject to the law—the non-discrimination law specifically exempts student housing.
Urquhart condemned what he described as a massive misinformation campaign by Sutherland Institute president Paul Mero, and Eagle Forum president, Gayle Ruzicka, to mislead the public about what the law would actually do. Urquhart previously told UPC that “the basic principal behind the bill is straight forward: we should all have an opportunity to earn a living and keep a roof over our heads. Gay and transgendered people are good, hardworking people with families, just like everyone else.”
At the press conference, he also pointed out the multiple statewide polls conducted over the past few years that show 73 percent of the public supports the passage of the bill. “That’s the job of legislative bodies, to do the will of the people, so it’s time to pass nondiscrimination laws statewide,” Urquhart said.
The Southern Utah senator is asking for a “massive outpouring of support” from the public, encouraging citizens to add their own blue slips of paper to the door of the Senate. “Come up to the Capitol and let your senator know it’s time to solve this issue,” Urquhart said.
“These are our most basic necessities,” added Brandie Balken, executive directer of Equality Utah. “This is housing, this is employment; this is what we all need to participate in our society in a productive way. We [as Utahns] have to have the opportunity to achieve these things, to achieve our piece of the American Dream… We don’t believe that any Utahn should live in fear of losing their home or their jobs, simply because of who they are.’ Utahns are fair minded.” she continued, “They care about their neighbors and they care about their communities and they want to do the right thing.”
As of Sunday evening, it was estimated that over 200 notes had been placed on the Senate Chamber doors, though some have been removed by an unknown source.Jan |
/ambivalence over caring for our elders. Chinatown has been a community of working-class immigrants. We struggle to keep family connectedness across rifts caused by psychological economic trauma, relentless personalities that are required for survival, and the sometimes tragic success of working yourself out of poverty, only to transform your next generation into something that you are not. It’s a lot more complex than this video makes it out to be.
This video has gone viral among my Asian-American friends. I guess it speaks to a deep-seated guilt/ambivalence that many of us feel over caring for elderly parents and grandparents. Or a nostalgia for the Chinatown(s) of our childhoods that cannot exist anymore.
As someone who was born, raised, and is still working in Chinatown, I always appreciate a spotlight on the neighborhood, especially a narrative of relatively high production value like this one. However, I could not help but feel from the very beginning that this piece was somewhat sensationalistic. It leads you to believe, from the beginning, that this PoPo is eating out of the garbage, only to reveal moments later that she’s feeding birds.
The worst part is where it dramatically says, “she disappeared,” then reveals moments later that she was hit by a car. Then the video simply ends, mercilessly leaving the viewer hanging about the old lady’s well-being. A bit disingenuous when the filmmaker clearly knows what happened to her.
So now the comments section of TheAtlantic.com is filled with assumptions and condemnations for her “ungrateful” children who have supposedly “abandoned” her. The viewer is left with a sinking feeling that Chinatown is dead—just a husk of a once-thriving society, a place where a sweet old lady would be left alone to die anonymously in the street, a place that’s abandoned so hipsters should move in with their bars and galleries. No! I think this is actually a very dangerous narrative to broadcast, and somewhat irresponsible of the filmmaker!YOUNG ST Kilda defender Hugh Goddard has been rewarded for a strong finish to the season with a two-year contract extension.
Goddard, 19, has signed on until the end of 2018 after a solid end to his debut year.
The Saints' second pick from last year's NAB AFL Draft, No.21 overall, had to wait until round 16 for his first AFL game.
He came into the side to face Richmond and then held his spot for the rest of the season.
Goddard joins Jack Lonie as having recently re-committed, with the small forward signing a one-year extension this week that locks him in until the end of 2017.
Goddard's contract extension was confirmed by coach Alan Richardson at Monday night's Trevor Barker Award, which was won by midfielder Jack Steven from David Armitage and Sean Dempster.
Although the Saints surprised many in 2015 with their exciting style and plucky attitude, they finished 14th on the ladder and didn't win after round 17 after six promising victories.
Richardson said the players had to make sure they don't "simply be content with just being better" when they returned for pre-season.
"In 2016 we need to raise the expectations we have of ourselves," Richardson said at the Crown Palladium function.
"We cannot think it's OK to miss finals. We must leave no stone unturned in pursuit of success and prepare accordingly.
"When speaking to the players in our post-season review, it was pretty simple - we need to kick seven more points on average, take away 12 more points on average and we would have finished eighth.
"It's easier said than done, it's a lot of work and we have no illusions about the work we need to do to get into those sorts of spaces and those sorts of numbers."
Meanwhile, CEO Matt Finnis said the Saints had succeeded in re-engaging with their fan base this season, with many telling the club they had "never felt more connected" to it.
He also said their vision to return to their spiritual home of Moorabbin in the next few years remained realistic.
"We're still not 100 per cent there but things are tracking very much in the right direction," Finnis said.
"We're very confident we will return to Moorabbin to a new and elite training and community facility in 2017."East Palo Alto's long-standing first-source jobs rule of hiring up to 30 percent of local residents at new businesses has been set aside by the City Council to make way for Amazon in the new University Square project. The decision could signal a revamp of the city's first-source-hiring ordinance, which some council members on Feb. 21 said needs an overhaul.
But some residents are fuming over the short notice that Amazon gave to the council, which, they said, had more of the appearance of an ultimatum than an offer to help the community. Residents were also not given adequate notice, they said.
Amazon already occupies 80,000 square feet of office space at University Circle on the city's west side, but the company proposes to occupy about 200,000 square feet of office space at the new building at 2100 University Ave. on the city's east side just over the U.S. Highway 101 ramp and to hire 1,300 employees.
The company's east side presence would bring high-skilled jobs, many of which the city's residents could not fill, Amazon claims. Instead, developer The Sobrato Organization and Amazon offered a proposal at the Feb. 21 council meeting to create a job center staffed by an employment specialist for 10 years. The specialist would help residents to identify their job skills, develop skills to find and keep jobs and to find employment in East Palo Alto or outside of the community, CEO John Sobrato said.
But some residents are angered by the council's approval, calling it "gentrification at its finest," and they want the council to repeal its decision. The city already has hard-working employment-training groups such as StreetCode Academy, Renaissance Entrepreneurship center and JobTrain, and it doesn't need another jobs center to help residents find miscellaneous jobs; it needs a commitment from Amazon to help fund the skills it says that residents need so they can be hired by Amazon and other Silicon Valley companies.
Amazon gave the City Council little time to debate. Staff only learned of the proposal on Feb. 14 with a deadline for the council's decision of Feb. 21. Amazon's potential lease of the space is contingent on removal of the first-source-hiring requirement, city staff noted. Amazon would move on to other potential locations if the issue could not be quickly resolved, staff said they were told.
Residents said the short notice is indicative of the company's view of the community.
"It is a JOKE that the City Council would accept Amazon's first alternative offer. It may be true that the skill level of residents in EPA would not be able to fill this 30 percent first-source hiring policy, however, the ordinance requires a good-faith attempt. Amazon is a large international company that is solving world problems daily. The fact they did not attempt to address this issue with much thought shows how little they think of the community they would like to be neighbors in," Marlayna Tuiasosopo-Gordon, an engineer and Fremont resident who calls East Palo Alto her second home, said in an email letter to the community.
Council members said they wished they had more time to debate the finer points and to give the proposal a serious look before taking a vote. But given the time crunch and the need to get the ball rolling on a project that has been stalled for years, they didn't want the developer to lose out on the opportunity, they said. In the end, they voted 4-1 in favor of the Sobrato-Amazon proposal with Councilwoman Donna Rutherford abstaining.
"The building was built to have a tenant, not to be empty. It's unfortunate not to have enough time to vet it, but the outcome is that it will benefit the community," Mayor Larry Moody said.
The city's first-source hiring policy is 14 years old. It was created as the city sought redevelopment and rebuilt areas such as the Ravenswood 101 retail center and University Circle, which includes offices and the Four Seasons Hotel. The ordinance was to help retain jobs for residents in the community as development takes place and to help prevent displacement, But the results have been mixed. East Palo Alto continues to have an unemployment rate that is twice that of surrounding communities as a whole, Assistant City Manager Sean Charpentier said.
Some retail businesses have had a hard time filling some of the positions because of a lack of basic language or job skills among residents. The Four Seasons Hotel has not been able to reach the 30-percent mark despite training of some workers through the nonprofit JobTrain, Charpentier said. A November 2016 update found that Nordstrom Rack had hired no one from East Palo Alto; The Home Depot hired 56 percent and Mi Pueblo supermarket and Office Depot have 71 percent each of hires from East Palo Alto. Overall, 37 percent of employees in the city are residents, he noted.
Charpentier said the problem of having the right tech skills is not exclusive to East Palo Alto. In Menlo Park, only about 4 percent of Facebook hires are that city's residents despite having one of the most highly educated populations in the state. (According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 57.6 percent of Menlo Park residents are of working ages between 23 and 64; East Palo Alto's is 58.4 percent.)
East Palo Alto City Council members noted the ordinance has never had the teeth to enforce a 30-percent-hiring rule; an ironclad requirement would likely be unconstitutional. A business needed to show it made a "good-faith effort" only.
Sobrato and Amazon argued that the 1,500-square-foot job center at University Square property would help match employees with the kinds of jobs and skills they desire or already have, and it would help achieve better outcomes than more nebulous first-source hiring. The job center would offer its services for the 10-year-lease lifetime. If at any time the center was to be discontinued, Sobrato and Amazon would be beholden to 30-percent first-source hiring. As the property's owner, Sobrato would be required to come up with a lease for any new tenant to either follow the hiring policy or maintain a job center, city staff said.
"I truly believe this alternative will provide a much better result for the residents of East Palo Alto," John Sobrato, CEO of The Sobrato Organization, said. As a public benefit, the developer agreed during the planning process to provide nearly more than $1.2 million in funding. The money will pay for the center and staffing.
Some audience speakers at the Feb. 21 meeting agreed with the proposal, but with caveats. Scott Hochberg, a workers' rights employment attorney with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, said that relieving Sobrato and Amazon of the 30 percent first-hire rule makes sense given the skills of most residents, but he urged the city to step back and consider the proposal before committing to a vote.
"The employment specialist in my view should be closely connected to Amazon. In addition to providing generalized job-placement advice to the community, the specialist should know about openings at Amazon and be able to funnel local residents into those jobs, because I'm sure that a good portion of East Palo Alto residents would be fine for them. The specialists' role to help East Palo Alto residents get jobs at Amazon should be written into this agreement," he said.
Charpentier said the city does have many residents with tech skills; they currently work elsewhere but might wish to return to a job in their city. Sobrato had also noted that although many jobs are highly skilled in tech, many other jobs are support roles.
Duane Goff, chairman of the Committee on Social Justice at the League of United Latin American Citizens of California, a civil rights organization, cautioned he has seen many instances where companies have gotten around hiring and similar public-benefit requirements. The specialist should not be an Amazon staff member, "otherwise that would be putting the fox in charge of the hen house," he said.
Over the 10-year life of the jobs center, Amazon should also be able to help residents become employable at the company through additional job training, he added.
"That's the kind of commitment I want to see, not just throwing a million bucks at it because in all honesty, and I don't mean to be insulting, but for an organization the size of Amazon a million bucks is chump change. I don't think we should be treated like that; I think we should make them prove what they say they want to do," he said.
Vice Mayor Ruben Abrica said that the existing policy is old and needs to be revamped. The job center proposal is "innovative" and the kind of project that could kick off how the council has to think about what development really means: about training people and even about wages. "There are a lot of ways the city can help the community to be in a better economic situation," he said.
But Rutherford said she did "not see the potential of East Palo Alto residents getting the benefit here." She was concerned about long-term residents who have invested in the community and who want to stay here "getting a piece of the pie."
She also expressed concern about the rush to make a decision.
"Something like this comes to the council at the ninth hour," she said, adding she hoped the vote could be put off for further study.
Councilwoman Lisa Gauthier wanted to know where the 1,300 employees would end up living and if they would displace existing residents. Charpentier said that he did not have an answer to where people will live, but many who work at University Circle offices commute over a wide area including from Walnut Creek to Morgan Hill.
Gauthier also wanted to know how groups that already educate students in technology, such as the StreetCode Academy and other job-training organizations such as JobTrain, might be incorporated into the job center's goals. She, Moody and Councilman Carlos Romero also wanted the job center to work with other city-based jobs programs to avoid redundant services and to create a pathway for residents toward earning living wages.
Residents including Tuiasosopo-Gordon said any serious discussion about educating the community must include existing tech-education efforts in the community. The Amazon proposal does not contain any language that furthers those efforts, but rather just offers job-placement services that do nothing to keep East Palo Altans in their community. They plan to organize against the council's decision and put forth a proposal of their own to counter Amazon's, they said.
Spokespersons for Amazon and Sobrato could not immediately be reached for comment.
A previous version of the story said that Marlayna Tuiasosopo-Gordon is an East Palo Alto resident.
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Follow the Palo Alto Weekly/Palo Alto Online on Twitter @PaloAltoWeekly and Facebook for breaking news, local events, photos, videos and more.A Nonbeliever Tries To Make Sense Of The Visions She Had As A Teen
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Twelve/Hachette Book Group Courtesy of Twelve/Hachette Book Group
Barbara Ehrenreich is known for her books and essays about politics, social welfare, class, women's health and other women's issues. Her best-seller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, explored the difficulties faced by low-wage workers. So fans of Ehrenreich's writing may be surprised at the subject of her new memoir — the mystical visions she had as a teenager.
To make her new book an even more unlikely subject, Ehrenreich describes herself as a rationalist, a scientist by training, and an atheist who is the daughter of atheists. Living With a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth About Everything draws on her journals from 1956-'66, and on the extensive reading she's done in the past decade about the history of religion. She never discussed these mystical experiences before writing the book — and she suspects she's not the only one keeping such things to herself.
"People have these unaccountable mystic experiences," Ehrenreich tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "Generally they say nothing or they label it as 'God' and get on with their lives. I'm saying, 'Hey, no, let's figure out what's going on here.' "
Interview Highlights
On the first time she had a mystical experience as a teenager
I was just staring at the woods... [when] something happened. It's like a layer peeled off the world, the layer that contains all the meanings, the words, the language, the associations we have. Yeah, I was looking at trees, but I no longer could say I knew exactly what a tree was, with all the knowledge and experience that goes into our notion of a tree.
I didn't find it scary... I guess it is for some people, because I have since, many years since, read about people who suffer from something called dissociation disorder and have this happen to them occasionally, and they seem to hate it. I just thought, well, this is pretty interesting....
What if there is a world underneath what we perceive? We're usually in a world of shared "reality." You and I agree on what we see if we're together, we have similar explanations for it, and so on. To leave that behind and just see things without any of those human attributions, well, that's very, very strange, but I wanted to know more.... I couldn't tell anybody. I had enough sense to think that this would be seen as crazy.
On the second vision she had in Lone Pine, Calif.
The only words I can put to it after all these years is... that the world flamed into life. Everything was alive. There was a feeling of an encounter with something living, not something God-like, not something loving, not something benevolent, but something beyond any of those kinds of categories, beyond any human categories. I don't know how many minutes this lasted in its full intensity.
On why she's writing about it now
The book contains things I never said to anyone, never talked to anyone about.... I have been a journalist and a writer for most of my life now.... I think I have a responsibility to report things, even if they're anomalous. Even if they don't fit whatever theory I had in my mind or most people have or anything. It's in that spirit that I take this risk.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Peter Abzug/Courtesy of Twelve/Hachette Book Group Peter Abzug/Courtesy of Twelve/Hachette Book Group
On researching many different religions to make sense of her experience
It helped that in the intervening years, here, I spent a great deal of time learning about religion, and learning, for example, about the varieties of religion that preceded, and many survived, well into the age of monotheism. There's almost no creature that hasn't been a deity for some sort of people somewhere on Earth at some time.... There was apparently a lot of experiencing the world as alive in a way that we do not see it now. If you think of animism... it's considered the most "primitive" religion, but what it is is people seeing the world as a living presence, every part of it, and that rings true with my experience. So I think I was ready after learning a whole lot to come back to this subject with a much more fertile imagination.
On the difference between belief and knowledge
Why believe when you can know? I don't believe in extraterrestrials; I am really curious. I want to find out. I'll say I don't believe in evolution; I'm more or less convinced by the evidence. I would like to put the whole idea of faith and belief away. Let's try to find out things....
The religions that fascinate me and could possibly tempt me are not the ones that involve faith or belief. They're the ones that offer you the opportunity to know the spirit or deity.... I think most readily of West-African-derived religions which involve ecstatic rituals where people actually apprehend the spirit or the God or whatever that they are invoking and that they are trying to contact — I have respect for that. But don't ask me to believe anything.I have long maintained a page on my website where I address various distortions, misunderstandings, and criticisms of my work. I take it to be either a sign of carelessness or masochism on my part that this page is the #1 Google search result for the phrase “response to controversy.” Surely, I need not have courted quite so much controversy. But there it is.
While most of my work has been devoted to controversial topics, I have taken very few positions that I later regret. There is one, however, and I regret it more with each passing hour: it is my “collateral damage argument” for the use of torture in extreme circumstances. This argument first appeared in The End of Faith (pp. 192-199), in a section where I compare the ethics of “collateral damage” to the ethics of torture in times of war. I argued then, and I believe today, that collateral damage is worse than torture across the board.
However, rather than appreciate just how bad I think collateral damage is in ethical terms, many readers mistakenly conclude that I take a cavalier attitude toward the practice of torture. I do not. Nevertheless, I believe that there are extreme situations in which practices like “water-boarding” may not only be ethically justifiable, but ethically necessary—especially where getting information from a known terrorist seems likely to save the lives of thousands (or even millions) of innocent people. To argue that torture may sometimes be ethically justified is not to argue that it should ever be legal (crimes like trespassing or theft may sometimes be ethical, while we all have an interest in keeping them illegal).
I sincerely regret making this argument. Rational discussion about the ethics of torture has proved impossible in almost every case, and my published views have been the gift to my critics and detractors that just keeps on giving: It seems that every few weeks, someone discovers the relevant pages in The End of Faith, or notices what others have said about them, and publicly attacks me for being “pro-torture.” Journalists regularly steer interviews on any subject in this direction—not so that they can understand my position, or coherently argue against it, but so that readers can be shocked by whatever misleading gloss appears in their final copy. The spectacle of someone not being reflexively and categorically “against torture” seems just too good to pass up.
And so, I am now a bit wiser and can offer a piece of advice to others: not everything worth saying is worth saying oneself. I am sure that the world needs someone to think out loud about the ethics of torture, and to point out the discrepancies in how we weight various harms for which we hold one another morally culpable, but that someone did not need to be me. The subject has done nothing but distract and sicken readers who might have otherwise found my work useful.
The topic of torture surfaced recently in a profile of me published in The New Statesman. The author, Jonathan Derbyshire, concluded his piece with a misleading summary of my views (among other things, he neglected to say that I think torture should be illegal). He later published the raw transcript of our interview, presumably so that I could speak for myself on so inflammatory a topic. Nevertheless, even my unedited remarks proved difficult for many people to understand, as witnessed by the fact that even one of my friends, Andrew Sullivan, felt the need to publicly repudiate them. Thus, I have been goaded to clarify my view on torture once again. I certainly hope it is for the last time.
[What follows is a revised section of the article “Response to Controversy,” referenced above.]
I am not alone in thinking that there are potential circumstances in which the use of torture would be ethically justifiable. Liberal Senator Charles Schumer has publicly stated that most U.S. senators would support torture to find out the location of a ticking time bomb. Such “ticking-bomb” scenarios have been widely criticized as unrealistic. But realism is not the point of such thought experiments. The point is that unless you have an argument that rules out torture in idealized cases, you don’t have a categorical argument against the use of torture. As nuclear and biological terrorism become increasingly possible, it is in everyone’s interest for men and women of goodwill to determine what should be done if a person appears to have operational knowledge of an imminent atrocity (and may even claim to possess such knowledge), but won’t otherwise talk about it.
My argument for the limited use of coercive interrogation (“torture” by another name) is essentially this: if you think it is ever justifiable to drop bombs in an attempt to kill a man like Osama bin Laden (and thereby risk killing and maiming innocent men, women, and children), you should think it may sometimes be justifiable to “water-board” a man like Osama bin Laden (and risk abusing someone who just happens to look like Osama bin Laden). It seems to me that however one compares the practices of “water-boarding” high-level terrorists and dropping bombs, dropping bombs always comes out looking worse in ethical terms. And yet, most people tacitly accept the practice of modern warfare, while considering it taboo to even speak about the possibility of practicing torture. It is important to point out that my argument for the restricted use of torture does not make travesties like Abu Ghraib look any less sadistic or stupid. I considered our mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib to be patently unethical. I also think it was one of the most damaging blunders to occur in the last century of U.S. foreign policy. Nor have I ever seen the wisdom or necessity of denying proper legal counsel (and access to evidence) to prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Indeed, I consider much of what occurred under Bush and Cheney—the routine abuse of ordinary prisoners, the practice of “extraordinary rendition,” etc.—to be a terrible stain upon the conscience of our nation.
Some people believe that, while collateral damage may be worse than torture, these are independent evils, and one problem does not shed any light upon the other. However, they are not independent, in principle. In fact, it is easy to see how information gained through torture might mitigate the risk of collateral damage. If one found oneself in such a situation, with an apparent choice between torturing a known terrorist and bombing civilians, torturing the terrorist should seem like the more ethical option. And yet, most people’s intuitions seem to run the other way. In fact, very few critics of the collateral damage argument even acknowledge how strangely asymmetrical our worries about torture and collateral damage are. A conversation about the ethics of torture can scarcely be had, and yet collateral damage is often reported in the context of a “successful” military operation as though it posed no ethical problem whatsoever. The case of Baitullah Mehsud, killed along with 12 others (including his wife and mother in law), is a recent example: had his wife been water-boarded in order to obtain the relevant intelligence, rather than merely annihilated by a missile, we can be sure that the event would have been met by torrents of outrage.*
It is widely claimed that torture “does not work”—that it produces unreliable information, implicates innocent people, etc. As I argue in The End of Faith, this line of defense does not resolve the underlying ethical dilemma. Clearly, the claim that torture never works, or that it always produces bad information, is false. There are cases in which the mere threat of torture has worked. As I argue in The End of Faith, one can easily imagine situations in which even a very low probability of getting useful information through torture would seem to justify it—the looming threat of nuclear terrorism being the most obvious case. It is decidedly unhelpful that those who claim to know that torture is “always wrong” never seem to envision the circumstances in which good people would be tempted to use it. Critics of my collateral damage argument always ignore the hard case: where the person in custody is known to be involved in terrible acts of violence and where the threat of further atrocities is imminent. If you think such situations never arise, consider what it might be like to capture a high-ranking member of al Qaeda along with several accomplices and their computers. The possibility that such a person might really be “innocent” or that he could “just say anything” to mislead his interrogators begins to seem less of a concern. Such captures bring us closer to a “ticking bomb” scenario than many people are willing to admit.
While I think that torture should remain illegal, it is not clear that having a torture provision in our laws would create as slippery a slope as many people imagine. We have a capital punishment provision, for instance, but this has not led to our killing prisoners at random because we can’t control ourselves. While I am strongly opposed to capital punishment, I can readily concede that we are not suffering a total moral chaos in our society because we execute about five people every month. It is not immediately obvious that a rule about torture could not be applied with equal restraint.
It seems probable, however, that any legal use of torture would have unacceptable consequences. In light of this concern, the best strategy I have heard comes from Mark Bowden in his Atlantic Monthly article, “The Dark Art of Interrogation.” Bowden recommends that we keep torture illegal, and maintain a policy of not torturing anybody for any reason. But our interrogators should know that there are certain circumstances in which it will be ethical to break the law. Indeed, there are circumstances in which you would have to be a monster not to break the law. If an interrogator finds himself in such a circumstance, and he breaks the law, there will not be much of a will to prosecute him (and interrogators will know this). If he breaks the law Abu Ghraib-style, he will go to jail for a very long time (and interrogators will know this too). At the moment, this seems like the most reasonable policy to me, given the realities of our world.
The best case against “ticking-bomb” arguments appears in David Luban’s article, “Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Bomb,” published in the Virginia Law Review. (I have posted a PDF here.) Luban relies on a few questionable assumptions, however. And he does not actually provide an ethical argument against torture in the ticking bomb case; he offers a pragmatic argument against our instituting a policy allowing torture in such cases. There is absolutely nothing in Luban’s argument that rules out the following law:
We will not torture anyone under any circumstances unless we are certain, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the person in our custody has operational knowledge of an imminent act of nuclear terrorism.
It seems to me that unless one can produce an ethical argument against torturing such a person, one does not have an argument against the use of torture in principle. Of course, my discussion of torture in The End of Faith (and on this page) only addresses the ethics of torture, not the practical difficulties of implementing a policy based on the ethics.
While my remarks on torture span only a few pages in a book devoted to reducing the causes of religious violence, many readers have found my views deeply unsettling. (For what it’s worth, I do too. It would be much easier to simply be “against torture” across the board and end the discussion.) I have invited readers, both publicly and privately, to produce an ethical argument that takes into account the realities of our world—our daily acceptance of collateral damage, the real possibility of nuclear terrorism, etc.—and yet rules out a practice like “water-boarding” in all conceivable circumstances. No one, to my knowledge, has done this. And yet, most people continue to speak and write as though a knock-down argument against torture in all circumstances is readily available. I consider it to be one of the more dangerous ironies of liberal discourse that merely discussing the possibility of torturing a man like Osama bin Laden provokes more outrage than the maiming and murder of children ever does. Until someone actually points out what is wrong with the “collateral damage argument” presented in The End of Faith. I will continue to believe that its critics are just not thinking clearly about the reality of human suffering.
* It seems, in fact, that many people do not understand what the phrase “collateral damage” signifies, and this leads them to imagine that I have drawn a false analogy. Most assume my analogy fails in the following way: torture is the intentional infliction of guaranteed suffering, while collateral damage is the unintentional imposition of possible suffering (or death). Apples and oranges.
But this isn’t true. We often drop bombs knowing that innocent people will be killed or horribly injured by them. We target buildings in which combatants are hiding, knowing that noncombatants are also in those buildings, or standing too close to escape destruction. And when innocent people are killed or injured—when children are burned over most of their bodies and live to suffer interminable pain and horrible disfigurement—our leaders accept this as the cost of doing business in a time of war. Many people oppose specific wars, of course—like the war in Iraq—but no public figure has been vilified for accepting collateral damage in a war that is deemed just. And yet anyone who would defend the water-boarding a terrorist like Khalid Sheikh Muhammad will reap a whirlwind of public criticism. This makes no moral sense (to me).
Again, which is worse, water-boarding a terrorist or killing/maiming him? Which is worse, water-boarding an innocent person or killing/maiming him? There are journalists who have volunteered to be water-boarded. Where are the journalists who have volunteered to have a 5000 lb bomb dropped on their homes with their families inside? [added 5/1/11]Scandal: The tangled web of IRS deceit unravels a bit more with news recycled backup tapes of lost emails still exist and statements before a federal judge that Lois Lerner's hard drive was irreparably damaged were untrue.
Deliberately destroying evidence pertaining to the investigation of possible criminal activity is a crime. So is lying about it to Congress and the courts as part of a cover-up of that activity.
On July 11, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton, at a hearing examining a lawsuit against the IRS by the targeted conservative group True the Vote, told Obama administration lawyers he wanted to see an affidavit explaining what happened with Lerner's hard drive.
He wanted something on the record and under oath that went beyond the tap dancing of recent congressional testimony. Walton also wanted to know the serial number of the hard drive and, if that number was known, "why the computer hard drive cannot be identified and preserved."
In response, the IRS said under oath that the hard drive from Lerner's computer was destroyed and recycled, echoing earlier testimony from Commissioner John Koskinen.
The reason given for Lerner's hard drive — possibly containing incriminating emails from and to the former head of the IRS Tax Exempt division — being destroyed and recycled, according to the IRS in the affidavit, was that a team of its technical experts had determined the drive was irreparably damaged and had to be recycled.
Except that was not true.
On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Committee investigators said that they had a chance to talk to the technical experts inside the IRS who actually examined Lerner's computer, and that the experts said the hard drive in question was merely "scratched" and most of the data on it was indeed recoverable.
According to a committee release, "in-house professionals at the IRS recommended the agency seek outside assistance in recovering the data."
Yet no attempt to get outside help was made.
A justifiably outraged Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said in a statement: "The committee was told no data was recoverable and the physical drive was recycled and potentially shredded.
"To now learn that the hard drive was only scratched, yet the IRS refused to utilize outside experts to recover the data, raises more questions about potential criminal wrong doing at the IRS."
As Byron York reports in the Washington Examiner, "committee aides say they have consulted with 'former federal law enforcement and Department of Defense forensic experts' about the matter, and their conclusion is that the majority of information on the drive could have been saved."
As we and others have noted, the desire to use the IRS to punish political enemies was one of the articles of impeachment against President Nixon.
That President Obama's IRS may have actually been doing it, we believe, is sufficient motive to go along with the opportunity the IRS had to destroy the incriminating evidence that was possibly one of the reasons Lerner pleaded the Fifth Amendment in testimony before Congress.
As if this wasn't enough, Koskinen, testifying before a House oversight subcommittee for the fourth time on Wednesday, said the backup tapes possibly containing the emails in question, supposedly recycled and lost forever, have been found.
Koskinen stressed that he does not know "how they found them" or "whether there's anything on them or not." Of course he doesn't. The "being there" commissioner has either pleaded ignorance or tap-danced around his prior contradictory statements with all the aplomb of a husband caught sneaking in at 3 a.m.
But now the IRS, arguably caught lying many times, has been caught lying to a federal judge. We have two words for this: " special prosecutor."Cape Town - South Africa's controversial Canned Lion Hunting industry has been high on the agenda at the 2016 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress (WCC), currently under way in Hawaii.
Seven non-governmental organisations have called for the termination of hunting of captive-bred lions (Panthera leo) and other predators and captive breeding for commercial, non-conservation purposes in South Africa.
The Blood Lions team, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), South African Wildlife College (SAWC), Wildlands and the National Association of Conservancies (NACSA), filed the motion to secure global conservation support at the momentous congress meeting.
South Africa has an estimated 7 000 lions in captivity, in comparison to an estimated 2 000 wild lions - and the practice of Canned Lion Hunting is regarded as an "ethically repugnant embarrassment" by South Africa's professional hunting associations at large.
In response to the acceptance of the motion by the IUCN's WCC, the department of environmental affairs says it has acknowledged the move, in which the NGOs’ expressed concern on the alleged escalation of the breeding of lions for the specific purpose of 'canned lion hunting' or 'canned lion shooting', by sectors of the wildlife industry.
However the DEA says while it does not support certain aspects of the motion, it has confirmed it will engage the IUCN Director-General and the IUCN members on the requirements contained therein.
The motion requests the IUCN Director General, relevant Commissions and the South African National Committee to encourage the South African Government, as well as all other southern African Governments, to support this initiative by reviewing existing legislative provisions regulating this activity and drafting, enacting and implementing legislation by 2020 |
tournament. You can collect parts and weapons for to improve your robot, and allow you to progress through the game’s 4 dungeons, and, more importantly, the aforementioned tournament. Think of it like Armored Core: The RPG.
Most of the game is centered around this tournament, with the central town, which has shops to sell you parts, and your garage, which lets you equip and upgrade your Unitron parts. Like Pokemon, there is a lack of any deep story, but instead relies on solid, addictive gameplay that will keep you playing to the very end. One thing that I must point out, though, is the level of detail put into the game’s backgrounds. When traversing through the game’s central town, you take on a first-person perspective with a MUD-style navigation system. Whenever you get to a new part of town, you are greeted with a gorgeously-drawn and meticulously-detailed background image of the area, as well as an equally-impressive image of your conversation partner. This is something that wasn’t done on portables until the GBA, or at least the Wonderswan. Either way, it is incredible to see running on the Neo Geo Pocket Color, and adds some serious graphical flair to the game.
The inclusion of an RPG was an important step for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, and the brand as a whole. It represents SNK’s desire to move forward as a company, despite it ultimately being a case of too little, too late. There was a sequel of Biomotor Unitron released, called Kikou Seiki Unitron, but was only released in Japan, similar to Card Fighters Clash 2’s predicament. Still, Biomotor Unitron provided NGPC owners a great RPG for a system in a time when the system sorely needed some diversity in its library.
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Metal Slug: 1st Mission / 2nd Mission
There is no denying that Neo Geo systems survive almost entirely on high-quality first-party games, and that Metal Slug is among the company’s bread and butter. So, the company certainly wasn’t going to pass up the chance to bring the franchise to their handheld system. Metal Slug was given two games on the Neo Geo Pocket Color, entitled 1st and 2nd Mission, respectively. Both were created from the ground up for the NGPC, eschewing the arcade’s token-based system for a more console/handheld friendly health meter. All the weapons from the arcade games are present, along with a few new ones, such as the “Pineapple” Grenade Launcher. Even voice samples from dying enemies and the weapon upgrade announcer made it into 2nd Mission! Gameplay-wise, it is a very faithful port. Although, once again, the NGPC’s lack of many buttons presented a problem to making a portable version. So, the developers used the Option button for both grenades and pausing the game, depending on how long you hold it down for. It is still a bit of a jarring shift if you are used to the arcade games, but it is another great example of SNK being creative when bringing franchises to the NGPC.
The first Metal Slug game for the NGPC, 1st Mission, was still a good game, I am certainly not saying otherwise, but 2nd Mission just improved on it in every imaginable way, so we had to include the latter on the list instead. Also, the first game borrowed a lot of content from the original Metal Slug, including music and certain bosses, so it was more like an expanded/remixed port of the original Metal Slug. 2nd Mission was completely unique to the Neo Geo Pocket, though, and contained features like branching pathways, which added a lot of replay value if you go back and play through the stages and level segments you initially missed. This level of detail and depth in a portable game was certainly a driving force that helped re-define what experiences could be possible on a handheld game.
Metal Slug: Second Mission makes stellar use of the system’s hardware, utilizing the audio capabilities with the aforementioned voice samples, as well as some relatively high-fidelity and very catchy audio that is highly faithful to Metal Slug’s jazzy rock music style. The graphics, the backgrounds in particular, are highly-detailed and look gorgeous on the NGPC’s screen. In terms of visual quality on the system, 2nd Mission is in the top tier on the system, with fluid animation, well-drawn sprites and impressive scaling effects let you know that this is a game that pushes the hardware to its limits. 2nd Mission is exactly what the Neo Geo Pocket was designed for; to have fast-paced arcade action on the small screen, with the aid of SNK’s best franchises. If you want some Run N’ Gun action on a portable system, then you can’t do much better than Metal Slug: Second Mission.
Shop for Metal Slug: 1st Mission / 2nd Mission on eBay
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Gals Fighters
So we already mentioned the Neo Geo Pocket’s fighting library as a whole above, but one rather unique fighter still deserves an individual mention: Gals Fighters
It was the year 2000. After just under a mere 2 years, the Neo Geo Pocket/Color was already losing ground to the Game Boy Color, and the gigantic shadow looming over the handheld gaming world that was the Game Boy Advance. SNK knew that it probably wasn’t going to make it for much
longer with the NGPC; its market share was dwindling from an already low percentage, and there wasn’t much that could be done. So, they decided to make a game that would let them go out with a bang. This game was a love letter to all of SNK’s fans out there, and took everything the company knew about portable game development, and compressed it into one game. The premise itself was 100% fanservice; something Sega also did before it went under with the game Segagaga. Yes, the war was lost, in fact, many maintain that it was a long time coming for the company, but SNK wanted to show that it appreciated its die-hard fanbase that clung to the Neo Geo brand for dear life. This game was Gals Fighters.
While Gals Fighters was not the last 1st-party game ever released for the NGPC (that honor goes to The Last Blade), it was the second-to-last, released just two months earlier. Gals Fighters was a girls-only fighting game that took SNK’s most popular females from all their franchises, and puts them together into the same roster. Even some lesser-known characters, like Shiki from Samurai Spirits 64 made the cut. The game plays like like most other Neo Geo Pocket fighters; Match of the Millennium, in particular. The best way to describe gals Fighters is simply this: Absolutely bonkers. The game takes MotM’s cartoony silliness, runs with it, and never stops. To use an analogy, Match of the Millennium is to Gals Fighters as Waku Waku 7 is to Pocket Fighter. In fact, one of the game’s main selling points is its completely off-the-wall silliness. Athena dresses in costumes (bunnygirl, maid, etc.) for her special attacks, Mai parachutes down to the ground after jumping, Shermie continuously judo-slams you across the entire battlefield with her special attack, Yuri does rock-paper-scissors uppercuts and stops to take a breather afterwards, and Iori even makes a surprise appearance as an unlockable character as “Ms. XÅh! You can’t make this stuff up.
In terms of presentation, it looks just about as good as Match of the Millennium, if not a little more smoothly animated. Everything is fast and fluid, and just feels right. The backgrounds are vibrant and detailed as always, with lots of nice touches that make the game stand out on a portable system. The sound, while not as catchy as that in Match of the Millennium, still has a whimsical and fun tone to it that makes it a joy to listen to, and that suits the game like a glove. On the gameplay side of things, Gals Fighters incorporates somewhat of an optional weapons system to liven up combat. Upon beating the game, you
are given a weapon based on the character you beat the game with. You can then use these weapons during later battles to inflict more damage or some other effect. Its inclusion in the game adds a nice extra layer of strategy to a game whose combat mechanics would not have stood out otherwise.
Overall, the main reason that Gals Fighters was an important Neo Geo Pocket Color game was that it defined the gestalt of SNK. Everything that the company had worked for for over the past decade, culminating into a single game. It was what Neo Geo fans wanted, and SNK was willing to give it to them, even while valiantly going down with their sinking ship, Shin Nihon Kikoku never, ever gave up on its fans. So the next time you are witness to Mai Shiranui’s boob jiggle, have a moment of silence for our brethren at SNK.
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Honorable Mentions
Many of these are bordering on Hidden Gems (so we will save more discussion about them in another upcoming guide), but here are some other excellent and somewhat popular NGPC games that made an impact with fans, but weren’t as much of mainstream hits.WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 07: Vivek Murthy, U.S. surgeon general, speaks while participating in a roundtable discussion on the impacts of climate change on public health at Howard University with U.S. President Barack Obama, not pictured, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. President Obama is warning that climate change will start affecting Americans health in the near future and heâs recruiting top technology companies to help prepare the nationâs health systems. (Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON -- Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Tuesday that climate change presents a "serious, immediate and global threat to human health," calling the danger a "sobering truth."
Murthy spoke before a gathering of health leaders that the White House hosted as part of a week of events intended to promote the Obama administration's actions to address climate change.
"We are not here today to debate whether or not climate change is real. We are not here to debate whether or not human activity is contributing to that. These questions have been settled by science," said Murthy. "We are here today as public health leaders, as policymakers, and as citizens of the planet to figure out what we are, in fact, going to do about climate change. That is the pressing question that stands before us."
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday released a study on the economic and social implications of climate change, finding that a global commitment to cutting climate-warming emissions could prevent 57,000 deaths by the year 2100 due to improved air quality.
At Tuesday's event, Murthy said that rising temperatures are causing more severe heat waves, longer allergy seasons and decreased air quality in cities. He also cited extreme weather events such as hurricanes and flooding, along with wildfires, as disasters that strain health care infrastructure and put people's health at risk.The idea of resistance A Roman senator named Pupius Piso once ordered his slaves not to speak unless spoken to. He had no time for idle talk. He also arranged an elegant dinner-party at which the guest of honour was to be a dignitary named Clodius... psychological warfare... always existed between master and slave. At the appropriate time all the guests arrived except Clodius. So Piso sent the slave responsible for having invited the guest of honour to see where he was - several times - but still Clodius did not appear. In despair Piso finally questioned the slave: 'Did you send Clodius an invitation?' 'Yes.' 'So why hasn't he come?' 'Because he declined'. 'Then why didn't you tell me earlier? 'Because you didn't ask.' This anecdote was recorded, about AD 100, by the Greek moralist Plutarch. It is a story that presupposes a constant tension between slave and master in the ancient Roman world, and is a striking illustration of how a lowly Roman slave could outwit his superior master. Technically Roman slaves were the property, the chattels, of their owners, held in a state of total subjection. But to outwit an owner as Piso's slave did was to win a victory in the game of psychological warfare that always existed between master and slave. For unlike other forms of property, slaves were human beings with minds of their own, and they didn't always obey their owners as unthinkingly as they were supposed to. They had the capacity to resist the absolute authority their owners formally exercised, and when Piso's slave crushingly embarrassed his master by obeying his instructions to the letter, for a moment (at least) he placed Piso in the inferior position that he normally occupied himself. He found, in other words, a way to assert himself, to exert power against the powerful, so that the asymmetrical roles of master and slave were suddenly inverted. Top
The realities of slavery In Plutarch's day Rome had been the predominant political power in the ancient Mediterranean world for roughly 500 years, and was to remain so for three centuries more. Throughout this span of time Rome was a slave-owning society, acquiring its slaves through its wars of conquest and through trade beyond the borders of its empire. In Rome and Italy, in the four centuries between 200 BC and 200 AD, perhaps a quarter or even a third of the population was made up of slaves. Over time millions of men, women, and children lived their lives in a state of legal and social non-existence with no rights of any kind. They were non-persons - notice that in Plutarch's story the slave does not even have a name - and they couldn't own anything, marry, or have legitimate families.... slavery was a brutal, violent and dehumanising institution... Their role was to provide labour, or to add to their owners' social standing as visible symbols of wealth, or both. Some slaves were treated well, but there were few restraints on their owners' powers, and physical punishment and sexual abuse were common. Owners thought of their slaves as enemies. By definition slavery was a brutal, violent and dehumanising institution, where slaves were seen as akin to animals. Few records have survived from Roman slaves to allow modern historians to deduce from them a slave's perception of his or her life of servitude. Rome produced no slaves-turned-abolitionist such as the African-Americans Frederick Douglass or Harriet Jacobs. Instead the evidence available comes overwhelmingly from people such as Plutarch, who represented the slave-owning classes. But that evidence does show that Roman slaves managed to demonstrate their opposition to slavery in various ways. Top
Slave rebellions The most obvious way was through open rebellion. In 73-71 BC the gladiator Spartacus famously led an uprising of thousands of slaves in central Italy, formed an army that defeated several Roman legions, and at one point threatened Rome itself. Earlier there had been similar large-scale rebellions on the island of Sicily. But open rebellion was also the most dangerous form of resistance, because the stakes were enormously high. The greater the size of the rebellion, the greater the likelihood was of betrayal from within, and the greater the threat was of serious retaliation, re-enslavement or death.... the Romans always feared another Spartacus Spartacus himself died in battle, and thousands of his captured followers were crucified. The slave rebels in Sicily were likewise thoroughly suppressed. It isn't surprising that they had no successors, or that their rebellions achieved nothing of lasting value for Roman slaves. Still, the Romans always feared another Spartacus. The philosopher Seneca tells of a proposal that was once made in the Roman senate requiring slaves to wear distinctive clothing so that they could be easily recognised. But once the senators realised that the slaves might then become conscious of their strength, and make common cause against their masters, they abandoned the idea. Top
Alternatives to rebellion Many slaves probably internalised their social inferiority, and accommodated themselves to servitude without thinking in terms of resistance. Others responded more violently, and sometimes tragically. Those who fought against Rome knew that they could be sent to the slave-market if taken as a prisoner-of-war. They are often said to have killed themselves rather than face the prospect of enslavement - a clear indictment of the horrors involved in the sudden transition from freedom to slavery. Images of the vanquished committing suicide are still visible on the Column of Trajan in Rome.... law required a man's slaves to come to his aid if he were attacked, under penalty of death. At other times, slaves who were unable to tolerate their conditions assaulted their owners. In the mid-first century AD an anonymous slave murdered his master, a high official in the imperial administration, either because the master had reneged on a promise to set the slave free or because the two were rivals in a sexual intrigue. The aftermath was disastrous. Roman law required a man's slaves to come to his aid if he were attacked, under penalty of death. The law was enforced against those slaves who had not come to the victim's aid in this case, and all the slaves in the household - allegedly 400 of them - were executed, even though most of them could not possibly have known anything about the murder. There were other ways to alleviate the burdens of slavery. One was to try to escape, either to return to an original homeland or simply to find safe refuge somewhere. Romans labelled runaway slaves 'fugitives', and as the greatest modern historian of ancient slavery, Moses Finley, has remarked, 'fugitive slaves are almost an obsession in the sources'. This suggests that the incidence of running away was always high. To deal with the problem, the Romans hired professional slave-catchers to hunt down runaways, and posted advertisements in public places giving precise descriptions of fugitives and offering rewards for their capture. Around the necks of slaves who were recovered they also attached iron collars, giving instructions on what to do with the slaves who wore them if they happened to escape again. Examples can still be seen in museums. There is no way of knowing how many Roman slaves successfully escaped slavery by running away. But it was possible. And it helped that skin colour was no impediment. The great orator Cicero can be heard grumbling in his correspondence about a slave named Dionysius, who was well-educated enough to have supervised Cicero's personal library and who must have been relatively well-treated. He ran away anyway. Cicero used all his considerable influence to find the man, but to no avail: Dionysius slipped away across the Adriatic and is last heard of well out of Cicero's reach - somewhere in the Balkans. Top
Day-to day resistance Running away was less dangerous than rebellion, but it was still a hazardous enterprise. Slave-catchers apart, Roman law forbade the harbouring of fugitives, so slaves on the run were always in danger and if caught could be savagely punished. To many therefore it must have made sense not to risk life and limb by running away, but to carry out acts of wilful obstruction or sabotage that harmed slave-owners' interests at minimal risk to themselves. Slaves, for example, might steal food or other supplies from the household. Those in positions of responsibility might falsify record books, and embezzle money from their owners, or arrange for their own manumission (setting free). Ordinary farm labourers might deliberately go slow on the job, or injure the animals they worked with to avoid work - or they might pretend to be ill, destroy equipment, or damage buildings. If your job was to make wine and you had to produce a certain quota, why not add in some sea-water to help things along? Almost any slave could play truant or simply waste time.... sporadic acts of defiance created a permanent undercurrent of low-level resistance to slavery... All these petty forms of day-to-day resistance appealed to Roman slaves. They allowed slaves to frustrate and annoy their owners, and offered the satisfaction of knowing that their owners' powers were not absolute - that even the most humble of human beings could take action to empower themselves. Owners complained that their slaves were lazy and troublesome - instead of working they were always pilfering food or clothing or valuables (even the silverware), setting fire to property (villas included), or wandering around the city's art galleries and public entertainments. But it was in the decisions they made to cause vexation that slaves most forcefully expressed their humanity, and their opposition to the institution that oppressed them. Their sporadic acts of defiance created a permanent undercurrent of low-level resistance to slavery that was deeply embedded in Roman society. The slaves were motivated not by a sense of class solidarity - Rome's slave population was far too heterogeneous for that - but by the desire to find ways in which, as individuals, they could find relief from their subject status, if only temporarily. The relationship between slaves and masters at Rome was a contest fought in the arena of the mind. Masters could draw on all the weapons of law, status and established authority - there was never in Roman history any movement to abolish slavery - whereas slaves had little more to fight with than their wits. But as Plutarch's story symbolically shows, the lines of battle had to be constantly redrawn, as slaves matched their will against the will of those who owned them. And it was not always the masters who won. Top
Find out more Books Slavery in the Roman Empre by RH Barrow (Barnes & Noble, 1998) Suetonius' Life of Nero: An Historical Commentary edited by KR Bradley (Collection Latomus, Brussels, 1978) Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire: A Study in Social Control by KR Bradley (Oxford University Press, 1987) Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World, 140 BC - 70 BC by KR Bradley (Batsford, 1989; reprint 1998) Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology by MI Finley (Chatto and Windus, 1980) Slavery and Society at Rome by KR Bradley (Cambridge University Press, 1994; Spanish translation 1998) Suetonius edited and translated by JC Rolfe; revised edition with a new introduction by KR Bradley (Harvard University Press, 1998) Conquerors and Slaves by K Hopkins (Cambridge, 1978) Spartacus and the Slave Wars by BD Shaw (Boston, 2001) TopLooking for news you can trust?
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The big news tonight is that John Boehner has shelved plans to vote on his debt ceiling proposal. Why? Because he couldn’t round up enough Republicans to vote for it. A hardcore rump of tea party nihilists is now treating him the same way that he’s treated President Obama for the past few months: rejecting every deal offered, regardless of how good it is or how much harm rejection will do to the country.
It would be easy to shed crocodile tears about this, but there’s really nothing here to gloat about. It’s just undiluted bad news if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Whether D-Day comes on August 2nd or — thanks to better-than-expected tax receipts — a few days after that, hardly matters. We’re not only headed for unprecedented fiscal chaos when it comes, but we’re taking a real risk of throwing the country back into recession too. Granted, that’s the Armageddon scenario, and things might not turn out that badly in the end. But I’d just as soon not take the chance. Our economy is just too fragile to risk it.
But it’s possible — barely — that there’s some good news here. If Boehner can’t get the tea partiers in the House to support his proposal, and if Harry Reid can’t find 60 votes in the Senate for his, then pretty shortly they’ll figure out that there’s only one way to pass something: forge a compromise that can get substantial support from both Democrats and non-tea-party Republicans. Such a compromise is almost certainly available, and all it takes to get there is for Boehner to be willing to admit the obvious: the tea partiers just aren’t willing to deal, period. They want to burn the house down so they can build something better from the ashes. They’re insane.
So walk away from the tea partiers. Instead, strike a deal that a hundred non-insane House Republicans and 20 or 30 non-insane Senate Republicans can support. Add that to a majority of the Democratic caucus and you’re done. You’ve saved the country.
It won’t be as a good a deal as Republicans could have gotten a month ago. What’s more, it would take some guts from Boehner, who might very well be jeopardizing his speakership if he does this. But it will save the country. Surely that’s still worth something?Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has a 10-point lead over challenger Tim Canova, a South Florida Sun Sentinel/Florida Atlantic University poll shows, as the candidates approach the Democratic primary finish line.
The Sun Sentinel/FAU poll found Wasserman Schultz was the choice of 50 percent of likely Democratic voters in the Broward/Miami-Dade County 23rd Congressional District. Canova had 40 percent.
Each candidate can point to something positive in the findings.
"He's doing better, at least in our polling numbers, than typically a challenger to an incumbent does," said FAU political scientist Kevin Wagner. "Ideally, if you're the incumbent, you'd like to have a bigger cushion. But I don't think there's an election where a person looks at a poll and sees they're up by double digits and thinks that's a bad thing."
The incumbent was preferred by men, older voters, people who voted for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary, and those with a favorable view of President Barack Obama. Women also supported Wasserman Schultz, but not as strongly as men.
CAPTION Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. CAPTION Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video.
The challenger was ahead with younger voters, people who wanted Bernie Sanders to win the presidential nomination, and those who have an unfavorable view of Obama.
The Democratic congressional primary between Wasserman Schultz and Canova is Aug. 30; voting by mail and in-person early voting is underway.
The Business and Economics Polling Initiative surveyed 400 likely Democratic voters in the 23rd Congressional District for the Sun Sentinel from Wednesday through Friday. The margin of error for the poll, which was conducted by an interactive voice response system, is plus or minus 5 percentage points, said Monica Escaleras, director of the polling initiative.
The district is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the winner of the Canova-Wasserman Schultz primary is virtually guaranteed to win the November general election.
For Wasserman Schultz, 2016 has been the most challenging year of her 25 years in public life. She has a well-funded primary challenger, was criticized for months by Sanders, and resigned her position last month as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
Still, Democratic voters in the 23rd District view her positively. She is seen favorably by 58 percent of the Democratic voters in the Sun Sentinel/FAU poll and unfavorably by 35 percent, a net positive of 23 points.
Just 7 percent said they were undecided or had never heard of Wasserman Schultz, who is serving her sixth term in Congress and spent more than five years as chairwoman of the national party.
Canova, a professor of law and public finance at Nova Southeastern University who has never before run for public office, was viewed favorably by 46 percent and unfavorably by 22 percent, giving him a net positive of 24 points.
A total of 32 percent said they were undecided or had never heard of Canova.
Neither Wasserman Schultz nor Canova came close to the stellar approval Obama enjoys among 23rd District Democrats. He was viewed favorably by 86 percent and unfavorably by 12 percent of voters, a net positive of 74 points.
Obama has endorsed Wasserman Schultz, as has Clinton, who showed her support with an Aug. 9 visit to the congresswoman's Davie campaign headquarters.
The Sun Sentinel/FAU poll found 42 percent said Clinton's support would make them more likely to vote for Wasserman Schultz, 22 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for her, and 36 percent said it would make no difference.
Sanders' endorsement of Canova is less influential with 23rd District Democrats. It would make 31 percent more likely to support Canova, 26 percent less likely to support him, and 43 percent said it would make no difference.
Those findings aren't surprising, as Democrats in the district are solidly with Clinton. In the 23rd District, Clinton got 68 percent of the vote in the March 15 Democratic presidential primary.
"Barack Obama is relatively popular there among the Democrats, as is Hillary Clinton. That support translates pretty well" for Wasserman Schultz, Wagner said. A candidate like Canova who is challenging the system "would probably do better in a district that is more dissatisfied with the Democratic leadership."
The poll shows 68 percent of Clinton voters are supporting Wasserman Schultz and 81 percent of Sanders voters support Canova.
Breakdowns by age mirror the presidential primaries, when younger voters preferred Sanders and older voters chose Clinton.
The Sun Sentinel/FAU poll found 69 percent of voters ages 18 to 34 favored Canova.
Democrats from 35 to 54 were essentially tied, with 45 percent for Canova and 43 percent for Wasserman Schultz.
From age 55 to 74, voters preferred Wasserman Schultz 55 percent to 34 percent. Among voters 75 and older, 69 percent favored Wasserman Schultz.
Although it's tricky to draw conclusions about different demographic groups because the sample sizes are small, making the margins of error high, Wagner said the results show Canova needs to motivate younger voters if he has any hope of prevailing.
"The key for him, if he's going to pull an upset, he has to get a lot more energy in those younger voters," Wagner said. "He has to motivate some of those younger voters to come out, and that's hard to do in a primary."
DNC and WikiLeaks
For much of 2016, Sanders complained that the Democratic National Committee — which Wasserman Schultz led from 2011 until last month — was unfairly tilting the presidential nominating process toward Clinton.
Wasserman Schultz repeatedly denied pro-Clinton bias in the way she ran the DNC. But in July, WikiLeaks published hacked Democratic Party emails showing some party staffers had been favoring Clinton. A political furor erupted, Wasserman Schultz resigned as party chairwoman, and Canova enjoyed a bonanza of publicity and campaign contributions.
The Sun Sentinel/FAU poll found 87 percent of Democratic voters in South Florida said they were aware of the release of DNC emails and 93 percent said they were aware of Wasserman Schultz's resignation as party chairwoman.
The fallout from the emails appears to be marginally negative for Wasserman Schultz. The Sun Sentinel/FAU poll found that 35 percent of Democratic likely voters said revelations that DNC staffers favored Clinton over Sanders made them less likely to vote for Wasserman Schultz.
Another 29 percent said the revelations made them more likely to vote for her and 36 percent said it made no difference.
Iran deal
Obama's agreement with Iran aimed at preventing that country from developing a nuclear weapon was a major issue on the on the national stage in 2015. It especially resonated in the 23rd District, which is home to a large Jewish community concerned about Israel, which opposed the deal.34 Shares 0
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Yemen’s army with backing by the Popular Committees loyal to the Ansarullah movement, targeted a sixth Saudi warship in the Gulf of Aden waters near the southwestern province of Ta’izz. The attacks come in response to Saudi’s unending coalition airstrike bombardment of Yemen, since March 2015.
The Yemeni news site al-Masirah reports that the Saudi military vessel was hit by a missile on the morning of Saturday, 5 December while near the coast.
Since the fighting began earlier this year, six Saudi and allied warships from the capital of Riyadh have been destroyed by Ansarullah forces.
The attack came after the ship had been firing rockets relentlessly on Ta’izz, causing high numbers of casualties and destruction.
Over 7,000 civilians have been killed since Saudi began its coalition airstrikes on Yemen.
Yemenis destroyed the first Saudi warship off the same coast as Saturday’s attack in October, in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
In addition to a relentless bombing campaign, Saudi warships have maintained a blockade on Yemen’s coast for months, effectively keeping food and aid supply from reaching the desperately suffering Yemeni citizens. Yemen is the poorest nation of the Arabian Peninsula, and the war has exacerbated the already burgeoning human rights crisis in the country.
Yemeni forces have been making gains elsewhere, however, including in the northern province of Jawf, which borders Saudi Arabia to the south. Ansarullah forces killed dozens of Saudi-led foreign forces operating inside the country. Some Saudi military commanders were also among the killed.
Saudi warplanes have continued their bombing campaigns of Sa’ada, Ta’izz and Ma’rib, as they have continuously since fighting began. These are mostly civilian areas, yet numbers of casualties were not immediately available.
In addition to the approximately 7,000 Yemenis killed since the fighting began, approximately 14,000 have been injured by airstrikes and countless more displaced. The UN has called the situation in Yemen a major humanitarian crisis.
UN numbers show that since 2014, 33% more Yemenis are in need of humanitarian aid—some 21 million out of the 26 million person population. And nearly half of Yemenis are considered food insecure by international standards.
After a recent visit, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, declared: "Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years."Hillary Clinton won the Nevada Democratic caucuses on Feb. 20, thanks in part to huge support from black voters and older voters. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
Hillary Clinton won the Iowa caucuses earlier this month. It just didn’t feel like it.
After holding a 30-point lead in the Hawkeye State in November, the favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination almost squandered her huge advantage. The race remained too close to call when many newspapers went to press on caucus night before it finally became clear that Clinton had pulled out a narrow victory, 49.8 percent to 49.6 percent, over Bernie Sanders.
Even then, news media often characterized the result as a virtual tie and a huge boost for Sanders, whose near-comeback seemed to validate him as a serious contender. Lest you think I’m exaggerating, I rounded up the headlines on the morning after.
[It's about to get very real for Bernie Sanders]
Clinton’s win in Nevada on Saturday played completely differently in the press. News outlets (well, most of them) called the race pretty early, as the former secretary of state held a comfortable — if not commanding — lead of about five points with a majority of precincts reporting.
And journalists were much more generous with their praise than they had been in Iowa.
[Give Hillary Clinton a massive amount of credit for winning the Nevada caucuses]
Nevada breaks tie, w/ @HillaryClinton going 2-1 in first three Democratic contests with @BernieSanders. Confidence building win for Clinton — Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) February 20, 2016
Clinton will be giving her first *actual* victory speech today. She may have won Iowa, but that speech was anything but declarative. — Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) February 20, 2016
Yes, it was closer than expected but this was decisive win for Hillary. #NVDemsCaucus Updated delegate count:
Clinton: 492
Sanders: 64 — Jake Horowitz (@jacobdhorowitz) February 20, 2016
Hillary Clinton pushed really hard on the Vegas strip right up to the very, very end. Impressive push. She earned the win. — Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) February 20, 2016
So, apparently Clinton's victory in Nevada is big enough that the media will actually score it as a Clinton victory. — Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) February 20, 2016
On some level, a win is a win. But perception and momentum matter, and the media play a key role in shaping both. Clinton needed a victory in Nevada, but what she really needed was a convincing victory that wouldn't be qualified and diminished in every press account.
She got it. And now the narrative becomes about how she appears to be regaining control of the race and looks to be on her way toward exorcising the ghosts of 2008.Headless Raspberry Pi: Using Xojo and your Raspberry Pi without a display
You don’t need to hook up your Pi to a physical display, keyboard and mouse. You can set up VNC on the Pi so you can remotely connect to it.
My Raspberry Pi 2 sits on my desk next to one of my speakers. It’s not hooked up to any display. I use a combination of SSH, SFTP and VNC when I need to work with it.
To connect to the |
No1 ranked country in the world but the game’s biggest brand, has forced a rethink.
“Bernard Lapasset [the World Rugby chairman] has indicated we may have to look at whether the three-year residency rule is enough to ensure the integrity of the international game,” said Gosper. “You want to preserve the specialness of it and, while clubs sides are gathering top international stars from all around the world, there is a feeling that some steps need to be taken to ensure that the profile of the national team has an integrity. When the residency rule was set, there was not quite the same flow of players internationally through Europe and Japan.”
Any change would not happen quickly. A working group would need to be set up to report back to World Rugby’s executive who would then make a recommendation to the council. That would take more than a year and the council is made up of unions who would be bound by self-interest: England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy have all capped players since the last World Cup who qualified on residency: the rule has suited north and south.
World Rugby has been moved to investigate because its own organisation would be threatened by a diminution of the international game: it makes its money through World Cup profits every four years. The draw of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia every European autumn is that they are hard to beat, and in the case of the first two, always have been. Take away that aura and the profits of every union in the Six Nations will shrivel, something that would ultimately impact on clubs.
Increasing the residency rule would be one deterrent, but reviewing relation 9, which governs the release of players to national sides, would be another. At the moment, it covers laid-down periods for training and playing. Making it greyer would decrease the value of having current international players while the way the proceeds from Test rugby are divided should also be looked at.
New Zealand are a bigger draw in Europe than any of the respective Six Nations are Down Under, but the financial split from matches is heavily in Europe’s favour. If that changed, it would have far more of an impact on player movement from the major southern hemisphere nations than reform of the residency rule.
• This is an extract taken from The Breakdown, the Guardian’s weekly rugby union email. To subscribe visit this page, find ‘The Breakdown’ and follow the instructions.Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland will be based on the last years of the singer’s life, as seen through the eyes of his bodyguards
Cable network Lifetime has ordered a film based on the last few years of Michael Jackson’s life.
The biographical drama, tentatively titled Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland, will be told through the eyes of his bodyguards. He will be played by Navi, considered the world’s most prominent Michael Jackson impersonator.
Sky pulls broadcast of show that cast white actor as Michael Jackson Read more
The project is based on the book Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days, written by Motown head Berry Gordy whose former creative assistant, Suzanne de Passe, will be the executive producer. It follows in the footsteps of other Lifetime music biopics on Whitney Houston, Aaliyah and the upcoming take on the life of Britney Spears.
The announcement comes soon after UK network Sky’s decision not to air a controversial episode of new show Urban Myths which had caused online ire after Joseph Fiennes was picked to play the singer.
The Jackson biopic is one of a few high-profile films announced by Lifetime at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. Viola Davis, tipped to win an Oscar next month for her role in Fences, will produce and star in the drama Custody, which premiered to lukewarm reviews at last year’s Tribeca film festival. The network will also work with James Franco for the romantic thriller High School Lover, where he will play a father trying to stop his daughter from dating an older man.Views 537 Views 537
-by Daniel Mogollon, Staff Writer; Image: Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor rushes against Purdue. (Image Source: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Here are this week’s picks against the spread:
Last Week: 1-2 (-5 Units); Season: 14-7 (+95 Units)
12:00 – WISCONSIN -24 Maryland (FOX)
This one is a flat-out mismatch. It pits the top rushing offense in the Big Ten against the conference’s 12th-ranked run D…no one in the B1G has allowed more rushing scores than Maryland (14). Last week, Northwestern’s Justin Jackson ran for 171 yards on the Terps (6.1 yards per carry), after managing just 109 yards (3.4 YPC) in his previous three games against Power 5 foes. How are they going to slow down Jonathan Taylor (three 200-yard games) & Company? They aren’t. Wisconsin is allowing just 13 points per game and their elite run defense (also No. 1 in the B1G) will shut down Maryland, a rushing attack that has not been the same when playing against the better defenses in the conference over the past two seasons. Once the Terps have to throw the ball, expect the sacks (B1G-leading 20) and turnovers (B1G-leading 9 INTs) to accumulate. I see a 45-13 final in Madison.
Units: 10
12:00 – IOWA PK Northwestern (ESPN2)
This is about picking the better team. I believe Iowa is ready to gel and get on a little roll. The fact that they’re going with two talented freshmen along the offensive line who are playing well, with sophomore Amani Hooker expected to get the nod ahead of third-year senior starter Miles Taylor at strong safety, are indications that talent is trumping experience in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes should control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. This could be the best O-line the Wildcats have gone up against, while their offensive line will struggle against Iowa’s stout front seven, a unit that has its best football ahead of them. Northwestern’s offense had their best effort last week, but that was about Maryland’s soft D. If you saw how physical Iowa was against Penn State (4 sacks 11 TFLs), you know the ‘Cats will struggle to repeat that against the well-rested Hawkeyes.
Units: 20
3:30 – MICHIGAN STATE -6 ½ Indiana (ABC)
This is mostly about the line of scrimmage. Indiana is averaging just 3.5 yards per rush (last in the B1G), which is in large part due to mediocre offensive line play. Quarterback Peyton Ramsey was hit, beat up, and bruised last week. While Michigan State’s defensive front isn’t as dominant as Michigan’s, the Spartans are pretty darn good. They are third against the run in the Big Ten in both rushing yards per game and yards per carry, while they’ve rediscovered their pass rush (16 sacks though six games/4th in the B1G). When MSU has the ball, they will look to build off last week’s career game by the talented LJ Scott, who is even more explosive and physical than Michigan’s Karan Higdon, who just rushed for 200 yards against the Hoosiers. Sparty has rediscovered their identity as a physical football team, while it feels like Tom Allen is still trying to figure things out in his first season as a head coach. Is he going to figure it out with a freshman quarterback making his first career road start? Probably not.
Units: 10
* Note: LJ Scott has been arrested for driving with a suspended license, which should be monitored.
7:30 – Michigan +10 PENN STATE (ABC)
You notice how the people who love to bring up Jim Harbaugh’s record against Ohio State and Michigan State, never talk about him going 2-0 (77-26) against Penn State? The Nittany Lions have what many consider to be the most-fun offense to watch in the B1G, but they haven’t been tested this season. They will be on Saturday. Their offensive line is shaky. In State’s past two games, they’ve rushed for just 134 yards on 75 carries (1.79 YPC) against Indiana and Northwestern. Good, but far from great defenses. You know who has a great defense? Meechigan! The Wolverines lead the Big Ten in total defense, yards per play, yards per carry, pass defense, and pass efficiency. The Nittany Lions will be going up against Rashan Gary & Company with a questionable offensive line that has redshirt freshman Will Fries listed as a first-time starter at right tackle. Yes, Michigan’s offense has been tough to watch, but their offensive line has done their best work over the past game-and-a-half, while Karan Higdon has emerged as a legitimate lead back. You want psychological factors? I believe the best thing for this group of Wolverines is to take on the underdog role and be counted out by everyone. The players are well aware that many aren’t giving them much of a chance to win this game and are eager to prove they belong with the B1G’s elite. The last time (and probably the only time under Harbaugh) they weren’t given a chance to win was last season’s finale at OSU when UM pushed the Buckeyes to overtime and were within inches of the upset. This might be where Harbaugh does his best work. These are also new waters for James Franklin…ranked No. 2 in the country and playing another ranked foe in a game his team is supposed to win. How will he and his team handle the spotlight?
Units: 20
Daniel Mogollon is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America. He is also a voter for the Thorpe and the Rotary Lombardi Award, as well as the Latino Sports MVP Awards.Young people 'will be put off studying medicine by £70,000 student debts'
Student debts of up to £70,000 and increased pension contributions could dissuade young people from entering medicine, a doctor has warned.
Tom Dolphin of the British Medical Association (BMA) told the Junior Doctors Conference that medical students paying the new £9,000 tuition fees, which come into force in September, will have debts of up to £70,000 by the time they graduate.
They will also face their salaries being eroded by inflation and increased pension contributions, which deter talented students from entering medicine, added Dolphin, chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctor Committee.
In a speech which criticised the government's health reforms, Dolphin encouraged delegates to back strike action to defend their pensions.
He told the conference: "At the moment, it is genuinely hard to find much cause for cheer.
"We need to put up a fight. Imagine for a moment you were applying for a place at medical school right now. With £9,000 tuition fees you will be facing debts on graduation of up to £70,000.
"When you start working, a big chunk of your salary will be used to repay these debts. With salaries frozen for many years, your starting salary will have been eroded by inflation.
"And on top of that you will be faced with increased pension contributions. The burden of austerity is falling too hard on the shoulders of the younger generation and we are seeing this in medicine, too.
"With a future like this, will medicine still be able to attract and retain some of the most talented young people? Would you still make the choice to study medicine?"
Ballot papers are being sent to 103,000 BMA members with the result due at the end of the month.
Should industrial action go ahead, it would be for the first time since the 1970s.
The BMA has ruled out a complete withdrawal of labour but if they vote in favour, doctors would not undertake duties that could safely be postponed.
The BMA argues higher paid NHS staff already pay proportionately more for their pensions than most other public sector workers, a disparity which it said increased in April when their contributions rose, and which is set to increase again.
By 2014, some doctors will see deductions of 14.5% from their pay for their pensions, compared to 7.35% for senior civil servants on similar salaries, to receive similar pensions, the BMA claims.
Doctors at the start of their careers would be hardest hit, having to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds extra – double what they would have paid – in lifetime pension contributions, according to the association.
Dolphin said: "The government wants us to pay more and work longer for what will probably be a worse pension.
"The extra contributions add up to more than £200,000 for many junior doctors.
"They won't negotiate any more, even though their 'final offer' is patently unfair."After 164 Years, Smith & Wesson is (Probably) Changing its Name
Is Smith & Wesson actually changing its name?!
That sure appears to be the case, if the stockholders approve it.
See why Smith & Wesson might now be renamed "American Outdoors Brand."
CNN Money has reported that Smith & Wesson might be in for a name change. Why would this 164-year-old gun business want to change it's name now?
"We believe that changing our corporate name to American Outdoor Brands Corporation will better reflect our strategic focus on the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor markets," Smith & Wesson stated.
Will the changing of Smith & Wesson's name to American Outdoors Brand change S&W forever? Only time will tell.
oembed rumble video here
NEXT: HERE ARE THE BEST WAYS TO HONE YOUR SHOOTING SKILLS OFF THE RANGETL;DR: In this article, we are going to learn what tools we should take advantage of when developing NPM packages. We will start from scratch and create a GitHub Repository to host our package, then we will look into interesting and important topics. For example, we will talk about IDEs, we will configure ESLint in our project, we will publish the package on NPM and into the registry, and we will even integrate a continuous integration tool. The code that gave life to this article can be found in this GitHub repository.
What NPM Package Will We Build
After following all the steps shown in this article, we will have our own package published in the NPM package registry. The features that this package will support (and how to build them) are not the focus of this article. There are plenty of great tutorials out there that can teach us how to develop in Node.js. The focus here are the processes and the tools that we can use to build great NPM packages.
Nevertheless, to give a heads up, we are going to build and publish an NPM package that masks raw digits into US phones. For example, if we pass 1234567890 to the package, it will return (543) 126-0987.
The following list gives an overview of the topics that we are going to cover in this article:
Git and GitHub > Creating the GitHub Repository > Cloning the GitHub Repository > Ignoring Files with Git IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) NPM Package Development > NPM Init > Semantic Versioning > EditorConfig > ES6+: Developing with Modern JavaScript > Linting NPM Packages > Automated Tests > Coding the NPM Package > Test Coverage > Publishing the NPM Package > Continuous Integration Conclusion
Installing Node.js
The first two prerequisites are Node.js and NPM (but that comes with Node.js). We could use the official Node.js download webpage to install these dependencies. However, the best way to install Node.js in a development machine is not through the official URL. There is a package called NVM (Node Version Manager) that provides a simple bash script to manage multiple active node.js versions. It's the best option because, with just one command, we can switch Node.js and NPM versions.
Git and GitHub
Besides Node.js and NPM, we also need Git and GitHub. Why are we going to use them? Because Git is the best, most advanced, and most used version control system and GitHub is the most used Git platform. The best open source projects in the world are hosted in this platform. For example, Node.js source code is versioned with Git on GitHub.
Note that this article won't lecture about Git. If you are not familiar with Git, you will still be able to follow this article. However, every developer should learn how to properly use Git and GitHub. So, if needed, stop reading and go learn Git (and install it too, of course :D). You can come back later.
Creating the GitHub Repository
Great, we already decided where we will keep our source code safe. It's time to create the repository to start working on it. If we head to the Create a new repository web page on GitHub, we will see a form that asks for three things: repository name, description, and visibility. As we are building a module that handles masks, let's answer these questions as follows:
Repository name : masks-js
: masks-js Description : A NPM package that exports functions to mask values.
: A NPM package that exports functions to mask values. Visibility: Public
After that, GitHub gives us options to initialize the repository with a README file, to add a.gitignore file, and to add a license to our module. We will use all three options as follows:
Create README : Yes, let's check this box.
: Yes, let's check this box. Add.gitignore : Why not? Less typing later. Let's choose Node in this combo.
: Why not? Less typing later. Let's choose in this combo. Add a license: Again, less work later. Let's set this combo to MIT License.
Done! We can hit the Create repository button to finish the process.
Cloning the GitHub Repository
After creating the repository (which should be instantaneous), GitHub will redirect us to our repository's webpage. There, we can find a button called Clone or download that gives a shortcut to the URL that we will need. Let's copy this URL and open a terminal. On this terminal, let's choose an appropriate directory to host the root directory of our project (e.g. ~/git ), and then let's clone the repository.
The code snippet below shows the commands that have to be used to clone the repository:
# choosing a directory to clone our repo cd ~/git # using git to clone git clone git@github.com:brunokrebs/masks-js.git # moving cursor to project root cd masks-js
The last command will put our terminal in the project root. There, if we list the existing content, we will see four items:
A directory called.git that is used by Git to control the version of our code locally. Most probably, we will never touch this directory and its content manually.
that is used by Git to control the version of our code locally. Most probably, we will never touch this directory and its content manually. A file called.gitignore where we keep entries that identify items that we do not want Git to version. For example, in the near future, we will make Git ignore files generated by our IDE.
where we keep entries that identify items that we do not want Git to version. For example, in the near future, we will make Git ignore files generated by our IDE. A file called LICENSE. We don't have to touch this file, it contains a predefined content granting the MIT License to our code/package.
. We don't have to touch this file, it contains a predefined content granting the MIT License to our code/package. A file called README.md that contains just the name of our package ( masks-js ) and its description.
Ignoring Files on Git and NPM
During the next sections, we will create some artifacts that we don't want to send to GitHub or to NPM. For example, our IDE will add some configuration files to our project root that we want to Git to ignore. Another thing that we want Git to ignore is the./lib directory that we will create when publishing our package. This directory will only be shared on the NPM package itself (i.e. for developers downloading the package through NPM). Therefore, let's update.gitignore as follows:
# leave everything else untouched.idea/.vscode/ lib/
As we don't want NPM to ignore./lib, let's create the.npmignore file. In this file we will add the following configuration:
.nyc_output/ coverage/ node_modules/.idea/.vscode/
This will make NPM ignore these five folders, but not./lib.
Note that we are just removing folders that are not important to developers that want to use our package.
Let's commit and push these changes to GitHub:
git add.gitignore.npmignore git commit -m'making Git and NPM ignore some files' git push origin master
IDEs (Integrated Development Environments)
Developing good software, arguably, passes through a good IDE. Among other things, IDEs can help us refactor our code, be more productive (mainly if we know their shortcuts), and debug our code. They usually help us by pointing out possible problems before compiling and/or running our code either. Therefore, this is a topic that cannot be put aside.
On the Node.js/NPM environment, there is a good number of IDEs available. A few of them are paid and lot are free. However, in this author's opinion, there are only two IDEs that are really relevant: WebStorm and Visual Studio Code.
WebStorm: This is a full-fledged IDE that provides great tools and has great support to everything related to JavaScript (e.g. TypeScript, HTML, CSS, SCSS, Angular, Git, etc). If it does not support some feature by default, it probably does so through plugins. The biggest disadvantage of this IDE is that it's paid. However, WebStorm is so good at what it does that it's worth the price.
Visual Studio Code: This is another full-fledged IDE. It also comes with great support for Node.js and related technologies, just like WebStorm does. This IDE, in contrast to WebStorm, is free and open source. If you are wondering the difference between them, there are a few resources out there that compare both. For example, there is this article on Medium and this discussing on Reddit.
Other options, although famous, cannot be really considered IDEs. That is, they can be considered IDEs if they are correctly configured with a bunch of plugins. However, why waste time on these kind of configuration when we can choose a good IDE that is ready to help us? If you are still interested on seeing what other "IDEs" are available, there are resources out there that show more options and their differences.
What is important in this section is that we understand that we do need an IDE and choose one. This will help us a lot during the development lifecycle of our package.
NPM Package Development
Now that we have chosen our IDE, let's open our project and start configuring it. Throughout the next sections, we are going to create our project structure and configure tools that will help us produce high-quality code.
NPM Init
First things first. As our goal is to create and publish a NPM package, we need to initialize our project as one. Luckily, this process is straightforward. NPM, through its CLI (Command Line Interface), provides two great ways to configure a project as a NPM package. The first one, triggered by npm init, will ask a bunch of questions and produce the package.json file for us. The second one, triggered by npm init -y, will not ask any question and produce the package.json file with default values.
We will stick with the second option, npm init -y, to get our file as fast as possible. Then, we will edit the package.json content manually to look like this:
{ "name": "masks-js", "version": "0.0.1", "description": "A NPM package that exports functions to mask values.", "main": "build/index.js", "scripts": { "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1" }, "repository": { "type": "git", "url": "git+https://github.com/brunokrebs/masks-js.git" }, "keywords": [ "npm", "node", "masks", "javascript" ], "author": "Bruno Krebs", "license": "MIT", "bugs": { "url": "https://github.com/brunokrebs/masks-js/issues" }, "homepage": "https://github.com/brunokrebs/masks-js#readme" }
Important: the JSON snippet above contains three URLs that point to https://github.com/brunokrebs/masks-js. We need to replace them with the URL of our repository on GitHub.
Two properties in the file above may bring our attention. The main property now points to build/index.js and the version property labels our code as being on version 0.0.1. Let's not worry about them now, we will discuss about these properties in the following sections.
Let's commit and push these changes to GitHub:
git add package.json git commit -m 'initializing project as a NPM package' git push origin master
Semantic Versioning
In this section, we are not going to change anything in our project. The focus here is to talk about how to label new releases of our package. In the NPM and Node.js landscape, the most used strategy is by far Semantic Versioning. What makes this strategy so special is that it has a well-defined schema that makes it easy to identify what versions are interoperable.
Semantic Versioning, also known as SemVer, uses the following schema: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. As we can see, any version is divided into three parts:
MAJOR : A number that we increment when we make incompatible API changes.
: A number that we increment when we make incompatible API changes. MINOR : A number that we increment when we add features in a backwards-compatible manner.
: A number that we increment when we add features in a backwards-compatible manner. PATCH : A number that we increment when we make small bug fixes.
That is, if we have a problem with our code and fix it simply by changing an if statement, we have to increment the PATCH part: 1.0.0 => 1.0.1. However, if we need to add a new function (without changing anything else) to handle this new scenario, then we increment the MINOR part: 1.0.0 => 1.1.0. Lastly, if this bug is so big that requires a whole lot of refactoring and API changes, then we increment the MAJOR part: 1.0.0 => 2.0.0.
EditorConfig
EditorConfig is a small configuration file that we put in the project root to define how IDEs and text editors must format our files. Many IDEs support EditorConfig out of the box (including WebStorm and Visual Studio Code). The ones that don't, usually have a plugin that can be installed.
At the time of writing, EditorConfig contains only a small (but useful) set of properties. We will use most of them, but two are worth mentioning:
indent_style : Through this property, we define if we want our code to be indented with tabs or spaces.
: Through this property, we define if we want our code to be indented with tabs or spaces. charset : We use this property to state what charset (e.g. UTF-8) we want our files encoded into.
To set up EditorConfig in our project, we need to create a file called.editorconfig in the project root. On it, we define how we want IDEs to handle our files:
# Editor configuration, see http://editorconfig.org root = true [*] charset = utf-8 indent_style = space indent_size = 2 insert_final_newline = true trim_trailing_whitespace = true
Note: EditorConfig can handle multiple configuration blocks. In the example above, we added a single block defining that all files ( [*] ) must be encoded in UTF-8, indented with spaces, and so on. However, we could have defined that we wanted XML files ( [*.xml] ) to be indented with tabs, for example.
Although subtle, EditorConfig is an important step into producing high quality code. More often than not, more than one developer will work on a software, be it a NPM package or anything else. Having EditorConfig in place will minimize the chances of a developer messing with our code style and the encoding of our files.
Let's commit and push.editorconfig to GitHub:
git add.editorconfig git commit -m 'adding.editorconfig' git push origin master
ES6+: Developing with Modern JavaScript
JavaScript, as everybody knows, has gained mass adoption as the primary programming language over the last few years. Node.js was primarily responsible for this adoption, and brought with it many backend developers. This triggered a huge evolution of the language. These evolutions, although great, are not fully supported by every platform. There are many JavaScript engines (and many different versions of these engines) in the market ready to run code, but most of them do not support the latest JavaScript features.
This rich environment created one big challenge for the community. How do we support different engines and their versions while using JavaScript most recent features? One possible answer to this question is Babel. Babel, as stated by their official website, is a JavaScript compiler that allows developers to use next generation JavaScript today.
Note that Babel is one alternative. There are others, like TypeScript, for example.
Using Babel is straightforward. We just have to install this library as a development dependency and create a file called.babelrc to hold its configuration:
npm install --save-dev babel-cli babel-preset-env echo '{ "presets": ["env"] }' >>.babelrc
With this file in place, we can configure a NPM script to make Babel convert modern JavaScript in code supported by most environments. To do that, let's open the./package.json file and add to it a script called build :
{... "scripts": { "build": "babel./src -d./lib",... }... }
When we issue npm run build, Babel will take the source code found in the./src directory (which can be written in modern JavaScript) and transform it to ECMAScript 5 (the most supported version of JavaScript). To see this in action, let's create the aforementioned./src directory in the project root and add a script called index.js into it. To this script, let's add the following code:
function sayHiTo(name) { return `Hi, ${name}`; } const message = sayHiTo('Bruno'); console.log(message);
Although short, this script contains code that is not supported by ECMAScript 5. For example, there is no const in this version, nor it accepts Hi, ${name} as a string. Trying to run this code into an old engine would result in error. Therefore, let's use Babel to compile it:
npm run build
After asking NPM to run the build script, we will be able to see that Babel created the./lib directory with index.js in it. This script, instead of our code above, contains the following:
'use strict'; function sayHiTo(name) { return 'Hi,'+ name; } var message = sayHiTo('Bruno'); console.log(message);
Now we do have a code that ECMAScript 5 engines can read and run. Now we can take advantage of the latest JavaScript features.
Before continuing, let's commit and push the changes to GitHub:
git add.babelrc package-lock.json package.json src/index.js git commit -m'supporting ES6+ syntax' git push origin master
Linting NPM Packages
Another important tool to have around when developing software is a linting tool. Lint is the process of statically analyzing code for common errors. Linting tools, therefore, are libraries (tools) that are specialized in this task. In the JavaScript world, there are at least three popular choices: ESLint, JSHint, and JSLint. We can use any of these three libraries to lint our JavaScript code, but we have to choose one.
There are many strategies that we can follow to decide which tool we should use: from a simple random decision to a decision based on a thorough analysis. Though, to speed things up, let's take advantage of a fast (but still good) strategy: let's base our decision into data. The following list shows how many times each package was downloaded from NPM on Nov/2017, how many stars they have on GitHub, and what are their search volume in the US:
ESLint was downloaded 10 million times from NPM, has 9.6 thousand stars on GitHub, and is searched around 1300 times per month in the US.
was downloaded 10 million times from NPM, has 9.6 thousand stars on GitHub, and is searched around 1300 times per month in the US. JSLint was downloaded 94 thousand times from NPM, has 7.5 thousand stars on GitHub, and is searched around 750 times per month in the US.
was downloaded 94 thousand times from NPM, has 7.5 thousand stars on GitHub, and is searched around 750 times per month in the US. JSHint was downloaded 2 million times from NPM, has 3 thousand stars on GitHub, and is searched around 750 times per month in the US.
Following the strategy to base our decision on data results, without doubt, into choosing ESLint as the winner. The numbers don't lie, ESLint is the most popular tool in the JavaScript landscape. So let's configure it in our project.
Installing and configuring ESLint is easy. We have to instruct NPM to install it for us, then we can use the --init option provided by ESLint to generate a configuration file:
# saving ESLint as a development dependency npm i -D eslint # initializing the configuration file./node_modules/.bin/eslint --init
The last command will trigger a series of questions. Let's answer them as follows:
How would you like to configure ESLint? Use a popular style guide
Which style guide do you want to follow? Airbnb
Do you use React? No
What format do you want your config file to be in? JSON
This will generate a small file called.eslintrc.json with the following content:
{ "extends": "airbnb-base" }
What is nice about ESLint is that it also enables us to adhere to popular style guides (in this case the Airbnb JavaScript Style Guide). There are other popular styles available to JavaScript developers and we could even create our own. However, to play safe, we will stick to an existing and popular choice.
Great, sounds good to have a tool that help us avoid common mistakes and keep our code style consistent, but how do we use it? It's simple, we configure it in our build process and we make our IDE aware of it. This way we get alerts while using the IDE to develop and we guarantee that no developer, unaware of ESLint, generates a new release with inconsistencies.
To add ESLint to our build process, we can create a new script that executes ESLint and make it run in the build script:
{... "scripts": { "build": "npm run lint && babel./src -d./lib", "lint": "eslint./src",... },... }
This way, when we execute the build script, the process will abort before starting Babel if ESLint finds issues in our code or code style.
Now, the steps to integrate ESLint in our IDE will depend on which one we are using. Both WebStorm and Visual Studio Code have special sections on their documentation to cover ESLint.
Note: other IDEs and text editors probably provide support to ESLint as well.
To wrap this section, let's commit and push changes to GitHub:
git add.eslintrc.json package*.json git commit -m 'configuring ESLint' git push origin master
Automated Tests
One of the most important topics in software development is tests. Developing high quality code without automated tests is impossible. That is, we could write code that executes flawlessly without writing a single line of automated tests. However, this code would still not be considered as having high standards.
Why? Simple. Imagine a situation where we wrote a code that contains no bugs. One day, another developer decide that it's time to increment this code by adding some nice new feature. This feature, however, needs to reuse some pre-existing code and change it a little. How, without automated tests, is this developer supposed to test the new version? Manually testing is an alternative, but an arduous and error-prone one. That's why we invented automated tests.
As everything in JavaScript, there are many tools that can help us automate our tests. Besides that, there are also different types of automated tests. For example, we could write end-to-end tests, integration tests, and we could write unit tests.
The goal of our NPM package is to, based on an inputted string, return a masked value. This kind of package does not have external dependencies (like a RESTful API) nor it will be rendered in an interface (like a web browser). Therefore, writing only unit tests to guarantee that our functions do what they are supposed to do will be enough.
Cool, we now know what type of tests we will write. What is still uncovered is what library will we use to write these tests. Since the data strategy is doing well, let's use it again. After a small research on Google, we find out that there are three great candidates:
In this case, the numbers were pretty similar. But Mocha, with more stars on GitHub and around three times more downloads on NPM during 2017, looks like the winner. We will probably be supported by a great community and have access to a lot of resources if we choose Mocha. So let's configure it in our project.
First, we need to install Mocha as a development dependency:
npm i -D mocha
Then, we need to replace the test script in our package.json file by the following one:
{... "scripts": {... "test": "mocha --require babel-core/register" },... }
That's it! We can now write our tests. To see Mocha in action, let's create a directory called./test and add an index.js file to it with the following code:
import assert from 'assert'; describe('Array', () => { describe('#indexOf()', () => { it('should return -1 when the value is not present', () => { assert.equal([1, 2, 3].indexOf(4), -1); }); }); });
If we issue npm test in the project root, we will see that Mocha manages to run our test properly. Even though we used modern syntax like import and arrow functions ( () => {} ).
If we are using a good IDE, we will probably be warned that there are no describe nor it functions available in the./test |
, he finally did in the absolutely fantastic tarmac battle in Civil War. And this incarnation's first solo movie will also tie into the MCU through the inclusion of Tony Stark and Happy Hogan. After the first two Spider-Man franchises, rebooting another cookie cutter version of the character would likely have resulted in poor box office performance and collective groans of Marvel fans. So it was definitely in Sony's best interest to get creative and find a way to make the web slinger relevant again. But his brief appearance in Civil War did just that, as his lack of appearances in promotional material helped build anticipation for his small role. Additionally, the casting of Tom Holland helped bring a level of realness due to the actor's age and fantastic physical capabilities. Spider-Man: Homecoming will swing into theaters July 7, 2017. In the meantime, you can check our full 2017 release list to plan your next trip to the movies. Watch The Avengers: Infinity War Cast Go Nuts With Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topOnly months after rejecting a similar measure, the Baltimore City Council is poised to pass a bill Monday that would raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022. The rate would be nearly $5 an hour higher than in surrounding counties.
With eight newly elected members — some of whom say their supporters expect dramatic change — the City Council has rallied around veteran lawmaker Mary Pat Clarke's minimum wage proposal, which she argues will help some of Baltimore's poorest residents escape poverty.
"People understand that we have to close a number of gaps in our society in order to come together as one Baltimore," Clarke said. "People who work hard should be able to support their families and not stand in pantry lines." The bill, she said, is "good for the city."
The council, composed entirely of Democrats, gave preliminary approval to the legislation this month. Another affirmative vote would send the matter to the desk of new Mayor Catherine Pugh, who has yet to say whether she will sign or veto the legislation.
Pugh, also a Democrat, pledged during her campaign to support a $15 minimum wage, but recently expressed concern about the bill's impact on businesses.
"I am going to review it thoroughly. I'm still having conversations with City Council people," the mayor said. "I'm analyzing the impact of this piece of legislation on Baltimore city in its totality. I have to make a decision as to whether or not we move forward, we delay it or we don't sign it at all. We will see."
Pugh said last week she was disappointed the council hadn't done more fiscal analysis before backing the bill. Baltimore finance officials warned that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost taxpayers $115 million over four years because some city workers' wages would increase.
They also warned it could cost the city hundreds of jobs because businesses would move or close.
The minimum wage in Maryland is $8.75 per hour and set to rise to $10.10 an hour by 2018. Under Clarke's bill, Baltimore's wage would rise with Maryland's for the next two years, but then continue to rise to $15.
CAPTION Anton Black's family speaks about “Anton’s Law,” named after Anton Black, who died in law enforcement custody on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. (Luke Broadwater, Baltimore Sun video) Anton Black's family speaks about “Anton’s Law,” named after Anton Black, who died in law enforcement custody on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. (Luke Broadwater, Baltimore Sun video) CAPTION Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. launches a task force to look into sexual assault investigation in the county. (Alison Knezevich, Baltimore Sun video) Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. launches a task force to look into sexual assault investigation in the county. (Alison Knezevich, Baltimore Sun video)
The bill contains several exemptions. It would exempt workers under 21 and give businesses with fewer than 50 employees until 2026 to comply with the $15-an-hour wage.
It would also exempt for six months businesses that are using city-approved programs to train workers. Council members agreed to that exemption at Pugh's request.
"We want everybody to have a great wage," Pugh said. "But we also know in our city there are people who have not been trained."
Some advocates who otherwise support the bill said they are disappointed with the exemption for younger workers.
"Young adults in the workplace are often supporting themselves and trying to pay for school," Charly Carter, director of Maryland Working Families, said in a statement. "It's not fair to exempt them from a livable minimum wage. They work as hard as other workers and deserve to be paid fairly, too."
The 12-3 preliminary vote of the council on March 6 — enough votes to override a mayoral veto if that margin holds Monday — came after the previous City Council narrowly rejected a similar proposal in August. But November's election swept into office eight new Democrats, most of whom are seeking widespread changes to how the city runs.
Joining Clarke in supporting the bill are City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, Vice President Sharon Green Middleton and council members Zeke Cohen, Brandon Scott, Ryan Dorsey, Bill Henry, Kristerfer Burnett, John Bullock, Edward Reisinger, Robert Stokes and Shannon Sneed.
Opposing the bill are council members Isaac "Yitzy" Schleifer, Leon Pinkett and Eric Costello.
Each of those councilmen has tried unsuccessfully to amend the legislation, including attempts to exempt small businesses and apprenticeships from paying workers $15 an hour.
Schleifer said he's concerned the higher wage would stifle entrepreneurship in the city and cause start-ups to move to Baltimore County.
"Anybody who has started a business understands that it's very tough to turn a profit in the early years," he said. "Oftentimes the early employees work very long and hard and make a lot of sacrifices so they can move up with the business."
He said he would prefer Baltimore raise its minimum wage in concert with other jurisdictions. Maryland General Assembly committees held hearings this month on bills that would raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour, but have not voted on the proposals.
"My district hugs the county line," Schleifer said. "I have small business owners in my district who are already looking at properties in the county a few blocks way."
Clarke said she understands that some will consider the city's minimum wage bill a "bit of a jolt." But she said it doesn't take effect for several years, so businesses and the city government have time to prepare. She said she hopes it leads to other Maryland jurisdictions following the city's lead.
"Nothing could be better than if our example leads to a statewide law," Clarke said.
A recent poll by Goucher College found that 60 percent of Marylanders support raising the minimum wage at the state level and 63 percent believe cities like Baltimore should be able to set their own minimum wages.
lbroadwater@baltsun.com
twitter.com/lukebroadwaterJihadi group claims to have ‘total control of many sites’ in northern Sinai after wave of attacks in which up to 40 Egyptian soldiers were killed
Islamic State appears to have made small but unprecedented advances in Egypt, killing dozens of soldiers as it attacked multiple military checkpoints and attempted for the first time to control a small pocket of territory in the Sinai desert.
Last night, Egypt’s army said more than 100 militants and 17 soldiers were killed in the deadliest fighting in years in the restive province.
Wilayat Sinai, a jihadi group that declared allegiance to Isis last autumn, attacked the town of Sheikh Zuwaid, a few miles from Egypt’s border with Gaza and Israel, on Wednesday morning.
It overran several army checkpoints and by local accounts had taken control of several buildings. By midday the group said it had surrounded Sheikh Zuwaid’s police station, a move reportedly confirmed by the station’s commander in a phonecall with a local newspaper.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the wave of attacks in Sinai: ‘We see ISIS at the gates’
Late yesterday, an army spokesman said the situation in North Sinai was “100 percent under control”. Security sources and witnesses later said aerial bombardments on militant targets had resumed.
Officials tried to downplay the number of military casualties, admitting only that 10 soldiers had died. But several local newspapers quoted far higher numbers, with the main state news website, al-Ahram, reporting at least 20 dead, and news agencies placing the total at nearly 40.
Isis also claimed it had seized other parts of the town, releasing a statement that read: “We have total control of many sites, and have seized what was in them.”
If true, even for a brief period, the move marks an escalation in the group’s strategy and capabilities in Sinai.
Isis has previously launched several bloody attacks on the Egyptian army in the north-eastern part of the peninsula – most notably this January and last October. But after those assaults, Isis quickly retreated – whereas after Wednesday’s attack the group appeared to try to advance.
Asked by the Guardian about the situation in Sheikh Zuwaid, an army spokesman would not comment.
A health official at a local hospital said his colleagues had treated at least 30 civilian casualties. He added that survivors had described the scene as a full-scale battle. Militants were “firing weapons from the rooftops,” the source said. “We’re hearing that it’s street warfare.”
To what extent Isis had succeeded in holding territory is unclear, said Zack Gold, a Sinai-focused analyst, particularly as reporters have long been prevented from entering this area of Sinai, which lies far from the peninsula’s southern tourist resorts.
But any control of physical space would be significant, said Gold, a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “The invading of a city, taking over buildings – that is a new development, and it’s similar to the over-running of cities that we’ve seen in Iraq and Syria,” said Gold.
“It would be different to the January events when there were multiple simultaneous attacks – but then [the militants] disappeared.”
Egyptian president 'to change law to allow faster executions' Read more
Jihadis in north-eastern Sinai have attacked Egyptian forces for years, but the scale and frequency of the violence rose markedly after the army ousted Egypt’s first elected president, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013.
An extremist group that had been active before Morsi’s overthrow, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, began claiming responsibility for more attacks – and just over a year later it declared allegiance to Isis, and changed its name to Wilayat Sinai.
Apart from a string of major attacks in the winter of 2013-14 on the Egyptian mainland, the group’s activity has been largely limited to north-eastern Sinai. But on Monday unknown militants assassinated Egypt’s chief prosecutor in Cairo, and no one has yet claimed responsibility for his death.
Additional reporting: Manu AbdoCLOSE Go inside the Phoenix Fire Department 911 call center to learn about what's going on when you call 911 in the Phoenix metro area. Hannah Gaber/azcentral.com
Eric Sands (Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
A 3-year-old girl has died after being shot Thursday night at her family's home in Chandler, police say.
Investigators were still working to determine the circumstances of the shooting, according to Detective Seth Tyler, a Chandler police spokesman.
Her father, 33-year-old Eric Sands, was being held at the Chandler city jail Friday morning on suspicion of drug and weapons violations.
Sands was a prohibited possessor, according to Tyler, which means it was illegal for him to have a firearm in the home.
Sands was booked into a Maricopa County jail later Friday on suspicion of being a prohibited person possessing a weapon and possession of a dangerous drug.
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Aetna bails on Arizona's individual insurance market as GOP Senate health bill stalls
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2typ74kThe New York State Legislature rebuffed Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year when he proposed that the State University of New York, which has 64 campuses, and the City University of New York, which has 24, develop a plan for combining their administrative functions.
Legislators correctly saw this as a stealth plan for merging two systems with dissimilar cultures and different educational missions and, in the process, undermining City University’s historic commitment to the urban poor.
Nevertheless, the merger idea reappeared this year in news reports and again when Mr. Cuomo, complaining of administrative bloat at City University, tried to cut its state allotment by nearly half a billion dollars.
The merger idea has been around for quite a while. As the City University professors Stephen Brier and Michael Fabricant explain in their forthcoming history, “Austerity Blues: Fighting for the Soul of Public Higher Education,” Nelson Rockefeller, who essentially built the state’s public higher education system, wanted to absorb New York City’s colleges into the state university system at the beginning of the 1960s.SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - A judge has awarded a convicted rapist parenting time and joint legal custody of a child he conceived with a girl he raped when she was 12. He was also later convicted of another sexual assault on a child, according to media reports.
The man, Christopher Mirasolo, 27, was awarded joint legal custody of an 8-year-old boy, nine years after he was convicted of raping the child's mother, after a DNA test established paternity of the child, said the victim's attorney. The Detroit News reported on the case that has another hearing scheduled for Oct. 25.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Michigan and possibly the country.
“This is insane,” said attorney Rebecca Kiessling to The Detroit News, who filed objections Friday with Judge Gregory S. Ross. “Nothing has been right about this since it was originally investigated. He was never properly charged and should still be sitting behind bars somewhere, but the system is victimizing my client, who was a child herself when this all happened.”
Kiessling said Mirasolo forcibly raped and threatened to kill her client, who is now 21. Mirasolo was 18 when the crime occurred in September 2008.
Kiessling said the victim, her 13-year-old sister, and a friend left their houses one night to meet a boy. Mirasolo, the boy's older friend, asked the kids if they wanted to go for a ride.
“They thought they were going to McDonald’s or somewhere. Instead, he tossed their cellphones away, drove to Detroit where he stole gas from a station and then drove back to Sanilac County, where he kept them captive for two days in a vacant house near a relative, finally releasing the older sister in a park. He threatened to kill them if they told anyone what happened,” Kiessling said.
The girl was pregnant a month later when Mirasolo was arrested.
With Mirasolo facing 25 years to life for the assault, the Sanilac County Prosecutor's Office provided a plea for attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Mirasolo served six months of his one-year sentence before his release.
Ross, according to the report, gave the victim's address to Mirasolo and ordered that his name be added to the birth certificate -- without the victim's consent or even a hearing according to Kiessling.
Kiessling also said the judge ordered that the victim not be allowed to move 100 miles from where she had been living when the case was filed without consent from the court.
After he was released, Mirasolo was convicted of sex assault on a victim between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. He is said to have served four years for that offense.
The girl was urged to have an abortion or give the child up for adoption but according to her attorney, she didn't want the baby to be a victim, too.
“She dropped out of school, went to live with relatives out of state and worked jobs to try and support herself,” Kiessling said.
Sexual assault victims are not named, according to Detroit News and KUTV policy.
Mirasolo’s attorney said it wasn't clear if her client would have any future involvement with the child.“PowerBlock Reserves for iPhone or iPod” is introduced by Griffin. PowerBlock Reserves looks like your another battery, a removable Reserve battery pack. while you are charging internal battery of your iPhone or iPod, at the same time its recharge the removable Reserve battery pack.
PowerBlock is AC charger/adapter for USB-rechargeable devices, including iPhone, iPod, and other phones and MP3 players. PowerBlock works in almost any AC wall socket, with electrical service from 100 to 240 volts, and delivers safe power level for iPhone, iPod, MP3 players and other USB devices. Take the removable battery pack with you (its small to fit in your pocket). The Reserve battery snaps into your iPhone’s or iPod Dock Connector, adding hours of additional time on your iPod or iPhone. Best Selling Product PowerBlock Reserves priced at $40.This shit has gone on wayyy too long. I played it cool, but I finally reached my breaking point thanks to all this treasonous bullshit. Editors have been talking mad reckless like they actually know what's hot in the streets. It would have been totally fine if you guys had kept playing "menswear" in your little fantasy land by yourselves, but then you went and made things personal. If you fire shots across my bow expect some to be returned. I'm Black Square-Toed Shoes and I'm here to fuck shit up.
First off, some shout outs.
Shout out to GQ, you fucking tool bitches. And fuck you too, Esquire. And don't even think I'm going to take the time to name check the rest of you dicks in the circle jerk. You've been printing slander since jump street. "Say No to Square Toed Shoes." "Upgrade Your Shoe Game." "New Study Links Black Square-Toed Shoes With Asperger's." You asswipes need a new hobby.
See, black goes with everything. I'm sleek and sexy at night. I’m flossy and glossy in daylight. Semi-formal? Formal? I do it all, 365 days a year. Have you ever met a motherfucker as timeless as me? I'm the obsidian foundation for your murdered out lifestyle.
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My shape? You got beef? You prefer the natural form of a cap toe or a brogue? Something that looks like there could be a human foot inside? Fuck outta here, man. Humans are weak. Evolution is about to kick you in the face. I make it look like you got robot feet. How ill is that? The six million dollar man just got a little richer.
Just know that while you’re up on your high horse waxing poetic on some peasant booties, I'm lying on the ground next to your girl's bed.
Time for a roll call to see who actually rocks the Topsiders and pennies you bitches keep on yapping about. A dude lost in an Urban Outfitters and a 37-year-old divorced father of two? Yup, that pretty much covers it. Let's see who’s slipping their dogs into me. Presidents? Check. CEOs? Natchdaddy. Magicians? Obvacado.
I've been places your pale ass bucks couldn't even dream of. Have you ever felt a pile of gold beneath your feet? Seriously, have you ever stood atop a mountain made up of only money? Like, there is nothing in this giant heap that isn’t pure fucking currency. Again, like a haystack, but it’s all money. That shit is life-altering. How about the white sand of some exotic island locale? The kind of place where dime pieces make you a daiquiri with their titties out. This one time I stepped on the face of a servant who forgot to bring the good China. I felt bad about it for a second until I remembered that these soles are non-marking.
POST CONTINUES BELOW
Enjoy your cheap shots while you can. Get it out of your system. Just know that while you’re up on your high horse waxing poetic on some peasant booties, I'm lying on the ground next to your girl's bed. I’m hitting up the mall for a jet ski. I'm in the club getting bottle service on a motherfucking Tuesday. I'm Black Square-Toed Shoes and I run shit.
Kevin Burrows is a creative director, photographer and writer living in Los Angeles. See his collection of products here and follow him on Twitter here.The 2016 Chevy Colorado and the GMC Canyon are two of the hottest new pickup trucks in America. According to GM, GMC Canyon sales were up more than 160 percent in November, over the same month a year ago.
We confirmed these stats by speaking with Ryan Johnson, the Manager at Brighton’s Johnson Auto Plaza, a local Chevy dealership. Johnson said that they can’t keep the new Colorado pickup truck on the lot. He added that normally when a new truck is introduced there’s a short period of a few weeks to a month when availability is limited, but after a few months the dealership normally has a line of the trucks for sale. Not so with the new Chevy Colorado.
Johnson went on to add that he’s lucky if the dealership has two of the trucks on sale on the lot at any given time. Keep in mind this is over a year now from when the truck went on sale.
One reason for the scarcity of the new GM mid-sized twin trucks is of course extremely high demand. Thus it should be no surprise that we have received reader reports and questions about the delay in the delivery of the 2016 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon Duramax diesel trucks.
Recently Ryan January who ordered a Colorado Duramax back in August sent us this email. January writes:
Today marks day 133 since my order and the 3rd time my target production week has been surpassed without having a truck produced. Those that have been produced are being held at the factory and currently unreleased. Looking at the site for the sister-truck, the Canyon, the website now lists it ‘coming 2016’ rather than the fall of 2015 that GM previously touted. I’ve been working with my dealer in an attempt to get more information, however we have yet to receive any official word from GM on what the issues are or a realistic date on when they may be delivered. My story isn’t unique, below you’ll find a link to a spreadsheet (curated by members of coloradofans.com) shows 63 people in a similar situation. This is the vast majority of diesel orders that I’m currently aware of. Most information we have amassed at this point have been Wentzville workers or dealers having off the record conversations with regional managers.
He is still waiting for word from his dealership and/or Chevrolet as to the build date of his truck. This is over 135 days since placing the order. Ryan and 63 other members of coloradofans.com forum are in a similar boat. They created a spreadsheet that shows the waiting period for the diesel Canyons or Colorados. 55 people have been waiting for over 40 days since placing an order.
Ryan Johnson, the Manager at Brighton’s Johnson Auto Plaza, confirmed that his dealership has not taken delivery of any new diesel Colorados from the factory yet. His customers are also waiting for the new truck to arrive. Johnson added that he believes production of the new trucks is starting out extremely slowly with only very small numbers currently being built.
We have contacted GM for comment. As soon as we have a statement from GM we will update you on the status of the new Diesel mid-sized trucks. Could it be that GM underestimated the demand for the new diesel version of the Canyon and Colorado twins?
This is certainly a possibility. It is also true that the EPA is taking a much harder look at all diesel powered vehicles since the VW “Dieselgate” emissions cheating story broke earlier this year. However this is just speculation on our part. We will follow this story to keep you updated on the status of the only mid-sized diesel trucks for sale in the United States.
Please stay tuned.Omar Mahmood is a junior at the University of Michigan and until recently, wrote a regular column for the mainstream campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily. Mahmood, a Muslim, also holds conservative and libertarian beliefs.
The College Fix reports that after penning a satirical piece making light of liberal victimhood for the conservative student publication Michigan Review, Mahmood was disciplined by editors of the Daily.
He tells the Fix:
'I received a call from the editorial editor [of the Daily] telling me that I had created a "hostile environment" among the editorial staff and that someone had felt threatened because of what I had written … The issue had been taken to the editor in chief who procured a bylaw by which I was given an ultimatum to leave the Review or leave the Daily within a week. I was not allowed to know the name of the offended individuals.' He added the newspaper’s leaders are 'forcing me to write a letter of apology as a condition for staying on the Daily' and suspended his regular column in the Daily.
On Friday morning, Mahmood's roommate discovered that their apartment door had been vandalized with eggs and hot dogs and messages calling Mahmood a "self-righteous d*ck" and stated he has "no soul." Messages that read "everyone hates you you violent prick," "you scum embarrass us," and "shut the f*ck up" were scrawled on pages that were printed with his satire piece, Do the Left Thing.
Mahmood told the Fix that he felt "targeted" and was "taken aback" by what he found at his doorway, which even included a picture of a devil. Surveillance footage obtained by the Fix shows three females donning hoodies and vandalizing Mahmood's apartment.
It is stated that Mahmood is known on campus as a Muslim student who does not align with "his Islamic peers’ political stances" and "acknowledges that his views are not in line with most mainstream Muslims." Mahmood said:
I have libertarian and traditionalist views, and I think those are very compatible with Islam. Muslims should be in line with them. I don’t know why we have to side with the more angry activists who are morally depraved.
Mahmood's former editor at the Michigan Review responded perfectly to the entire situation. While he respects Mahmood's decision to accept the Daily's ultimatum and leave the Review, he panned the liberal hypocrisy that put Mahmood in the dilemma in the first place:This is the second article of “Out the Shadows,” an ongoing investigation into child abuse and neglect in Massachusetts. Read the first story here, and the rest of the investigation here Dozens of cases of Massachusetts children who may have died of abuse and neglect remain unresolved for years because investigators have been hamstrung by delays in obtaining death reports and difficulty determining whether deaths were accidental, natural, or the results of a crime, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has found. The state medical examiner’s office, long under fire for delays in performing adult autopsies, is even slower when children die, taking an average of 242 days to find an official cause of death in abuse and neglect cases. Official reports based on those findings sometimes take more than three years to complete, the New England Center found in its review of 102 cases, including the case of a one-month-old boy who died in 2012 whose death determination is still pending. The unresolved cases include three open homicide investigations, but also many others in which the medical examiner was unable to determine whether the child was deliberately killed. In more than 40 percent of the cases reviewed, the medical examiner’s report listed the cause of death as “undetermined.” As a series of high-profile child abuse deaths in Massachusetts make headlines — including the September arraignment of the alleged killer of 2-year-old Bella Bond whose body was found in a trash bag on Deer Island — family members of children whose abuse drew far less public notice question if justice will ever be served in their cases. INFOGRAPHIC: An interactive look at 110 Massachusetts child abuse and neglect deaths “We have been trying so hard to find out what happened. This has been going on for two years,” said Sharon Crawford of the Whitinsville section of Northbridge, who says her daughter called the medical examiner repeatedly, sometimes several times a day, for news about the 2013 case of her 10-year-old son, Isaiah Buckner, whose death had been linked by social workers to abuse and neglect. But when the medical examiner’s report finally came Oct. 21, the cause of death was listed as “undetermined,” leaving criminal prosecutors little to go on. “I just want justice for my grandson,” said Crawford. https://www.necir.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1-worcester_da_childfatalities.mp3 State officials acknowledge that the medical examiner’s office has been plagued by delays, and is currently facing a backlog of 1,922 pending autopsy reports from 2011 to 2014. Daniel Bennett, secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, said the office is trying to hire more examiners and other staff to reduce the backlog. “There are failures within the system,” he said. The state, for example, did not have access to a doctor who could examine infant hearts for almost a year, an issue that was resolved in May. “The medical examiner’s office has been climbing out of a hole for the last two years,” he said. Still, even with sufficient resources, the process is necessarily painstaking and slow in some cases, Bennett said. Infant deaths, for instance, sometimes require multiple scientific tests and the review of reports from law enforcement, the state Department of Children and Families, and hospitals. And not all cases can be resolved. Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said that investigating and prosecuting child maltreatment deaths can be particularly challenging for law enforcement. When young children die, there are often few clues about the cause. Unlike adults or older children, they generally leave no trail of evidence such as text messages, nor a wide circle of adults who might have noticed or suspected signs of abuse, and little verbal capacity to tell anyone about their plight before death. Children also are often in the care of more than one person in the period leading up to their deaths, making it harder to identify a suspect. https://www.necir.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2-dcf2_eopss.mp3 “It tears your heart out in some of these cases,” Early said. “We can only go where the facts and the evidence take us.” Beyond the heartbreak for families, the delays and uncertainty in these cases may also be putting other children at risk, say child advocates. Stephen C. Boos, medical director for the Family Advocacy Center at Baystate Children’s Hospital in Springfield, said long delays can hurt investigations, potentially allowing killers to escape responsibility. “It is scary to have potential child murderers running around with other children,” said Boos.
“Something isn’t right” T hat very thought has haunted Shelly Medeiros for years. After 8-month-old Jay Hudson Bassett was rushed to a Worcester hospital on Thanksgiving, 2012, Medeiros, his maternal grandmother, quickly fixated on the bruise above his left eye. As the once-playful boy lay unconscious, Medeiros began a mantra of grief that hasn’t stopped to this day: “Something isn’t right.” Police records show that UMass Memorial Medical Center hospital initially linked Jay’s death to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome — but Medeiros hounded authorities to look more closely. Eighteen months later, in May 2014, her worst fear was confirmed: The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Jay’s death a homicide caused by “blunt trauma” to the head and neck, inflicted by others. Now, three years after Jay’s death, no one has been charged, and the investigation remains open. Jay’s parents, Hailey Corrente and Marben Santiago, were with the baby when he stopped breathing, police records show. They cut ties with Medeiros shortly after the child’s death and moved out of state. The couple, who have a new baby boy, declined to answer questions about Jay when a reporter visited last spring and left several phone calls and text messages over the last six months. While there is no evidence that Corrente and Santiago are suspects in the open police investigation, Medeiros believes that, at the very least, Jay’s parents know what happened. And she believes the long delay to make a death ruling seriously undermined the investigation. “In 18 months, everything changed,” said Medeiros, 51, of North Attleborough, who says her obsession with her grandson’s death keeps her awake at night. “Evidence wasn’t sealed off. My daughter and her boyfriend were allowed to leave town.” The languishing child death investigations and cold cases are symptomatic of a state government that has often given low priority to abused and neglected youths, many specialists say. Recent highly publicized child abuse cases have spurred Governor Charles Baker to propose reforms to help keep at-risk children safe. But much less has been said about what happens after children die. The New England Center analyzed all child maltreatment deaths reported by DCF from 2009 to 2013 for which a death certificate was available and found a discouraging pattern: The medical examiner’s office determined the cause and manner of death in only about one third of child maltreatment deaths within 90 days, a performance dramatically below the minimum standards set by the National Association of Medical Examiners, which expects 90 percent of autopsy reports to be done in that time. A top official at the National District Attorneys Association called the Massachusetts delays “unacceptable.”
Some of the open criminal investigations into children who died of abuse and neglect between 2009 and 2013 are more than five years old, raising concerns among child advocates that they may have fallen through the cracks. In all, law enforcement agencies have open investigations into the deaths of at least 14 children on the DCF’s list of abuse and neglect victims between 2009 and 2013.
In 45 of the 102 child maltreatment fatalities reviewed by NECIR, medical examiners could not determine the manner of death — meaning they couldn’t decide between two or more causes, including whether a child died of an accident, homicide, suicide or natural events. The majority involve what DCF calls “unsafe sleep” deaths linked to parents who shared a bed or put babies to sleep on their bellies, actions said to put children at higher safety risk. Other deaths involve children who ingested sleeping pills, were drowned or were injured. William Fitzpatrick, president of the National District Attorneys Association, based in Alexandria, Va., said that there is no national database to examine what happens to children whose homicides go unprosecuted. However, he is certain that more children are victims of homicide than data suggests. With a sudden infant death, for example, a child could have accidentally suffocated, he said, but there are often not enough clues to confirm that. Even when there’s evidence of wrongdoing, he said, prosecutors don’t always know who did it — particularly if two parents were present. “The underreported story is the child victims that go unprosecuted,” he said. “It’s sadly extremely easy to kill a child.” When Massachusetts’ child deaths are ruled homicides, police do a pretty good job of closing cases, records show. According to criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, state police solve 90 percent of homicides involving children under 11 years old, a much higher clearance rate than for murder cases involving older children and adults, according to an analysis of 2000 to 2013 data he carried out for NECIR. But there is no data in Massachusetts or nationwide to show how many of those homicide investigations led to charges and convictions, said Ryan Backmann, executive director of the Florida-based nonprofit Project: Cold Case Inc. Languishing death investigations mean long delays in identifying and prosecuting perpetrators, Backmann said. “In the meantime these people are going to have other children,” Backmann said.
Homicide findings, but no action T he slow pace of the medical examiner’s office can be frustrating to families and law enforcement officials alike, potentially stalling the criminal justice process indefinitely. Even in the notorious case of Fitchburg preschooler Jeremiah Oliver — who vanished while under state social service supervision — no cause of death has yet been announced almost two years after his body was found. Jeremiah’s mother and her boyfriend, already charged with assault, kidnapping, and child endangerment, could face murder charges if the medical examiner rules the case a homicide. In some cases, even a finding of homicide does not prompt action. The medical examiner ruled that one-year-old Keanu Ramos of Pittsfield died of”blunt trauma” in February 2010 and the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office confirmed the investigation is still open almost six years later. But Keanu’s family said they were never even informed that the child allegedly was a victim of homicide. “You have shocked me,” said his great-grandmother, Sandra Mills, when a New England Center reporter informed her earlier this year. She later told her family what she learned and reported back, that they believe his death was natural: “None of us believe it,” she said of the state report. There’s some indication that state social workers did not know about the medical examiner’s ruling, either: DCF didn’t include Ramos on its list of abuse victims. DCF officials declined to talk about the case, but have said generally that medical examiners have not always alerted the agency when a child’s death was linked to abuse and neglect as required by law. Felix Browne, a spokesman for the state office of public safety, said medical examiners are supposed to notify district attorneys and DCF when a death is ruled a homicide. He would not comment on the Ramos case. Family members also are waiting for answers about the case of 2-year-old Dean McCullough of Lowell, whose 2010 death was ruled a homicide seven months after his passing, caused by “blunt force trauma of head with injuries to brain,” according to his death certificate. McCullough had an open DCF case at the time of his death and the state child protection agency later determined that his death was linked to abuse and neglect, records show. But five years later, no one has been charged in Dean’s death. Jennifer Fontes, McCullough’s great aunt, said she is angry and disgusted. “He is literally just forgotten,” she said. Medeiros feels her grandson was failed in life and in death. Medeiros said she called DCF multiple times concerned that Jay was at risk after she quarreled with her daughter, Hailey Corrente, and Corrente moved out of her North Attleborough home in September 2012. Corrente, now 28, was taking drugs and stripping, Medeiros said, showing |
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